Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Loving Thyself And Well-Being: What Does God Have To Do With It?, Derek De La Peña Ph.D.

The Journal of Faith, Education, and Community

The current study is both exploratory and conceptual in nature and considers the controversial topic of “self-love” from both Christian and positive psychology viewpoints. Adaptive and maladaptive concepts of self-love are considered with Christian participants (n = 467) who listed God as the most important factor to happiness (Type I, n = 133) and a second group (Type II, n = 334) who considered some other factor as more important. Statistical significance was evident between groups with Type I participants scoring higher for meaning in life, engagement, and life-satisfaction measures in addition to a number of biblically-based character qualities (e.g. …