Spiritual Striving and Seeking the Sacred: Religion as Meaningful Goal-Directed Behavior

Abstract

Hood, Hill, and Spilka (2009), among others, present the need for meaning as a central organizing framework for understanding the psychological functions of religion. A plethora of research findings in the psychology of religion have been integrated into this overarching structure, but scholars have not systematically addressed the diverse ways goal theories fit into the need for meaning framework of religion. Thus, the personal strivings approach to understanding spiritual goals, or ultimate concerns, is introduced, and the processes by which spiritual and sanctified strivings provide meaning, significance, and agency are articulated through a description of their motivational, cognitive, and social functions. The literature shows a positive relation between the sanctification of strivings and well-being, which may be mediated by increased meaning.

Notes

¹Mirroring self-rated importance of religion, college men have the lowest level of avowed spiritual strivings, whereas elderly, churchgoing women tend to have the highest levels (Emmons, 1999).

²Of course, there are trade-offs involved in sacrificing the amount of information obtained with ease of administration. If time permits and the participants are able, the original open-ended methodology may be preferred.

³Items were sentence completions to the stem “I see myself as someone who is typically trying to …” rated on a 5-point Likert scale from 1 (disagree strongly) to 5 (agree strongly).