P-11 Social Support and Fundamentalism as Predictors of Religious Internalization

P-11 Social Support and Fundamentalism as Predictors of Religious Internalization

Buller Hall

What variables are the strongest predictors of religious identification? Religious internalization can be broken down into identification, the full adoption of religious values, and introjection, a partial internalization of values. Fundamentalism is one variable thought to predict these motivational types. We defined fundamentalism as the degree to which someone holds their sacred texts as true. Additionally, social support relates to religious internalization. To measure these variables, two separate scales were used for each: Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support and Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction Scale for social support, Intratextual Fundamentalism Scale and Revised Religious Fundamentalism scale for fundamentalism, and The Faith Maturity Scale and Christian Religious Internalization Scale for religious internalization. After extensive review of previous literature, it was hypothesized that measures of fundamentalism would be independent predictors of religious identification relative to social support. The results of this study were analyzed using a hierarchical linear regression and the results of this hypothesis were partially supported. Fundamental beliefs and a personal relationship with Christ were the predictors of religious identification after measures of social support were included; however, measures of social support accounted for minimal additional variance.