Date of Award

2016

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Psychology

Abstract

Research studies have shown that the sense of awe evoked by natural settings may be associated with transcendental thinking about God. Similarly, other researchers have suggested that people attribute events to God when they cannot develop a sufficient naturalistic explanation for a phenomenon. People appear to prefer attributing events to a benevolent God but will modify their beliefs to assume that God is punitive if event outcomes do not appear to favor their well-being or religious attributions do not accommodate a situation. In the current study, the goal was to evaluate how exposure to photographs of different environments influenced beliefs in a loving or punitive God. Participants were randomly assigned to one of four groups and shown either photographs of unordered nature, photographs of ordered nature showing seasonal progression, photographs depicting nature as a destructive force (e.g., storms, tornadoes, and floods), or human-made environment setting photographs. After viewing the photographs, participants reported their confidence in the existence of a higher power and how strongly they viewed him as punitive or loving. Participants also completed measures assessing their needs for structure and closure. It was hypothesized that belief in God would be strongest among participants in the three nature groups but most especially in the seasonally-organized and disaster groups. In addition, the researcher hypothesized that the strongest belief in a loving or punitive God would be demonstrated by participants in the destructive nature group. The results showed no evidence that different types of environment alone influence belief in Gods existence or his loving or punitive qualities, but reactions of awe/wonder, fear/sense of threat, and perceived lack of control that are elicited by environment may increase God belief and punitive God concept.

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