As with Parents, so with Others and so with God? Relationships among Humanistic Spirituality and Parental and Adult Attachment Styles
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12775/PCh.2022.016Keywords
humanistic spirituality, self-actualisation, transcendence, meaning in life, parental attachment styles, adult attachment stylesAbstract
This study (N = 449) explores relationships among humanistic spirituality, which in our Humanistic Spirituality Model encompasses the components of self-actualisation, transcendence and ultimate meaning in life, and parental as well as adult attachment styles as lifelong factors in the origin of spirituality. The results indicate that for female participants, humanistic spirituality is predicted by age and secure adult attachment, whereas for male participants, secure attachment to the mother and secure adult attachment are significant positive predictors. Lastly, the effect of secure attachment to the mother on humanistic spirituality for male participants is direct, while for female participants it is indirect and mediated by secure adult attachment.
References
Ainsworth, M. D. S. (1985). Attachments across the Life Span.Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine, 61(9), 792–812.
Ainsworth, M. D. S. & Bell, S. M. (1970). Attachment, Exploration, and Separation: Illustrated by the Behavior of One-Year-Olds in a Strange Situation. Child Development, 41, 49–67.
Armsden, G. C. & Greenberg, M. T. (1987). The Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment: Relationships to Well-Being in Adolescence. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 16, 427–454.
Baron-Cohen, S. (2003). The Essential Difference: The Truth about the Male and Female Brain. New York: Basic Books.
Bartholomew, K. & Horowitz, L. M. (1991). Attachment Styles among Young Adults: A Test of a Four Category Model.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 61, 226–244.
Bartz, J. A., Zaki, J., Bolger, N., Hollander, E., Ludwig, N. N., Kolevzon, A. & Ochsner, K. N. (2010). Oxytocin Selectively Improves Empathic Accuracy.Psychological Science, 21, 1426–1428.
Bowlby, J. (1973). Attachment and Loss. Vol. 2: Separation, Anxiety and Anger. New York: Basic Books.
Bowlby, J. (1979).The Making and Breaking of Affectional Bonds. London: Tavistock.
Bowlby, J. (1982). Attachment and Loss: Vol. 1. Attachment (2nd ed.). New York: Basic Books.
Brizendine, L. (2011).The Male Brain: A Breakthrough Understanding of How Men and Boys Think. New York: Broadway Books.
Buber, M. (1970). I and Thou. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons.
Collett, J. L. & Lizardo, O. (2009). A Power-Control Theory of Gender and Religiosity. Journal for the Scientific of Religion, 48, 213–231.
Davis, D. E., Hook, J. N., McAnnally-Linz, R., Choe, E. & Placeres, V. (2017). Humility, Religion, and Spirituality: A Review of the Literature. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, 9, 242–253.
Davison, S. N. & Jhangri, G. S. (2013). The Relationship Between Spirituality, Psychosocial Adjustment to Illness, and Health-Related Quality of Life in Patients with Advanced Chronic Kidney Disease. Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, 45(2), 170–178.
Doyle, C. & Cicchetti, D. (2017). From the Cradle to the Grave: The Effects of Adverse Caregiving Environments on Attachment and Relationships Throughout the Lifespan. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 24, 203–217.
Edgell, P., Frost, J. & Stewart, E. (2017). From Existential to Social Understandings of Risk: Examining Gender Differences in Nonreligion. Social Currents, 4, 556–574.
Eliade, M. (1961). The Sacred and the Profane. New York: Harper & Row.
Elkins, D. N. (2015). Beyond Religion: Toward a Humanistic Spirituality. In K. J. Schneider, J. F. T. Bugental & J. F. Pierson (eds.), The Handbook of Humanistic Psychology, 2nd ed. (pp. 681–692). California: Sage Publications, Inc.
Elkins, D. N., Hedstrom, L. J., Hughes, L. L., Leaf, J. A. & Saunders, C. (1988). Toward a Humanistic-Phenomenological Spirituality: Definition, Description, and Measurement. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 28, 5–18.
Fealty, K. M. & Poloma, M. M. (1991). From Sex Differences to Gender Role Beliefs: Exploring Effects on Six Dimensions of Religiosity. Sex Roles, 25, 181–193.
Fisher, H. (2009).Why Him? Why Her?: How to Find and Keep Lasting Love. New York: Henry Holt & Co.
Fisher, H. (2016). Anatomy of Love: A Natural History of Mating, Marriage, and Why We Stray. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
Flores, P. J. (2004).Addiction as an Attachment Disorder. Plymouth: Jason Aronson.
Freese, J. & Montgomery, J. (2007). The Devil Made Her Do It: Evaluating Risk Preference as an Explanation of Sex Differences in Religiousness. In C. J. Shelley (ed.), Advances in Group Processes: The Social Psychology of Gender (pp. 187–230). Oxford: Elsevier.
Frielingsdorf, K. (2017). Mein Lebensglück finden: Mehr selbst leben als gelebt werden. Würzburg: Echter Verlag Gmbh.
Gnaulati, E. & Heine, B. J. (1997). Parental Bonding and Religiosity in Young Adulthood. Psychological Reports, 81, 1171–1174.
Granqvist, P. (2002). Attachment and Religiosity in Adolescence: Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Evaluations. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 28, 260–270.
Granqvist, P. & Hagekull, B. (2003). Longitudinal Predictions of Religious Change in Adolescence: Contributions from the Interaction of Attachment and Relationship Status. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 20, 793–817.
Granqvist, P. & Kirkpatrick, L. A. (2008). Attachment and Religious Representations and Behavior. In J. Cassidy & P. R. Shaver (eds.), Handbook of Attachment: Theory, Research and Clinical Applications, 2nd ed. (pp. 906–933). New York: Guilford.
Hackett, C., Murphy, C. & McClendon, D. (2016). The Gender Gap in Religion around the World. Washington, DC: Pew Research Center.
Hiebler-Ragger, M., Falthansl-Scheinecker, J., Birnhuber, G., Fink, A. & Unterrainer, H. F. (2016). Facets of Spirituality Diminish the Positive Relationship between Insecure Attachment and Mood Pathology in Young Adults. PLoS One, 11, 1–6.
Hodapp, B. & Zwingmann, C. (2019). Religiosity/Spirituality and Mental Health: A Meta-analysis of Studies from the German-Speaking Area. Journal of Religion and Health, 58, 1970–1998.
Hoffmann, J. P. (2019). Risk Preference Theory and Gender Differences in Religiousness: A Replication and Extension.Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 58, 210–230.
Hood, R. W. Jr., Hill, P. C. & Spilka, B. (2009). The Psychology of Religion: An Empirical Approach, 4th ed. New York: The Guilford Press.
Ivtzan, I., Gardner, H. E., Bernard, I., Sekhon, M., & Hart, R. (2013). Wellbeing through Self-Fulfillment: Examining Developmental Aspects of Self-Actualization. The Humanistic Psychologist, 41, 119–132.
Kaufman, S. B. (2020). Transcend: The New Science of Self-Actualization. New York: TarcherPerigee.
King, D. B. & DeCicco, T. L. (2009). A Viable Model and Self-Report Measure of Spiritual Intelligence. International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 28, 68–85.
Kirk, K. M., Eaves, L. J. & Martin, N. G. (1999). Self-Transcendence as a Measure of Spirituality in a Sample of Older Australian Twins. Twin Res, 2, 81–87.
Kirkpatrick, L. A. & Shaver, P. R. (1992). An Attachment-Theoretical Approach to Romantic Love and Religious Belief. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 18, 266–275.
Koenig, H. G., McCullough, M. & Larson, D. B. (2000).Handbook of Religion and Health. New York: Oxford University Press.
Kontrimienė, S. (2019). Assessing Spirituality as the Ultimate End: Development and Validation of the Humanistic Spirituality Inventory. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, first published online. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022167819850678.
Lawler-Row, K. A. (2010). Forgiveness as a Mediator of the Religiosity-Health Relationship. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, 2, 1–6.
Lee, M., Nezu, A. M. & Nezu, C. M. (2014). Positive and Negative Religious Coping, Depressive Symptoms, and Quality of Life in People with HIV. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 37(5), 921–930.
Li, Y., Woodberry, R., Liu, H. & Guo, G. (2020). Why Are Women More Religious than Men? Do Risk Preferences and Genetic Risk Predispositions Explain the Gender Gap? Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion (JSSR), 59, 289–310.
MacDonald, D. A. (2000). Spirituality: Description, Measurement and Relation to the Five Factor Model of Personality. Journal of Personality, 68, 153–197.
Malik, S., Wells, A. & Wittkowski, A. (2014). Emotion Regulation as a Mediator in the Relationship between Attachment and Depressive Symptomatology: A Systematic Review. Journal of Affective Disorders, 172, 428–444.
Maslow, A. H. (1969). Various Meanings of Transcendence. Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 1(1), 56–66.
Maslow, A. H. (1976).Religions, Values, and Peak Experiences. New York: Penguin.
Maslow, A. H. (1993).The Farther Reaches of Human Nature. New York: Penguin/Arkana.
Maslow, A. H. (1997). Motivation and Personality. London: Pearson.
Midlarsky, E., Kahana, E. & Belser, A. (2015). Prosocial Behavior in Late Life. In D. Schroeder & W. G. Graziano (eds.), Oxford Handbook of Prosocial Behavior (pp. 415–432). New York: Oxford University Press Inc.
Mikulincer, M., Gillath, O., Sapir-Lavid, Y., Yaakobi, E., Arias, K., Tal-Aloni, L.& Bor, G. (2003). Attachment Theory and Concern for Others’ Welfare: Evidence That Activation of the Sense of Secure Base Promotes Endorsement of Self-Transcendence Values. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 25, 299–312.
Mikulincer, M. & Shaver, P. R. (2004). Security-Based Self-Representations in Adulthood: Contents and Processes. In W. S. Rholes & J. A. Simpson (eds.), Adult Attachment: Theory, Research, and Clinical Implications (pp. 159–195). New York:
Guilford Press.
Miller, A. S. & Hoffmann, J. P. (1995). Risk and Religion: An Explanation of Gender Differences in Religiosity. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 34, 63–75.
Miller, A. S. & Stark, R. (2002). Gender and Religiousness: Can Socialization Explanations Be Saved? American Journal of Sociology, 107, 1399–1423.
Otto, R. (1961). The Idea of the Holy. New York: Oxford University Press.
Otway, L. J. & Carnelley, K. B. (2013). Exploring the Associations between Adult Attachment Security and Self-Actualization and Self-Transcendence. Self and Identity, 12, 217–230.
Peres, M. F. P., Kamei, H. H., Tobo, P. R. & Lucchetti, G. (2018). Mechanisms Behind Religiosity and Spirituality’s Effect on Mental Health, Quality of Life and Well-Being. Journal of Religion and Health, 57, 1842–1855.
Piedmont, R. L. (1999). Does Spirituality Represent the Sixth Factor of Personality? Spiritual Transcendence and the Five Factor Model. Journal of Personality, 67, 985–1013.
Reinert, D. F. (2005). Spirituality, Self-Representations, and Attachment to Parents: A Longitudinal Study of Roman Catholic College Seminarians. Counseling and Values, 49, 226–238.
Reiss, S. & Havercamp, S. M. (2005). Motivation in a Developmental Context: A New Method for Studying Self-Actualization.Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 45, 41–53.
Rindt-Hoffman, S., Kernes, J. L. & Bui, N. H. (2019). Attachment Style, Spirituality, and Compassionate Love Among Mental Health Professionals.Journal of Mental Health Counseling, 41, 112–126.
Rogers, C. R. (1959). A Theory of Therapy, Personality, and Interpersonal Relationships as Developed in the Client-Centered Framework. In S. Koch (ed.), Psychology: A Study of a Science, Formulations of the Person and the Social Context (pp. 184–256). New York: McGraw-Hill.
Rosmarin, D. H., Pargament, K. I. & Koenig, H. G. (2021). Spirituality and Mental Health: Challenges and Opportunities. Lancet Psychiatry, 8, 92–93.
Roth, L. M. & Kroll, J. C. (2007). Risky Business: Assessing Risk Preference Explanations for Gender Differences in Religiosity. American Sociological Review, 72, 205–220.
Rousseau, D. (2014). A Systems Model of Spirituality.Journal of Religion & Science, 49, 476–508.
Sim, T. N. & Loh, B. S. M. (2003). Attachment to God: Measurement and Dynamics. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 20, 373–389.
Stark, R. (2002). Physiology and Faith: Addressing the “Universal” Gender Difference in Religious Commitment.Journal for the Scientific of Religion, 41, 495–507.
Stoker, W. (2011). Culture and Transcendence: A Typology.Currents of Encounter, 42, 5–28.
Sullins, D. P. (2006). Gender and Religiousness: Deconstructing Universality, Constructing Complexity. American Journal of Sociology, 112, 838–880.
Trzebiatowska, M. & Bruce, S. (2012).Why Are Women More Religious than Men? Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Vaillant, G. (1995). Adaptation to Life. London: Harvard University Press.
Westphal, M. (2004).Transcendence and Self-Transcendence: On God and the Soul. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
World Health Organization (1998).WHOQOL and Spirituality, Religiousness and Personal Beliefs (SRPB). Switzerland: World Health Organization.
Zajonc, A. (2016). Contemplation in Education. In K. A. Schonert-Reichl & R. W. Roeser (eds.), The Handbook of Mindfulness in Education (pp. 17–28). New York: Springer-Verlag.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Stats
Number of views and downloads: 226
Number of citations: 0