Attachment Theory and Concepts of God

Duane F. Reinert and Carla E. Edwards

SAGE Open, 2014, vol. 4, issue 4, 2158244014560547

Abstract: We replicated and extended Buri and Mueller’s study, which tested whether one’s God concept is primarily self- or parent-referenced. Following their findings, we predicted that God concepts would primarily be self-referenced. However, we also predicted, in line with attachment theory, that God concepts would be influenced to some degree by attachment to mother. We found our predicted result in a sample of university students ( N = 223). However, when we examined the question by gender, we found significantly different patterns. Concepts of God as Loving, Controlling, and Distant were self-referenced in women but were not so in men. In men, Loving God was predicted primarily by attachment to mother, Controlling God was referenced to attachment to both parents, and Distant God was related to a combination of viewing self as distant and experiencing parental attachment difficulties, primarily with father.

Keywords: God concept; God image; attachment theory; gender differences (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2158244014560547 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:sagope:v:4:y:2014:i:4:p:2158244014560547

DOI: 10.1177/2158244014560547

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in SAGE Open
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().