How Does Prayer Help Manage Emotions?

Author:

Sharp Shane1

Affiliation:

1. University of Wisconsin-Madison, josharp@ssc.wisc.edu

Abstract

Many individuals use prayer to manage negative emotions, but scholars know little about how prayer accomplishes this task. Using in-depth interview data from victims of intimate partner violence, I argue that prayer is an imaginary social support interaction that provides individuals with resources they use to perform individual emotion management strategies. In particular, interactions with God through prayer provide individuals (1) an other to whom one can express and vent anger; (2) positive reflected appraisals that help maintain self-esteem; (3) reinterpretive cognitions that make situations seem less threatening; (4) an other with whom one can interact to ‘‘zone out’’ negative emotion-inducing stimuli; and (5) an emotion management model to imitate. Most of these resources help individuals deal primarily with a particular type of emotion and have an appreciable influence on social action. The analysis presented suggests that scholars should investigate how interactions with imagined others help individuals manage emotions.

Publisher

SAGE Publications

Subject

Social Psychology

Reference69 articles.

1. Arluke, Arnold.1994. ‘‘Managing Emotions in an Animal Shelter.’’ Pp. 145-65 in Animals and Human Society: Changing Perspectives, edited by Aubrey Manning and James Serpell.New York: Routledge .

2. Functions of Christian Prayer in the Coping Process

3. Praying and coping: The relation between varieties of praying and religious coping styles

4. Black Church Culture and Community Action

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