Impact of Yogic Exercises, Age and sex on Religiosit

Abstract

In this study an attempt was made to find out the pattern of religiosity in people performing various forms of yogic exercises and of different age and sex. It was contended that (i) variation in yogic exercises would cause variation in the level of religiosity, (ii) differentials in religiosity would be caused by variation in level of chronological age and, (iii) males and females would differ in relation to the extent of their religiosity.

Three hundred and twenty participants ranging between 15 to 65 years of age served as participants and they were arranged according to the requirement of three way factorial design with four types of yogic exercisers (institutionalized yogic exercisers, yogic exercisers at institutes, yogic exercisers at home and seldom yogic exercisers), four levels of age (15-20 years, 30-35 years, 45-50 years and 60-65 years) and two levels of sex (male and female). In order to measure the pattern of religiosity, the attitude towards religion scale was administered. It  consisted of 20 five point items revealing religious beliefs. Scores range between 20-100, low score reveals high religiosity and high score vice versa. Face validity and validation by expert ratings have been established. Split-half reliability is .87 and test-retest reliability is .89. Data were analyzed by analysis of variance and it was found that, (i) exercisers at institutes depicted more religiosity as compared to institutionalized  yogic exercisers, at home and seldom yogic exercisers, (ii) highest level of religiosity was evinced by the 60-65 year old participants as compared with 15-20, 30-35 and 45-50 year old participants and (iii) males and females were almost  equal in relation to their scores on religiosity.