Altruism and Man᾽s Religiousness − Empirical Studies
Abstract
The article is a report on empirical studies concerning the connection between altruism and religiousness. Altruism is understood here as undertaking actions for the benefit of other people without expecting outer rewards ⟨Macaulay, Berkowitz, 1970 p. 3). In the presented studies Karyłowski’s ⟨1982a⟩ division into two types of altruism was employed, namely, into endocentric altruism exocentric one.
In the studies the following methods were used: the A-N Questionnaire ⟨cf. Śliwak 1988), the Moral Endo-Exocentrism − KEEM ⟨cf. Karyłowski 1982a⟩, the Religious Attitudes Scale ⟨cf. Prężyna 1968⟩ and the Relation to God Scale ⟨cf. Hutsebaut 1980⟩.
The two former methods were used to measure the intensity of altruism (A-N) and to define the type of altruism (KEEM), whereas the two latter ones served to measure the level of intensity of the religious attitude and different dimensions of religiousness.
With the help of these methods answers were sought to the following questions: 1. What level intensity of the religious attitude is connected with the defined types of altruism? 2. What dimensions of religiousness are characteristic of these types of altruism?
226 subjects were examined (53.1% women and 46.9% men) whose age ranged from 23 to 33, the average being M=26.7. The subjects had at least secondary education.
The results of the analyses that were carried out are the following:
1. It was found that endo- and exocentric altruists are characterized by identical scores in religiousness. The religiousness profiles of these groups are exactly parallel to each other (with a minimal distance between them).
2. In relation to the group with a lower level of altruism endo- and exocentrics are more religious (both in the quantitative aspect − intensity of the religious attitude, and in the qualitative one- the type of the religious relation).
3. Additional information is supplied by the results from the sub-groups of women and men. Endocentric women obtained the highest scores in the scales ”dependence” and ”ethical norm” with a statistically significant difference from the remaining subjects. Exocentric men obtained the lowest scores in the scales ”rebeliousness” nad ”autonomy” (the differences are statistically significant in relation to the remaining groups).
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