{"id":4544,"date":"2018-10-27T14:27:28","date_gmt":"2018-10-27T18:27:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.amyork.ca\/academic\/zz\/?p=4544"},"modified":"2018-10-27T15:24:58","modified_gmt":"2018-10-27T19:24:58","slug":"religion-and-happiness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.amyork.ca\/academic\/zz\/positive-psychology\/religion-and-happiness\/","title":{"rendered":"Religion and Happiness"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Today\u2019s Goals<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Mini review &amp; catch up: Money &amp; happiness<\/li>\n<li>Understand how religion is related to SWB<\/li>\n<li>Understand the \u2018religion paradox\u2019<\/li>\n<li>Consider why religion (sometimes) predicts SWB<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Mini review: Money<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Is the correlation between money and happiness larger within or between nations?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Between nations: big differences across nations and the general happiness between individuals Correlation is definitely big<\/p>\n<p>Within: between wealth and happiness not particularly large<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Which component of SWB is most related to money (especially at high levels of money) Life satisfaction (other two are positive affect\/negative affect)<\/li>\n<li>What is materialism; how does it differ from money in relation to SWB?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Putting a lot of value in money and what money can buy you Lowers other aspects of SWB<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>In the 2 x 2 study of spending (self vs. other &amp; $5 vs. $20), o How did groups differ in happiness?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Giving money to others compared to spending money on themselves<\/p>\n<p>Didn&#8217;t matter how much was given o What were (other) participants\u2019 forecasts?<\/p>\n<p>Thought they would be happier if they got the $20 and it was spent on themselves<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Religion &amp; SWB: Previous Research<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Particular religion not important to SWB o Though could consider specific teachings empirically \u2022 Participation has been associated with SWB<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>People who report being more religion tend to report being happier Is there one religion related to more happiness over another?<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Diener et al. Religion Paradox<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Is religion actually associated with SWB?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>o Consider atheist critics, counter arguments<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>When\/where are the benefits of religion greater?<\/li>\n<li>Why are many in developed nations leaving religion?<\/li>\n<li>Perhaps religion helps SWB more in difficult circumstances Also has to do with health, education, safety, etc.<\/li>\n<li>Potential mediators: respect, support, meaning<\/li>\n<li>Different forms of SWB o PA, NA, satisfaction (again)<\/li>\n<li>Different religious traditions\/regions<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Do religions differ from another in their happiness?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>S. as an atypical example?<\/li>\n<li>Person-society fit (cf. extraversion)?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h1>Study 1: U.S.A<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li>Representative sample, nationwide<\/li>\n<li>Survey (self-report) methods<\/li>\n<li>Demographics, SWB, religious importance, circumstances<\/li>\n<li>Results o Religious importance ranged 44% to 88%<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>o Difficult circumstances associated with religion<\/p>\n<p>In difficult circumstances, religion seems to help o Difficult circumstances associated with lower SWB (as expected), but religion seemed to help o Associations stronger at state level<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h1>Study 2 Method<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li>Gallup World Poll<\/li>\n<li>SWB (PA, NA, Ladder)<\/li>\n<li>Religion important?; attendance?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Questions about religion<\/p>\n<p>Is religion an important part of your day-to-day life?<\/p>\n<p>Do you regularly attend religious ceremonies\/services?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Difficult circumstances (income, education, basic &amp; safety needs)<\/li>\n<li>Result o About 68% of world finds religion important daily o Much variation across world (99% to 16%)!<\/li>\n<li>CANADA at 45%; below mean, below US (66%)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>More GWP Results o Difficult circumstances associated with more religion o Stronger at nation (vs. individual) level<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>National circumstances seem to produce religiosity more than individual circumstances o Religiosity predicts lower evaluations<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Of life satisfactory, positive emotions, negative emotions<\/p>\n<p>Correlation &#8211; people are both more religious and less happy in specific circumstances o E.g., Togo vs. Denmark<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>BUT, this eliminated or reversed when controlling for circumstances o Thus, religion seems to be helping with bad circumstances o Religion less important in good circumstances<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Potential mediators o Social support, meaning, and respect associated with religion &amp; SWB o Similar pattern:<\/li>\n<li>Support, respect, &amp; SWB generally high in good circumstances (regardless) Wasn&#8217;t much of a difference in good circumstances<\/li>\n<li>Support, respect, &amp; SWB boosted by religion in poor circumstances<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Religious people had more support and felt more respect<\/p>\n<p>Amount of support received through religion depends on circumstance o Anomaly: meaning and purpose higher with religion even in good circumstances \u2022 But without the SWB gain<\/p>\n<p>Happiness isn&#8217;t necessarily suffering for it<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Person-environment (society) fit supported<\/li>\n<li>Religious people happier in religious societies<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>More happiness out of it than to be religious in a non-religious place<\/p>\n<p>Matter of degree<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Not much benefit of religion in some societies<\/li>\n<li>Different religions have similar results<\/li>\n<li>(a few minor variations, e.g., in demographic predictors of religiosity, details not essential here)<\/li>\n<li>Diener et al. Religion Paradox<\/li>\n<li>Discussion o Why the anomaly with purpose &amp; meaning? o Issues of causal direction<\/li>\n<li>Wealth, circumstances, religion, SWB o Other, unmeasured mediators?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>o General strengths &amp; limitations of GWP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today\u2019s Goals Mini review &amp; catch up: Money &amp; happiness Understand how religion is related to SWB Understand the \u2018religion paradox\u2019 Consider why religion (sometimes) predicts SWB &nbsp; Mini&hellip; <a class=\"continue\" href=\"https:\/\/www.amyork.ca\/academic\/zz\/positive-psychology\/religion-and-happiness\/\">Continue Reading<span> Religion and Happiness<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[116],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyork.ca\/academic\/zz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4544"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyork.ca\/academic\/zz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyork.ca\/academic\/zz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyork.ca\/academic\/zz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyork.ca\/academic\/zz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyork.ca\/academic\/zz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4544\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyork.ca\/academic\/zz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyork.ca\/academic\/zz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyork.ca\/academic\/zz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}