EVALUATING RELATIONSHIP AMONG RELIGIOSITY, SELFESTEEM, AND IDENTIFICATION WITH TURKISH IDENTITY THROUGH STRUCTURAL EQUATION MODEL

Abstract

Social identity theory (Tajfel & Turner, 1979) is commonly used in social psychology field since the late 1970s for explaining the person’s sense of who I am. It provides a theoretical approach to identification with Turkish identity as national identity. Conservatism and religiosity are main values/norms of Turkish culture (Cagaptay, 2006; Imamoglu, 2002; Hofstede, 2001), and they influence social behaviors of Turkish population. Also, according to social identity theory, identification with a positive social group, and internalizing its norms or values have a positive effect on the person’s self-concepts (Tajfel, 1978). Therefore it can be said, this identification will increase the self-esteem level of group member. Moreover, the effects of demographic variables on individual’s social behaviors cannot be ignored as political affiliation, ethnic identity, education, age, sex and income. In this study, authors have analyzed relationship among these variables in different way, and have tested predictive power of religiosity, and self-esteem on identification with Turkish identity. Study has been performed with Middle East Technical University students (N=341) and Religious Attitude Scale (Ok, 2011), Self-Esteem Scale (Rosenberg, 1965) and Social Identity Scale (Cinnirella, 1998) are main materials. In order to figure out the effects of religiosity, and self-esteem on identification with Turkish identity, authors have created a structural equation model. Firstly, they have tested their measurement model. Confirmatory factor analysis has yielded good fit of the confirmatory model in the data [χ2 (24, N = 341) = 30.23, p=.17, RMSEA = .03, GFI = .98, AGFI = .96, CFI =1, NNFI = .99]. In addition, the structural model has yielded good fit of the structural model in the data [χ2 (17, N = 341) = 19.19, p=.32, RMSEA = .02, GFI = .99, AGFI = .97, CFI =1, NNFI = 1]. Religiosity, and selfesteem have significantly predicted identification with Turkish identity

Keywords

• Turkish Identity
• Self-Esteem
• Religiosity
• Structural Equation Model

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