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Secularization at the University of TampaAn interview project sampling a population of students at UT and their level of religiosity when paired with

other variables

Emilie Sears

| COM 470- B | Communication Research Methods |

Dr. Christopher Boulton

May 4th, 2018

CONTENTS

1. Abstract……………………………………… 32. Introduction…………………………………. 33. Literature Review………………………….... 54. Methods & Analysis………………………… 65. Discussion of Findings………………………. 76. Limitations & Future Research Directions….... 97. Works Cited………………………………….. 108. Appendices…………………………………... 11

Secularization at the University of Tampa |

Abstract

An interview project at the University of Tampa collected data from 219 participants that

attend the University of Tampa. The project sampled a population of students at UT and their

level of religiosity when paired with other variables: political affiliation, religious affiliation, and

measured alcohol consumption. The study took these self-identifiable variables and connected

them to the sociological theory of secularization; and its prevalence in today’s modern society.

This study ultimately seeks to find validity in the following hypothesis: lower reported religiosity

equates to higher alcohol consumption, and more liberal political views amongst both religious

affiliated and non-religious affiliated students at UT; thus, shifting a noticeable trend towards

modern day secularization. The interviews were fully structured. Prior to being conducted,

interviewers were prompted on how to conduct an interview, and were given instruction on what

questions would be asked. Results proved hypothesis valid, but were inconclusive in projecting

findings further; as the sample size did not provide accuracy for further generalization of college

students, nor the population of University of Tampa students at large.

Introduction

This study analyzes the data collected and primarily focuses on religiosity and its

numerical dependence when it comes to three other tested variables: political affiliation,

religious affiliation, and measured alcohol consumption. With a combination of both qualitative

and quantitative data derived from the conducted interviews, a study unfolds with a

concentration on the level of religiosity of a population of college students at UT. This study

seeks to research if level of religiosity of UT students increases or decreases depending on

different self-identifiable variables.


This study was inspired from Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, Max Weber, and Émile

Durkheim; all who collectively postulated a similar theory in which there would be a decline in

the level of religiosity as society continued to modernize. This shared ideology is best described

as secularization. In this theory religion loses social and cultural significance in modern day

society, as religion has now become compartmentalized in daily life (Ritzer, 2017). Durkheim

describes the composition of daily life as either sacred (having to do with religion) or profane

(meaning the mundane, or non-religious aspects of life). With more opportunities in the modern

(post-industrialized) world, and more technology accessible to the general population, there is an

increasing amount of life considered profane in today’s hyper-consumption society. This study

takes something as simple as alcohol consumption, with its growing acceptance in the modern

world, and analyzes its relationship effect with level of religiosity. Previous findings suggest

lower reports of alcohol use are associated with those that report high levels of religiosity

(Meyers, Brown, Grant, B. F., & Hasin 2016). This study seeks to find a similar truth on a

different population, and connect its findings to secularization.

The reverse sociological theory of secularization is sacralization. Sacralization is in

which there is a movement to regress back to traditional society, and make the majority of daily

life sacred again (rather than profane). This societal trend is seen with the implementation of

conservative policies that aim to: limit women’s rights through marginalized pay and constraints

against child bearing (bringing them out of daily modern society, and back into the homes of

traditional societies), restrictions on marriage rights, and lawful objections against abortion

(Ritzer, 2017). If an increased number of liberal students answer with low levels of religiosity, it

should confirm the trend of secularization, as there would be more of a prominence of less

religious, liberal students than highly religious, conservative students. This study also aims to


confirm if the overall sample population of UT students will exhibit the already proven trend of

lower levels of religiosity amongst younger generations (Wormald, 2015). This study ultimately

seeks to find validity in the following hypothesis: lower reported religiosity equates to higher

alcohol consumption, and more liberal political views amongst both religious affiliated and non-

religious affiliated students at UT; thus, shifting a noticeable trend towards modern day

secularization.

Literature Review

To describe secularization with modern day data, one can look at the global phenomena

of decline in church attendance. The following data is taken from the Religious Landscape Study

(RLS), which consists of “surveys from more than 35,000 Americans from all 50 states about

their religious affiliations, beliefs and practices, and social and political views,” (Wormald,

2015). The RLS survey found only 39% of Catholics attend mass in 2018, as opposed to 75% of

Catholics who attended mass in 1955 (Wormald, 2015). With 97 out of the 219 participants from

our UT sample identifying as Catholic, this is an extremely relevant finding. In an even broader

examination, 16% percent of the U.S. adult population identified as atheists or agnostics in 2007,

as compared to 23% in 2014 (Wormald, 2015). Wormald’s study although reflective of the

secularization trend; however, only analyzes the adult population. The gap of diversification in

age in Wormald’s study will be filled by this new research as it looks at solely college students.

The study will reveal pertinent information that supports the finding younger Americans are less

likely to be affiliated with religion. The following is the percent of each generation that identifies

as atheist, agnostic, or nothing in particular: younger millennials (b. 1990-96) 36%, older

millennials (b. 1981-89) 34%, generation x (b. 1965-80) 23%, baby boomers (b. 1946-64) 17%,

silent generation (b. 1928-45) 11% (Wormald, 2015). Differences in generations play an


instrumental role in the decrease in level of religiosity, as “the percentage of adults who had been

raised with no religion has increased from 2 percent to 6 percent,” (Hout & Fischer, 2002).

Aside from specific affiliation with a religion, just feeling spiritual in general has said to

have had an effect on behavior in modern society. In fact, the more spiritual you are the less you

are likely to drink (Meyers, Brown, Grant, B. F., & Hasin 2016). To further validify the link

between higher religiosity and lower alcohol consumption, a similar study confirms:

Religiosity is a protective factor against many health problems, including alcohol use disorders

(AUD). US adults reporting greater public religiosity were at lower risk for AUD.” In this study

frequency of adult church attendance was negatively associated with meeting criteria for alcohol

abuse or dependence (Meyers, Brown, Grant, B. F., & Hasin 2016).

The previous studies, although similar, left a marginalized gap in what has influenced levels of

religiosity over the years. My study explores that of previous sociology theorists, and searches

for a relationship with modern day societal trends. My study analyzes that of a younger

demographic, and uses other variables, such as alcohol consumption and political views,

that can be influenced by religiosity and used to describe the growing amount of profane in

modern society.

Methods and Analysis

The study conducted used convenient sampling, or participants that were convenient to

use (Treadwell, 2017); as both the participants and the researchers resided on campus. The

interview was fully structured (Treadwell, 2017) in which the researcher had determined what

questions are important, the order they will be asked, and how they will be structured. A series of

various psychographics and demographics were asked: economic status, class level, major,


gender, age, religiosity, religious affiliation, political views, number of drinks on occasion, and

days of the week spent drinking. A Likert scale for religiosity was used often, as it made an

intangible object quantifiable. The scale ranged from 0 to 10 (0 having no feeling of religiosity,

and 10 having strong feelings of religiosity). A series of cross tabulations through SPSS, with a

constant dependent as religiosity, were used to analyze the data collected. The cross-tabulations

(Treadwell, 2017) were capable of easily displaying two variables side by side- for convenient

interpretation.

Discussion of Findings

Ninety-seven out of the 219 participants, from the population sample of UT students,

identified as Catholic. With disregard to specific religion and only focusing on religiosity, 113

participants identified with low levels of religiosity (ranging from 0 to 4 on the Likert scale: see

table ‘Religious Affiliation*Religiosity Crosstabulation’), 77 participants identified with high

levels of religiosity (ranging from 6-10 on the Likert scale: see table ‘Religious

Affiliation*Religiosity Crosstabulation’), and 29 participants identified having a neutral level of

religiosity on the Likert scale at 4. Of the 219 participants 41 responded that they had no

religious affiliation (atheist, omnist) or felt spiritually, but did not identify with a religion.

In an analyzation of the crosstab table, ‘Typical Number of Drinks Per

Occasion*Religiosity,’ 50 participants responded drinking 3 or more drinks on occasion, on a 0-

4 low range of religiosity. Thirty participants responded drinking 3 or more drinks on occasion,

on a 6-10 high range of religiosity.

In an analyzation of the crosstab table, ‘Political Views*Religiosity,’ 44 participants

responded very liberal or somewhat liberal, on a 0-4 low range of religiosity. Twenty-five

participants responded very liberal or somewhat liberal, on a 6-10 high range of religiosity.


Twenty-four participants responded very conservative or somewhat conservative, on a 0-4 low

range of religiosity. Thirty-two participants responded very conservative or somewhat

conservative, on a 6-10 high range of religiosity. Seventy-five participants responded at number

5 on the Likert scale with an answer of a mix of liberal/conservative. In total, 79 participants

responded having liberal, or somewhat liberal views; and 65 participants responded having

conservative, or somewhat conservative views.

The findings prove that most of participants had liberal or somewhat liberal political

views. This supports the trends of secularization and modern society’s transition in moving away

from sacralization, or conservative politics. These findings support that of which Hout and

Fischer found in their similar study conducted in 2002:

The increase in "no religion" responses was confined to political moderates and liberals; the

religious preferences of political conservatives did not change. This political part of the increase

in "nones" can be viewed as a symbolic statement against the Religious Right (Hout & Fischer,

2002).

Those who were less religious were found to drink more alcoholic drinks on a given occasion.

Most of participants were catholic, and days spent drinking by all religions were reported low.

This study ultimately gave validity to the following hypothesis: lower reported religiosity

equates to higher alcohol consumption, and more liberal political views amongst both religious

affiliated and non-religious affiliated students at UT; thus, shifting a noticeable trend towards

modern day secularization. However, as cited in limitations and further research, the findings are

not projectable to a larger population or the general population of the University of Tampa at

large.


Limitations and Future Research Directions

Convenient sampling is not a strong research method practice. For future research I

would have liked to collect data from a random sample. Random sampling is the best way to

collect data that is representative. Random sampling is that in which every member of a

population has an equal chance to be selected and in which selection is determined by “luck of

the draw” rather than a decision by the researcher (Treadwell, 2017). However, convenient

sampling was less expensive and time consuming. To have done a random sample I would have

had to enter every student’s name at UT into a randomized system, and electronically chose

participants to participate in the interview. Even so, students at UT are not generalizable to other

populations of millennials, or even college students as a whole. To make a bigger claim, I would

have had to conduct a random selection of students from every university and college in

America. In hindsight I could have also chosen an alternative research method as well; as

interviews have their drawbacks. Interviews could have pressured subjects to answer untruthfully

to sensitive topics as they may have seen the interview lacking confidentiality (Treadwell, 2017).

A better method would have been a simple survey, as the data would have come back much

quicker, instead of manually entering the data from the interviews into software such as SPSS.


Works Cited

Hout, M., & Fischer, C. (2002, April). Why More Americans Have No Religious Preference: Politics and Generations. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/3088891?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

Meyers, J. L., Brown, Q., Grant, B. F., & Hasin, D. (2016, September 26). Religiosity, race/ethnicity, and alcohol use behaviors in the United States | Psychological Medicine. Retrieved April 8, 2018, from https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/psychological-medicine/article/religiosity-raceethnicity-and-alcohol-use-behaviors-in-the-united-states/47BBD566A1335BFBA88456A07D358BB2

Ritzer, G., & A., W. M. (2017). Essentials of sociology. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.

Treadwell, D. F. (2017). Introducing Communication Research: Paths of inquiry. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Wormald, B. (2015, May 11). Religious Landscape Study. Retrieved from http://www.pewforum.org/religious-landscape-study/


Appendices


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