THE MEDIATING ROLE OF PERSONALITY TRAITS IN RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN RELIGIOUS ORIENTATION AND EMOTIONAL OUTCOMES IN EMERGING ADULTS

Abstract

The current study aimed to find relationship between religious orientation, personality traits and temperament in emerging adults in Pakistan. The emerging adulthood (ages 18-25 years) is an important period for development that involves exploration of identifies and maturation of emotions and developing belief systems and thus this group of people is relevant in studying the psychological role of religiosity. Intrinsic, extrinsic and quest dimensions define religious orientation, that determines the way people are motivated toward religion. The five factor model of personality consisting of neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness was useful in finding personality traits while temperament was determined by the use of four core dimensions, that include negative affect, effortful control, extraversion/surgency and orienting sensitivity. Convenience sampling was used by recruiting a sample of 300 emerging adults (143 males and 157 females) in the public and private universities. They were given standardized measures such as Muslim Religious Orientation Scale (MROS), NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI) and Adult Temperament Questionnaire (ATQ) in addition to demographic details. Findings showed that there were significant correlations among religious orientation and personality traits. Intrinsic religious orientation had a positive relationship with agreeableness, conscientiousness and emotional stability and extrinsic religiosity with neuroticism and emotional reactivity. Quest Religious Orientation showed considerable relationships openness and orienting sensitivity. Generally, the results indicate the interdependence of religiosity on personality and temperament as they highlight the cultural applicability of religious orientation on emotional control, behavioral disposition and psychological well -being among emerging adults in Pakistan