THE ROLE OF PERSONALITY, COGNITIVE, ENVIRONMENTAL AND GENETIC FACTORS AS DETERMINANTS OF RELIGIOUS FUNDAMENTALISM: A TWIN STUDY IN POLISH SAMPLE

• Authors: Jakubowska Urszula , Oniszczenko Wlodzimierz
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

This study has sought to identify the determinants of religious fundamentalism. The following hypothetical determinants were tested: genetic influence, environmental influence, and such psychological variables as anxiety and assumptions about the nature of the social world. It was assumed that trait anxiety and assumptions about the social world are mediators of religious fundamentalism. The study was run on 112 participants (29 women and 83 men) aged from 18 to 28 years; the sample consisted of 19 monozygotic and 37 dizygotic pairs of twins reared together. The results of structural equation modelling showed that religious fundamentalism is mainly determined by environmental influences (38% heritable) whereas trait anxiety and assumptions about the nature of the social world are largely genetically determined (60% heritable). Correlation analysis revealed a positive relationship between trait anxiety and negative social world view but, contrary to the hypothesis, the results of multiple regression analysis suggest that trait anxiety is the only predictor of religious fundamentalism.

Keywords

EN

ANXIETY; ENVIRONMENT; GENETIC; HERITABILITY; POLAND; RELIGIOUS FUNDAMENTALISM; TWINS

Discipline

• PSYCHOLOGY: PSYCHOLOGY

• Publisher: Institute of Experimental Psychology, Slovak Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Studia Psychologica
• Year: 2010
• Volume: 52
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 253-263
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Jakubowska Urszula

author

Oniszczenko Wlodzimierz

• Urszula Jakubowska, Institute of Psychology, Polish Academy of Sciences, 03-815 Warsaw, Chodakowska 19/31, Poland

Identifiers

CEJSH db identifier

11SKAAAA093624