An Examination of the Effects of Religious Orientation on Personality (Part 4)

An Examination of the Effects of Religious Orientation on Personality (Part 4)

Ok so I wrote this really good research paper that expands on the ideas I presented in an earlier paper which is posted here and titled A Critque of Allport's Mature Religion. For ease of reading I am breaking the paper into multiple sections so the rest will be coming.

If you want more please comment and tell me how ethusiatic you are about getting the rest of this very interesting paper! Only one part left after this . . . the conclusion!

Development of Spirituality in Youth

“The Handbook of Spiritual Development in Childhood and Adolescence” is a comprehensive overview on the spiritual development of children and the influence of politics and society on those developments. Using over 70 scholars from every field that can be related to religion and spirituality, the goal was to synthesize current research and promote the need for further research on the subject as well as promote spiritual development into the mainstream of scientific study. Two specifically relevant articles are examined below.

Janice Templeton in The Relation Between Spiritual Development and Identity Process explained that,

humans have intrinsic motivation to search for purpose, meaning, contribution, and self transcendence and that spiritual development takes place both inside and outside religious traditions, beliefs, and practices . . . the search for transcendence, which may take the form of a search for purpose, meaning, connection, and contribution, results in the development of a personal spiritual identity. (2005 pg. 255)

Spirituality is a large aspect of how people view the world around them and plays a large role in how personalities develop throughout adolescence. The study further suggests that exposure and interaction with as many different religious ideas and spiritual aspects, when integrated into the current belief structure and acted on accordingly, would increase “their relationship with the transcendent” (Templeton pg. 261). The study concluded with a suggestion for future researchers to “focus on how spiritual identity relates to individuals attitudes and behaviors across a range of domains” (Templeton pg. 262).

Teresa Kneezel and Robert Emmons explored the correlation with Self-Determination Theory and spiritual development in Personality and Spiritual Development. They pointed out that religious orientation and religious internalization play a large role in the development of personality, and suggested that the relationship between beliefs, how they are developed and to what degree they are internalized are all very significant factors (Kneezel pg. 268-271). The internalization of religious beliefs determines how people relate to each other, to the world around them and to their God. Kneezel acknowledged the work of psychologists who have researched the predictability of specific religious orientations based on personality traits while validating Templeton’s work. Kneezel pointed out that “the positive development of a youth’s identity, or sense of self, is either facilitated or thwarted depending on the relative satisfaction of the youth’s three basic psychological needs. Spirituality can play a role in self-development” (Kneezel pg. 273).