Religious Participation Is Linked to Self-Esteem Why?

Locus of Control

What is it? Locus of Control is the sense of being in control

Studies show that Locus of Control is related to Self-Esteem

Studies also show that praying can improve Locus of Control, probably because praying makes people feel powerful and it might also help people feel like they are doing good things for other people.

Locus of Control is part of the definition of self-esteem (Benson & Spika, 1973).

Believing in a deity might help improve one's Locus of Control because God is perceived of as powerful

Social Self-Esteem (Belongingness and Usefulness)

In many cultures, being part of a religious organization is something that is highly valued, even expected.

Therefore, being a member of a religious organization can improve one's sense of belonging in a community.

Belonging in a community can improve self-esteem, something that has been proven in the literature by Gebauer, Sedikides & Neberich (2011)

-- Being part of the religious group might help people to feel valued, and therefore improves their self-esteem.

-- If the society is secular, then being religious will not be as closely connected with self-esteem because religion is not valued in those societies.

Social Aspects of Religious Participation...

ticipation Is More Important than Personal Beliefs
Why?

-- Belief in God is not as important as membership in the religious community.

-- Studies on African-American communities show that personal self-esteem is connected with participation in the religious organization.

-- However, those same studies on African-Americans show that they lack self-efficacy, which means they do not feel like their work is valued in the society.

-- Therefore, the experiences of discrimination and poverty can cause low self-efficacy even among people who have high self-esteem.

-- Religion has nothing to do with self-efficacy, but it does have something to do with the social self-esteem that comes from belonging to a community.

Belief in God is Not Linked to Self-Esteem

-- In a survey of nursing home residents who were nearing death,

Commerford & Reznikoff (1995) found that prayer had no bearing on depression levels or self-esteem.

-- However, the nursing home residents that participated in public religious activities did report higher self-esteem

-- Even participating in the religious activities did not reduce depression because the people were going to die.

-- Other studies like Sherkat & Reed (1992) show that attending church helps self-esteem but not depression.

-- Religion does…