The relationship between religiosity and mental health: Distinguishing between shame and guilt

Abstract

In this article, we examined, first, the relationship between religiosity and mental health using the distinction introduced by Batson & Ventis (1982) between amount of religious involvement and religious orientations or attitudes. Second, we also investigated the relationship between amount of religious involvement and religious attitudes and a shame versus guilt-prone mode of superego functioning. In four studies we found, with some exceptions, no evidence for a negative correlation between religiosity and mental health, despite the fact that religious subjects are in general more prone to guilt and also report more guilt feelings. Religious subjects generally reported more feelings of empathy than other subjects, which could be partly due to their higher levels of guilt. Concerning shame, religious subjects do not report more shame or are more prone to shame than other subjects. Moreover, we found possible evidence that religion can in some cases attenuate the maladaptive effects on interpersonal and intrapersonal functioning of shame. Thus, our results suggest that shame and guilt could be important mediating variables in the relationship between religiosity and mental health.