Religion has been an important aspect of human life since ancient times. In recent past the relationship between religion and a person's mental and physical health has been a focus of researchers in religious psychology. Many researchers argue the issue of whether religion has favorable or unfavorable effects on the mental well-being of individuals (Crawford et al., 1989; Ellis, 1980; Sharkey & Malony, 1986). The empirical research on the association between the two fields has generated mixed results (Bergin, 1983). In fact reviews of empirical research have not revealed consistent results and religious measures have only sometimes shown significant relation to aspects of health and illness (Batson et al., 1993; Beit-Hallahmi & Argyle, 1997; Bergin et al., 1987; Crawford et al., 1989; Wulff, 1997). In a meta-analysis, Bergin (1983) found that 23% of the studies reported a negative relationship, 47% reported a positive relationship, and 30% reported no relationship at all between religion and mental health (Maltby et al., 1999). As religiosity is a complex phenomena, and therefore difficult to define, researchers of religious psychology have come up with different approaches to religiosity. Among these one widely known approach to religiosity is that of Allport, who distinguishes between two religious orientations i.e. intrinsic (mature) and extrinsic (immature) religiosity (Ryan et al., 1993).
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