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Worship space attachment as a contributor to spiritual growth
Abstract
The act of worship is a central component of religious life that is, for most adherents, embedded within a particular place (e.g., one’s church, temple, or synagogue). These worship spaces serve a role in people’s spiritual lives above and beyond their simple, functional role of providing communities with a location to gather and engage in rituals. Rather, as concrete physical places strongly associated with an otherwise incorporeal deity, people’s relationship with this setting is closely intertwined with their spiritual wellbeing. In this chapter, I report the results of an empirical study of Reformed Christians located in western Michigan, United States. Its findings reveal that people’s sense of spiritual growth during the COVID-19 pandemic was predicted not by their satisfaction with the components of worship (i.e., music, sermons, social ties), but by their feelings of attachment to their church’s worship space itself. Moreover, a multilevel mediation model indicates that the connection between attachment and spiritual growth is explained by people’s positive emotions during worship. These results indicate that an emotional bond to sacred space is a more critical indicator of spiritual wellbeing than cognitive appraisals of religious worship.
How do spiritual ties to place (i.e., place spirituality) contribute to a meaningful spiritual life? Previous work has focused on sacred places, but a proposal is put forward for examining the spiritual connections people develop with many types of places in their search for meaning. The proposed theory examines spiritual ties to place across three dimensions—affective, cognitive, and behavioral—that may be a critical way in which people satisfy spiritual yearnings and fulfill spiritual needs due to (1) the sacred in a place, (2) social activities in sacred places, and (3) spiritual realities in a place. Furthermore, a proposal is put forward for a measure of spiritual ties to place that can be adapted to numerous specific individual, environmental, and community-level contexts. Adaptation of the measure for a variety of contexts is provided so that the proposed approach can be used across cultures. Discussion is also given to the psychology of religious places, and the broader implications for well-being. This could be useful for tracking and reflection purposes, and it might ultimately be used for assessing religious/spiritual realities experienced within the milieu of place.
This study explored the extent to which perceived changes in religiosity from before to during the COVID-19 pandemic are associated with flourishing. Participants from a diverse set of faith communities in two United States metropolitan regions (N = 1,480) completed an online survey between October and December 2020. The survey included items capturing perceived changes in four dimensions of religiosity (i.e., importance of religion, frequency of prayer, frequency of religious service attendance, and sense of connectedness to one’s faith community) and a multidimensional measure of flourishing. Based on multilevel regressions, results indicated that self-reported decreases in each dimension of religiosity were associated with lower overall flourishing. This pattern of findings was largely similar for the domains of flourishing, with some variation in the strength of associations that emerged. An increase in frequency of religious service attendance was associated with lower overall flourishing and lower scores on selected domains of flourishing (e.g., mental and physical health), indicating possible evidence of religious coping. Faith communities might have to find ways of supporting members during the challenging COVID-19 period to prevent long-term declines in flourishing.
Background
In-person religious service attendance has been linked to favorable health and well-being outcomes. However, little research has examined whether online religious participation improves these outcomes, especially when in-person attendance is suspended.
Methods
Using longitudinal data of 8951 UK adults, this study prospectively examined the association between frequency of online religious participation during the stringent lockdown in the UK (23 March –13 May 2020) and 21 indicators of psychological well-being, social well-being, pro-social/altruistic behaviors, psychological distress, and health behaviors. All analyses adjusted for baseline socio-demographic characteristics, pre-pandemic in-person religious service attendance, and prior values of the outcome variables whenever data were available. Bonferroni correction was used to correct for multiple testing.
Results
Individuals with online religious participation of ≥1/week ( v. those with no participation at all) during the lockdown had a lower prevalence of thoughts of self-harm in week 20 (odds ratio 0.24; 95% CI 0.09–0.62). Online religious participation of <1/week ( v. no participation) was associated with higher life satisfaction (standardized β = 0.25; 0.11–0.39) and happiness (standardized β = 0.25; 0.08–0.42). However, there was little evidence for the associations between online religious participation and all other outcomes (e.g. depressive symptoms and anxiety).
Conclusions
There was evidence that online religious participation during the lockdown was associated with some subsequent health and well-being outcomes. Future studies should examine mechanisms underlying the inconsistent results for online v. in-person religious service attendance and also use data from non-pandemic situations.
This book rekindles the well-known connection between people and place in the context of a global pandemic. The chapters are divided into two sections. In the first section, “Place Attachment During a Pandemic,” we review the nature of the COVID-19 pandemic and the extent of its impact on place attachment and human-environment interactions. We examine how restrictions in mobility and environmental changes can have a significant psychological burden on people who are dealing with the effect of place attachment disruption that arises during a pandemic. In the second section, “Adjusting to Place Attachment Disruption During and After a Pandemic,” we focus on adaptive processes and responses that could enable people to adjust positively to place attachment disruption. We conclude the book by discussing the potential for pro-environmental behavior to promote place attachment and flourishing in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic by introducing an integrative framework of place flourishing and exploring its implications for theory, research, policy, and practice.
The COVID-19 pandemic has plagued the world, bringing everyday activities to a standstill. Many people are wrestling with the impact of the public health crisis on the connections they have with their environment (e.g., neighborhoods, cities), specific places (e.g., workplaces, places of worship), and people (e.g., loved ones, faith community) that are part of their daily lives. In this paper, we introduce the phenomenon of place attachment disruption as a common challenge for people who have been disconnected from their environment since the outbreak of SARS-CoV-2. We conceptualize place as a relational object and argue that the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the attachment that people have with the physical elements of their environment, the lifeforms of the environment, and to some extent the ‘soul’ of their cities. We then consider defensive responses that may be triggered by disruptions to place attachment during the public health crisis, including the emergence of spiritual/religious struggles. The experience of place attachment disruption is discussed as an opportunity to transcend place-related COVID-19 loss by detaching from ‘what no longer serves us’ in a way that builds resilience. We conclude by highlighting some practical approaches that could facilitate psychospiritual transformation (e.g., meaning-making) to disrupted place attachment during the public health crisis, as well as those that could support the formation of new (or renewed) connections to place in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The COVID-19 pandemic has had significant consequences for Americans’ daily lives. Many people are spending more time in their homes due to work from home arrangements, stay at home orders, and closures of businesses and public gathering spaces. In this study, we explored how one’s attachment to their home may help to buffer their mental health during this stressful time. Data were collected from a three-wave, longitudinal sampling (n = 289) surveyed at baseline, two, and four weeks after. We found a clear relationship between an individual’s attachment to home and positive mental health. Across all three waves, home attachment was negatively associated with symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress. Furthermore, participants’ home attachment at baseline was predictive of subsequent mental health two weeks after, which suggests that one’s relationship to their home was particularly important during the initial onset of the national response to the outbreak. Predictors of home attachment included conscientiousness, agreeableness, and restorative ambience. Over the course of the study, kinship ambience also emerged as a predictor of home attachment. In the midst of increased mental health concerns and limited resources due to COVID-19, the home may buffer some individuals from depressive and anxiety-related symptoms by functioning as a source of refuge, security, and stability.
This chapter explores conceptual frameworks used for assessing the links between religious and place attachment and the role they play as objects of attachment and alternate security systems in everyday life. The first section of this chapter explores the complexities of adult attachment theory involving religious attachment in terms of relationship experiences with God. In the second section I explored the multidimensionality of people–place relationship experiences in relation to the sense of place theory. In the third section I explored the similarities between these two surrogate relationships as correlates of interpersonal attachment—a framework originally developed by John Bowlby and colleagues. Lastly, the relationship between religious and place attachment is discussed based on three conceptual models: compensation versus correspondence model of attachment; motivational systems theory; and self-ecological model. I discussed the distinctiveness and applications of these conceptual frameworks.
The authors articulate a model specifying links between (a) individuals and the physical environments they occupy and (b) the environments and observers' impressions of the occupants. Two studies examined the basic phenomena underlying this model: Interobserver consensus, observer accuracy, cue utilization, and cue validity. Observer ratings based purely on offices or bedrooms were compared with self-and peer ratings of occupants and with physical features of the environments. Findings, which varied slightly across contexts and traits, suggest that (a) personal environments elicit similar impressions from independent observers, (b) observer impressions show some accuracy, (c) observers rely on valid cues in the rooms to form impressions of occupants, and (d) sex and race stereotypes partially mediate observer consensus and accuracy. Consensus and accuracy correlations were generally stronger than those found in zero-acquaintance research.
The expression of attachment to the divine in certain places among different groups has been documented by anthropologists and sociologists for decades. However, the psychological processes by which this happens are not yet fully understood. This paper focuses on the concept of “place spirituality” (PS) as a psychological mechanism which allows the religious believer or non-believer to achieve an organized attachment strategy, involving the interplay of place and spiritual attachment. First, PS is considered as an experience which satisfies the attachment relationship criteria, in that geographic places and divine entities can be perceived as “objects” of attachment. Secondly, it is proposed that the maturational aspects of attachment repertoire in adults make the PS experience possible since adults’ cognitive abilities are much wider than those of children and can include relationships to geographical spaces and invisible divine entities. Finally, the theme of PS is explored to further position the concept as a relational paradigm for understanding the relationship between place experiences and spiritual attachment.
Although existing research has assessed the factors associated with judgments of novel sacred spaces, comparatively little work has investigated how these environmental properties relate to the beliefs, emotions, and satisfaction of the congregants who worship there. In this study, individuals from 23 churches evaluated their worship space, and an online sample provided their impressions of these settings and the type of people they believe worship there. A series of linear mixed-effects models revealed that (a) worship spaces that offer exploration were associated with greater satisfaction, feelings of restoration, and more positive emotions among congregants, particularly for those high in quest orientation, (b) external raters’ explicit judgments of a congregation’s religious orientation from observations of their worship space were highly inaccurate, but (c) an external rater’s similarity to the congregation’s actual religious attitudes, even when it was unknown to the perceiver, predicted greater liking of that congregation’s worship space.
The author proposes a variation to the ‘Circle of Security’ model: one in which the behaviour of a religious believer is depicted in a circular pattern of movement that begins and ends with the object(s) of attachment. This variation is conceptualised in the present paper as the Circle of Place Spirituality (CoPS). CoPS takes a relational psychoanalytic approach to examine the interplay of multiple shifting motivations within the individual in terms of exploration of place and attachment to God. This proposed model recognises stimulation to anthropomorphised objects of attachment within the individual context based on two motivational drives: attachment needs and exploration curiosity. It is argued that these two drives enhance the perception of the object of attachment as either a safe haven for attachment-affiliation or a secure base for exploration curiosity. In the last section of the paper, attachment needs and exploration curiosity are presented as the drives responsible for the engagement with objects of attachment and further clarified as the systems through which the interplay of exploration of place and attachment to God can be adequately understood in CoPS.
Social psychologists have long demonstrated that people are stereotyped on the basis of race. Researchers have conducted extensive experimental studies on the negative stereotypes associated with Black Americans in particular. Across 4 studies, we demonstrate that the physical spaces associated with Black Americans are also subject to negative racial stereotypes. Such spaces, for example, are perceived as impoverished, crime-ridden, and dirty (Study 1). Moreover, these space-focused stereotypes can powerfully influence how connected people feel to a space (Studies 2a, 2b, and 3), how they evaluate that space (Studies 2a and 2b), and how they protect that space from harm (Study 3). Indeed, processes related to space-focused stereotypes may contribute to social problems across a range of domains—from racial disparities in wealth to the overexposure of Blacks to environmental pollution. Together, the present studies broaden the scope of traditional stereotyping research and highlight promising new directions.
Geometrical and environmental factors in the perception of sacredness, dominance, and attractiveness were assessed by 137 participants in five tests. In the first test, a two-alternative forced-choice paradigm was used to test the perception of sacredness, dominance, and attractiveness in geometrical figures differing in shape, verticality, size, and symmetry. Verticality, symmetry, and convexity were found to be important factors in the perception of sacredness. In the second test, participants had to mark the point inside geometrical surfaces that was perceived as most sacred, dominant, and attractive. The top and the center areas were associated with sacredness, dominance, and attractiveness. In the third test, peaks and elevated regions in landscapes were evaluated as more sacred, dominant, and attractive than valley regions. In the fourth test, three figures sharing the same area but differing in horizontal and vertical orientation were evaluated on eight scales. The vertical figure was evaluated as more sacred, dominant, and attractive than the horizontal figure. The fifth test demonstrated the significant role of space seclusion and inaccessibility in the perception of sacredness. Geometrical factors in the perception of sacredness, dominance, and attractiveness were largely overlapping.
Group identity symbols such as flags and logos have been widely used across time and cultures, yet researchers know very little about the psychological functions that such symbols can serve. The present research tested the hypotheses that (a) simply having a symbol leads collections of individuals to seem more like real, unified groups, (b) this increased psychological realness leads groups to seem more threatening and effective to others, and (c) group members therefore strategically emphasize symbols when they want their group to appear unified and intimidating. In Studies 1a-1c, participants perceived various task groups as more entitative when they happened to have a symbol. In Study 2, symbols not only helped groups make up for lacking a physical characteristic associated with entitativity (physical similarity), but also led groups to seem more threatening. Study 3 examined the processes underlying this effect and found that group symbols increase entitativity by increasing perceived cohesiveness. Study 4 extended our results to show that symbols not only shape the impressions people form of novel groups, but also change people's existing impressions of more familiar and real-world social groups, making them seem more entitative and competent but also less warm. Finally, Studies 5a and 5b further expand our understanding of the psychological function of symbols by showing that group members strategically display symbols when they are motivated to convey an impression of their group as unified and threatening (vs. inclusive and cooperative). We discuss implications for understanding how group members navigate their social identities. (PsycINFO Database Record
Attachment to place may contribute to individuals’ well-being. We evaluated whether visualizing a place of attachment (compared with visualizing a nonattached familiar place) could increase the satisfaction of key psychological needs. Place attachment visualizations increased participants’ levels of self-esteem, meaning, and belonging. Furthermore, visualizing places at a certain geographical scale helped to improve meaning, self-esteem, and belonging among participants who had been ostracized. This is the first study to treat place attachment as an independent variable in an experimental design, so it broadens the options for internally valid, methodologically diverse place attachment research.
Although particular physical settings play a crucial role in the religious lives of many people, adherents' preferences have received little empirical attention. The current study tests whether judgments of religious environments are influenced by perceptual variables, perceivers' religious orientations (intrinsic, extrinsic, and quest), and the fit between these two types of factors. Participants rated images of interior church settings in terms of their preferences, as well as the settings' coherence/legibility (understanding) and complexity/mystery (exploration). Results revealed statistically significant interactions between religious motivation and perceptual properties. Specifically, high intrinsic orientation predicted a stronger association between understanding and preference, whereas high quest orientation predicted a weaker association between understanding and preference. Additionally, high extrinsic orientation predicted greater preference for all religious settings, unless the environment was low in understanding but required high exploration. These results indicate that personal religious beliefs are reflected in how individuals evaluate the settings in which they worship.
Princeton Abstract In this paper, we describe the R package mediation for conducting causal mediation analysis in applied empirical research. In many scientific disciplines, the goal of researchers is not only estimating causal effects of a treatment but also understanding the process in which the treatment causally affects the outcome. Causal mediation analysis is fre-quently used to assess potential causal mechanisms. The mediation package implements a comprehensive suite of statistical tools for conducting such an analysis. The package is organized into two distinct approaches. Using the model-based approach, researchers can estimate causal mediation effects and conduct sensitivity analysis under the stan-dard research design. Furthermore, the design-based approach provides several analysis tools that are applicable under different experimental designs. This approach requires weaker assumptions than the model-based approach. Finally, we also implement a statis-tical method for dealing with multiple (causally dependent) mediators, which are often encountered in practice.
To investigate interpersonal theory, the authors examined the social behavior of 112 previously unacquainted male-female pairs collaborating on a joint task. Structural equation modeling analyses provided clear evidence of complementarity: In addition to trait affiliation and dominance both predicting situational behavior, each interaction partner's behavior influenced the other's in accordance with the theory, eliciting similar levels of affiliation and opposite levels of dominance. There were also clear biases related to participants' interpersonal traits: When behavior, as indexed by observers, was held constant, more trait affiliative participants tended to view themselves and their partner as warmer during the interaction; likewise, more trait dominant participants perceived themselves to act more dominantly than they actually did. Throughout, there were no sex differences. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
In recent years, the cognitive science of religion has displayed a keen interest in religions' social function, bolstering research on religious prosociality and cooperativeness. The main objective of this article is to explore, from a Darwinian perspective, the biological and psychological mechanisms through which religious monumental architecture (RMA) might support that specific function. A frequently held view is that monumental architecture is a costly signal that served vertical social stratification in complex large-scale societies. In this paper we extend that view. We hypothesize that the function(s) of RMA cannot be fully appreciated from a costly signaling perspective alone, and invoke a complementary mechanism, namely sensory exploitation. We propose that, in addition to being a costly signal, RMA also often taps into an adaptive “sensitivity for bigness.” The central hypothesis of this paper is that when cases of RMA strongly stimulate that sensitivity, and when commoners become aware of the costly investments that are necessary to build RMA, then this may give rise to a particular emotional response, namely awe. We will try to demonstrate that, by exploiting awe, RMA promotes and regulates prosocial behavior among religious followers and creates in them an openness to adopt supernatural beliefs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved)
A concept of symbolic self-completion states that people define themselves as musicians, athletes, etc. by use of indicators of attainment in those activity realms, such as possessing a prestige job, having extensive education, or whatever is recognized by others as indicating progress toward completing the self-definition. The self-completion idea postulates that when important symbols—indicators of self-definition—are lacking, the person will strive after further, alternative symbols of the self-definition. In the present research two modes of symbolizing complete- ness were studied: (1) attempting to influence others directly within the self-def- initional area; or (2) simple self-descriptions of one's own performance, such that others would be exposed to those self-descriptions. Two correlational studies showed that the less education (Study 1) or on-the-job experience (Study 2) subjects had, the more they desired to influence others. Experimental subjects (Study 3) who were interrupted while writing a positive, self-descriptive statement manifested stronger influence attempts than did subjects who were allowed to finish. Finally, Study 4 examined self-descriptions as a self-symbolizi ng effort. Incompleteness was varied by means of a salience-of-past-teacher manipulation. When pressure was placed on subjects to characterize themselves negatively within their respective areas, those for whom a positive teacher was salient were the most willing to be negative. The interpretation of these findings assumes that influencing others, as well as positive self-descriptions, can further the individual's sense of having a complete self-definition.
Although literature yields some insights on the connection between place and well-being, to date the direct influence of place attachment on the dimensions that characterize social well-being has not been explicitly investigated. The present study, conducted on 443 first-year undergraduates, had one main purposes: exploring the influence of place attachment – measured in relation to two different spatial ranges (neighborhood and city) – on the five components of social well-being. Results showed that place attachment globally affects social well-being, but noteworthy distinctions have to be specified both as to the spatial range investigated and the different dimensions of social well-being. Theoretical implications are discussed.
In addition to the religious coping styles proposed by K. I. Pargament et al (1988), a surrender style of coping is proposed. Surrender is not a passive waiting for God to take care of everything; rather, it entails an active choice to relinquish one's will to God's rule. Analysis of 30 surrender-associated coping items rated by 151 Christian undergraduates (aged 17–47 yrs) yielded a 12-item Surrender Scale with a reliability coefficient of .94. A factor analysis delineated Surrender as a separate factor from the other coping styles. Preliminary incremental validity was also established employing a hierarchical multiple regression analysis. After removing the effects of the other coping styles, the Surrender Scale correlated positively with religious importance, intrinsic religiousness, spiritual well-being, and locus of control in God. Moreover, the Surrender Scale correlated negatively with Extrinsic-Personal religiousness and locus of control in luck. As hypothesized, surrender, as a coping strategy, was significantly related with the other coping styles, yet it evidenced sufficient incremental validity for its consideration as a distinct coping style. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The term “consistency bias” (Sadler & Woody, 2003) refers to people’s tendency to judge their own interpersonal behavior in a given situation in accordance with their general self-images, even if their actual behavior in the situation is partialled out. In the present study, 108 participants first described their own interpersonal dispositions by means of adjectives and then took part in brief, videotaped interviews. The participants and five observers rated the participants’ behavior during the interviews, using the same adjectives. The consistency bias was replicated for the broad interpersonal dimensions of Dominance and Affiliation, as well as for the average individual item. Two possible sources of the consistency bias (i.e., visual perspective and word commonness) were investigated, but neither could explain the effect. The consistency bias may be rooted in self-concept stability. It is likely to inflate estimates of consistency across self-reports of interpersonal behavior.
This article explores how religion, as a meaning system, influences coping with adversity. First, a model emphasizing the role of meaning making in coping is presented. Next, religion as a meaning system is defined, and theory and research on the role of religion in the coping process are summarized. Results from the author's study of 169 bereaved college students are then presented to illustrate some of the pathways through which religious meaning can influence the coping process in making meaning following loss. Findings indicate that associations between religion and adjustment vary across time since loss, and that these associations are mediated by meaning-making coping. Finally, implications for individual and societal well-being and suggestions for future research are discussed.
Although religiousness is tied to coping, little work examines the role of specific religious beliefs in the coping process. Applying the transactional model of coping, positivity of God image and vertical religious focus were assessed in a national sample of 103 parents of children with disabilities. Controlling for general religiousness, these specific beliefs were correlated with parents' appraisals. Positive God image was associated positively with appraisals that the disability is a challenge, a benefit, and God is in control; it was associated negatively with loss appraisal. Vertical religious focus was associated positively with the appraisal that God is in control. Consistent with the model, appraisals mediated the relation between specific beliefs and coping strategies. Loss appraisal mediated the relation of vertical focus and God image with engagement coping and the appraisal that God is in control further explained the relation between vertical focus and engagement coping. Religion powerfully influences how individuals cope with stress (Pargament, 1997). It explains unique variance in coping and predicts outcomes beyond secular coping (Pargament, 2002). Despite this wealth of research demonstrating that religion is linked with coping, much less is known about how religion enters and forms the coping process. This study addresses this question using a cognitive appraisal approach, providing a broader evaluation of religion's role in coping. We test how specific religious beliefs are related to appraisals of stressors, how these appraisals relate to coping, and how these beliefs fit into the whole coping process. Moreover, we explore the role that specific religious beliefs play beyond that of general religiousness.
Drawing upon the literatures on beliefs about magical contagion and property transmission, we examined people's belief in a novel mechanism of human-to-human contagion, emotional residue. This is the lay belief that people's emotions leave traces in the physical environment, which can later influence others or be sensed by others. Studies 1-4 demonstrated that Indians are more likely than Americans to endorse a lay theory of emotions as substances that move in and out of the body, and to claim that they can sense emotional residue. However, when the belief in emotional residue is measured implicitly, both Indians and American believe to a similar extent that emotional residue influences the moods and behaviors of those who come into contact with it (Studies 5-7). Both Indians and Americans also believe that closer relationships and a larger number of people yield more detectable residue (Study 8). Finally, Study 9 demonstrated that beliefs about emotional residue can influence people's behaviors. Together, these finding suggest that emotional residue is likely to be an intuitive concept, one that people in different cultures acquire even without explicit instruction.
The authors review experimental evidence that religious conviction can be a defensive source of compensatory control when personal or external sources of control are low. They show evidence that (a) belief in religious deities and secular institutions can serve as external forms of control that can compensate for manipulations that lower personal control and (b) religious conviction can also serve as compensatory personal control after experimental manipulations that lower other forms of personal or external control. The authors review dispositional factors that differentially orient individuals toward external or personal varieties of compensatory control and conclude that compensatory religious conviction can be a flexible source of personal and external control for relief from the anxiety associated with random and uncertain experiences.
A strong personal relationship with God is theoretically and empirically associated with an enhanced sense of control. While a growing body of research is focused on understanding the neural mechanisms underlying religious belief, little is known about the brain basis of the link between a personal relationship with God and sense of control. Here, we used a sample of patients with focal brain lesions (N = 84) and matched healthy controls (N = 22) to determine whether damage to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC)—a region associated with emotionally meaningful religious experiences and with sense of control—will modulate self-reports of a personal relationship with God and sense of control. We also examined potential mediators for these associations. Voxel-based lesion symptom mapping revealed that damage to the right vmPFC resulted in a stronger personal relationship with God, and patients with damage to this region demonstrated an increased sense of control relative to patients with damage to posterior cortex and healthy controls. Moreover, the association between vmPFC damage and greater perceived sense of control was mediated by a stronger personal relationship with God. Collectively, these results suggest that a strong personal relationship with God can serve an important psychological function by affecting sense of control, with both enhanced following damage to the right vmPFC.
Recent trends in social psychology point to increased interest in extending current theories by better incorporating the body (e.g., embodied cognition) and the broader interpersonal context (e.g., situations). However, despite being a critical component in early social theorizing, the physical environment remains in large part underdeveloped in most research programs. In this article, I outline an ecological framework for understanding the person–environment relationship. After introducing this perspective, I describe how this approach helps reveal the critical role played by the physical environment in a variety of social processes, including childhood development, interpersonal relationships, and social identity. Finally, I review a topic in environmental psychology that has received little attention among social psychologists: territories. I provide an ecological perspective on how the design, use, and personalization of this type of environment guide and constrain regulatory processes involving social behavior, identity expression, and emotional experience.
In addition to racial stereotypes about people (e.g., Black people are poor), perceivers hold parallel racial stereotypes about physical spaces (e.g., Black spaces are impoverished; Bonam, Bergsieker, & Eberhardt, 2016). Three studies extend these findings, showing that (a) Whites describe Black space as impoverished and undesirable, but describe White space as affluent and desirable, and (b) this racially polarized stereotype content is heightened for spaces compared to people (Studies 1 & 2). Perceivers are accordingly more likely to racially stereotype spaces than people (Study 3). This asymmetry in racial stereotype application is exacerbated when targets are objectively middle class versus lower class, likely because Whites have more difficulty incorporating counterstereotypic information into perceptions of Black spaces—compared to perceptions of Black people, White people, and White spaces (Study 3). Finally, we provide and discuss evidence for potential consequences of invisible middle-class Black space, relating to residential segregation and the racial wealth gap.
Place attachment, the cognitive-emotional bond that forms between individuals and their important settings, is a common human experience with implications for their well-being. It has often been described and defined, but few studies have examined the range of psychological benefits it provides. This study investigated the experienced psychological benefits of place attachment by content analyzing community members' descriptions of places to which they consider themselves attached. Using an inductive approach, their responses were coded for themes of reported psychological benefits. Thirteen categories of benefits were revealed: memories, belonging, relaxation, positive emotions, activity support, comfort-security, personal growth, freedom, entertainment, connection to nature, practical benefits, privacy, and aesthetics. Variations in the reported benefits were explored as a function of place type, geographical scale, and demographic characteristics. This study provides heuristic insights into the experienced psychological benefits of place attachment.
Given that religion is a human universal,evolutionary and cultural perspectives on the emotions are incomplete without a comprehensive understanding of the role of religion. Religion provides context and direction for emotion and the influence of religious systems on emotional experience and expression is considerable. For example, religions prescribe certain emotions and proscribe others. Religion also modulates the expression of emotion.This chapter will examine emotions and emotional processes that normally occur in the context of religion. Recent scientific research on religion and emotion will be highlighted.
In addition to the religious coping styles proposed by K. I. Pargament et al. (1988), a surrender style of coping is proposed. Surrender is not a passive waiting for God to take care of everything; rather, it entails an active choice to relinquish one's will to God's rule. Analysis of 30 surrender-associated coping items rated by 151 Christian undergraduates yielded a 12-item Surrender Scale with a reliability coefficient of .94. A factor analysis delineated Surrender as a separate factor from the other coping styles. Preliminary incremental validity was also established employing a hierarchical multiple regression analysis. After removing the effects of the other coping styles, the Surrender Scale correlated positively with religious importance, intrinsic religiousness, spiritual well-being, and locus of control in God. Moreover, the Surrender Scale correlated negatively with Extrinsic-Personal religiousness and locus of control in luck. As hypothesized, surrender, as a coping strategy, was significantly related with the other coping styles, yet it evidenced sufficient incremental validity for its consideration as a distinct coping style.
The conceptualization, development and cross-validation of a 24-item Christian Orthodoxy Scale is described. Eight different studies are involved, which include samples of Canadian high school students, university students, and the parents of university students, as well as a sample of Australian university students. Evidence is presented that the scale is unidimensional, reliable and valid. Factor analyses have consistently revealed a single factor which accounts for a large portion of the total test variance (ranging from 58% to 74%). Mean inter-item correlations have remained high across samples (typically between .60 and .70), Cronbach's alpha was .98, and the 24 items comprising the scale loaded (usually considerably) higher than .61 on the single factor in the various studies. It is concluded that the scale constitutes a useful general purpose measure of one dimension of Christian religiousness -- Christian orthodoxy.
This paper reviews research in place attachment and organizes the material into three sections: research, method, and theory. A review of several hundred empirical and theoretical papers and chapters reveals that despite mobility and globalization processes, place continues to be an object of strong attachments. The main message of the paper is that of the three components of the tripartite model of place attachment (Scannell & Gifford, 2010a), the Person component has attracted disproportionately more attention than the Place and Process components, and that this emphasis on individual differences probably has inhibited the development of a theory of place attachment. Suggestions are offered for theoretical sources that might help to fill the gaps, including theories of social capital, environmental aesthetics, phenomenological laws of order, attachment, and meaning-making processes that stem from movements and time-space routines.
Positive psychology is largely concerned with human qualities that have long been the subject of religious discussion and been encouraged through spiritual practices. We suggest that, rather than seeing positive psychology as replacing this earlier religious approach, it should be pursued in dialogue with it. We illustrate this with reference to work on forgiveness, gratitude, and hope in the Psychology and Religion Research Programme in the University of Cambridge. Though the recent upsurge of interest in therapeutic forgiveness has brought a welcome rigour to its investigation, there are still aspects of forgiveness that are better handled in the religious literature, such as the importance or receiving forgiveness. Building on recent psychological work on gratitude, we have been particularly interested in the hypothesized relationship between gratitude and subjective well-being, and have initiated research to investigate more rigorously whether there is indeed a causal connection between the two. Concerning hope, we suggest that the distinction between hope and optimism, often made by religious thinkers, could usefully be imported into the psychological literature, as much of what is called hope may really only be optimism. We have also considered, using Snyder's theory of hope, how religious faith can contribute to human hope.
In a two-wave survey study designed to extend and refine previous research on religion as an attachment process, college students completed a four-category attachment-style measure and several religiosity measures at Time 1; a subsample also completed identical religiosity measures about 4 months later (Time 2). Analysis of Time 1 data (N= 1,126) extended previous findings by demonstrating that positive mental models of both self and others were related cross-sectionally to positive images of God and perceived relationships with God. Longitudinal analyses (N = 297) revealed that positive religious change over time was predicted by negative models of self and positive models of others. Discussion focuses on the dynamics of religious belief and change as a function of psychological attachment processes.
This study conceptualizes personal religion, like romantic love, in terms of attachment theory and explores empirical relationships between adult attachment style and religious belief and behavior in an adult sample. Respondents who classified themselves as secure reported greater religious commitment and more positive images of God than insecure respondents. Avoidant respondents were more likely to describe themselves as agnostics; anxious/ambivalent respondents were more likely to report having had a glossolalia experience. Security of attachment to God was positively associated with security of adult attachment, but only among respondents who described their childhood maternal attachments as insecure. Attachment to God, in contrast to other religion variables, was strongly and significantly related to several mental and physical health outcomes. Results are interpreted in terms of mental models of attachment relationships, including relationships with God.
Ethological attachment theory is a landmark of 20th century social and behavioral sciences theory and research. This new paradigm for understanding primary relationships across the lifespan evolved from John Bowlby's critique of psychoanalytic drive theory and his own clinical observations, supplemented by his knowledge of fields as diverse as primate ethology, control systems theory, and cognitive psychology. By the time he had written the first volume of his classic Attachment and Loss trilogy, Mary D. Salter Ainsworth's naturalistic observations in Uganda and Baltimore, and her theoretical and descriptive insights about maternal care and the secure base phenomenon had become integral to attachment theory. Patterns of Attachment reports the methods and key results of Ainsworth's landmark Baltimore Longitudinal Study. Following upon her naturalistic home observations in Uganda, the Baltimore project yielded a wealth of enduring, benchmark results on the nature of the child's tie to its primary caregiver and the importance of early experience. It also addressed a wide range of conceptual and methodological issues common to many developmental and longitudinal projects, especially issues of age appropriate assessment, quantifying behavior, and comprehending individual differences. In addition, Ainsworth and her students broke new ground, clarifying and defining new concepts, demonstrating the value of the ethological methods and insights about behavior. Today, as we enter the fourth generation of attachment study, we have a rich and growing catalogue of behavioral and narrative approaches to measuring attachment from infancy to adulthood. Each of them has roots in the Strange Situation and the secure base concept presented in Patterns of Attachment. It inclusion in the Psychology Press Classic Editions series reflects Patterns of Attachment's continuing significance and insures its availability to new generations of students, researchers, and clinicians.
Drawing on theories of shared reality, symbolic self-completion, and social identity, we suggest that group identity can be considered a goal toward which group members strive by seeking out socially recognized identity symbols, such as property that relates to group history. Three studies build on past research to suggest that when group identity goals are strong, people strive to ensure social recognition of a group's identity symbols, and place greater value on means that are effective at communicating group identity to other people. In Study 1, group members' commitment to an identity goal predicted their desire to publicize a property's relationship to group identity. In Studies 2 and 3, individual and situational variations in goal strength increased the value placed on property (a potential means) only when the property's symbolic significance was socially recognized. Implications for shared reality and conflict resolution are discussed.
An Introduction to the Psychology of Religion and Coping. Part I: A Perspective on Religion. The Sacred and the Search for Significance. Religious Pathways and Religious Destinations. Part II: A Perspective on Coping. An Introduction to the Concept of Coping. The Flow of Coping. Part III: The Religion and Coping Connection. When People Turn to Religion. When They Turn Away. The Many Faces of Religion in Coping. Religion and the Mechanisms of Coping - The Transformation of Significance. Part IV: Evaluative and Practical Implications. Does it Work? Religion and the Outcomes of Coping. When Religion Fails - Problems of Integration in the Process of Coping. Putting Religion into Practice.
Despite its relatively good psychometric properties and empirical validity, the 20-item Religious Fundamentalism scale developed by the authors has several problems. It does not measure all of the aspects of fundamentalism, as defined, as well as it might. And it could stand to be shorter. An item development program led to a 12-statement revision that is more internally consistent despite having broader coverage. As well, it is as reliable as the longer original scale, despite being 40% shorter, and at least as empirically valid. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Although privacy needs may be universal, the exact mechanisms used to regulate privacy can vary considerably from culture to culture. Consequently, when individuals relocate across cultures, privacy regulation with new neighbours may involve an incongruity between previously-learned privacy mechanisms and those prescribed by the new culture of residence. These disruptions in ability to regulate privacy can be particularly problematic given that effective regulation may relate to place attachment and a sense of well-being. Survey responses made by Asian and American students in the U.S.A. support this hypothesis. Compared to U.S.A. students, Asians had more difficulty establishing contacts with their new neighbours. However, as interaction with family within the home is an 'intra-cultural' phenomenon, these students did not have difficulty regulating privacy with family. The possible universal importance of privacy regulation was supported for both U.S.A. and Asian students in that effective regulation was related to place attachment and this attachment was related to a subjective sense of well-being.
Although many social scientists have assumed that religion can be reduced to more basic processes, there may be something unique about religion. By definition, religion has a distinctively meaningful point of reference, the sacred. Empirically, studies also suggest that religion may be a unique: form of motivation; source of value and significance; contributor to mortality and health; source of coping; and source of distress. These findings point to the need for: theory and research on the sacred; attention to the pluralization of religious beliefs and practices; evaluation of individual and social interventions that address spiritual problems and apply spiritual resources to their resolution; and collaboration between psychological and religious groups that draws on their unique identities and strengths.
In this study we sought to address several limitations of previous research on attachment theory and religion by (1) developing a dimensional attachment to God scale, and (2) demonstrating that dimensions of attachment to God are predictive of measures of affect and personality after controlling for social desirability and other related dimensions of religiosity. Questionnaire measures of these constructs were completed by a sample of university students and community adults (total n= 374). Consistent with prior research on adult romantic attachment, two dimensions of attachment to God were identified: avoidance and anxiety. After statistically controlling for social desirability, intrinsic religiousness, doctrinal orthodoxy, and loving God image, anxious attachment to God remained a significant predictor of neuroticism, negative affect, and (inversely) positive affect; avoidant attachment to God remained a significant inverse predictor of religious symbolic immortality and agreeableness. These findings are evidence that correlations between attachment to God and measures of personality and affect are not merely byproducts of confounding effects of socially desirable responding or other dimensions of religiosity.
In this paper we claim that religion can play an important role in place attachment and present a conceptualization of it. We provide an understanding of the role of place in the experience of religious place attachment, describing in detail place, design, aesthetics, and special characteristics that facilitate devotion. Next, we describe how attachment to place is learned through the process of socialization involving rituals, use of artifacts, story telling, and place visits. We argue that there is an active socializing component to religious place attachment in addition to the experiential one. We conclude with a brief discussion integrating the complex issues of religion, place, identity, and attachment.
The aim of this paper is to provide an understanding of the interconnectedness between religion, identity and attachment to sacred spaces. This is done in three parts. First, we provide a general understanding of attachment to sacred spaces, settings and objects and create a typology of attachment to different sacred spaces, from macro to micro, from natural to human-made, based on a brief comparison of several religions. Second, focusing on one part of this typology (attachment to homes), we illustrate the creation, content and meaning of sacred space through a detailed analysis of the Hindu house. Third, we examine the emergence of place attachment and identity, the ways religion through ritual connects people to places, and how places as settings for sacred behavior and socialization connects people to religion. Finally, by including personal history and auto-ethnography we attempt to ‘personalize’ environmental psychology.
The authors review findings from the psychology of religion showing that believers' perceived relationships with God meet the definitional criteria for attachment relationships. They also review evidence for associations between aspects of religion and individual differences in interpersonal attachment security and insecurity. They focus on two developmental pathways to religion. The first is a "compensation" pathway involving distress regulation in the context of insecure attachment and past experiences of insensitive caregiving. Research suggests that religion as compensation might set in motion an "earned security" process for individuals who are insecure with respect to attachment. The second is a "correspondence" pathway based on secure attachment and past experiences with sensitive caregivers who were religious. The authors also discuss conceptual limitations of a narrow religion-as-attachment model and propose a more inclusive framework that accommodates concepts such as mindfulness and "nonattachment" from nontheistic religions such as Buddhism and New Age spirituality.