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Abstract
The purpose of the current study was to explore the relationship between religious identity and personality. The role of intelligence on religious identity development was also investigated. Participants completed a demographic form, the Brief Religiosity Scale (BR-6), the Religious Identity Development Scale (RIDS), the Shipley Institute of Living Scale, and the NEO Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI). A series of linear and hierarchical regressions were completed to analyze the scores from these scales. Furthermore, because the RIDS is a recently developed measure with little use thus far, an exploratory principal axis factor analysis was completed to attempt to replicate the factor structure found by Veerasamy (2002). The results of this study indicated relationships between religious identity and Openness to Experience, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness. Relationships were also found between religiosity and Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and the RIDS. Contrary to expectations, intelligence was not a significant contributor to religious identity development. Finally, the factors found for the current study were similar to those found by Veerasamy (2002), with some exceptions. Future research is suggested to further examine religious identity and personality as well as to provide further validation for the experiential/rational model of religious identity.
