The Implicit Image of God: God as Reality and Psychological Well-Being

Research has widely demonstrated that religiosity is related to psychological well-being even in situations of severe illness. To assess religious beliefs, explicit measures have generally been used. In this study, we measured the belief that God is reality as opposed to myth or abstraction by using...

Ausführliche Beschreibung

Gespeichert in:  
Bibliographische Detailangaben
VerfasserInnen: Testoni, Ines (VerfasserIn) ; Visisntin, Emilio Paolo (VerfasserIn) ; Capozza, Dora 1941- (VerfasserIn) ; Carluzzi, Maria Concetta (VerfasserIn) ; Shams, Malihe (VerfasserIn)
Medienart: Elektronisch Aufsatz
Sprache:Englisch
Verfügbarkeit prüfen: HBZ Gateway
Journals Online & Print:
Lade...
Fernleihe:Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste
Veröffentlicht: Wiley-Blackwell [2016]
In: Journal for the scientific study of religion
Jahr: 2016, Band: 55, Heft: 1, Seiten: 174-184
weitere Schlagwörter:B coping responses to stress
B automatic religious beliefs
B cancer patients
B anxiety symptoms
B controlled religious beliefs
B Single Category Implicit Association Test
Online Zugang: Vermutlich kostenfreier Zugang
Volltext (Verlag)
Volltext (doi)
Beschreibung
Zusammenfassung:Research has widely demonstrated that religiosity is related to psychological well-being even in situations of severe illness. To assess religious beliefs, explicit measures have generally been used. In this study, we measured the belief that God is reality as opposed to myth or abstraction by using an implicit technique (the Single Category Implicit Association Test). The study was carried out in Italy, where a large majority of the population is Catholic, and the prevailing image of God is that of a compassionate and supportive father. Participants were cancer patients identifying themselves as believers. As expected, the automatic belief that God is reality (vs. abstraction) was related to beneficial outcomes: lower reported psychophysical anxiety symptoms and a weaker use of avoidance strategies to cope with stress. Thus, also, automatic religious beliefs may affect feelings and behaviors.
ISSN:1468-5906
Enthält:Enthalten in: Journal for the scientific study of religion
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1111/jssr.12252