Abstract
Religious symbols have been an integral part of human life since the first civilizations. The symbols that play an intermediary role in human communication with the sacred have emerged in the form of concepts, spaces, shapes, or rituals. However, the place, value and effect of religious symbols are not clear in human life that has become secular and cosmopolitan today. Moreover, there are very limited scientific studies devoted to the subject. One of the prerequisites for opening a concept or a phenomenon to discussion in accordance with scientific principles and methods is to have measurement tools suitable for the problem. Based on these reasons, it is aimed to develop an attitude scale towards religious symbols, to make validity and reliability analysis and to make comparisons according to some personal variables.
For this purpose, a draft scale was developed by scanning the relevant literature and taking the opinions of experts. This draft scale was applied to 410 students studying at various faculties of Kastamonu University. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was performed on these data. As a result of the analysis, 38 items were collected under 3 sub-factors. The first dimension is called “positive emotions-thoughts-behaviors towards religious symbols”, the second dimension is “religious symbols as an element of social separation” and the third dimension is “religious symbols as an element of social respect and tolerance”. The internal consistency of the scale was examined with Cronbach Alpha. The Cronbach Alpha value of the 1st factor is 0.96, of 2nd factor 0.81, and of the 3rd factor as 0.75.
In the second phase, the scale was applied to 403 people. Confirmatory factor analysis of the scale was performed on the data obtained from this sample. CFA fit indices are as follows; [x^2= 1526.95, sd = 659, P-value = 0.000], x^2/ df = 2.31, RMSEA = 0.081, NFI = 0.96, NNFI = 0.98, PGFI = 0.90, CFI = 0.98, IFI = 0.98, GFI = 0.87, AGFI = 0.89. For the reliability analysis of the data obtained from the second sample, the Cronbach's Alpha value, composite reliability CR and convergent validity (AVE) values were calculated separately on the basis of dimensions. The Cronbah Alpha value is 0.97 for the 1st Factor, 0.89 for the 2nd Factor, and 0.84 for the 3rd Factor. AVE values for factors are 0.62, 0.54 and 0.58, respectively. The CR value is 0.97, 0.89 and 0.87, respectively. These results showed that the internal consistency, convergent validity and composite reliability of the measurement made by the scale in the second sample were also high.
After determining the valid and reliable measurement capacity of the scale of psychosocial attitudes towards religious symbols, inferential statistical analysis were conducted in order to compare the attitudes towards religious symbols according to some demographic variables. Comparing psychosocial attitudes towards religious symbols according to the level of recognition of religious symbols, the mean scores of respect and tolerance towards religious symbols differed. While the recognition level of symbols increased, respect and tolerance towards religious symbols also increased. When the recognition level of symbols increased, respect and tolerance towards religious symbols also increased. Psychosocial attitudes towards religious symbols also vary according to the importance of religion in the person. While the average scores of those who said “religion is very important” from the first and third factors were the highest, those who said “religion is not important at all” got the highest average scores from the second sub-factor. When the psychosocial attitudes towards religious symbols were compared according to gender and education variables, no statistically significant difference was found. However, when the psychosocial attitudes towards religious symbols were compared according to age and income variables, the average scores of young adults (18-29 years old) in all three subscales differed significantly in favor of young adults from the advanced middle age group (46 years and over).