Anomie and Religiosity: An Empirical Re-Examination

Abstract

In a number of recent sociological investigations, the writings of Durkheim have been interpreted to say that religion serves the function of reducing or the condition of normlessness in a society. These investigations have generally followed Merton in attributing the cause of anomie to an acute disjunction between the cultural norms and goals in a society and the capacity of groups within that society to adapt to them. In other words, those in the lower classes experience the highest anomie due to their inability to realize societal goals. Empirically, it has been shown that in the lower classes, scores are consistently higher on the Srole scale (Bell, 1957; Dean, 1961; Meier & Bell, 1959; Wassef, 1967). Taking the Srole scale as a measure of anomie, the question, then, is whether religion can ameliorate the effects of existence in the lower classes. Is anomie inversely related to religiosity? Bell (1957) found that when socio-economic status was controlled, the difference in anomie scores between religious and non-religious respondents was not significant. Two other investigations (Photiadis & Johnson, 1963; Dean, 1968) found no differences in normlessness due to differential religiosity. Keedy (1958) showed religious orthodoxy to actually be a correlate of anomie. However, a recent study by Lee and Clyde (1974) found that at high levels of religiosity, socio-economic status was not significantly related to anomie. Some interpretations of Durkheim have suggested that Catholics will manifest lower conditions of anomie than will Protestants. Dean and Reeves (1962) found that