Religious Belief and the Self-Concept: Evaluating the Implications for Psychological Adjustment

Abstract

It was proposed that (a) religious belief has implications for properties of the self-concept and that (b) the relationship between religious belief and psychological adjustment can be understood in self-theoretical terms. In two studies ( Ns = 145, 52) religious belief strength was associated with more positive and certain self-conceptions, and the influence of religiousness on the self-concept was evident in multiple self-knowledge domains. The results also demonstrated that self-concept positivity partially mediated the relationship between religious belief and psychological adjustment. In addition, self-concept and coping models of the association of religiousness and adjustment were compared. The results indicated that religious belief had a small, positive indirect effect on adjustment through self-concept positivity and a larger but negative indirect effect through a measure of God-related control attributions. Theoretical links between religious belief and the self-concept are discussed.