Religious personality and perceived behavior among faith-practicing communities in Malaysia: uniting or dividing factors?

This paper aims to report the findings on the contribution of religious personality, as the manifestation of one’s religious belief, on the interethnic behavior. Religious personality is comprised of three major factors: pro-social behavior, ritual behavior and anti-social behavior. While religious practice is categorized into high, medium, low and not practicing. It is hypothesized that religious personality of the youth may influence interethnic behavior by enhancing a mutual understanding and respect. Respondents were 563 high school students from randomly selected schools in Selangor. Instruments used were the Inter-ethnic Tolerance Questionnaire (IETQ) a self-designed questionnaire to measure interethnic perceived behavior and the Universal Religious Personality Inventory (URPI) (Krauss et al., 2006). The findings of the study indicated that religious personality traits of types pro-social behavior and ritual behavior have significant effects on inter-ethnic tolerant behavior. Also for students with high and medium levels of religious practice, pro-social behavior is found to significantly influence their inter-ethnic tolerant behavior. The higher their mean scores for pro-social behavior, the more positive are their tolerant behavior on inter-ethnic issues

Application of Economic Concepts on Religious Behavior

This survey gathers the current state of research activity on the emerging economic sub-area Economics of Religion. The religious beliefs and activities are analyzed from the viewpoint of economic theory and behavior. The advanced statistical tools and theoretical formulations of economic science can be applied to various problems of religious activity, dogma and social context. Analysis of interrelationship between economic and religious behavior increases our understanding of the nature and behavior of the target subject of economic science scrutiny, homo economicus.Economics of Religion, Religion, homo economicus, Club models, Religious production function

Diversity in the Heartland of America: The Impact on Human Development in Indiana

This article is the third in a series of studies measuring the impact of cultural diversity on human development. We disaggregate cultural diversity into three components: ethnicity, language, and religion. The first study examined the impact of diversity internationally. We found that countries are worse off with greater diversity, especially religious diversity; however, we found that more-prosperous countries with strong institutions benefited from increased diversity. We concluded that strong institutions are essential to maximize the benefits of diversity while mitigating the associated costs. The second study examined the impact of diversity within the United States, where institutional strength was assumed to be relatively great and similar between states. We found an overall negative impact from diversity. Ethnic diversity was negatively associated with human development, while religious and language diversity had a positive impact. We concluded that in the United States, there is more tolerance for religious and language differences compared to ethnic differences. In this third study, we examine the impact of diversity within the state of Indiana. As with our national results, we find a generally negative relationship between human development and diversity. Ethnic diversity has a negative impact, while religious and language diversity are generally positive influences. Strong political and legal institutions may not be sufficient to extract net benefits from diversity if social attitudes that guide behavior are not supportive. The results suggest that net benefits from diversity in Indiana may depend on improvement of social attitudes and in commitment to social services that support historically disadvantaged minority groups

Cockfighters in the Legal, Religious, and Social Perspectives

This study examines the issues related to religious behavior in terms of religious beliefs, religious observance, motivation of doing cockfights, and social perception of cockfighters. From the data analysis found that: first, according to Islamic law, cockfighting is haram, while according to the positive law cockfighting accompanied by gambling is a crime. Secondly, according to their involvement, the cockfighters can be grouped into: tokang tanggha', bhutto, and petaro (gamblers). Thirdly, in the context of belief, the cockfighters remain consistent in his religion (Islam). Fourth, religious observance for cockfighters is simply the practice of social worship. Fifth, is the motivation for cockfighters, among others, are friendship, art, gambling, prestige, and media of communication to solve the social problems. Sixth, the public perceives the actor of cockfighting as someone who still does not get guidance from Allah.Copyright (c) 2016 by KARSA. All right reserved DOI: 10.19105/karsa.v24i1.101

Akidah, akhlak dan hubungannya dengan tingkah laku belia di Institusi Pengajian Tinggi

This article discusses the concept and the definition of adolescence and youth; the concept of creed; the concept of religious behavior and relationship to youth behavior. The discussion also include the theory of adolescence and youth development; theories of human behavior such as Theory of Psychoanalysis, Social Learning Theory and Behavioral Theory of Islam. These theories related to psychology, learning and human and why they behave in such a way. Positive behavior and negative behavior are associated with the practice of religious behavior and creed. Thus, by understanding the concept of youth, creed, religious behavior theories and human behavior theories, it is hope that this article can give an overview of problems and issues in youth and adolescence and can be a reference in the aspects of adolescence and youth development

Disentangling religion and culture: americanizing Islam as the price of assimilation

This essay is an exploration into the social inevitabilities of culture shifts within the American Muslim community’s self-understanding of their faith. Rather than a theological explication of the reasons why and why not Islam may or can or will not assimilate in America, our approach will be strictly sociological thereby side-stepping the intricate dialectic of theological niceties in deference to the social realities of culture change. As a social psychologist, my duty is to acknowledge the inevitabilities of behavioral shifts brought about due to social and cultural pressures resulting from immigration into an alien cultural weltanschauung, i.e., worldview. Therefore in this essay, we will explicate the meaning and nature of de-ethnicization and re-enculturation as we endeavor to disentangle religion from culture, recognizing that much of what goes under the flag of religious orthodoxy is really culturally-mandated behavior and worldview. The assimilation process, however, will bear heavily upon the necessity for Muslim clergy in America to become professional by Western standards and we will in the process explore the complexities of religious secularism as a way of becoming an “American” Muslim. Finally, we will suggest liturgical and architectural “adjustments” to Western modes of public worship while indicating linguistic niceties which will prove helpful in the assimilation process which we have chosen here to call the “Islamicization of America”

“Striving for Savings” – religion and individual economic behavior

In the Neoclassical growth model the saving ratio and human capital might be seen as the most important factors fostering economic growth. At last since Weber [2005 (1904/05)] it seems clear, that religious beliefs and involvement shapes both social and economic human behavior. This paper tests the hypothesis whether religious belonging and believing influence a household’s economic decision-making in the USA, which was found to foster economic growth, namely the saving ratio at the individual level. Using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), we find religious effects on saving. Regarding the decision to save money no large differences within the Christian religions, namely Protestants and Catholics, were found. However, large differences exist compared to non-religious people as well as to Non-Christians and Jews.growth, religion, individual saving behavior

The Influence of Individual Attributes On Inter-Ethnic Tolerance among Early Youth In Selangor

The development, survival, and continuity of Malaysia lie on the shoulders of young Malaysians. As such, youth should demonstrate a higher level of understanding and greater tolerance in order to maintain peace and harmony. In line with that, the objective of this study is to determine the influence of individual attributes on inter-ethnic tolerance among early youth in Selangor. And, it focused on the influence of cognitive readiness, personality traits and religious personality on attitude, which would in turn, influence how an individual behaved in a multi-cultural situation. The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) framework (Fishbein and Ajzen, 1991) was used to model the relationships among the three selected independent variables that contributed toward inter-ethnic tolerance behavior. As many as 563 secondary school students in Selangor, representing early youth, participated in this study. This study adopted the exploratory design and survey data collection method. Instruments used were the Malay translated NEO PI-R Personality Inventory (NEO PI-R), a self- designed questionnaire on the Inter-ethnic Tolerant Behavior (IETB) and Universal Religious Personality Inventory (URPI). The study found that more than half of the youth possessed high level of cognitive readiness. For Malay and Indian youth, the majority have high level of cognitive readiness, while more female youth tend to have high cognitive readiness compared to male. In terms of attitude, majority of the respondents were found to have high level of positive attitude regarding inter-ethnic relations. Gender, religion and the level of religious practice significantly contribute to youth attitude towards Inter-ethnic Tolerant Behavior (IETB). In terms of the level of IETB, the majority of the Malay and Chinese early youth displayed a moderate level; however, the majority of the Indian youth have a high level of IETB. The findings indicated that cognitive readiness, all personality traits, except for the domain of Neuroticism, and all three types of religious personality (pro-social, ritual and anti-social) significantly influenced the youth’s willingness to accept issues regarding inter-ethnic relations. Specifically, pro-social and ritual behavior influenced youth attitude positively, while the influence of anti-social behavior on attitude was negative. The study improved the proposed model which was based on Theory of Planned behavior (TBP) and confirmed the impact of cognitive readiness, personality traits and religious personality on youth attitude, and the impact of the youth attitude on their behavior on inter-ethnic issues. The study also found that cognitive readiness is the most influential factor to IETB, and that both cognitive readiness and religious personality influenced inter-ethnic tolerant behavior directly and indirectly as well through attitude. Inter-ethnic tolerant behavior (IETB) among students may be improved through enhancing cognitive readiness, pro-social behavior, attitude and openness of the individuals

Institutions, social capital and economic development in Latin America

Economic theory has proposed and discussed a lot of possible factors or explanations that promote or foster economic development. One of these gathers specific discussions from other Social Sciences, incorporating social, cultural, religious, institutional and political dimensions – and among them, the idea of 'social capital'. Although the discussion held by Putnam on the benefits of association, civic involvement and interpersonal trust is extremely rich, this paper incorporates the discussion advocated by the World Bank, and the central ideas of Woolcock and Narayan papers, since they extend the scope of analysis, making what is called 'synergic vision' of social capital. These authors consider that 'social capital does not exist in a political vacuum', ie there is no way to separate the elements that characterize the social and the political and institutional elements that surround it. The ‘community social capital’ of Putnam cannot be understood without the macro-environment in which it operates. Then this paper aims to explain the economic behavior in Latin America, considering the importance of the attributes directly related to social capital (interpersonal trust, which leads to the association and the civic involvement) pari passu governance, ie the formal attributes related to the action of the state, which establishes social, political and economic behavior. It wants to explain if these two dimensions are correlated in order to explain the behavior of agents in different economies in Latin America and their economic development.

Social representations of religion of Maltese university students

Social representations is a relatively new area of research which is rapidly becoming an important tool in understanding social behavior. In this chapter we will be using this theory to understand how university students in Malta look upon religion. A selfadministered questionnaire was given to a random sample of 650 students at the University of Malta, of which 421 completed the questionnaire. The questionnaire consisted of 35 questions about religious attitudes and behavior, and also included the Post-Critical Belief Scale (Duriez et al., 2005). The data were subjected to statistical analysis. The results were used to identify the different social representations which students had of religion. The implications for understanding how religious beliefs correlate with religious behavior among students in tertiary education will be discussed.peer-reviewe