FUTURE TIME ORIENTATION AND RELIGION

Abstract

The purposes of this study were to evaluate whether Future Time Orientation (FTO) was associated with interest in the future beyond death, and/or with level of belief in religion, and also to validate an instrument aimed at measuring belief in religion in Turkish society. Gjesme's (1979) FTO scale was administered to 244 undergraduate students from Middle East Technical University together with a scale developed to measure Belief Orientations and a single-item measure designed to assess a subject's level of interest in the future beyond death. Results indicated that those who scored high in FTO also tended to score high in level of interest about the future beyond death and level of belief in God (intrinsic religiosity), compared to those who scored low in FTO. Research implications and suggestions for future studies are discussed.