Author(s)

Ahmad Usefynezhad¹, Hossein Salimi Bajestani², Hossein Jena Abadi³, Mojtaba Salmabadi²

¹Faculty of Psychology and Educational Science, Allameh Tabataba’i University, Tehran, Iran.
²Department of Counseling, Faculty of Psychology and Education, Allameh Tabataba’i University, Tehran, Iran.
³Department of Education, University of Sistan and Baluchestan, Zahedan, Iran.

The present study tries to compare religious orientation, psychological well-being and forgiveness in teachers and clergymen. The statistical population includes all teachers of district 2, Qazvin Education Organization and all clergymen in Qazvin Seminary (Hawzeh Elmeyyeh) in the academic year 2013-2014. Among them, 260 individuals (150 teachers and 150 clergymen) were selected by random sampling and completed the psychological well-being questionnaire, forgiveness questionnaire and religious orientation questionnaire. The results show that there is no significant difference between two groups in the psychological well-being, but there are significant differences in forgiveness and religious orientation so that in the forgiveness variable, the clergymen have higher mean than teachers and in religious orientation variable, teachers have higher mean than clergymen. Also, there are significant differences between forgiveness and psychological well-being, forgiveness and religious orientation, and psychological well-being and religious orientation in the two groups so that the rate of these relationships in teachers is significantly higher than that of clergymen. The job status (teacher or clergy) has the role of mediator. Evaluation and recognition of psychological health and well-being and the relationship of these psychological structures with forgiveness and religious orientation can present worthwhile recommendations in the field of providing psychological health for individuals of the society that requires more consideration in the field of clinical researches.

Positive Psychology, Psychological Well-Being, Forgiveness, Religious Orientation

Usefynezhad, A. , Bajestani, H. , Abadi, H. and Salmabadi, M. (2015) The Comparison of Religious Orientation, Psychological Well-Being and Forgiveness in Teachers and Clergymen. Psychology, 6, 1150-1158. doi: 10.4236/psych.2015.69113.