Religiousness, Spiritual Seeking, and Personality: Findings from a Longitudinal Study

Wink, Paul; Ciciolla, Lucia; Dillon, Michele; Tracy, Allison J.

doi:10.1111/j.1467-6494.2007.00466.x

Cited by 122 publications

(130 citation statements)

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“…Third, Wink et al (2007) found that Conscientiousness (␤ ϭ .17, p Ͻ .05) and Agreeableness (␤ ϭ .20 for women, p Ͻ .05; ␤ ϭ .05 for men, ns) in adolescence were associated with in-75 RELIGION, SELF-REGULATION, AND SELF-CONTROL creased religiousness through late adulthood. Fourth, Regnerus and Smith (2005) found that among American youths, religious students with high self-control (i.e., those who eschewed risk taking and who reported making decisions in a deliberative, effortful fashion) remained more religious (as measured by self-rated importance of religion and self-reported frequency of religious service attendance) 1 year later than did those religious students who initially had low self-control.…”

Section: Longitudinal and Experimental Studies Addressing The Causal mentioning

confidence: 92%

“…First, as noted above, McCullough et al (2003) found in a 19-year longitudinal study with data from the Terman study that children high in Conscientiousness (a trait that subsumes self-control) went on to become more religious as adults (␤ ϭ .14), even when background variables influencing religiousness (e.g., being raised in a religious home, gender) were statistically controlled. Second, McCullough et al (2005) found that young adults with low Agreeableness (which is a personality trait reflecting the ability to control oneself out of concern for the feelings and desires of others) manifested a pattern of low religiousness through adulthood.Third, Wink et al (2007) found that Conscientiousness (␤ ϭ .17, p Ͻ .05) and Agreeableness (␤ ϭ .20 for women, p Ͻ .05; ␤ ϭ .05 for men, ns) in adolescence were associated with in-75 RELIGION, SELF-REGULATION, AND SELF-CONTROL creased religiousness through late adulthood. Fourth, Regnerus and Smith (2005) found that among American youths, religious students with high self-control (i.e., those who eschewed risk taking and who reported making decisions in a deliberative, effortful fashion) remained more religious (as measured by self-rated importance of religion and self-reported frequency of religious service attendance) 1 year later than did those religious students who initially had low self-control.…”

mentioning

confidence: 92%

“…In addition, it appears that religious parents and families tend to have children who have higher levels of self-control. These basic associations have been replicated in samples of children, adolescents, college students, and adults from a variety of religious backgrounds and nationalities.The one longitudinal study that evaluated whether religiousness might lead to increases over time in traits that are relevant to self-control yielded some evidence consistent with this notion (Wink et al, 2007), at least for women, but five studies also suggest that traits relevant to self-control may influence later levels of religiousness. Thus, it seems plausible that religiousness and self-control-relevant traits influence each other longitudinally.…”

mentioning

confidence: 96%

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

McCullough

Willoughby

2009

Psychological Bulletin

919

773

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Many of the links of religiousness with health, well-being, and social behavior may be due to religion's influences on self-control or self-regulation. Using Carver and Scheier's (1998) theory of self-regulation as a framework for organizing the empirical research, the authors review evidence relevant to 6 propositions: (a) that religion can promote self-control; (b) that religion influences how goals are selected, pursued, and organized; (c) that religion facilitates self-monitoring; (d) that religion fosters the development of self-regulatory strength; (e) that religion prescribes and fosters proficiency in a suite of self-regulatory behaviors; and (f) that some of religion's influences on health, well-being, and social behavior may result from religion's influences on self-control and self-regulation. The authors conclude with suggestions for future research.Keywords: religion, self-control, self-regulation, motivation, personalityReligion is a potent social force. History testifies to religion's ability to focus and coordinate human effort, to create awe and terror, to foster war and peace, to unify social groups, and to galvanize them against each other. In addition to religion's social power, however, religion is a psychological force that can influence the outcomes of individual human lives. Indeed, the range of health-related, behavioral, and social outcomes with which religiousness is associated is both provocative and puzzling.Consider these well-replicated findings. First, religiousness (measured variously as high levels of traditional religious belief; frequent involvement in religious institutions such as churches, synagogues, mosques, and temples; and engagement in religious practices such as reading scripture, worship, and prayer) has a small, positive association with longevity. In a meta-analytic review of 42 independent effect sizes, McCullough, Hoyt, Larson, Koenig, and Thoresen (2000) discovered that people who were highly religious were, on average, 29% more likely to be alive at any given follow-up point than were less religious people (95% confidence interval: 1.20 to 1.39). In a traditional narrative review of studies considered by the authors to be of high quality (e.g., studies with large, representative samples and adequate statistical control of potential confounds), Powell, Shahabi, and Thoresen (2003) likewise concluded that frequent religious service attendance was associated with a 25% reduction in mortality.Studies published after McCullough et al.'s (2000) and Powell et al.'s (2003) reviews have yielded similar conclusions in random samples of U.S. adults (Musick, House, & Williams, 2004); older Mexican Americans (T. D. Hill, Angel, Ellison, & Angel, 2005); and adults in Denmark (la Cour, Avlund, & Schultz-Larsen, 2006), Finland (Teinonen, Vahlberg, Isoaho, & Kivela, 2005), and Taiwan (Yeager et al., 2006). These latter studies have also revealed 25% to 30% reductions in mortality for religiously active people, even after controlling for reasonable sets of potential confounds...

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Section: Longitudinal and Experimental Studies Addressing The Causal mentioning

confidence: 92%

mentioning

confidence: 92%

mentioning

confidence: 96%

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

McCullough

Willoughby

2009

Psychological Bulletin

919

773

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“…[23,102,108,113,114]. Importantly, longitudinal studies suggest that people's strategy appears to cause religiousness, rather than religiousness causing people's strategy [115][116][117]. In this perspective, religious beliefs are not part of a life-history coordinated strategy per se.…”

Section: Strategic Moralizing and The Belief In Cosmic Justicementioning

confidence: 99%

The nature and dynamics of world religions: a life-history approach

Baumard

Chevallier

2015

Proc. R. Soc. B.

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In contrast with tribal and archaic religions, world religions are characterized by a unique emphasis on extended prosociality, restricted sociosexuality, delayed gratification and the belief that these specific behaviours are sanctioned by some kind of supernatural justice. Here, we draw on recent advances in life history theory to explain this pattern of seemingly unrelated features. Life history theory examines how organisms adaptively allocate resources in the face of trade-offs between different life-goals (e.g. growth versus reproduction, exploitation versus exploration). In particular, recent studies have shown that individuals, including humans, adjust their life strategy to the environment through phenotypic plasticity: in a harsh environment, organisms tend to adopt a 'fast' strategy, pursuing smaller but more certain benefits, while in more affluent environments, organisms tend to develop a 'slow' strategy, aiming for larger but less certain benefits. Reviewing a range of recent research, we show that world religions are associated with a form of 'slow' strategy. This framework explains both the promotion of 'slow' behaviours such as altruism, self-regulation and monogamy in modern world religions, and the condemnation of 'fast' behaviours such as selfishness, conspicuous sexuality and materialism. This ecological approach also explains the diffusion pattern of world religions: why they emerged late in human history (500-300 BCE), why they are currently in decline in the most affluent societies and why they persist in some places despite this overall decline.

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“…On one hand, the religious dimension tends to relate to beliefs and practices that are communally and organizationally based, tradition and creed-oriented, and associated with institutional and social pressures (Pepper, Jackson, and Uzzell 2010;Piedmont 1999;Saucier and Skrzypinska 2006;Schlehofer, Omoto, and Adelman 2008;Wink et al 2007;Wink and Dillon 2003;Zinnbauer et al 1997;Zwissler 2007). The spiritual dimension, on the other hand, generally relates to an individual's subjective beliefs and pursuits, is often characterized by a propensity for "spiritual seeking" and personal experiences, includes nontheistic ideas of a higher power and an interest in unorthodox beliefs and practices, and may cooccur with negative feelings towards organized forms of religion (Fuller 2001; Jang and Franzen 2013;Piedmont 1999;Roof 1993;Saucier and Skrzypinska 2006;Schlehofer, Omoto, and Adelman 2008;Wink and Dillon 2003;Wuthnow 1998;Zinnbauer et al 1997).…”

Section: Physician Religiosity/spirituality and Medical Interactionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Is this Relevant?: Physician Perceptions, Clinical Relevance, and Religious Content in Clinical Interactions

Franzen¹

2016

Preprint

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Despite wide support among physicians for practicing patient-centered care, clinical interactions are primarily driven by physicians' perception of relevance. These perceptions of relevance depend on the physician's own biographical background. While some physicians will perceive a connection between religion and patient health, this relevance will be less apparent for others. I argue here that physician responses when religious/spiritual topics come up during clinical interactions will depend on their own religious/spiritual background. The more central religion is for the physician, as reflected by their religious/spiritual orientation, intrinsic religiosity, and religious coping, the greater their perception of religion's impact on health outcomes and their inclusion of religion/spirituality within clinical interactions. Using a nationally representative sample of physicians in the U.S. and mediated path models, I estimate models for five different physician actions to evaluate these relationships. I find that a physician's religious background is strongly associated with whether or not they think religion impacts health outcomes, which is strongly predictive of inclusion. I also find that not all of the association between inclusion and physicians' religious background is mediated by thinking religion impacts health outcomes. Issues of religion's relevance for medicine are important to the degree that religious beliefs are an important dimension of patients' lives. and Religious Content in Clinical InteractionsWho decides what is relevant in a conversation between a physician and patient? Is anything the patient wants to talk about or share with the physician fair game? Or is it the physician's role to direct the conversation toward what he or she sees as medically relevant?Most often it is the latter, and in the process, the physician's decision may actually bypass patient-centered care.Problems arise when patients want something different from the interaction with their physician. Toombs (1987) argues that patients almost universally understand their illnesses in terms of their everyday life while physicians tend to think of illnesses in terms of physical indicators with a named diagnosis and specific treatment. When patients and physicians talk about illness, they tend to be referencing different realities. If the gap between these realities is large enough, a failure in health care can occur (Toombs 1987).While both parties have a role to play during clinical conversations, both the physician's and patient's identity are biographically constrained, which means that out of each identity flows perhaps differing perceptions of conversational relevance. While ill patients understand their illness in terms of their everyday lives, they also have some idea of what information their physician expects them to share. What patients think they should share and what the physician wants them to share, however, is not always the same. Dubbin, Chang, and Shim (2013) find that even when physicians seek to pra...

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Religiousness, Spiritual Seeking, and Personality: Findings from a Longitudinal Study

Cited by 122 publications

References 48 publications

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

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

The nature and dynamics of world religions: a life-history approach

Is this Relevant?: Physician Perceptions, Clinical Relevance, and Religious Content in Clinical Interactions

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