Gender differences in religious orientation

One important area in the psychology of religion research is religious orientation, or the nature of, and motivations for, individuals' religious involvement. According to Allport and Ross (1967), an individual with intrinsic religious orientation is one who internalizes and "lives" (p. 434) a creed, making it his or her primary motivation. Conversely, the individual with extrinsic religious orientation is religious because those beliefs and practices serve other needs such as security, sociability, and status. The intrinsic and extrinsic concepts were an outgrowth of Allport's (1950) theory of mature and immature religion, respectively. The development of a scale (Allport & Ross, 1967) to measure religious orientation has led to a flurry of research in this area (Kirkpatrick & Hood, 1990). Despite an increasing interest in gender issues in other areas of psychology (Gilligan, 1982; Miller, 1986), researchers have not explored differences in the religious orientation of women and men. Just as developmental theory elevated the masculine norms of individuation and separation over feminine relatedness (Erikson, 1963; Freud, 1959/1940), the title of Allport's 1954 book, The Individual and His Religion, points to a masculine. autonomy-focused, bias in psychological theories of religiousness. Women's religiousness may be organized around themes of connectedness (Gilligan, 1982). Yet, relationally oriented religiousness is debased when depicted as extrinsic and therefore immature. The present study explores religious orientation with an emphasis on gender differences. As Gilligan (1982) replicated Kohlberg's work on morality with an appreciation of the importance of relationships in women's development, this study is intended to begin to fill the similar need to reexamine religious orientation. It was found, as expected, that women's religious orientation included an orientation toward interconnected relationships. It was also found that women were more intrinsically oriented than men, indicating a greater commitment to religion and its creeds. Additionally, gender differences were found on other religious orientation scales, suggesting that women's religious beliefs are more influenced by both external and internal forces to become strongly religious.