Political support for self-determination,wealth, and national subjective well-being

The present paper explored the relation of wealth and support for self-determination to national subjective well-being (SWB). Support for self-determination was considered from both a political and cultural values standpoint. The results confirmed associations between wealth, support for self-determination, and well-being in a large sample of countries. Importantly, political and cultural value supports for self-determination remained significantly associated with national well-being (as measured by happiness reports and life expectancy) even after controlling for national differences in wealth.

Dynamic Factor Analysis of Worldviews/Religious Beliefs and Well-Being among Older Adults

Intraindividual patterns of time-lagged relationships among self-reports of worldviews/religious beliefs, self-concept, and physical and psychological well-being were investigated. Participants were older adults (mean age = 77 years) who were measured weekly covering a total of 25 weeks. Dynamic Factor Models were fitted to multivariate repeated measures data pooled over subsets of participants. The results showed significant time-lagged cross-factor relationships suggesting that worldviews/religious beliefs had a significant direct effect on self-concept and physical health over 2 weeks. For each factor series, there were substantial autoregressive effects indicating persisting effects of factors on themselves over 1 or 2 weeks. A link between worldviews/religious beliefs and physical health was found in the time-lagged structure of within-person variability. The findings underscore the need to study both intraindividual change and interindividual differences in intraindividual variability to obtain a better understanding of behavior and behavioral development.

Individual Pathways to Life Satisfaction: The Significance of Traits and Motives

This article examines the relationship between life satisfaction and specific facets of psychological well-being (positive relations with others and environmental mastery) by considering the moderating effect of significant components of personality, i.e., traits, values, and implicit motives. Constructs were assessed by the Satisfaction With Life Scale, the Scales of Psychological Well-Being (two subscales), the NEO Five-Factor Inventory, the Schwartz Value Survey (two value types), and a picture-story test (implicit motives for achievement and affiliation–intimacy). Analyses revealed that values, implicit motives, and personality traits moderated the relationship between both types of well-being measures. Findings indicate that personality components reflecting significant strivings and needs play a crucial role in seeking well-being by assigning meaning to given life domains.

Cognitive, Affective and Behavioral Correlates of Internalization of Regulations for Religious Activities

The main goal of this study was to examine the relationship between different types of extrinsic motivation for religious behaviors as conceptualised within self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2000) and Wulff's (1991) framework of literal versus symbolic approaches of religious contents. Results from a Belgian sample of active believers (N=186) show that the internalization of one's reasons for performing religious behaviors was positively associated with an open, symbolic interpretation of religious belief contents and a stronger adherence to Christian beliefs. Moreover, internalization was also positively related to general well-being and frequency of prayer but unrelated to church attendance. It is concluded that individuals who engage in religious behaviors because of its perceived personal significance will show more cognitive flexibility and open-mindedness towards Christian belief contents, a stronger adherence to this message, higher well-being and more frequent engagement in specific religious behaviors.

Direct democracy and life satisfaction revisited: new evidence for Switzerland

We re-evaluate the relation between cantonal direct democracy and perceived subjective well-being in Switzerland using new data from the Swiss Household Panel. In addition, this study goes beyond previous work by carefully controlling for cultural determinants of happiness such as languages and religion. We find that once language is controlled for, no robust significant relationship between the extent of direct democracy and life satisfaction can be observed. The results also show that direct democracy does not affect well-being within language groups in Switzerland.

Experimentally Detecting How Cultural Differences on Social Anxiety Measures Misrepresent Cultural Differences in Emotional Well-being

Previous research, statistically accounting for self-construal factors and thereby eliminating widely reported culture main effects in social anxiety scores between East Asians and European-Americans (Norasakkunkit and Kalick 2002 Culture, ethnicity, and emotional distress measures: The role of self-construal and self-enhancement. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 33(1), 56–70.) suggested that social anxiety measures penalize individuals for being low on independent self-construal; therefore, cultural differences in emotional distress according to social anxiety measures may possibly misrepresent cultural differences in emotional well-being. In the current experimental study, 127 Japanese and 126 American participants were either primed or not primed to access an independent mode of thought prior to filling out two commonly used measures of social anxiety and a measure of emotional well-being. Independent priming caused social anxiety scores to decrease. Yet, independent priming did not influence levels of self-reported emotional well-being. Furthermore, although the Japanese respondents were shown to be more distressed according to both of the standardized social anxiety measures, this finding was actually reversed with respect to self-reported emotional well-being. The evidence thus points to high scores on measurements of social anxiety being directly and causally linked to low levels of independence, while no link was found between independence and emotional well-being.

The quest for intimate/sexual citizenship: lived experiences of lesbian and bisexual Muslim women

In recent years, the concept of ‘citizenship’ has increasingly been subjected to critique for its ‘heterosexist’ underpinnings. Indeed, in the case of non-heterosexual Muslims in Europe—particularly women—their quest for legal and cultural citizenship is inextricably linked to that for intimate/sexual citizenship. This paper draws upon a qualitative research project exploring the lived experiences of British lesbian and bisexual Muslim women, as well as the work of support groups such as the Safra Project and Imaan. It argues that, in the mainstream society—where their cultural and religious minority statuses are paramount—lesbian and bisexual Muslim women, like their heterosexual counterparts, have to manage prominent issues such as Islamophobia, racism, and assimilationist government policies that significantly inform their bodily performances and social identities. However, within their own religious and cultural communities, their sexual orientation often undermines their sense of belonging and compels them to ‘queer’ Islam. Their ‘minority within minority’ status underlines their quest for the right to: accurate representation, maintenance of identity/lifestyle, freedom from discrimination based on sexual orientation, practice of religious faith in harmony with sexuality, participation in religious/community life; and be different. They achieve this through the ‘queering’ of religious texts and traditions, and grassroots support network. Indeed, their quest for legal and cultural citizenship unites them with fellow Muslims, but their quest for intimate/sexual citizenship, puts them on a collusion course with the majority of Muslims. Their experiences further demonstrate the problematics of multiple belongings in Europe.

Efficacious Surroundings: Temple Space and Buddhist Well-being

This essay argues that the prospect of health and well-being from a Buddhist perspective must take into account an understanding of religiosity as a process of becoming, a culturally and contextually defined praxis of what and who it is we are and would like to become. It is in this process of becoming that a space of healing is made possible. It is not simply that Buddhist temple space is ‘good’ in some sort of clinical manner, but rather that it is active in its will to achieve a space of becoming healthy and whole.

The construction of the homosexual ‘other’ by British Muslim heterosexuals

Islam’s explicit condemnation of homosexuality has created a theologically based homophobia which engenders the intolerance of homosexuals by Muslims. In this article I explore Muslim attitudes towards homosexuality and homosexuals as this area has elicited very little research. Based on structured interviews with 68 Muslim male and female heterosexuals I examine the connection between participants’ attitudes towards homosexuality and their understanding of gender and gender roles. I also analyse whether participants’ views are shaped by their religious beliefs and values. Age, gender, education and level of religiosity are analysed to see whether they affect attitudes. Data suggest that participants held negative attitudes towards homosexuals and this is the result of being religiously conservative in their attitudes towards homosexuality and gender roles.

Increasing well-being through teaching goal-setting and planning skills: results of a brief intervention

Many factors are known to be associated with psychological well-being. However, it is much less clear whether those factors actually cause well-being and, hence, whether there is any practical value in trying to manipulate those factors to increase well-being. The proposed study addresses both the theoretical and practical issues by testing the effectiveness of an empirically-derived, brief psychological intervention to increase well-being in a non-clinical, unselected sample. The intervention focused on developing goal setting and planning (GAP) skills, which are known to be linked to well-being, potentially have widespread effects, and are amenable to intervention. Within a quasi-experimental design, participants received three, 1-h, group sessions (Study 1) or completed the programme individually in their own time (Study 2). Those taking part in the intervention, both individually and in a group, showed significant increases in subjective well-being, compared to their respective control groups not receiving the intervention. The results provide preliminary support for the view that (a) goal setting and planning skills have a causal link to subjective well-being and (b) that such skills can be learned to enhance well-being.

Grief Ministry as Homecoming: Framing Death from a Korean-American Perspective

Using the personal experience of a “homecoming” funerary journey from the U.S. to Korea, the author probes the cultural construction of familial bonds between the living and the dead in Korean and biblical (Genesis) funeral narratives. This article highlights the cultural differences between American and Korean funeral traditions — that is, (1) dying at a hospital vs. dying at home, (2) embalming vs. sup/yom (washing/binding of the corpse), (3) metal casket vs. wooden coffin, (4) committal vs. banhon (returning of the spirit) – to explore the religious and practical implications of the multicultural grieving process for pastoral care and grief ministry in which death is conceived as returning to the familial, cultural, and spiritual homes.

The Internet as Cultural Form: Technology and the Human Condition in China

Raymond Williams’ work on television as a cultural form offers a theoretical basis for overcoming technological determinism in the study of the Internet. The Internet in China exerts social and political influences through the cultural forms it enables and then only when these forms respond to the human condition. Chinese Internet culture consists of new cultural forms that emerge out of the interactions between Internet and society and that are the products of both cultural tradition and innovation.

The depths and shallows of psychological externalism

This paper examines extant ways of classifying varieties of psychological externalism and argues that they imply a hitherto unrecognized distinction between shallow and deep externalism. The difference is between starting points: shallowly externalist hypotheses begin with the attribution of psychological states to individuals, just as individualistic hypotheses do, whereas deeply externalistic hypotheses begin with agent-environment interaction as the basis of cognitive processes and attribute psychological states to individuals as necessary for such interaction. The over-arching aim is to show how deep externalism works and what its implications are for psychological and philosophical theorizing.

In the Shadow Side of Hope: Charisma and Mutuality in the Pastoral Care of Men with Tendencies Toward Affective Disturbance

This paper explores dialectical relationships between affective mental disturbance and religious development in men. It then proposes a form of pastoral engagement—the mutual encounter—with men so afflicted. In care giving, the pastor may draw on his or her own charismatic endowment to solicit the recognition of the same within the care seeker, all the while respecting a man’s attenuating psychosocial need for communicative boundaries and privacy. Both pastor and care seeker may engage the care process as a mutual, continuing, and dialogic quest for authentic Christian relationship, charisma, and selfhood where each serves as “guide” and “messenger.”

Measuring Religiousness in Health Research: Review and Critique

Although existing measures of religiousness are sophisticated, no single approach has yet emerged as a standard. We review the measures of religiousness most commonly used in the religion and health literature with particular attention to their limitations, suggesting that vigilance is required to avoid over-generalization. After placing the development of these scales in historical context, we discuss measures of religious attendance, private religious practice, and intrinsic/extrinsic religious motivation. We also discuss measures of religious coping, wellbeing, belief, affiliation, maturity, history, and experience. We also address the current trend in favor of multi-dimensional and functional measures of religiousness. We conclude with a critique of the standard, “context-free” approach aimed at measuring “religiousness-in-general”, suggesting that future work might more fruitfully focus on developing ways to measure religiousness in specific, theologically relevant contexts.

Autonomy and Relatedness among Chinese Sojourners and Applicants: Conflictual or Independent Predictors of Well-Being and Adjustment?

Self-Determination Theory argues that relatedness and autonomy represent innate and universally critical needs and that, when satisfied, both needs should yield an independent positive effect on well-being and adjustment for all individuals. In contrast, some cross-cultural perspectives suggest that the pursuit of autonomy hampers the development of satisfying relationships, and such conflicts might be especially problematic for the well-being of individuals in collectivistic societies that value social bonds over the pursuit of uniqueness and independence. The present study sampled Chinese students who had temporarily moved to Belgium to study (i.e., sojourners) and Chinese students involved in the application procedure to study in Belgium (i.e., applicants). Consistent with SDT, the present research shows that the basic psychological needs for autonomy, relatedness, and competence are positively interrelated, that the satisfaction of these three needs predicts unique variance in Chinese students’ psychological well-being, vitality, and depression (i.e., main effects), and that autonomy satisfaction yields a more beneficial effect on vitality and better protects against depressive feelings when relatedness satisfaction is low (i.e., an interaction effect). Finally, mean-level differences in well-being between Chinese sojourners and applicants could be fully accounted by differential need satisfaction.

An Appraisal of Psychological &; Religious Perspectives of Self-control

The boundary between psychology and religion is at its murkiest around topics of interest to both forms of discourse. An attempt to clarify some of the boundary issues specifically present in discussions of self-control or self-regulation, this paper begins by examining self-control in healthy psychological functioning. Research on feedback loops, information processing and ego depletion have highlighted key psychological mechanisms involved in self-control. Next this paper explores common themes in religious perspectives regarding the virtue of self-control and self-restraint. A clear preoccupation of major religious traditions is the management of human passion and desire. In conclusion, three boundary concerns relevant to both psychology and religion are discussed: the meaning of virtue, differences in defining the self in self-control, and relational concerns important to understanding self-control.

Comparing Biographical Backgrounds of Religious Founders and Converts to Those Religions: An Exploratory Study

This paper is an exploratory, preliminary investigation of the possible links between the biographical backgrounds and developmental trajectories of major religious figures such as Jesus Christ, Muhammad, Buddha, and Baha’u’llah, and the backgrounds of those who convert to these religions (or certain groups within these religions) in the West. This article ends with the hypothesis that in terms of biographical backgrounds and motivations for conversion, followers’ narratives resemble those of their religious leaders in some areas.

Internal Realism and the Problem of Religious Diversity

This article applies Hilary Putnam’s theory of internal realism to the issue of religious plurality. The result of this application – ‘internalist pluralism’ – constitutes a paradigm shift within the Philosophy of Religion. Moreover, internalist pluralism succeeds in avoiding the major difficulties faced by John Hick’s famous theory of religious pluralism, which views God, or ‘the Real,’ as the noumenon lying behind diverse religious phenomena. In side-stepping the difficulties besetting Hick’s revolutionary Kantian approach, without succumbing to William Alston’s critique of conceptual-scheme dependence, internalist pluralism provides a solution to significant theoretical problems, while doing so in a manner that is respectful of cultural diversity and religious sensitivities.

The Psychology of Dilemmas and the Philosophy of Morality

We review several instances where cognitive research has identified distinct psychological mechanisms for moral judgment that yield conflicting answers to moral dilemmas. In each of these cases, the conflict between psychological mechanisms is paralleled by prominent philosophical debates between different moral theories. A parsimonious account of this data is that key claims supporting different moral theories ultimately derive from the psychological mechanisms that give rise to moral judgments. If this view is correct, it has some important implications for the practice of philosophy. We suggest several ways that moral philosophy and practical reasoning can proceed in the face of discordant theories grounded in diverse psychological mechanisms.