An exploration of student worldview formation and integration: Relationships and correlations between religious worldview, personal epistemology, intrinsic motivation to learn and subjective well-being.

摘要

This study presents an exploratory investigation into the relationships that affect our willingness to critically examine our worldviews and to continue that process throughout life. It looks into the domains of religious worldview, epistemological worldview (personal epistemology), and the psychological constructs of motivation (self-determination theory) and subjective well-being (subjective vitality and satisfaction-with-life).; Using samples of college students from an Evangelical Christian university in California, and a more random sample of students from other institutions in California, the study analyzes the differences and correlations that are found. While differences based upon gender, age and year-in-school are minimal, it is discovered that one's religious worldview is significantly related to many of the measured domains.; The study suggests that one's religious worldview has a significant relationship with their (a) epistemic outlook; (b) motivational methods (intrinsic, extrinsic and amotivation); and (c) level of subjective vitality and satisfaction-with-life. Similar relationships may be found between these domains and the manner in which the student was raised as a child. Some relationships appear to be curvilinear; where religious worldview scores in the middle show significant differences with each of the other ends of the spectrum. The final analysis calls into question notions about epistemological maturity and the effect of parental upbringing, while suggesting that parents and educators provide children with a strong starting foundation, yet emphasizing the development of tools for critical worldview integration throughout life.; This project also investigates the concepts of worldview and worldview formation and integration, while proposing a model describing the process of worldview integration. It further examines biblical (Romans 1) and theological understandings concerning an initially provided knowledge of God. An additional model of filter construction is developed to investigate what often happens to this initial worldview over the course of life.