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The role of religion in moderating the impact of life events on material life goals: some evidence in support of terror management theory.
- Source :
- Mental Health, Religion & Culture; Jan2014, Vol. 17 Issue 1, p52-61, 10p, 1 Graph
- Publication Year :
- 2014
-
Abstract
- How would religion and a life event carrying an existential threat (LEET) jointly impact a person's life goals of becoming wealthy and successful in one's career? Goal reprioritisation, socioemotional selectivity, and gerotranscendence theories predict a shift away from material goals following a LEET, independent of the effect of religion. However, terror management theory (TMT) predicts that the effect of death thoughts depends on one's prevailing cultural values. As religion can be regarded as a culture, it is possible that Christians' and non-believers' material life goals would be differentially altered by LEET. Data from 1259 young Chinese adults reveal no main effect of LEET, but a strong effect of religion. Moreover, there was an interaction effect between LEET and religion on material life goals: LEET weakened material goals for Christians but not for non-believers. These findings suggest that TMT is more suitable than the other theories for predicting life goal changes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 13674676
- Volume :
- 17
- Issue :
- 1
- Database :
- Complementary Index
- Journal :
- Mental Health, Religion & Culture
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 91949194
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1080/13674676.2012.745494