PSY 4480 Assignment Development of Religious Views
PSY 4480 Assignment Development of Religious Views
This qualitative study aims to explore the impact of religious beliefs in terms of religiosity, including (1) religious background, (2) religious practices and (3) participation in religious activities, on the development of spiritual well-being of Chinese students. Thereafter, this research further discussed how and what religiosity has contributed to the development of the university students’ spiritual well-being.
27 individual in-depth interviews with university students were conducted. Findings contribute to the exploration of how the spiritual well-being of students could be influenced by their religious beliefs. Their religious doctrines, activities and practices may likewise be integrated in their daily lives. Moreover, religious doctrines, participation in religious activities and prayers or meditation positively contribute to the development of the university students’ spiritual well-being in specific domains (i.e., personal, communal, environmental and transcendental). Happiness, love, harmony, and devotion are affirmed as possible reasons and effects from their religious beliefs in the specific domains.
It has been proposed that adolescents are likely to change or maintain, expand or abandon their religious beliefs and practices because of pressure from parents or peers, because of cognitive development, or because of existential anxiety. This study proposes a social-cognitive model of change based on the concepts of anchoring and polarization. The sample consisted of 390 early, middle, and late adolescents who filled out a questionnaire assessing family demographics, religious background, beliefs, practices, and experience, existential questioning, and closeness to family and peers. Parents’ religious affiliation and practices were positively related to all aspects of religiousness among early and middle adolescents, but only to practices and to decreased likelihood of change in the college-age group. Family closeness was also negatively associated with change. There was some evidence of peer influence on religious doubt and changes of faith. Existential concerns and SAT scores were positively related to change in older subjects only, but existential questioning seemed more likely to accompany change than to cause it.
Journal Information
The Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion (JSSR), the quarterly publication of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, has published research on religious phenomena for over forty years. Drawing on a rich interdisciplinary cross-section of scholarship — including religion, sociology, political science, psychology, anthropology, and history — the journal offers scholarly analysis of the role of religion in society. Examples of topics covered include patterns of church membership and growth, the relationship between religion and health, the relationship between religion and social attitudes, the rise of fundamentalism, secularization and sacralization, and new religious movements. JSSR is an important publication for those who desire to keep current with scholarship on the role and impact of religion in today’s world.