Religion, open-mindedness and work orientation among college students from secular and religious settings

Abstract

This study attempted to explore the relationship between religion, open-mindedness, and work orientation. Participants were 485 students enrolled in introductory psychology at a large secular university and 69 students enrolled in four small religious colleges. Participants completed a variety of questionnaires on religion, open-mindedness and work orientation. Open-mindness was assessed as a both a 'cognitive style of reasoning' and a 'personality trait'. When the data was analysed, Social Commitment was found to correlate positively with Intrinsic Religiosity, Christian Orthodoxy, Horizontal Faith, and Faith Global 2. Horizontal Faith was found to correlate with Tolerance, Social Change and Social Adequacy. Global Faith 2 also correlated with Tolerance, Social Change and Social Adequacy. When open-mindedness was viewed as a personality trait, Openness correlated positively with Religious Maturity, Horizontal Faith and Global Faith 2. In the area of Work Orientation, a significant correlation was found only between Horizontal Faith and Work Or entation. Finally, comparisons were made between the university student sample and the religious college student sample using a series of one-way ANOVAs. The religious college sample tended to score higher than the university sample on Intrinsic Religiosity, Christian Orthodoxy and Horizontal Faith.