Tuesday 16th July
Wednesday 17th July
Thursday 18th July
Friday 19th July
Download the conference book
Faith, values and moral attitudes: problems and perspectives of standardized survey measurements 1 |
|
| Convenor | Mr Pascal Siegers (University of Duesseldorf) |
| Coordinator 1 | Dr Tilo Beckers (University of Duesseldorf) |
Although Europe experiences a process of secularization, religious beliefs still constitute an important factor shaping moral attitudes. In this respect, beliefs might concur or compete with values as rationale for attitude formation.
This session addresses the question, how beliefs and values explain individuals' moral attitudes. Theories of religious individualization argue that new form of religion developed in Europe. Heelas and Houtman claim that sociology has to go "beyond the holy Trinity of 'Believer', 'Agnostic', and 'Atheist'" (Heelas/Houtman 2009: 92). New forms of belief (e.g. spirituality, bricolage religiosity) should be studied more systematically in survey research. It is of particular theoretical interest, whether new forms of belief are socially significant, i.e. whether they influence individuals' attitudes and behavior (Voas/Bruce 2007). However, hardly anything is known about the effects of new beliefs on moral attitudes.
In addition, interdependencies between values and beliefs might gain more attention in research. The high correlation between religious beliefs and values points to the question of whether (new) beliefs make a contribution to the explanation of moral attitudes if values are controlled for.
We invite papers that study the effects of beliefs and values on moral attitudes. Contributions that compare effects of alternative beliefs (e.g. spirituality, bricolage religiosity) with traditional religiosity are particularly welcome. Innovative scales for measuring new forms of belief or critical assessments of existing measurements (e.g. of spirituality) are particularly welcome.
Please indicate five keywords.
In 2012 the second wave of the Religion Monitor of the German "Bertelsmann Stiftung" foundation took place in 12 countries with representative samples (Brasil, Canada, France, Germany, India, Israel, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, UK, USA). The special feature of the Religion Monitor is a highly differentiated measurement of the variety of facets of religiosity and spirituality (Huber 2009). Concepts measured are centrality of religiosity, two spirituality patterns (dialogical and participative), religious fundamentalism, religious pluralism and religious reflexivity and atheism. Additional the Religion Monitor of 2012 contains measurements of social capital, coherence and conflict and of Schwartz's Personal Values (10 modified PVQ items, as used in the WVS). In our contribution we will analyze the relations of values and different facets of religious and spiritual beliefs, experiences and practices at the individual level. Especially we focus on the relation of these facets on social capital, coherence and conflict. Based on previous research (e.g. Gennerich & Huber 2006) our general hypothesis is that depending of the content of religiosity and spirituality, different values are preferred. We expect that more conventional religious attitudes and behaviors (e.g. prayer and church attendance) go along with conservation values and related forms of social capital (e.g. volunteering in religious institutions). On the other side, we hypothesize that more alternative religious attitudes and behaviors (e.g. spirituality, religious pluralism) go along with openness to change values and related forms of social capital (e.g. trust, tolerance, volunteering in non-religious settings).
How do people think about the legitimacy of decisions at the end of life? What makes them oppose or favor the freedom to end one's own life voluntarily? Values and religious orientation prove to be important predictors of attitudes towards euthanasia. Values of self-expression entail the acceptance of euthanasia, while religiosity and acceptance of euthanasia are negatively correlated (Beckers et al., 2012). In addition to that Siegers (2012) differentiates between six types of religious orientation and demonstrates that it depends on a person's religious orientation which values are emphasized.
Based on these findings we assume a joint effect of values and religious orientation on attitudes towards end-of-life decisions. We propose that congruence between values and religious orientation should increase their total effect on attitudes towards euthanasia because they reinforce each other in attitude formation. Furthermore we expect that incongruence between values and religious orientation should attenuate their total effects on attitudes towards euthanasia.
The present study examines the hypothesis stated above with survey data of the study "Life and Values in Germany" (n= 730, online access panel, 2010) including questions on religious orientation, human values (Portrait Value Questionnaire, Schwartz et al. 2001) and attitudes towards euthanasia and assisted suicide. By means of structural equation models we show that self-determination and opposition to traditional values mediate the effects of spiritual and bricolage orientations on the acceptance of euthanasia. Furthermore we show that emphasizing stimulation and hedonism reduces opposition to euthanasia in traditional religious people.
This paper investigates response format effects due to the application of a 4-point vs. a 5-point scale on respondent's religious self-assessment. Our main question is whether the respondents tend to be more or less religious dependent on providing a middle category in the response scale. The religious self-assessment is a standard indicator for religiosity usually employed as a 4-point scale without a middle category. We expect these forced choice scales to lead to systematic bias caused by social desirability: Depending on national and denominational characteristics, respondents vary in their commitment to report either a more religious or a rather secular attitude. This aggravates comparisons.
We use a split-ballot design in a representative survey among Christians with German background and Muslims with migration background and compare the differences of both scales. We assume that Muslims tend to overestimate their religiosity, while in contrast Christians are expected to tend to underestimate it. In order to test these hypotheses we compare the answers collected on the 4-point scale with those collected on the 5-point scale. We also demonstrate which groups switch from the response option "rather religious" and "rather not religious" to the middle category and whether there are systematic differences according to socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents (e.g. denomination, age, education).