Personality variables, self-esteem and depression and an individual's perception of God
A person's perception of God is likely to be consistent with their personality. To investigate this relationship, three hypotheses were tested: first, that perceiving God as caring would be associated with positive personality characteristics, higher levels of self-esteem and lower levels of de...
| Published in: | Mental health, religion & culture |
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| Authors: | ; ; |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Taylor & Francis
2003
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| In: |
Mental health, religion & culture
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| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | A person's perception of God is likely to be consistent with their personality. To investigate this relationship, three hypotheses were tested: first, that perceiving God as caring would be associated with positive personality characteristics, higher levels of self-esteem and lower levels of depression; second, that perceiving God as present in daily life would be associated with a sense of well being; and third, that perceiving God as negative would be associated with negative personality characteristics. The sample consisted of 132 females and 69 males, all reporting themselves to be regular churchgoing Anglicans. All respondents completed the Religious Status Inventory (RSI, Hadlock, 1988; Massey, 1988); the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI, Derogatis & Spencer, 1982); the MMPI-2 (Greene, 2000), Self-Liking Self-Competence Scale (Tafarodi & Swann, 1995) as part of a battery of tests. Three dependent variables were constructed out of the Religious Status Inventory. God Cares , describing God as caring, God in Life , describing God as present in life, and Negative Image of God , describing God in negative terms. For females, Self-Liking significantly, positively predicted scores on all three variables. For males, Depression negatively predicted God Cares . Rebelliousness negatively predicted, and Artistry and Self-Liking positively predicted God in Life . Self-Competence negatively predicted and Depression positively predicted Negative Image of God . Personality characteristics may interact with a person's inner representations of God, so that how one perceives oneself influences how one sees God. |
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| ISSN: | 1469-9737 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Mental health, religion & culture
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1080/1867467021000029381 |