Good Feelings in Christianity and Buddhism: Religious Differences in Ideal Affect

Abstract

Affect valuation theory (AVT) predicts cultural variation in the affective states that people ideally want to feel (i.e., "ideal affect"). National and ethnic comparisons support this prediction: For instance, European Americans (EA) value high arousal positive (HAP) states (e.g., excitement) more and low arousal positive (LAP) states (e.g., calm) less than Hong Kong Chinese. In this article, the authors examine whether religions differ in the ideal affective states they endorse. The authors predicted that Christianity values HAP more and LAP less than Buddhism. In Study 1, they compared Christian and Buddhist practitioners' ideal affect. In Studies 2 and 3, they compared the endorsement of HAP and LAP in Christian and Buddhist classical texts (e.g., Gospels, Lotus Sutra) and contemporary self-help books (e.g., Your Best Life Now, Art of Happiness). Findings supported predictions, suggesting that AVT applies to religious and to national and ethnic cultures.

The Effects of Ethnicity and Leisure Satisfaction on Happiness, Peacefulness, and Quality of Life

“…Although overall leisure satisfaction was a better predictor of happiness than peacefulness, peacefulness and spirituality/religion were positively correlated for Chinese/Canadians. This discovery is consistent with Tsai's et al (2007) finding that Asian religions emphasize emotions such as calm more than Western religions. In contrast, while personal relationships were positively correlated with happiness for Chinese/Canadians, they were negatively correlated with peacefulness.…”

“…First, for British/Canadians' happiness, ensuring leisure satisfaction occurs in conjunction with goal achievement seems worthwhile. Given this ethnic group's propensity for high arousal positive affect (Tsai et al, 2006(Tsai et al, , 2007 as well, active sport, fitness, and outdoor activities would seem particularly appropriate. Second, for Chinese/Canadians' happiness, ensuring leisure satisfaction occurs in conjunction with personal relationships of a certain type seems worthwhile.…”

“…Second, for Chinese/Canadians' happiness, ensuring leisure satisfaction occurs in conjunction with personal relationships of a certain type seems worthwhile. Given this ethnic group's propensity for low arousal positive affect (Tsai et al, 2006(Tsai et al, , 2007, social activities involving "equals" and that are relatively sedentary would seem most appropriate (e.g., mahjong with friends). Third, Lyubomirsky's et al (2005) concept of "intentional activities" should be of great interest to recreation practitioners.…”

“…Diener et al added that other cultures may also find it prideful and arrogant to report being very happy. In addition, research by Tsai and her colleagues (Tsai, Knutson, & Fung, 2006;Tsai, Miao, & Seppala, 2007) has shown that whereas Euro-North Americans ideally want to experience high arousal positive emotions (e.g., excitement) Asian people ideally want to experience low arousal positive emotions (e.g., calm, peacefulness). Thus, in a study involving Chinese people, examining not only happiness but peacefulness seemed necessary.…”

Religion, self-regulation, and self-control: Associations, explanations, and implications.

“…A study of self-identified Christians and Buddhists from various North American universities revealed that Christian students valued high-arousal positive emotional states (e.g., "excited," "enthusiastic," "elated," "euphoric") to a greater extent than did Buddhist students (Cohen's d ϭ .44, p Ͻ .001) and that Buddhist students value low-arousal positive emotional states (e.g., "calm," "peaceful," "serene," and "relaxed") to a greater extent than did Christian students (Cohen's d ϭ .29, p ϭ .05). That Buddhism and Christianity place differing emphases on the desirability of different emotional states was confirmed in two additional studies showing that Christian religious texts place a higher value on the higharousal positive affective states and a lower value on the lowarousal positive affective states than do Buddhist religious texts (Tsai, Miao, & Seppala, 2007).Another example comes from religious differences in people's goals regarding the control of thoughts. We located four studies that addressed this issue (Abramowitz, Deacon, Woods, & Tolin, 2004;A.…”