Religious Doubt and Identity Formation: Salient Predictors of Adolescent Religious Doubt

Puffer, Keith A.; Pence, Kris G.; Graverson, T. Martin; Wolfe, Michael; Pate, Ellen; Clegg, Stacy

doi:10.1177/009164710803600403

Cited by 32 publications

(44 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…The authors concluded that religious conviction provides a framework for understanding and acting within one's environment, thereby acting as a buffer against anxiety and minimizing the experience of uncertainty. This corresponds to survey data reported by Puffer et al (2008); among 604 religious adolescents, religious certainty was positively associated with religious satisfaction.…”

Section: Religious Ideologies and Normative Practices Religioussupporting

confidence: 89%

Religion in the Face of Uncertainty: An Uncertainty-Identity Theory Account of Religiousness

Hogg

Adelman

Blagg

2009

Pers Soc Psychol Rev

287

228

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The authors characterize religions as social groups and religiosity as the extent to which a person identifies with a religion, subscribes to its ideology or worldview, and conforms to its normative practices. They argue that religions have attributes that make them well suited to reduce feelings of self-uncertainty. According to uncertainty-identity theory, people are motivated to reduce feelings of uncertainty about or reflecting on self; and identification with groups, particularly highly entitative groups, is a very effective way to reduce uncertainty. All groups provide belief systems and normative prescriptions related to everyday life. However, religions also address the nature of existence, invoking sacred entities and associated rituals and ceremonies. They are entitative groups that provide a moral compass and rules for living that pervade a person's life, making them particularly attractive in times of uncertainty. The authors document data supporting their analysis and discuss conditions that transform religiosity into religious zealotry and extremism.

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Section: Religious Ideologies and Normative Practices Religioussupporting

confidence: 89%

Religion in the Face of Uncertainty: An Uncertainty-Identity Theory Account of Religiousness

Hogg

Adelman

Blagg

2009

Pers Soc Psychol Rev

287

228

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Religious development may result from a dynamic interrelationship between quest (or seeking) and intrinsic religiosity (or internalized knowing), which over time resolves itself by commitment to a religious identity in a way that is similar to the progression in ego identity development. If this is the case, quest may indeed have “an adaptive, purposeful side” (Puffer et al :281). One's openness to questing may nurture religious and existential growth, providing a pathway to religious maturity that parallels ego identity achievement.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A third complication with the Quest Scale is what it measures. Some have suggested that quest is associated with identity exploration and demonstrated some relationship with identity (Klaassen and McDonald ; Puffer et al ; Watson and Morris ; Watson et al ). If so, quest may peak during times of identity instability, thus making emerging adulthood a particularly informative time to explore the parallels between quest and identity.…”

Section: Theoretical Dimensions Of Questmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Complexity of Quest in Emerging Adults’ Religiosity, Well‐Being, and Identity

Cook¹,

Kimball²,

Leonard

et al. 2014

Scientific Study of Religion

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The construct of quest as measured by the Quest Scale raises complexities that this study addressed with online surveys measuring religiosity, ego identity, and well-being of graduates from two Christian colleges. Intrinsic questers (those above the scale midpoint in intrinsic and quest scores but below the extrinsic midpoint) made up over half of those high in intrinsic religiosity and did not differ in Christian orthodoxy, religious identity, religious coping, or well-being from the pure intrinsics (those high in intrinsic religiosity). Indiscriminately pro-religious questing individuals (those high in intrinsic and extrinsic religiosity and quest) were less religious and showed poorer coping than intrinsic questers. Quest appears to be a reasonable measure of religious orientation, improving prediction of Christian orthodoxy, religious identity, and religious coping, and was more highly correlated with ego identity exploration than with stress. In association with intrinsic religiosity quest does not appear to indicate weak religiosity or poor well-being. Instead, intrinsic questers may pursue a distinctive developmental trajectory, a path of existential searching by which emerging adults manage the demands of contemporary culture while maintaining a mature faith.

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“…As Puffer et al (2008) assert, this phenomenon in human cognition remains a controversial and confusing topic among many Christians (Guinness, 1976;McLaren, 2003). Some Christians perceive doubt as a significant threat functioning as a usurper or enemy of the faith and entailing risky, dangerous, and destructive thinking, while other adherents embrace it, regarding it as a universal experience germinated from human finitude and a necessity for faith maturation and its transitional experiences (Fowler, 1996;Halfaer, 1972;Parks, 2000;Tillich, 1957).…”

Section: Religious Doubts: Implications For Psychopathology and Psychmentioning

confidence: 99%

Religious doubts: Implications for psychopathology and psychotherapy

Dein¹

2013

Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic

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This article examines the psychopathological implications of religious doubts. Following a discussion of their prevalence, their role in development and causal factors, and their impact upon religious belief, the author discusses the relationship between religious doubts and anxiety and depression. Religious doubts may enter the psychotherapeutic process, and the author discusses one form of religious cognitive-behavioral therapy using the Bible that might be useful for Christian patients with such doubts. The author presents a case study to exemplify these points.

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Religious Doubt and Identity Formation: Salient Predictors of Adolescent Religious Doubt

Cited by 32 publications

References 46 publications

Religion in the Face of Uncertainty: An Uncertainty-Identity Theory Account of Religiousness

Religion in the Face of Uncertainty: An Uncertainty-Identity Theory Account of Religiousness

The Complexity of Quest in Emerging Adults’ Religiosity, Well‐Being, and Identity

Religious doubts: Implications for psychopathology and psychotherapy

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