First Study
Reference: Genia, Vicky and Shaw, Dale E. 1991. "Religion, Intrinsic-Extrinsic
Orientation, and Depression." Review of Religious Research 32(3):274-283.
Hypothesis: The authors hypothesize that depression will be greater among groups that
are proreligious, extrinsic and nonreligious than among people who have
intrinsic religiosity. In affect, the authors believe that religiosity influences
one's mental health.
Sample: The unit of analysis is 309 students. The students included 97 Catholics, 39
Jews, 77 evangelical Protestants, 51 religiously liberal Protestants and 45
Unitarian-Universalizes. There were 115 males and 191 females (3 unspecified) ranging
in age from 17 to 83; mean age of 29 years. The average participant had completed 3
years of college.
Method: Initially, 522 surveys were distributed in the Washington, DC area. These
surveys included two scales, the Religious Orientation Inventory (ROI); a
measurement of religiousity, and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI); a measurement
for depression. The dependent variable was depression, and the independent variable
was religiosity. Three hundred nine questionnaires were returned resulting in a 61%
return rate.
Findings: The results of the surveys indicate that depression was negatively related to
intrinsicness and positively related to extrinsicness. However, there was no
differences in depression among the nonreligious, extrinsic or proreligious
groups.
Conclusions: The study supports the researcher's hypothesis that intrinsic religious
commitment is correlated to a more positive outlook and extrinsic
religiosity is related to a higher rate of depression. The authors believe
that the methodology they used was to generalized and that a clear
straightfoward measurement of intrinsic verses extrinsic religiosity was not
ideally found.
Second Study
Reference: Easing, Rob, Felling, Albert and Perters, Jan. 1990. "Religious Belief,
Church Involvement and Ethnocentrism in the Netherlands." Journal for the
Scientific Study of Religion 29(1):54-75.
Hypothesis: Church members in the Netherlands are more likely to be prejudiced with
regard to Holland's ethnic minorities and more likely to be nationalistic than
nonmembers.
Sample: The unit of analysis was the general Dutch population. The initial sample
consisted of 3,003 participants aging from 18 to 70. This sample was then broken down
into a smaller subset; eliminating randomly chosen people who did not deliberately
receive a series of questions, and those who had missing data.
Method: The data used was taken from the national survey in 1985, "Social and
Cultural Developments in the Netherlands." In this survey, they compared the
Independent variables: Christian Beliefs, Authoritarianism, and Localism to
that of the dependent variable: ethnocentrism. The authors tried to
determine what level of ethnocentrism one has depending on their religious
beliefs: church members and church nonmembers. Scales measuring attitudes
toward religion, ethnic outgroups and national ingroups were used in the
survey.
Findings: The study showed that categories including church members were more likely
to show prejudices that categories including nonmembers. Moderate levels of church
involvement showed a higher level of prejudices than both the nonmembers and
core church members. In addition, the study showed that nationalism was seen the
lowest in nonmembers. Modest church members were more likely to be nationalistic,
in comparison to nonmembers and core church members. A correlation between
negative attitudes toward new ethnic minorities in Holland and positive attitudes
toward the national Dutch in-group.
Conclusion: The authors concluded that religious beliefs do not cultivate prejudices.
Their original hypothesis was not accurate, but at the same rate it was not
inconclusive. While the studies showed that moderate levels of church
involvement indicated a higher level of prejudices, core church members had a
negative effect on ethnic prejudices. The authors suggest from these results
that a study showing a separation of different types of church members may result
in greater findings. The data supports that Christian beliefs has a
positive affects on nationalism.
Third Study
Reference: Perkins, Wesley H. 1992. "Students Religiosity and Social Justice
Concerns in England and the United States: Are Thet Still Related?" Journal for the
Scientific Study of Religion 31(3):353-360.
Hypothesis: A strong religious commitment among students in England and the United
States reduces racial prejudices.
Sample: The unit of analysis was 2,299 introductory sociology students at five colleges:
Loughborough University, University of Reading, and the University of
Sheffeild in England; the University of Central Florida, and Hobart and William Smith
Colleges in Geneva, NY in the United States. The samples selected provided
diversity in gender, ethnic background, regional and rural/urban backgrounds, and
parents' occupational prestige for each country.
Method: The data was taken using a Value Inventory (VI) survey which measured values
among students. A cross-national data base allowed the researchers to explore values
and beliefs of students having different cultural visions. The study was a follow up
study from ten years previously. The independent variable, religiosity, was
measured by their religious preferences and attitude scales. The dependent
variables: Humanitarianism, Egalitarianism and Racism were measured by scales
attempting to show personal positions concerning justice.
Findings: Religiosity displayed a positive relationship to humanitarianism in England.
Protestants were connected with less humanitarianism in the prior study, but in
this study the findings were inverted. Religiosity was the only statistically
significant variable that predicted humanitarianism. Egalitarianism had no
correlation with religiosity in England. In the United States, high levels of
religiosity showed egalitarian beliefs in the first study only. Moderate
religiosity was correlated with high levels of racism in both countries.
Conclusions: The authors support their original hypothesis. They believe that a strong
religious commitment among students reduces racial prejudices and
augments humanitarianism. Egalitarianism are unaffected by religiosity.
Consistent cross-national data does not show less social justice concern
among highly religious students. The data does show a decrease over the
ten years on the effect of religiosity on humanitarianism and
egalitarianism. The authors suggest that this could be caused by the change in
the present generation. They believe that the present generation puts less
attention on humanitarianism and more attention on themselves.
Fourth Study
Reference: Chalfant, Paul H. and Peek, Charles W. 1983. "Religious Affiliation,
Religiosity and Racial Prejudice: A New Look at Old Relationships." Review of
Religious Research 25(2):155-161.
Hypothesis: Religious affiliation and religiosity leading to higher prejudices than do
non-affiliation and low religiosity.
Sample: The unit of analysis is adult white participants in the United States. (no more
info was given.)
Method: The data was taken from three NORC surveys. The surveys contained information
on racial prejudice two religious variables. The independent variable, Religiosity was
found only in respondents who attended religious services at least several times
annually. Those who did were considered affiliated, those who did not were
non-affiliated. The other three independent variables used were social status, region
and year. Social status was characterized by the level of education completed. The
dependent variable was racial prejudices.
Findings: In only six of the sixteen groups analyzed religious affiliated adults
revealed more racial prejudice than non-affiliated adults. The researchers
re-calculated the data by including very low attenders in their calculations. This
showed that racial prejudices was exhibited in all affiliated groups except Jewish
and Episcopal groups.
Conclusions: The researchers believe that a correlation can be made between religiosity
and racial prejudices. Even though religiosity was shown merely by effects
attendance, religious traditions may account for the racial prejudices.
Hence, religious denominations may be factors in racial prejudices. In
addition, the researchers also suggest that racial prejudice may affect
religiosity as much as religiosity a racial prejudice.
Fifth Study
Reference: Foster, Rachel Ann and Keating, John P. 1992. "Measuring Androcentrism in
the Western God-Concept." Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 31(3):366-375.
Hypothesis: To provide validation that the Western God-concept is male.
Sample: The unit of analysis are students in introductory psychology and sociology
classes. Since there was three studies done within the whole study, numbers of
students varied from phase to phase. (56, 57, 41,59, and 100 respectively)
Method: Three methodologies were used to carry out the study in order to include
cultural and personal God-concepts. The first methodology asked for free response
descriptions of God. The second methodology was a cued response task to describe
cultural God-concepts. The third methodology used was a questionnaire to determine (a)
what they thought most people believed and (b) their own personal beliefs. The
independent variable is one's concept of God and the dependent variable is one's
personal and cultural beliefs.
Findings: More than four times as many participants agreed with "God is a heavenly
father" as with "God is a heavenly mother," and more than three times agreed with "God
is a heavenly parent," than "God is a heavenly mother." Their findings also showed that
Christians might be more likely to include a female element in the cultural God
concept. Characterizing by gender, 2/3 agreed that God was a father but not a mother.
In looking at the personal God concept, twice as many participants agreed with father as
mother. there was no significant differences due to the respondents sex or ethnicity.
Conclusions: The authors findings support their original hypothesis that cultural and
personal God concepts are male. They also concluded that there is some evidence
suggesting that students God concepts are male or female or both.
Summary/Synthesis
The five studies I have compiled include research on religion in relation to prejudices,
well-being, and one's concept of God. While each study I have listed above deals with a
different aspect of these concepts, all confirm that religion is a major factor in
influencing our own being.
The studies have discrepancies between them. The second and fourth study support the
notion that higher religiosity leads to stronger prejudices, while the thirst study finds
that stronger religious commitment reduces racial prejudices. I believe that there is
discrepancies for two reasons. First, there is not a general understanding of how
religiosity is defined. These studies have defined it in various ways. The third study
characterizes it as a behavior pattern (attending church) while the second study
characterizes religiosity as an attitude, using various scales. Second, there is no
clear, universal scale used in the studies to measure the dependent variable, prejudice.
This being so, there is no way to comparatively define prejudice.
Pertaining to my own research project, I chose these five aspects of religion in order
to help me devise my own hypothesis. The broadened topics have helped me to narrow down
the topic I wish to choose. The fifth study, "Measuring Androcentrism in the Western
God-Concept," was not originally included. I came across it in my research and it
interested me. I included it because I believe it will probably be a direction I will go
in. This particular article uses a free response methodology. I think that when
questioning a topic such as religion, it is important to gain an understanding of
respondents personal ideals. This may be hard to achieve in surveys or simple
questions.
These studies helped me to critically analyze the many considerations taken when
carrying out research. In all five studies, the researchers were very conscious in the
way in which they analyzed and conceived the data. In all but the fourth study, the
researchers give precise details about the samples. They make sure that the samples are
diverse, if necessary and representative of the group studying by using randomness.
I also observed that while a precise research question was being asked in each of these
studies, other conclusions were drawn from the data collected. Such is the case in study
five. The authors intention was to provide validation that the western God concept is
male. After collecting data they also had reason to believe that students' God concepts
can be male or both female and male.
In affect, these research studies gave me a thorough overview for basic sociological
research. The information I compiled on the studies gave me a direct look at the study,
which is conducive in seeing the deductions made. The sample and methods used in the
studies abled the authors to deduct conclusions and raise additional research questions.
References
Chalfant, Paul H. and Peek, Charles W. 1983. "Religious Affiliation, Religiosity and
Racial Prejudice: A New Look at Old Relationships." Review of Religious Research
25(2):155-161.
Easing, Rob, Felling, Albert and Perters, Jan. 1990. "Religious Belief, Church
Involvement and Ethnocentrism in the Netherlands." Journal for the Scientific
Study of Religion 29(1):54-75.
Foster, Rachel Ann and Keating, John P. 1992. "Measuring Androcentrism in the Western
God-Concept." Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 31(3):366-375.
Genia, Vicky and Shaw, Dale E. 1991. "Religion, Intrinsic-Extrinsic Orientation, and
Depression." Review of Religious Research 32(3):274-283.
Perkins, Wesley H. 1992. "Students Religiosity and Social Justice Concerns in
England and the United States: Are Thet Still Related?" Journal for the Scientific
Study of Religion 31(3):353-360.
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