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Renee DeMatteis Megan Salinetro Cluster Paper ** Religion ** ** Abstract ** Someone who is attending Church services or actively participating in a religion will have an easier time copping with hardships. This project entails the effect religion has on people that have and are going through hardships and the belongingness motive. This study was started to see how study aboard students adapted to their new city and how you deal with stresses away from your usual family and friends. There was a survey that was given out to a group of students studying aboard, and in conclusion of the survey fifteen students said yes that church did help them with the stress of being over here and only 7 said no. An interview was conducted with some of the students and overall most said that attending a church over here helped them feel as if they belonged and helped with stress. This study was backed by the Terror Management Theory and Mark Leary with the belongingness Motive. ** Introduction ** How do people cope with the stresses and hardships of life, or going overseas away from normal life, family and friends? Someone who is attending Church services or actively participating in a religion will have an easier time copping with hardships. This thesis can been shown through studies that have been done pervious to this one, the study that was conducted with the study aboard students. The reasoning behind this study is the belongingness motive and the terror management theory. ** Literature Review ** The thesis for this project states that religion and attending church services helps people cope with hardships as opposed to other options for liberation. Along with that, religion cues with the belongingness motive and research helps support how they relate. There were several articles/studies researched on the belongingness motive, the terror management theory and mortality salience. The article, “Does Devoutness Delay Death? Psychological Investment in Religion and Its Association With Longevity in the Terman Sample” (M. E. McCullough, F. S. Friedman, C. K. Enders, L. R. Martin, 2009) evaluates studies on the correlation between religion and longevity using several variables such as personality traits, social ties, health behaviors, and mental and physical health. “Study after study has shown that people with strong social ties and high levels of social engagement live longer and with better health on many metrics…” (Peirce, Frone, Russell, Cooper, and Mudar, 2000). Some questions that were asked in this article were, what causes people to be religious? Do those causes of religion also cause the religion-longevity association? What does religion cause? And are those effects of religion the mechanisms through which religion obtains its associations with longevity? (Hampson & Friedman, 2008) The study focuses a lot on mental and physical health and how that would affect someone being religious. It also concentrates on how people who are involved in social institutions and social relationships are more likely to be religious. In the groups’ thesis, it states religion helps people get through hard times. This study supports that by saying people rely on their social surroundings, religion included, to motivate them in all aspects of life, eventually leading to a longer and healthier life. The study also proves that religiosity is positively associated with conscientiousness, agreeableness (Lodi-Smith & Roberts, 2007; Saroglou, 2002) and self-control (McCullough & Willoughby, 2009). When a person is practicing religion, they are more likely to depend on that connection when overcome with difficulty. The article also states how religion acquires its association with physical health and longevity. It could be religious commitment may cause people to make salutary commitments to other relationships and social institutions, such as family, marriage and community; strong social ties may encourage people to incest also in religion; or both (House et al., 1988; Uchino, 2006). The results of the study were that the majority of the participants were most religious mid-life (House et al., 1988; Uchino, 2006). They thought this was so because of events that might be described as hardships happen during mid-life and people count on their religious ties to help them. This study supports the thesis because it proves people to turn to religion at hard times. This article in particular had such information that was taken into account such as personality traits. Some information that could have been included could have been stating the exact struggle the participants were going through and how often that person actually depended on religion as a result. The next article, “Like a Prayer: the role of spirituality and religion for people living with HIV in the UK” (Ridge, Williams, Anderson, Elford, 2008), shows evidence of people using religion and spirituality to cope with their infection. This article uses a modified grounded theory approach in this particular study. They analyzed individual and group interviews with the people most affected by HIV in the UK, which were, black African heterosexual men and women and white gay men. Religion was very important to the heterosexual men and woman in the study (Ridge, Williams, Anderson, Elford, 2008). For this study, gay men were less religious than black Africans. Black African individuals practiced more along the lines of Christian or collective, while gay men described their beliefs as ‘New Age’. This article was very helpful with the hypothesis of religion helping people through tough situations. The article states how people with a deadly disease, HIV, have turned to religion or some kind of spiritual practice in order to cope. It was also important for this study that they used people with different ethnic backgrounds and sexual orientations. Another article that we used to research was about the terror management theory. Terror management theory, (Bozo, Tunca, Simsek, 2009) attempts to provide a rationale for the motivational catalysts of human behavior when life is threatened. The article also says that culture diminishes the psychological terror of tragedy by providing meaning, organization and continuity to people’s lives. Agreement with cultural values enhances one’s feeling of security and self-esteem, provided that the individual is capable of living in accordance with whatever particular cultural standards apply to him or her. This cultural worldview provides a base of making sense of the world as stable and orderly, a place where one rests their hopes on symbolic immortality or literal immortality. This article supports the thesis because it makes a connection with dependence on religion with a theory that has been tested. The theory proves that people who are faced with life threatening situations, they try to put reasons behind it and figure out why that certain situation will happen. The article makes good points relating to the theory, but it would be better for this thesis if it focused more on religion and how much people turn to their beliefs rather than just looking for reason. Another study was done by Mark Leary that related to the belongingness motive (R. F. Baumeister, M. R. Leary, 1995). The belongingness motive is when a person has a need to belong to a certain group and does not feel comfortable being by themselves. The belongingness hypothesis is that human beings have a pervasive drive to form and maintain at least a minimum quantity of lasting, positive, and significant interpersonal relationships. This article just describes how people get themselves attached to different groups in any circumstance. The idea of this theory relates to the hypothesis, but not in the religious aspect. The article would support this thesis if it talked more about why people have the need to belong and what percentage of those people have the need to join religious groups. ** Methodology ** The project was done as an experiment to study the effect that religion had on the aboard students. First the group conducted an online survey were questions regarding religion. The question were; Do you regularly attend a church service at home?, If a tragic situation happens at home, do you feel more obligated to attend church?, Have you attended a church service while being here in London?, Have you received news from home while being in London that made you feel obligated to attend church?, If you have attended (a) church service(s), has it helped you cope with stresses of being away from home in general?. After this the students were asked to be in the podcast. The students could be in the podcast on a voluntary basis. This was done to get more in depth information on why they would attend church and what their religious background was. The question guidelines we gave them were as follows; do you attend a church on a regular basis back home?, did attending a church while aboard help you feel closer to home or more comfortable in you new city?, if you heard bad news while here, how did you handle it and did attending church help?. The students were asked to think of their answers and then they were recorded in the podcast. The students that were recorded in the podcast Sarah Kehr, Milt Milt Constantine, Alyssa Hanna, Kristen Pungitore, Mindy Elias, Kristen Edwards, and Kate Livingston. Once the student’s answers were recorded they had been debriefed about the project. ** Results ** Most of the results were quantitative data because they can be placed in a numerical form. This is best shown in graphs. The results that are in graphs came from the first survey which was answered from most of the study aboard students in London. The interview is where most of the qualitative information came from. Here the students said that going to a church well aboard helped them feel more comfortable in their new city. They also said that if something bad were to happen they would pray and most likely go to church to help themselves feel better about the situation. ** Discussion ** The thesis for this study is if people are faced with hardships, then they turn to religion for a sense of belonging. The process for this project was to research several studies that calculated the correlation between religion and people going through tough situations. There was also an online survey that was conducted within several college students on their views of how they deal with hard times and if they would ever turn to religion for support. The survey from the college students also helped this study by saying they all would turn to religion if they received news that they could not deal with on their own. These specific college students were studying abroad and were away from home so that was taken into account of the results. The information that was gathered supported the thesis. Such as with question number five because it shows that the students used church as way to cope with the stresses of being over here. Though question 4 doesn’t support our hypothesis it could have been better stated as such; have you ever received information that was upsetting thus making you want to turn to religion or church to help you deal with it?. During the more personal survey with the few student it should that they would trun to religion to help them through the hard times and that it made them feel more welcomed in their new city. The articles that were researched proved that people turn to religion also. The one article was about people with the deadly disease HIV and how they find comfort. That study’s participants were of many different ethnicities and genders. The results from that study were that people with the disease turned to religion or some sort of spiritual practice. The results also supported the thesis for this study. The other articles had similar information and also supported the thesis by proving people are dependent on some kind of group, mostly religious groups, for the feeling of belonging. There are things that could have been changed about this study. One thing that could have been changed is expanded the participants for the online survey. The students were asked questions about religion and, since they are studying abroad, would going to church help them cope with something bad that has happened back at home. So it would have helped the study if more people were asked the questions of different ages, ethnicities, etc. It also would have been interesting to ask people at home the same questions and if their answers would have been different because they are not overseas. Also if the study was done overtime such as asking questions right when the students arrived and when they left, therefore you could come pair what their answers were. You can also do this study with people in high stress situations to see if stress would make them want to go to church or turn to religion. Another thing that could have made this study better is to interview people from local churches. This study could also be expanded but doing a study with atheists to see what they do when things being to get tough. It is always helpful to include people in a study that are not people you are in contact with everyday to avoid bias results. ** Conclusion ** Religion is all around the world, it doesn’t matter what one you are in its still there and it still affects you. Someone who is attending Church services or actively participating in a religion will have an easier time copping with hardships. This can be seen as true through the research that was done and the correlation in the other studies that were found. People will turn to religion to help themselves during hardships or to feel a sense of belonging. Bibliography Leary, M. R. (1995). //The Need to Belong: Desire for Interpersonal Attachments as a Fundamental Human Motivation//. Retrieved December 4, 2009 Ridge, D., Williams, I., Anderson, J., & Elford, J. (2008, April 30). //Like a prayer: the role of spirituality and religion for people living with HIV in the UK//. Retrieved November 27, 2009, from SocioHealth (413-28). Bozo, O., Tunca, A., & Slmsek, Y. (2009, July). //The effect of death anxiety and age on health-promoting behaviors: A terror-management theory perspective.//. Retrieved November 28, 2009, from PsychINFO. McCullough, M. E., Friedman, H. S., Enders, C. K., & Martin, L. R. (2009, April 12). //Does Devoutness Delay Death? Psychological Investment in Religion and Its Association With Longevity in the Terman Sample//. Retrieved November 28, 2009, from PsychARTICLES. [[image:file:///C:/Users/Renee/AppData/Local/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image011.gif width="1" height="1" caption="Calvin College Hekman Library openURL resolver

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