1. Attachment to God, religious coping, and God image
SROP /B-10/
Supporting Scientific Training of Talented Youth at the University of Pécs
Attachment to God, religious coping, and God image
Institute of Psychology
University of Pécs
Hungary
András Láng, PhD
Viktória Szabó
Sara Bigazzi, PhD

2. Structure of the Presentation
Definitions
God image
Attachment to God
Religious Coping
Relation of the constructs
Method
Results
Discussion

3. God Image - Definition
God images are internal working models of a specific divine attachment figure and the self as experienced in relationship with that divine attachment figure (Davis & Badenoch, 2009)
Actual emotional experience
Religious implicit relational knowing
 God concept – conscious set of theological beliefs

4. Lawrence (1997) using God Image Inventory and God Image Scale found that
all scales (e.g. Challange, Acceptance, Influence) are positivly correlated with
Intrinsic religiosity
Self-esteem

5. Is God an Attachment Figure? (Granqvist et al., 2010)
Phenotypic Resemblances Between Parental Attachment and Believers’ Relationships with God
Personal relationship with God in theistic religions
God as father or mother in the Bible
Proximity Maintenance and Responses to Separation and Loss
Religious means: singing, going to church, prayer
Separation from God = mentally torturous  „dark night of the soul”

6. God as Stronger and Wiser
God as a Safe Haven
Prayer as response to highly distressing situations
God as Stronger and Wiser
Omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent
God a Secure Base
Those who see God as a secure base are more engaged in theological exploration and more tolerant of Christian faiths different from their own

7. Attachement to God – Relation to God Image
Both more avoidant relation to God and more anxious relation to God  less loving, more controlling image of God
(Rowatt & Kirkpatrick, 2002)

8. Religious Coping Distinct from ‚religion as coping’
Pargament (1997) religious coping = efforts to understand and deal with life stressors in ways related to the sacred
Multi-functional (e.g. identity formation; stress-reduction)
Multi-modal (includes behaviors, emotions, relationships, cognitions)
Dynamic process
Multi-valent (helpful vs. harmful outcomes)

9. From God Image to Religious Coping and Back
Attachment to God
Religious Coping

10. Measuring God Image
Goal of our study – reveal meaningful dimensions of the God image with a qualitative method
Former research – no real distinction
Simplicistic = either + or -

11. Method Participants 45 self-defined Roman Catholics
30 female; 27.83±5.62 years of age

12. Measures Associations to the word ‚God’ – God Image
Attachment to God Inventory (Beck & McDonald, 2004)
Avoidance – I prefer not to depend too much on God
Anxiety – I worry a lot about my relationship with God
Brief RCOPE (Pargament et al., 1998)
Positive – Sought God’s love and care
Negative – Questioned God’s love for me

13. Statistical Analysis
SPSS for Windows 17.0
SPAD-T – software for analyzing textual data

14. Results 1. – Descriptive Statistics
Scale M SD
Cronbach’s alpha
Cut point
Avoidance (attachment to God)
38.36
11.01
.86
39.5
Anxiety (attachment to God)
36.47
14.64
.71
33.5
Positive RCOPE
22.07
3.79
.76 22
Negative RCOPE
9.67
2.59
.56
9.5

15. Results 2. – God Image Factors
Level of Abstraction (F1)
Abstract (dual)
Specific-episodic
Words AC
Creation (created world)
6,8
Support
28,8
Pain
5,2
Help
15,7
Satan
3,7
Hope
5,0
Heaven
3,5
Forgiveness
Peace
3,2
Guilt
2,0
Life
2,5
Acceptance
2,1
low anxiety (attachment to God)
high anxiety (attachment to God)

16. Formality of Relation with God (F2)
Informal (personal)
Words AC
Guilt
8,4
Help
15,1
Faith
7,1
Support
10,0
Purpose
5,9
Peace
6,1
Takes care of me
3,9
Pain
4,2
Judging (me)
2,6
Healing
2,7
Heaven
Safety
2,4
Satan
low positive religious coping
high positive religious coping
low negative religious coping
high negative religious coping
low anxiety (attachment to God)
high anxiety (attachment to God)

17. Transcendent-mystical Reductive-psychological
Personhood of God (F3)
Transcendent-mystical
Reductive-psychological
Words AC
Creator
11,2
Guilt
21,1
Secret
8,2
Faith
6,6
Judging (me)
4,8
Joy
4,9
Care
3,5
Hope
3,3
Almighty
2,3
Purpose
3,2
Forgiveness
high negative religious coping
low negative religious coping
low avoidance (attachment to God)
high avoidance (attachment to God)
high anxiety (attachment to God)
low anxiety (attachment to God)

18. Discussion – Summary of Results
Abstract (vs. episodic) image of God
Low anxiety (attachment to God)
Formal (vs. informal-personal) relation with God
Low religious coping (both positive and negative)
Reductive-psychological (vs. transcendent-mystical) image of God
High avoidance (attachment to God)
Low negative religious coping

19. Discussion
According to systematic correlations two opposing images of God emerge
(1) abstract, formal, reductive-psychological
Low religious coping  less committed
Low anxiety, high avoidance (attachment to God)  less emotional
Psychological reduction  God as mere psychic reality (not experienced as a person?)

20. (2) episodic, informal-personal, transcendent- mystical
High religious coping (both positive and negative)  inclusion of sacred in coping
Low avoidance, high anxiety (attachment to God)  preoccupied with God
religious expectation? - Blessed is the one who meditates on God’s law day and night – Psalm 1
Catholic characteristic? – everpresencec of sin  separation from God
God as transcendent  experienced as an external entity; a „real person”

21. Limitations Limited sample size
Only religious correlates, no outcome measures
Religion is not segmented!

22. Thank You for Your Attention!
Supported by
SROP /B-10/
Supporting Scientific Training of Talented Youth at the University of Pécs