Matching Items (14)
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- All Subjects: religion
- Creators: Cohen, Adam
- Creators: Cohen, Adam B.
Description
Conversion to Judaism has a long history, and changes in Jewish law for converts over the centuries have reflected changes in the relationship between the Jewish community and the larger societies within which Jews have lived. As American Jews now live in the most open society they have encountered, a split is developing between Orthodox and liberal Jewish rabbinic authorities in how they deal with potential converts. This split is evident in books written to advice potential converts and in conversion narratives by people who have converted to Judaism. For this project over 30 people who were in the process of converting to Judaism were interviewed. Their stories reflect the ways in which liberal Judaism has been affected by American ideals and values, including feminism and an emphasis on spiritual individuality.
ContributorsCohen, Mariam (Author) / Gereboff, Joel (Thesis advisor) / Woodward, Mark (Committee member) / Cohen, Adam (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
When consumers fail in their environmental, dieting, or budgeting goals, they may engage in a consumer confession about their goal-inconsistent behavior. This dissertation seeks to understand how confessions about consumer goal transgressions affect subsequent consumer motivation and behaviors. Results from a series of five experiments reveal that after reflecting about a past transgression, Catholics who confess (vs. do not confess) about the focal transgression are more motivated to engage in subsequent goal-consistent consumer behaviors. However, results reveal no such effects for Non-Catholics; Non-Catholics are equally motivated to engage in goal-consistent consumer behaviors regardless of whether or not they confessed. Catholics and Non-Catholics differ on the extent to which they believe that acts of penance are required to make amends and achieve forgiveness after confession. For Catholics, confessing motivates restorative, penance-like behaviors even in the consumer domain. Thus, when Catholics achieve forgiveness through the act of confession itself (vs. a traditional confession requiring penance), they reduce their need to engage in restorative consumer behaviors. Importantly, results find that confession (vs. reflecting only) does not provide a general self-regulatory boost to all participants, but rather that confession is motivating only for Catholics due to their beliefs about penance. Together, results suggest that for consumers with strong penance beliefs, confession can be an effective strategy for getting back on track with their consumption goals.
ContributorsMathras, Daniele (Author) / Mandel, Naomi (Thesis advisor) / Cohen, Adam B. (Thesis advisor) / Morales, Andrea C (Committee member) / Samper, Adriana (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
People may conceptualize God as benevolent and as authoritarian. This research investigates the influence of these God-concepts on prosocial behavior; specifically whether such concepts differentially predict a set of beliefs about the self and the world, volunteer motivations, and intentions to volunteer for secular causes. Two studies, one correlation and one experimental, were conducted among college students who were Christians and indicated they believe that God exists. A measurement model of the concepts of Benevolent and Authoritarian God was first tested, and a conceptual path model was then analyzed. I found that concepts of a benevolent God were associated with a benevolent self-identity, perceived moral and religious obligations to help, and a high sense of personal responsibility with a total positive indirect effect on intentions to volunteer - mainly via internal motivations. In contrast, concepts of an authoritarian God were associated with a perceived religious obligation, having a positive indirect effect on intentions to volunteer via external motivations; but also with a low benevolent self-identity and low personal responsibility associated with amotivation (the disinclination to volunteer). Thus, there was a null total indirect effect of belief in an authoritarian God on intentions to volunteer. Future directions including the use of religious primes are discussed.
ContributorsJohnson, Kathryn, Ph.D (Author) / Cohen, Adam B. (Thesis advisor) / Okun, Morris A. (Thesis advisor) / Neuberg, Steven L. (Committee member) / Kwan, Sau V.S. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
Numerous published studies and a meta-analysis suggest that priming religion causes an increase in prosocial behaviors. However, mediating mechanisms of this purported causal relationship have not yet been formally tested. In line with cultural evolutionary theories and their supporting evidence, I test the proposition that public self-awareness mediates the effect of priming religion on prosociality. However, other theories of religion suggest that persons may feel small when perceiving God, and these feelings have predicted prosociality in published research. In line with this, I also test whether a sense of small self and, relatedly, self-transcendent connection, are possible mediators of the religion priming effect on prosociality. In this study, I implicitly prime religion and test whether the above constructs mediate a potential effect on prosocial intentions. Although self-transcendent connection predicted prosocial intentions, the implicit prime affected neither the mediating variables nor prosocial intentions, nor were any significant indirect effects evident. Thus, no causal evidence of mediation was found. In addition, I examined whether God representations moderate the path from implicit religion priming to each proposed mediator. The results suggest that a benevolent God representation moderates the effect of religion priming on self-transcendent connection and that an ineffable God representation moderates the effect of religion priming on sense of small self. Lastly, I tested for mediation with a cross-sectional path model containing religiosity and belief in God as predictors. The results suggest that religiosity, controlling for belief in God, predicts prosociality through self-transcendent connection but belief in God, controlling for religiosity, does not predict prosociality. Implications for the religion priming literature and, more generally, the psychology of religion, are discussed.
ContributorsScott, Matthew J (Author) / Cohen, Adam B. (Thesis advisor) / Shiota, Michelle N. (Committee member) / Johnson, Kathryn A. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
Anti-atheist prejudice is cross-culturally prevalent and marked by intuitive distrust. However, recent research suggests that, when social perceivers know additional relevant information about others (i.e., their reproductive strategies), this information overrides religious information and nonreligious targets are trusted as much as religious targets. That is, perceivers seem to use religious information as a cue to a specific set of behavioral traits, but prioritize direct information about these traits when available. Here, I use this framework to explore the possibility that atheists are viewed positively in certain circumstances. First, atheists might be viewed positively for certain purposes because of their perceived reproductive strategies, even while being trusted less. Second, atheists who are family-oriented do not sacrifice trust, but may still be viewed positively for other traits (i.e., open-mindedness, scientific thinking). Third, given the constraints religion often imposes on behavior, atheists might be trusted more in situations where these constraints interfere with religious people’s inclination to cooperate. I tested these hypotheses using fictitious social media profiles to examine social perception. The study had a 3 (Target Religion: Religious, Nonreligious, or Atheist) × 3 (Target Reproductive Strategy: No Information, Committed, Uncommitted) experimental design (N = 550). Contrary to my predictions, participants did not rate atheists and nonreligious targets as “fast” compared to religious targets. Consistent with predictions, however, atheists and nonreligious individuals were rated significantly higher on perceived open-mindedness and scientific thinking. Finally, atheist and nonreligious targets were trusted more in two of the three trust domains: trust with scientific findings that contradict their worldview and trust with a secret about a friend’s abortion. Further analyses compared patterns of responding for religious and nonreligious individuals, finding evidence for ingroup bias in most perceptions, but not all. Results suggest that perceptions of atheists are complex, but that atheists may, at least sometimes, be viewed favorably. Finally, these results point to the importance of reproductive strategy as a dimension of social perception, as this variable had a clear effect, independent of target religion, on the hypothesized perceptions.
ContributorsMoon, Jordan W (Author) / Cohen, Adam B. (Thesis advisor) / Neuberg, Steven L. (Committee member) / Kenrick, Douglas T. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
While the concept of healthcare is largely respected in Arab culture, the stigma underlying mental health is particularly startling. This study examined the differences in mental health treatment-seeking behaviors using data from Arabs living in Syria (12.9%) and Arabs (25.6%) and non-Arabs (61.5%) living in the United States of ages 18-60. A Web-based survey was developed to understand how factors like religiosity, acculturation, and positive attitudes towards psychological treatment increased help-seeking behaviors. This survey was also provided in Arabic to include non-English speaking participants. It was hypothesized that Arab-American individuals will be more open to pursuing professional psychological help when suffering from mental symptomology (i.e. anxiety) than individuals who identified as Syrian-Arabs. In contrast, both Syrian-Arabs and Arab-Americans would definitely pursue professional help when suffering from physical symptomology (i.e. ankle sprain). Striking differences were found based on Western acculturation. Findings suggested that Arab-Americans were less inclined towards treatment and more trusting of an in-group physician ("Dr. Ahmed") whereas Syrian-Arabs were more inclined to pursue psychological treatment and preferred to trust an out-group physician ("Dr. Smith"). The results of this study identify main concerns regarding Arab attitudes towards seeking mental health treatment, which can better inform future research and mental health services for this minority.
ContributorsRayes, Diana S (Author) / Brewer, Gene (Thesis director) / Cohen, Adam (Committee member) / Olive, Michael Foster (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
In the current study, the author investigated whether sociosexual orientation interacted with an experimental manipulation of sex ratios previously used by Li et al. (2010) which showed that men and women report greater religiosity after viewing profiles of attractive members of their own sex. The author predicted that only people of restricted sociosexual orientation would be reporting greater religiosity after viewing profiles of attractive members of their own sex. A sample of 171 undergraduate students (85 men, Mage = 19.5) from a large Southwestern university participated in the study for course credit. Participants were first administered the Sociosexual Orientation Index (Simpson & Gangestad, 1991). Then, under the pretense of assisting psychology faculty in designing a dating website for incoming students, participants viewed a set of profiles (photo and description) of either attractive men or attractive women, after which they answered a series of questions on a religiosity scale developed for the current study. Results showed that sociosexual orientation did not interact significantly with the experimental manipulation. Additionally, the results of the current study failed to replicate those of Li et al. (2010). The author discusses possibilities for why the results of the current study failed to replicate the results of Li et al., and for alternative explanations of the potential role of sociosexual orientation in responding to shifting sex ratios.
ContributorsCottengaim, Isaiah John (Author) / Cohen, Adam (Thesis director) / Neuberg, Steven (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Social and Behavioral Sciences (Contributor)
Created2014-05
Description
Perceptions of the self differ between cultures, generally between those cultures in the West and East. Some of the ways that these individuals from these cultures may differ are in their self-construal, their collectivist and individualist tendencies, and how they perceive control in their lives. The current study proposes that some of these differences are influenced by different concepts individuals hold regarding the "soul", or inner self. These concepts may be promoted by the different religious beliefs prominent in different regions. The Soul Perception Index, being developed through this study, measures belief in multiple souls, a universal soul, a single soul, or no soul. It was predicted that a belief in a single soul will correlate with an individual view of the self (individualism, independent self-construal, internal locus of control), and a universal or multi-soul belief will correlate with an interdependent view of the self (collectivism, interdependent self-construal, and external locus of control). We found that these variables did not significantly differ in their relationships with soul belief. However, Indian Hindu participants and Chinese participants seemed to score highly on all self-view variables and all soul perception types indicating that individuals from these cultures may be more predisposed to hold opposing beliefs simultaneously while US Christians are not.
ContributorsNaidu, Esha Svetha (Author) / Cohen, Adam (Thesis director) / Glenberg, Arthur (Committee member) / Johnson, Kathryn (Committee member) / School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-12
Description
In this honors thesis certain religious and moral beliefs were analyzed and used to predict active euthanasia acceptance for Christians in the United States. The factors used to predict euthanasia acceptance for a suffering, terminally ill individual were religiosity, empathy, God representations, and attitudes toward God. Negative correlations were observed between acceptance of euthanasia and religiosity, empathy, positive attitudes toward God, and a benevolent God representation. Positive correlations were observed between acceptance of euthanasia and negative attitudes toward God, whereas there was no significant correlation between support for euthanasia and an authoritarian God representation. When acceptance of euthanasia was regressed on these independent variables, religiosity was the most significant predictor of acceptance. It was concluded that highly religious Christians may tend to prioritize their religious teachings over their instinctual empathy for a suffering person because prematurely ending a patient’s life interferes with God’s will and reduces his role in worldly affairs.
ContributorsAustin, Richard Vincent (Author) / Johnson, Kathryn (Thesis director) / Cohen, Adam (Committee member) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
Description
Women often feel lost within their church community and are overlooking their own health to blend in with conceptions of a perfect marriage that are brought on through stereotypes. Women of abuse are believing, even if it's a matter of their personal health, they are not allowed to separate from their husband sin-free. This concept holds many spiritual women from taking a crucial step from leaving a dangerous situation. Finally, gender roles and the concept of male power is granting abusive men the chance to control the lives and beliefs of their wives with little fight from religious leaders. In order to help Christian women fighting a losing battle against rough husbands, changes need to be made. The education of the clergy and faith communities that may be the first step for many women reaching out for help is vital. First, sermons and lectures need to change to place an emphasis on the equality that is preached throughout the Bible. Second, a solution, such as annulment for abusive marriages, needs to be accepted by the Christian church in order to free women of their vows. At last, a wider knowledge of how common this unfortunate scenario is needs to be expressed throughout the Christian Community. Too many women believe that they are alone, and this is causing them to create unrealistic stereotypes about marriage. By addressing these major issues found throughout the Christian faith there is a better chance that women will start to speak up and find the courage to get out.
ContributorsPierce, Megan Marie (Author) / Fey, Richard (Thesis director) / Berra, Robert (Committee member) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05