Religious commitment and positive mood as information about meaning in life

abstract

• Two studies examined the role of religious commitment in moderating the relationship between positive affect (PA) and meaning in life. In Study 1, Sample 1, religiosity was found to moderate the relationship between naturally occurring PA and meaning in life, showing that high levels of religiosity attenuated the effects of PA on meaning in life. In Study 1, Sample 2, religiosity similarly moderated the effects of induced mood on meaning in life. In addition, this pattern of results was shown to be unique to meaning in life compared to another life domain (life satisfaction). In Study 2, subliminally priming Christians with positive religious words (e.g., "Heaven") was further shown to weaken the association between PA and meaning in life, whereas subliminal primes of negative religious words (e.g., "hell") weakened the association between religious commitment and meaning in life. A competition of cues model is proposed to account for these effects. 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

authors

• Hicks, Joshua

published proceedings

• JOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN PERSONALITY

author list (cited authors)

• Hicks, J. A., & King, L. A.

citation count

• 87

complete list of authors

• Hicks, Joshua A||King, Laura A

publication date

• January 2008

publisher

• Elsevier  Publisher

published in

• Journal of Research in Personality  Journal

keywords

• Meaning In Life
• Positive Affect
• Religiosity
• Well-being

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

• 10.1016/j.jrp.2007.04.003

start page

• 43

end page

• 57

volume

• 42

issue

• 1

URL

• http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1016%2Fj.jrp.2007.04.003