Caruana, Julian (2013) Understanding the relationship between religion and well-being: a mixed methods investigation into religious maturity and psychological well-being. Doctoral thesis, London Metropolitan University.
Despite a recent resurgence of interest in the field of religion and well-being, the psychological understanding of the relationship between these 2 phenomena remains limited. A review of relevant literature indicated that focusing on the potential relationship between religious maturity (RM) as conceptualised by Allport (1950) and a multidimensional conceptualisation of psychological well-being (PWB) might represent a fruitful way forward. The mixed parallel design adopted by this research was composed of a quantitative strand (Study-l) investigating the extent to which RM predicted PWB and the mediating impact of self-actualisation, meaning in life and self-esteem and a qualitative strand (Study-2) exploring the hypothesized relationship and possible intennediary mechanisms and processes in a more open-ended manner. A sample of 138 adult UK residents from a Catholic or Protestant religious background were recruited for Study-l 's purposes while, using maximum variation sampling, 4 interviewees were selected for Study-2 from the initial pool of participants. Study-l's findings indicated that, although RM was not a significant predictor of PWB, higher levels of master-motive predicted higher levels of PWB, mainly through meaning in life, while higher levels of openness predicted lower levels of PWB, mainly through selfesteem. Study-2 yielded a theoretical model postulating a set of diverse religiosity facets impacting well-being through a series of intermediary processes involving multiple psychological domains. In conjunction, both studies seemed to point towards affording religiosity a central and pervasive role in life as having a salubrious effect, offered support for the explanatory benefits of employing a humanistic-existential theoretical frame in this inquiry field and placed an emphasis on meaning-making playing a primary intennediary role in the relationship of interest. Finally, suggestions for future research are proposed and implications for both the theory and practice of CoP are explored.
Downloads
Downloads per month over past year
Downloads each year
View Item |