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Views Of Asexuality And Transgender Individuals: The Role Of Religious Beliefs, Allison Davis Jan 2023

Views Of Asexuality And Transgender Individuals: The Role Of Religious Beliefs, Allison Davis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Asexuality is a lifelong, continuous lack of sexual attraction or the inability to feel sexual attraction. Asexuality is a naturally occurring sexual orientation thought to be present in 0.4-1.1% of the American population. However, asexuality is still relatively unknown by the general population and understudied by scientific researchers. Even less known is how religious individuals view asexuality. According to the 2020 US census, around 70% of American adults identify as Christian. The current study examined how degree of religiousness related to feelings toward sexuality and asexual individuals. Main hypotheses included: religious fundamentalism would predict negative attitudes toward asexual and transgender …


Maternal & Spiritual Healing In J.D. Salinger's Nine Stories, Emily Pittman Hoste Jan 2023

Maternal & Spiritual Healing In J.D. Salinger's Nine Stories, Emily Pittman Hoste

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

After World War II, spiritual and emotional healing was needed in America, despite a dependence upon materialism and conspicuous consumption for success. J.D. Salinger’s short-story cycle, Nine Stories (1953), explores what loss and trauma look like from all sides of war—mother, child, soldier, lover—all are harmed by war. Nine Stories emphasizes the need for nationwide spiritual healing and suggests that mothers offer the necessary antidote to consumeristic America. In fact, eight of Salinger’s Nine Stories employ one of three types of mothers: the self-serving and ineffectual mother; the spiritual, often surrogate maternal guide; and the ideal mother. While the ineffectual …


Religion And Meaning: Its Moderating Effects On Stressful Life Events And Mental Health, Kalie B. Chambless Jan 2022

Religion And Meaning: Its Moderating Effects On Stressful Life Events And Mental Health, Kalie B. Chambless

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The present study was designed to examine the relationship among religion, mental health, stressful life events, and people’s sense of meaning and purpose in life using data from the 2017 Baylor Religion Survey (BRS), a publicly available dataset. This survey obtained data from a nationwide study of 1,501 United States adults, 1,402 of whom are included in the current analyses. The first three hypotheses of this study were that (1) religion is positively associated with meaning to an individual’s life, that (2) meaning is positively associated with mental health, and that (3) stress is negatively associated with mental health. Finally, …


Religion And Interpersonal Trust: An Individual Differences Analysis, Kaitlyn Sawyer Jan 2015

Religion And Interpersonal Trust: An Individual Differences Analysis, Kaitlyn Sawyer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Several factors including experience, group membership, and religious involvement can have an impact on trust. The purpose of the current research was to examine religion as a possible factor in an individual’s trust behaviors. Researchers hypothesized that (1) individuals who identified themselves as being religious would trust strangers more easily than those who did not identify with a religion, and (2) that individuals would more easily trust strangers if the strangers were presented as being religious. Seventy-two participants were presented with three vignettes and were asked to respond to a series of scales measuring general trust, religiosity, conservatism, social distance, …


The Impact Of Religious Commitment And Motivation On African American Male Academic Achievement, Beverly Cabble Logan Jan 2013

The Impact Of Religious Commitment And Motivation On African American Male Academic Achievement, Beverly Cabble Logan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this mixed method, pragmatic, research study was to determine, from successful African American college age students, what influences have contributed to their academic success. Quantitative data were collected using two survey instruments, the Religious Commitment Inventory (RCI-10) and a researcher created demographic instrument for data collection. Qualitative data were collected through five researcherconducted focus group discussions with 10 African American students enrolled in a four year university located in the southeast region of the United States. The guiding questions were: How does religious commitment impact academic achievement among minority male college students? What relationship exists between religious …


Settling And Laying Down: A Cultural History Of Quakers In Savannah And Statesboro, Georgia, Jonathan Hoyt Harwell May 2012

Settling And Laying Down: A Cultural History Of Quakers In Savannah And Statesboro, Georgia, Jonathan Hoyt Harwell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This descriptive cultural history follows a hybrid methodology often applied to ethno-histories. This approach combines archival research, oral history, and ethnography, with reflexive aspects. I explore some similarities and differences between two Quaker meetings in Southeast Georgia, the small but growing urban meeting in Savannah and a discontinued rural one in the small college town of Statesboro (that sometimes met in the village of Guyton). These case studies of local and personal histories, combined with my observations as a participant in the life of the community, are designed to illuminate fine details of Quaker culture in the recent Deep South.


Teaching Science In The Bible Belt Of The South, Carole Crosby Gilbert Dec 2008

Teaching Science In The Bible Belt Of The South, Carole Crosby Gilbert

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This is an inquiry that utilizes personal ' passionate ' participatory research (He & Phillion, 2008) to delve into the conflicting experiences encountered by science educators as they teach in the predominantly Christian environment of the rural South. Science standards require teachers to instruct students about scientific concepts that directly contradict theological ideology. Veteran and new teachers alike skate the edges of the chasm that separate science and religion in the performance of their job which is complicated by the homogeneity of the population. Church involvement is an integral part of this community. Christian churches anchor their respective communities providing …


Eschatological Thought And Religiosity Among Christians: Patterns And Relationships, Ingrid Emelia Hellstrom Jul 2007

Eschatological Thought And Religiosity Among Christians: Patterns And Relationships, Ingrid Emelia Hellstrom

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In contrast to research on fundamentalism and death anxiety, there has been very little empirical research on the relationship between a person's eschatology, religious thought and behavior. This study attempts to identify associations between eschatology, religiosity, locus of control, death anxiety, and an individual's concept of God. Respondents were 226 college students who completed a questionnaire designed to assess how religious, psychological, and demographic variables predict eschatological beliefs and attitudes. Most respondents were Christian, Caucasian, and female. Eschatological beliefs were directly associated with religious involvement, hope, a deistic and wrathful image of God, and death anxiety. These beliefs, along with …


Social Buffering By God: Can Prayer Reduce Stress In An Experimental Setting?, Amanda Cornell Schwartz May 2007

Social Buffering By God: Can Prayer Reduce Stress In An Experimental Setting?, Amanda Cornell Schwartz

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Social networks are associated with positive health outcomes such as higher ratings of life-satisfaction, reduced risk of mortality, and decreased cardiovascular responses. Similarly, religiosity has been found to be beneficial to both physical and mental health. Specifically, religious involvement has been associated with decreased blood pressure and heart rate. Further, a social presence during a stressful event has been associated with reduced stress as measured by heart rate, blood pressure, and lower self-reported stress. However, this social buffering may not extend to a perceived presence, such as a higher deity. The current experiment examined whether prayer could reduce stress responses …