Identifying overguilt: An investigation of the relationship between guilt, religious motivation, and adaptation to college in religious college students.

摘要

The study of the psychology of religion historically has yielded mixed results regarding whether religious belief and practice enhance or hinder one's mental health. One aspect of human emotion that tends to be closely tied with Judeo-Christian traditions is guilt. Guilt has both positive and negative effects on individuals' behaviors. One focus of this study is the relationship between individuals' religious motivation and guilt. Results from the study showed a negative relationship between intrinsic religious motivation as measured by the Intrinsic-Extrinsic-Revised (I/E-R) scale (Gorsuch & McPherson, 1989) and state guilt and trait guilt as measured by Jones, Schratter, and Kugler's (2000) Guilt Inventory (GI). There was a positive relationship between intrinsic religious motivation and the moral standards subscale of the Guilt Inventory showing the more intrinsic individuals' religious motivation is the more likely they will exhibit a strong standard for moral behavior.;For college students at small religious institutions, whether this combination of guilt and religious motivation may have some relationship to their ability to adapt to the new environment that is college life is the other focus for this study. The subscales of intrinsic religious motivation from the I/E-R and the moral standards subscale from the GI were compared to three of the four subscales of Baker and Siryk's (1999) Student Adaptation to College Questionnaire (SACQ). Results from this investigation showed the academic, social and personal-emotional adjustment subscales from the SACQ to be positively related to intrinsic religious motivation and moral standards, but negatively correlated with state and trait guilt, indicating that stronger undergraduates' scores on guilt were associated with less adjustment on these small religious campuses. The scope of this project included the investigation of what, if any, relationships exists between guilt, motivation, and adaptation to college. Though this investigation did not identify the relationships with extrinsic religious motivation that were anticipated, significant relationships were identified revealing that excessive guilt can affect student adaptation.