Association and Participation, Two Links In The Impact of Religiousness on Social Capital

The term social capital in recent years has been the most famous sociological concept, which on the one hand entered in language and everyday life and on the other hand has been a key concept in the literature of new sociology. So identifying the amount of and process of social capital in any society can help to recognize social and cultural developments of that society.Regarding the effectiveness of cultural pre-existing systems, norms and values on social capital, the main research questions are such as: taking to account the importance and place of religion institute in Iranian society, can taking advantage of religious values and norms be a factor influencing social capital? What is the impact of religious on the social capital in the presence of secondary independent variables; social personality type and voluntary contributions?As descriptive –casual study, the research method is survey. Analysis unit are Muslim citizens of Tehran in September 2009. Questionnaire was performed, after validity and reliability control, using the combination of disproportionate stratified and simple random sampling, in five regions, among 391 households in Tehran.Research findings suggest that religiousness effects on social personality type and voluntary contributions. On the one hand, these two variables effect on social capital and on the other hand religiousness effects on social capital via social personality type and voluntary contributions.