Development of Religious Orientation in Adulthood: Seeking for a New Construct

Data from three studies were conducted in order to identify the possible developmental aspect of religious orientation and its relation to emotional intelligence, general health, and parenting styles. Among the four dimensions of religious orientation, only religious valuation was relate to age, levels of education, and being married. 10 questions constituting the developmental dimension were extracted from the religious orientation scale. Studying the concepts of the questions and the relationship of the extracted factor with other variables indicated that it is possible to name this factor as religion-centered happiness seeking and that it has two subscales: cognitive-effective investment and behavioral investment. The religion-centered happiness seeking is independent of emotional interest, but is directly related to emotional differentiation and effective restructuring and all aspects of general health. The relations of behavioral investment subscale with these variables were stronger the relations of other subscale to them. The accuracy of labeling the abovementioned factor was confirmed through interviews with 5 professional in psychology.