Recent findings Studies indicate that religion and spirituality can promote mental health through positive religious coping, community and support, and positive beliefs. Research also shows that religion and spirituality can be damaging to mental health by means of negative religious coping, misunderstanding and miscommunication, and negative beliefs. Tools for the assessment of patients’ spiri...

The major objective of this research was to assess the impact of corruption upon the prevalent religious values in Peshawar. The conceptual framework comprise of perception of religious values as independent variable, and corruption perception as dependent variable. The objectives were to find out people’s perception, causes and institutional role regarding corruption and social values, and sug...

Recent functional neuroimaging data, acquired in studies of religious experience, have been used to explain and justify religion and its origins. In this paper, we critique the move from describing brain activity associated with self-reported religious states, to explaining why there is religion at all. Toward that end, first we review recent neuroimaging findings on religious experience, and s...

The present study examined the association between belief in life after death and six measures of psychiatric symptomology in a national sample of 1403 adult Americans. A statistically significant inverse relationship was found between belief in life after death and symptom severity on all six symptom clusters that were examined (i.e., anxiety, depression, obsession-compulsion, paranoia, phobia...

A new cognitive approach to religion is bringing fresh insights to our understanding of how religious concepts are maintained, acquired and used to motivate and direct actions. This approach suggests that seemingly extraordinary thoughts and behaviours can be supported by quite ordinary cognition and may thus be termed 'natural'. Simultaneously, this research is expanding the domain of concepts...

Guided by social identity theory, this study investigated having a closer identification as a member of one's religious group as an explanatory mechanism for linkages between more frequent formal religious participation and better subjective psychological well-being (more positive affect, less negative affect, and more life satisfaction). Multivariate regression models were estimated based on d...

Recent research conducted in Western, democratic societies indicates that temporary uncertainty inductions lead to intolerance of religious dissent, increased conviction in religious attitudes, and even increased support for holy war. Past and current conflicts based on religious ideology underscore the danger such responses to uncertainty can pose. This paper responds to the need to learn how ...

Several authors have argued that religious beliefs are a way of communicating commitment and loyalty to other group members. The advantage of commitment signals is that they can promote intragroup cooperation by overcoming the free-rider problems that plague most cooperative pursuits. In this article, the author tests this idea using a database on 19th century utopian communes. The economic suc...

Religion's relationships with weight perception and weight control behavior were examined using data (3032 adults aged 25-74) from the National Survey of Midlife Development in the United States. Religion was conceptualized as denomination, religious attendance/practice, religious social support, religious commitment, religious application, and religious identity. Weight perception was conceptu...

The present paper systematically reviews studies examining the potential beneficial or harmful effects of religious/spiritual coping with cancer. Using religion and spirituality as resources in coping may be specifically prevalent in patients with cancer considering the potentially life-threatening nature of the illness. Religious/spiritual coping may also serve multiple functions in long-term ...