Self-Control and Religion – Hand and Hand?
by David K. on Jan.06, 2009, under Science
- Image by returnofburno via Flickr
A recent study indicates a relationship between religious beliefs and one’s level of self control. Here is an excerpt:
University of Miami professor of Psychology Michael McCullough and his team evaluated eight decades worth of research on religion that had been conducted in diverse samples of people from around the world.
What they found in the end was “persuasive evidence” from a variety of domains within the social sciences – including neuroscience, economics, psychology, and sociology – that religious beliefs and religious behaviors are capable of encouraging people to exercise self-control and to more effectively regulate their emotions and behaviors so that they can pursue valued goals.
“Religious lifestyles may contribute to self-control by providing people with clear standards for their behavior, by causing people to monitor their own behavior more closely, and by giving people the sense that God is watching their behavior,” states one conclusion of the study, which will be published in the January 2009 issue of Psychological Bulletin.
So let me understand this – there appears to be a relationship between how one behaves and what system of morales they might follow which are religious. Hmmm, novel concept.
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January 24th, 2009 on 4:08 am
[...] “Religious lifestyles may contribute to self-control by providing people with clear standards for their behavior, by causing people to monitor their own behavior more closely, and by giving people the sense that God is watching their behavior,” states one conclusion of the study, which will be published in the January 2009 issue of Psychological Bulletin. As for taking a “virginity pledge” this appeared to make no difference when comparing teens who took the pledge to teens who did not in terms of waiting. Safety first and virginity pledges often made teens 10% less likely to use protection when having sex, meaning condoms were used or birth control. Risky business folks, be prepared, however not the case when looking at religion. The influence of religion though it was a completely different story. [...]