Investigating the Role and Position of Religion in Iranian personal Identities

The purpose of this study is to investigate relationship between religious dimension of personal identity and differentiation. The identity is complex, multidimensional and multiplicative, and various elements and factors contribute to its formation and formulation. In the process of the formation of personal identity, two actions are performed: self-cognition and self-identification; these two acts make individuals differentiate and transform. One of these elements is religion. The research method is survey and the statistical population includes people over 16 years old in the centers province of Iran. Sample size is 1300 samples that selected by systematic random sampling from Tehran, East Azerbaijan, Khuzestan, Gilan, Fars, Kurdistan and Khorasan Razavi provinces. Findings show that religion not only has an important and unique position in Iranian personal identity, but also it is involved directly in the development of personal identity; this element affects the central core of personal identity through two cycles. In the first cycle, the religious dimension is directly influenced by the national dimension, and it affects differentiation through interaction with the ethnic dimension. In the second cycle that begins with the cyberspace variable, this variable affects the religious dimension by changing and transforming the mass media. In the following, the religious dimension directly and indirectly interacts with the ethnic dimension and affects differentiation.