RELIGIOUS BELIEF AND THE SELF-CONCEPT - EVALUATING THE IMPLICATIONS FOR PSYCHOLOGICAL ADJUSTMENT

It was proposed that (a) religious belief has implications for propert ies of the self-concept and that(b) the relationship between religious belief and psychological adjustment can be understood in self-theoret ical terms. In two studies ( Ns = 145, 52) religious belief strength w as associated with more positive and certain self-conceptions, and the influence of religiousness on the self-concept was evident in multipl e self-knowledge domains. The results also demonstrated that self-conc ept positivity partially mediated the relationship between religious b elief and psychological adjustment. In addition, self-concept and copi ng models of the association of religiousness and adjustment were comp ared. The results indicated that religious belief had a small; positiv e indirect effect on adjustment through self-concept positivity and a larger but negative indirect effect through a measure of God-related c ontrol attributions. Theoretical links between religious belief and th e self-concept are discussed.