Gender differences on religiosity and spirituality: Promoters of well-being

Pages: 1914-1918
Renu Soyal and Mukta Singhvi (Department of Psychology, University of Rajasthan, Jaipur, Rajasthan)

Religion refers to belief in god, also sometimes related to moral values. Spirituality refers to the deepest values and meanings by which people live. In India religion holds important position in people’s lives in various forms, mostly it is practiced in the form of rituals which unknowingly and unconsciously helps in inculcating moral and spiritual values in the masses. In the patraichical family system where male is the head of the family and females are home makers it is observed that females practice rituals more than males and are labeled as more religious than males and on the other hand males are labeled as more spiritual than females. In this light the present study has been undertaken to verify if these differences do exist for young boys and girls too. The sample chosen comprised of 50 boys and 50 girls from Jaipur city. Tools used were Religiosity scale by Bhushan (1971) and Spiritual intelligence scale by (Mittal et al., 2014). The findings are in congruence with the observation, depicting that girls are more religious than boys and boys are more spiritual than girls on the dimensions of meaning in life and transcendental awareness. Whatsoever both religiosity and spirituality are important for well-being.