DIFFERENT RELIGIOUS BACKGROUNDS AND THE LIFE ATTITUDES OF OLDER AMERICANS (WELL-BEING, SOCIOLOGY OF RELIGION, DENOMINATIONS, LIFE-SATISFACTION)

This research dealt with differences in life attitudes felt by older people and related those to differences in religious backgrounds. Classic sociology of religion theory (ala Max Weber and Ernst Troeltsch) have described radical differences between historic church and sect forms of Christianity, differences in organization, world-view, and values. Contemporary symbolic-interactionist theory maintains that persons values are defined and attitudes shaped through the type, quality and nature of interactions in which they participate. The research question was whether among a sample of older church participants religion would be a significant effect on several major life attitudes, AND whether the effect on attitudes would be different for more church-like versus more sect-like religious groups.;To attain a large enough representative sample of Older Americans, it was determined to use secondary analysis and draw upon national survey data. An Index of Religiocentricity, defined in terms of formal organizational principles was adapted from Glock and Stark's Northern California Study of Religion (1962). A selection of satisfaction-competence-trust variables was chosen from Campbell and Converse Quality of American Life (1978) study, use of which yielded a modest sample of 374 active religious elderly. Basic cross-tabulations between Religiocentricity and the attitudes as well as dichotomous cross-tabs controlling for education, family income and sex were studied for patterns of difference. Analysis of Variance was computed to learn what proportion of variation on each attitude could be attributed to each independent variable. R('2) of 14-19% were reported on the top four variables. The Index of Religiocentricity scaled well except for SECTS, which by their unpredictable responses appeared to be responding to different criteria for satisfaction than other religiocentric categories. The study concluded that sects function as deviant subcultures, that large mainline denominations tend not to be clearly distinguishable from each other, and that the proportion of attitude variation attributable to religion is so modest as to question the assumption that organized religion has a major influence on the attitudes held by its members.