God Image as a Function of Self-Esteem and Locus of Control

Benson, Peter; Spilka, Bernard

doi:10.2307/1384430

Cited by 353 publications

(264 citation statements)

References 10 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

233

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Among female students they found that self-esteem was negatively related to a deistic God image and positively related to a loving God image, to a traditional God image, and to a kind God image. Benson and Spilka's (1973) findings are consistent with the findings of several other studies working within different traditions. For example, Chartier and Goehner (1976) employed form B of the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory (Coopersmith, 1967) alongside the loving God semantic differential measure developed by Benson and Spilka (1973) among 84 male and female tenth and eleventh grade pupils enrolled at Western Christian High School in Glendova, California.…”

Section: Empathy and Religionsupporting

confidence: 92%

“…This theologically-drive theory linking images of God with individual differences in self-concept connects with and helps to interpret findings from early research reported by Benson and Spilka (1973) and by Spilka, Addison and Rosensohn (1975). Both studies assessed self-esteem by means of a modified form of the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory (Coopersmith, 1967).…”

Section: Empathy and Religionmentioning

confidence: 59%

“…Both studies assessed self-esteem by means of a modified form of the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory (Coopersmith, 1967). In the first study, conducted among 128 male students attending a Catholic high school who regarded religion as personally important, Benson and Spilka (1973) found that self-esteem scores were positively correlated with loving God images, but negatively correlated with rejecting, impersonal, vindictive and controlling God images. In the second study, conducted among 116 male and 82 female sixteen-year-olds attending three Catholic high schools, Spilka, Addison and Rosensohn (1975) found that among male students self-esteem was negatively related to a wrathful God image.…”

Section: Empathy and Religionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The understanding and measurement of God images employed by the present study was pioneered by Benson and Spilka (1973) who employed a ten-item semantic differential grid which they claimed to generate two indices assessing a loving God image and a controlling God image. This instrument known as the Loving and Controlling God Scales, has been employed effectively in a number of subsequent studies, including Spilka, Addison and Rosensohn (1975), Chartier and Goehner (1976), Jolley and Taulbee (1986), Gabbard, Howard and Tageson (1986), Bowman, Coons, Jones and Oldstrom (1987), Kirkpatrick andShaver (1990, 1992), Park and Cohen (1993), Brokaw and Edwards (1994), Pritt (1998), Kirkpatrick (1998), and Rowatt and Kirkpatrick (2002).…”

Section: Research Questionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This instrument known as the Loving and Controlling God Scales, has been employed effectively in a number of subsequent studies, including Spilka, Addison and Rosensohn (1975), Chartier and Goehner (1976), Jolley and Taulbee (1986), Gabbard, Howard and Tageson (1986), Bowman, Coons, Jones and Oldstrom (1987), Kirkpatrick andShaver (1990, 1992), Park and Cohen (1993), Brokaw and Edwards (1994), Pritt (1998), Kirkpatrick (1998), and Rowatt and Kirkpatrick (2002). Francis, Robbins and Gibson (2006) proposed a revised form of Benson and Spilka's (1973) instrument because they found that the factor structure of the original instrument was not recoverable among school pupils who were less theologically educated than the group among whom the scales were originally constructed, namely a homogeneous religious sample of Catholic school pupils who had been a member of a Catholic parish for at least ten years.…”

Section: Research Questionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

Religious diversity, empathy, and God images: perspectives from the psychology of religion shaping a study among adolescents in the UK

Francis

Croft

Pyke

2012

Journal of Beliefs & Values

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Major religious traditions agree in advocating and promoting love of neighbour as well as love of God. Love of neighbour is reflected in altruistic behaviour and empathy stands as a key motivational factor underpinning altruism. This study employs the empathy scale from the Junior Eysenck Impulsiveness Questionnaire to assess the association between empathy and God images among a sample of 5,993 religiously diverse adolescents (between the ages of 13-and 15-years) attending state-maintained schools in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and London. They key psychological theory being tested by these data concerns the linkage between God images and individual differences in empathy. The data demonstrate that religious identity (e.g. whether Christian or Muslim) and religious attendance is less important than the God images held by young people. The image of God as a God of mercy is associated with higher empathy scores; and the image of God as a God of justice is associated with lower empathy scores.

show abstract

Section: Empathy and Religionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Section: Empathy and Religionmentioning

confidence: 59%

Section: Empathy and Religionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Research Questionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Research Questionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Religious diversity, empathy, and God images: perspectives from the psychology of religion shaping a study among adolescents in the UK

Francis

Croft

Pyke

2012

Journal of Beliefs & Values

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Religious beliefs and practices and Catholic couples' management of anger and conflict

Marsh

Dallos

2000

Clin. Psychol. Psychother.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Grounded theory techniques and Repertory Grids were used in a qualitative study to generate and analyse material from 20 Catholics each interviewed twice. Religious practices increased the amount of intrapersonal`space' available by acting physiologically, cognitively and affectively to reduce the intensity of anger experienced and to support couples in taking responsibility for their own part in a conflict. Couples could also regulate the interpersonal space between them by detouring their anger to God, and by finding support for both the avoidance and confrontation of conflict through religious beliefs. The relationship with God had an interactive and compensatory role in relation to the marital relationship. Changes in religious beliefs or marital relationship dynamics were not always neatly integrated and ambivalence over anger and conflict sometimes resulted and manifested in discordance between the spousal and God relationships.

show abstract

Medical illness, religion, health control and depression of institutionalized medically ill veterans in long-term care

Grosse-Holtforth¹,

Pathak

Koenig

et al. 1996

Int. J. Geriat. Psychiatry

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Utilizing multivariable multivariate regression procedures, we examine the relationships among medical illness, religion, health control beliefs and depression in 97 mostly elderly, institutionalized medically ill veterans in long term‐care. Controlling for other domains of indicators, conditional canonical correlations showed that (1) religious motivation alone predicts religious coping, (2) religious coping alone predicts health control beliefs, and (3) both severity of illness/length of stay and health control beliefs predict depression. Result (1) is incompatible with the prediction by the multivariate belief‐motivation theory of religiousness (MBMTR) (Schaefer and Gorsuch, 1991) that both religious belief and religious motivation determine religious coping. Results (2) and (3) are consistent with our hypothesis that control beliefs mediate the relationship between religious coping and depression. It is argued that a different operationalization of religious belief may still support the MBMTR. The role of religion in coping with health problems is discussed.

show abstract

God Image as a Function of Self-Esteem and Locus of Control

Cited by 353 publications

References 10 publications

Religious diversity, empathy, and God images: perspectives from the psychology of religion shaping a study among adolescents in the UK

Religious diversity, empathy, and God images: perspectives from the psychology of religion shaping a study among adolescents in the UK

Religious beliefs and practices and Catholic couples' management of anger and conflict

Medical illness, religion, health control and depression of institutionalized medically ill veterans in long-term care

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About