Kirkpatrick (2005) argues that perceived relationships between believers and God often tend to meet the established criteria for characterizing attachment relationships. In his findings he suggested that believers strive to establish and maintain a sense of proximity or closeness to God, most notably through prayer as a safe haven when distressed (Kirkpatrick, 2005). Kirkpatrick and Shaver, 1990) derived two views on how individual differences in attachment may relate to religiousness, this was based on Bowlby’s (1973) notion of working models which were seen to extend to religion, in particular to the individual’s beliefs about and perceived relationship with God. The implication of this mental model is that securely attached individuals possess positive working models of themselves and others; come to view God in a similar manner as a reliable, secure base with where one can have an enduring personal relationship (Kirkpatrick, 2005). On the other hand, insecure individuals may develop […]
Psychology of Religion
Psychology of Religion
11 Gerotranscendence: Spirituality of Later Years
12 Pargament: Religious Coping
Coping is a conscious effort to resolve a stress or a difficulty of intrapersonal or interpersonal nature, in order to manage or minimise stress or conflict. •When the effort to cope up is unconscious it could turn out to be a defence mechanism! Even conscious coping could be functional/ adaptive or dysfunctional/maladaptive.
Religion is one of the means used in coping – both functional and dysfunctional. For instance, Cope Inventory (Carver, Scheier, & Weintraub, 1989) has 15 conceptually distinct sub-scales/ dimensions of coping based on Folkman and Lazarus (1984), which include: active coping, planning, positive refraining, acceptance, humour, religion, using emotional support, using instrumental support, self-distraction, denial, venting, substance use, behavioural disengagement, and self-blame. Notice that religion appears in the list.
Pargament has made extensive contribution to the exploration of the role of religion in coping. According to him, seeking meaning (significance) is an important dimension of life, and related to wellbeing. Events and situations […]