Psychology Commons^™

An Exploration Of Community, Identity, Religion And Spirituality, Sara Thomas

Theses : Honours

Research in the field of community psychology supports findings that membership, influence, integration and fulfilment of needs, a shared emotional connection, and a sense of belonging contribute to a sense of community (SOC) (McMillan & Chavis, 1986). Sarason (1993) proposes that individuals have a basic instinctual need for transcendence which leads them to seek religious groups and experiences. Hill (1993; 2000) posits that Sarason's sense of transcendence (SOT) is a construct that is closely related to and can be useful for conceptualizing and exploring spirituality and suggests that SOC may not be fully understood until Sarason's (1993) related concept of …