Lecture 7: Religion, Spirituality and Well-Being Flashcards
What is religion?
A fixed system of ideas or ideological commitments in an institutional, formal, outward, doctrinal form
What is spirituality?
A personal, subjective side of religious experience that is individual, subjective, emotional, inward, unsystematic and freeing expression
What are the problems with traditional distinction of religion and spirituality?
- Implicit is idea that religion is bad and spirituality os good especially in cultures that value autonomy and individualism
- Ignores that all forms of spiritual expression unfold in social context and virtually > all organized faith traditions are interested in subjective experience
- Ignore that both involve transcendence > the need to relate to something greater than oneself and self-transcendence (vertical (High power) and horizontal (bigger/nature/people)
Types of Religiosity
- motivational extrinsic (means to an end) vs.i intrinsic (pursued for its own sake) religiosity
- institutional religiosity> focus on social & behavioural aspects (what you do to express it)
- ideological religiosity> focus on religious beliefs (cognitive aspect/moral values)
- personal devotion> focus on personal, internalized devotion (captures subjective experience)
5 components of spirituality + alternate definition
- Process through which people seek to discover, hold on to, and, when necessary, transform whatever they hold sacred in their lives
- search takes place in a larger religious context, traditional or non-traditional
5 components
* cognitive orientation towards spirituality
* experiential/phenomenological dimension
* existential well-being
* paranormal beliefs
* religiousness
Empirical evidence across nations, SWB (Ls, Pa, Na) and religiosity
- life satisfaction: national religiosity *SWB negatively and moderately correlated with religiosity with national religiosity
- positive feelings: national religiosity
*nations religiosity didn’t matter for PA - negative feelings: national religiosity
*nation L.S religiosity is negatively correlated > more religiosity more N.A
Empirical evidence across individual > relationships being crrelations
At individual-level:
* Life satisfaction: weak negative correlations (more religiosity with lower life satisfaction)
* Positive feelings: weak positive correlations (higher levels of religiosity and higher positive affect = weak relationship)
* Negative feelings: weak positive
correlation (high levels of religiosity with higher levels of negative affect)
Individual-level results in relation to across-nation results > high vs low nations + what does it suggest
In highly religious nations > Highly religious individuals have higher LS & PA
and lower NA
In low religious nations: > Religious individuals have similar LS, but higher PA and NA
* Suggests it may be person-environment fit that matters for SWB > benefits of well-being are if you are in an environment that fits high religiosity due to support and norms
Individual-level results to understand role of difficult country circumstances
Living in difficult circumstances:
* Have lower SWB
* Religious individuals had
higher LS & PA and lower NA
Living in good circumstances:
* Have higher SWB
* Religious individuals had
slightly lower LS and higher PA and NA
Societal circumstances and personal circumstances > what did it matter more then/less than
individual level
* L.S: religiosity mattered less than gender & personal circumstances, but more than age
- PA: religiosity mattered less than personal circumstances, but more than age and gender
- NA: religiosity mattered less than personal circumstances, age and gender
*when it comes to well-being what seems to matter more is circumstances
Individual-level results to understand role of influence of spirituality > religious socialization
Living in a high religious socialization country:
* Individuals who engaged in spiritual practice had higher LS & happiness than those who did not
Living in low religious socialization country:
* Individuals who did not engage in spiritual practice had higher LS & happiness than those who did
*person-environment fit seems to matter (support for level of spirituality)
Social support
- Social support positively impacts well-being (cope with stressors)
religion provides social support
therefore, religion is positively associated with well-being - empirical evidence: dinner et al.(2011):
- religiosity was positively related to support
- but, societal circumstances influenced the relationship between religion & support
- support mediated relationship between religiosity & swb
Religiosity and respect
Respect positively impacts well-being
religion provides respect
therefore, religion is positively associated with well-being
* empirical evidence: dinner et al.(2011):
* religiosity was positively related to respect
* but, societal circumstances influenced relationship between religion & respect
* respect mediated the relationship between religiosity & swb
Religiosity and meaning/purpose in life
Having a sense of meaning & purpose in life positively impacts well-being religion provides meaning/purpose in life
therefore, religion is positively associated with well-being
* empirical evidence: dinner et al.(2011):
* religiosity was positively related to meaning/purpose in life
* but, societal circumstances influenced relationship between religion & meaning/purpose in life
* meaning/purpose in life mediated relationship between religiosity & swb
Religiosity and durable self-esteem
Self-esteem positively impacts well-being
religion may provide messages that one is loved just as one is, which forms a basis for a durable, nondefensive self-worth
* ex.“God loves you just as you are”
therefore, religion is positively associated with well-being
* little empirical study
* some studies show that religion may also be associated with guilt and self-blame
* belief in a supportive God mediated relation between religion & self-esteem, especially when that belief was strong (ex. schieman et al. 2017
