Investigation of religious/Islamic orientation and traits of students' personality on the basis of big five-factors of personality (NEO)

Abstract

Background and Aim: Considering the importance of religion orientation in mental health and its stability up to adulthood, we performed this study to investigate religion/Islamic orientation and traits of students' personality on the basis of big five- factors of personality (NEO). Material and Method: This was a descriptive - analytical study. 272 subjects (men=128, women=144) between 18 and 28 years of age were selected by cluster sampling method and were assessed by means of two questionnaires: 1) Short - form of NEO- Personality Inventory and 2) Islamic-Religious Orientation questionnaire. SPSS software was used for data analysis. Results: The results of this study showed that all the traits of five factors of personality except for neuroticism had correlation with religious orientation (P<0.01). Factor of openness to experience predicted 0.11 of religion orientation in the students. According to the results of this study, there was a significant difference in religion orientation between males and females (t= -2/21). Conclusion: In general in our study, the personality traits had correlation with religion orientation and among them openness to experience had a more important role.