Bernard Spilka

God Image as a Function of Self-Esteem and Locus of Control

A cognitive consistency framework was adopted to predict that a believers level of selfesteem and his location on the locus of control dimension influence his description and definition of God. On a sample of 128 Catholic subjects with approximately identical religious backgrounds, self-esteem was positively related to loving-accepting God-images and negatively to rejecting images. Locus of control was unrelated to controlling beliefs. Statistical and methodological controls were utilized to offer an interpretation that self-esteem may be a major determinant of God-images. It was proposed that these findings have important implications for understanding the dynamics of personal religion.

Coping with breast cancer: The roles of clergy and faith

This paper describes the experiences of 103 breast cancer patients with home pastors and hospital chaplains. Attention was directed at the activities of clergy, the degree to which religious and nonreligious interactions were satisfying to the women, and how these related to their personal faith orientation. Because of the issues of sexual identity and attractiveness entailed by breast cancer, the role of female clergy was also explored. It is evident that religion is an extremely important resource for the majority of these breast cancer patients, and an intrinsic religious orientation helps one cope with breast cancer.

Death and Personal Faith: A Psychometric Investigation

Studies on religion and death have usually treated both domains in llnidimensional terms, but our theory suggests different forms of personal religion are related to different aspects of death perspectives. To assess these hypothese Intrinsic-Committed and Extrinsic-Consensual religious expressions were related to a set of newly developed death perspective instruments. The hypotheses gained substantial support with Intrinsic-Committed faith associating positively with viewing death in terms of an Afterlife of Reward and as Courage and negatively with a variety of undesirable death views. In contrast, Extrinsic-Consensual faith correlates with views of death as Loneliness-Pain, Indifference, Unknown, Forsaking Dependents, and Natural End.

Inward, Outward, and Upward: Cognitive Aspects of Prayer

Recent investigations concerning ways people employ prayer typically suffer from either a fundamentally atheoretical approach or an indiscriminant mixing of affective, behavioral, and cognitive components. The present study examines the theory that a general concept of prayer–as–connection contains prayers of inward (connection with oneself), outward (human–human connection), or upward (human–divine connection) foci. Participants rated words or phrases according to what they “thought about” while praying. Factor analysis revealed eight primary factors: two inward, four outward, and two upward. Three second–order factors emerged (two outward and one upward). However, no general factor appeared.

General Attribution Theory for the Psychology of Religion: The Influence of Event-Character on Attributions to God

A formulation, general attribution theory, is presented and applied to the problem of Godattribution. Hypothesizing that religious attributions are a function of situational and stylistic factors, the present work deals with event-character and contextual influences which are aspects of the former. Twelve short stories picturing positive or negative social, economic, and medical occurrences varying in importance were written. In our initial experiment, these were administered under personal or impersonal-reference conditions to 135 respondents. The degree to which God was seen as involved in each happening was assessed. A four-factor ANOVA revealed God attributions varied meaningfully with event-domain, positive-negativeness, and event-importance. Significant interactions among these factors and with the personal-impersonal condition were also observed. In our second experiment, an experimental manipulation of a personal-impersonal experimental condition produced evidence that more God attributions result in personal than impersonal circumstances. An attempt to assess the effect of a church vs. a nonchurch context resulted in negative findings and recommends the necessity of making this potential source of influence more salient in future work. The utility of attributional concepts to explain much religious activity is increasingly apparent.

Parents, Self, and God: A Test of Competing Theories of Individual-Religion Relationships

Four theories of the origins of God concepts (Freudian, Adlerian, Social Learning, and Self-Esteem) were compared utilizing partial correlation techniques. The Ss were 198 Catholic youth from 3 parochial schools. Slightly more support was gained for the Adlerian and Self-Esteem positions than for the Freudian and Social Learning frameworks. Both methodogolical and theoretical questions are raised challenging such exclusively individualistic explanations; and sociocultural possibilities are introduced. Serious measurement difficulties merit research consideration before this long-standing problem in the psychology of religion can be successfully resolved. The origin of God concepts has been a continuing source of fascination to psychologists of religion. Ever since Freud (1938: 1957) postulated generalization of images from ones father to God, researchers have attempted to verify this hypothesis. Where some scholars tend to affirm the psychoanalytic position (Vergote et al., 1969), they and others (Strunk, 1959) do so with caution, noting that God images may only be slightly more paternal than maternal. One can, however, claim that a stronger research-founded case has been demonstrated for a patterning of mother to God similarities than for father to the deity (Nelson and Jones, 1957; Godin and Hallez, 1964; Nelson, 1971). Nelson (1971) attempts to explain these apparent contradictions by reference to the view of Alfred Adler that God concepts may be more consonant with those of the preferred parent than more generally with either mother or father per se. Current psychological theory and some research suggests additional alternatives to the classic positions of Freud and Adler. For example, Social Learning Theory (SLT) might imply that God image could be a projection of the dominant parental model for a child, which

Quest: Constructive Search or Religious Conflict?

With samples of college students, church members, and seminary students, the hypothesis that Batsons measure of quest faith would relate positively to conflict and anxiety was supported. Psychometric problems with the quest measure prompted construction of an alternate form with improved reliability. This resulted in associations with other variables more in line with Batsons original conceptualization. Problems still exist, but questions are raised regarding the meaning of conflict and anxiety in the context of social and religious deviance. Additional research directions are suggested.

Self-Disclosure and Marital Satisfaction in Mid-Life and Late-Life Remarriages

Self-disclosure and marital satisfaction were studied among 125 males and females who were in their first remarriage. Essentially equal numbers had remarried in mid-life (ages 30–45) and late-life (ages 60–75). The multidimensional Wheeless self-disclosure scales and Locke-Wallace measure of marital satisfaction were employed. Mid-life versus late-life differences were evident for the amount, and depth of disclosure, but not for intentionality, valence or honesty of disclosure. No gender differences were manifested in self-disclosure. Marital satisfaction was greatest for late-life remarriages, and this was due to the high level of male satisfaction in this age group.

The role of religion in coping with childhood cancer

The role of religion in the crisis of childhood cancer was explored through interviews with 265 members of 118 families that had a child with cancer. Measures of family and patient religiosity were related to a broad spectrum of parental and patient perceptions and activities. Evidence was obtained that the religion related positively to familial support of the patient and efforts to keep school performance at pre-illness levels. There were signs of a narrowing of the familys social field while relationships with close friends were strengthened. Religion appeared to act as a protective-defensive system that motivated efforts by family members to cope constructively with the crisis of illness.

Religion in the Introductory Psychology Textbook: A Comparison of Three Decades

In this research, 98 introductory psychology textbooks from the 1980s were examined for religious content. The were then compared with 40 texts from the 1950s and 160 from the 1970s. A major increase in religious-related material was observed for the 1980s texts over those of the 1970s; however, both the number of citations and citation length were reduced in 1980s texts over those of previous decades, and these citations continued to be primarily of a non-research, discussion nature. Although evaluation of the religious material by text authors was largely unbiased, the main examples chosen often presented religion in a negative light. Additionally, research in the psychology of religion was rarely present, and references were frequently to popular writers and well-known books. Indirect evidence is present of either author bias against religion in introductory texts or failure to look beyond mainstream psychology.