Week 6 (post-midterm)

Question 1

whats the diff bw religion and spirituality?

Answer 1

-religion: fixed system of ideas; institutional, formal, outward, doctrinal, authoritarian, inhibiting expression.

-spirituality: subjective side of religious experience; individual, subjective, inward, unsystematic, freeing expression.

Question 2

what are three problems with the traditional distinction bw religion and spirituality?

Answer 2

1. implicit is idea that religion is bad and spirituality is good.
2. ignores that all spiritual expression unfolds in a social context and all include a subjective component.
3. ignores that both involve transcendence: the need to relate to something greater than oneself.

Question 3

what are the two types of transcendence?

Answer 3

-vertical: connecting to something higher than oneself (ex. abrahamic faiths).

-horizontal: connecting to something broader– not necessarily higher– than ourselves (ex. daoism’s ‘energy’).

Question 4

what is religosity?

Answer 4

the feelings, experiences, and behaviours people engage in, in relation to religion.

Question 5

describe allport’s (1950, 1961, 1963, 1966) studies.

Answer 5

investigated: why are people religious?

conclusions:
1. extrinsic needs: ‘means to an end’, ex. status in community.
2. intrinsic needs: pursued for its own sake, ex. ultimate purpose in life.

Question 6

describe hackney & sanders’ (2003) meta-analysis of 35 different studies of religiosity and mental health (3).

Answer 6

investigated: are there commonalities in peoples’ religiosity?

conclusions:
1. institutional religiosity: social & behavioural aspects.
2. ideological religiosity: religious beliefs.
3. personal devotion: internalized devotion – how self-defining is it?

-these dimensions are related.

Question 7

describe paragament’s (1997, 1999) alternative to the traditional definition of spirituality.

Answer 7

-spirituality is a process through which people seek to discover, hold on to, and transform whatever they hold sacred in their lives.

-the search takes place in a larger religious context (link between the two).

Question 8

describe macdonald’s (2000) model of spirituality expression (5).

Answer 8

-used factor analysis to extract dimensions of spirituality.

1. cognitive orientation: beliefs and attitudes towards spirituality.
2. experiential/phenomenological dimension: emotions and experiences.
3. existential well-being: journey connected to purpose/meaning.
4. paranormal beliefs: essence of beliefs: ex. energy, spirits/spiritual world.
5. religiousness: connected to normalized system (religion)?

Question 9

correlations at global and national levels between religiosity and life satisfaction are…

Answer 9

weak and negative

Question 10

describe the correlations of religiosity and life satisfaction, pos affect, and neg affect across nations

Answer 10

-LS: moderate + negative correlation.
-PA: weak + negative correlation.
-NA: weak + positive correlation.

Question 11

describe the correlations of religiosity and life satisfaction, pos affect, and neg affect across individuals

Answer 11

-LS: weak + negative correlation.
-PA: weak + positive correlation.
-NA: weak + positive correlation.

Question 12

is there evidence to support a person-environment fit in relation to religiosity?

Answer 12

yes!

in highly religious nations, religious individuals have higher LS & PA and lower NA than non-religious individuals.

in low religious nations, religious individuals have similar LS, but higher PA & NA (higher NA b/c conflict) than non-religious individuals.

Question 13

is there evidence to support that difficult circumstances impact religious individuals’ LS, PA, and NA?

Answer 13

yes!

living in difficult circumstances, religious individuals had higher LS & PA and lower NA than non-religious individuals.

living in good circumstances, religious individuals had similar LS and higher PA and NA than non-religious individuals.

Question 14

at the individual level, how much did religion matter in relation to societal and person circumstances in terms of LS, PA, and NA?

Answer 14

(rank order most-to-least important)

LS: gender/personal circumstances, religion, age.

PA: personal circumstances, religion, age/gender.

NA: personal circumstances, age, gender, religion.

Question 15

which religion reported highest LS?

Answer 15

evangelical christians (note: small differences).

Question 16

is there evidence to support a person-environment fit in relation to spirituality?

Answer 16

yes!

spiritual people living in high religious socialization countries had higher LS & happiness than those who did not.

spiritual people living in low religious socialization countries had lower LS & happiness than those who did not.

Question 17

what are the three empirically supported mediators of religion/spirituality and well-being? briefly explain each.

Answer 17

1. social support
   -social support positively impacts WB by providing companionship, etc. and religion provides social support.
   -diener et al. found that good society = social support, regardless of religion but bad society = more social support for religious people.
2. respect
   -respect positively impacts WB b/c results in being admired, etc. and religion provides respect.
   -diener et al. found that regardless of societal circumstance, religious people experienced more respect.
3. purpose in life
   -having a sense of purpose in life positively impacts WB (recall: component of PWB!) and religion provides purpose.
   -diener et al. found that regardless of societal circumstance, religious people experienced more purpose in life.

Question 18

what are the eight candidates of mediators of religion/spirituality and well-being? (not enough evidence) briefly explain each.

Answer 18

1. durable self-esteem
   -religion may provide msg that one is loved just as one is, forms basis for self-esteem.
   -may also be associated with guilt and self-blame tho…
   -mediated when belief in god was STRONG (schieman et al.).
2. terror management
   -religion provides coping mechanism for mortality salience, ex. one (or something meaningful that one is a part of) will survive death, msg of hope.
   -hackney & sanders found this was weak tho… maybe needs to be internalized beliefs?
3. promoting pos virtues
   -religion promotes gratitude, humility, forgiveness, compassion, etc.
   -may be that religion increases EXPERIENCE of pos emotions –>
4. promoting pos emotions
   -some empirical support for experiencing pos emotions cuz of religion and also supports connection to WB.
5. morality
   -religion provides sense of morality, ex. increased self-efficacy helps individuals resist immoral temptations.
   -some empirical support (ex. AA’s 12 steps, but, are they happier bc of morality or bc of resolving substance abuse problem?
6. attachment to god
   -secure attachments lead to increased LS, more PA than NA and religion provides a sense of attachment to a caring god.
   -ex. bradshaw & kent found that the relationship bw prayer + PWB was mediated by perception that one’s god will be there for you.
   -numinous experiences = WB.
7. the power of prayer
   -pos associations: adoration, thanksgiving, reception.
   -neg/no associations: petitionary/supplication (neg),
   confession (pos only when believes in forgiveness), obligatory (none).
8. healthy practices and behaviours
   -religion promotes healthy practices & behaviours.
   -ex. health-oriented, vegetarian seventh day adventists have longer-than-usual life expectancy(berkel & de waard), BUT, 75% of longevity difference remains after controlling for unhealthy behaviours (kark et al.).

Question 19

t or f: meditation is negatively associated with spirituality and SWB.

Answer 19

false!

meditation is positively associated with spirituality and SWB.

Question 20

what is the diff bw happiness and well-being according to the buddhist video?

Answer 20

happiness: diff definitions, past vs present vs future, pleasure vs pain, etc. contingent on time + place.

well-being: deep sense of serenity + fulfillment. a state that pervades and underlies all emotional states. inner conditions > outer conditions. outer conditions are simply an auxiliary to well-being.

Question 21

what is mind-training according to the buddhist video?

Answer 21

-trying to find antidote to emotions.
-looking inward– ex. examine anger and “dissolve” it, and eventually the tendency to become angry will go away.

Question 22

how does meditation change the brain according to the buddhist video?

Answer 22

familiarizes the brain with new way of perceiving things that is aligned with reality, interdependence, and a stream of constant change which is what our being is.

Question 23

what is one example of empirical evidence of the effects of meditation?

Answer 23

-people with more activity in right prefrontal cortex experience more depression, withdrawal, less PA.
-meditation increases being able to experience emotional responses, more left activity.
- neg0.5 is the full SD of a meditator who meditated on compassion (totally out of the bell-curve!)