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—.-___ ‘ I___ #_

THE USE OF PRAYER AS A COPING STRATEGY IN
DEALING WITH STATE-TRAIT ANXIETY

BY

Tommy Hingmoon Chan

A Dissertation

Submitted to
Michigan State University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

Department of Psychology

1994

ABSTRACT

THE USE OF PRAYER AS A COPING STRATEGY IN
DEALING WITH STATE-TRAIT ANXIETY

BY

Tommy Hingmoon Chan

A study, with a 3 x 3 mixed factorial design, was
conducted to investigate the state-anxiety reduction effects
of prayer in comparison with two control conditions. This
study (N = 101) also attempted to ascertain the correlational
relationship between using prayer as a coping strategy and
the degree of distress; the possible discrepancy between
genders in using prayer in coping; the relationship between
using prayer and other coping strategies, namely, cognitive
and avoidance strategies; the relationship between viewing
prayer intrinsically and trait-anxiety, and viewing prayer
extrinsically and trait-anxiety. Results indicated that
subjects who prayed about their current most anxiety
provoking life events for 10 minutes in a controlled
condition reported significantly more immediate state-anxiety
reduction, as compared with a control group that wrote about
the event to a best friend, and with another control group
that read and wrote about inspirational stories. The degree
of anxiety reduction was sustained, instead of contributing
to additional anxiety reduction, after a one-week praying

activity. No significant findings were found between the

degree of anxiety and the likelihood of using prayer as a
coping strategy. Female (n = 74) and male (n = 27) subjects
in this sample did not report significant differences in the
frequency of using prayer to cope, or in the frequency of
using prayer in general. Using prayer did not significantly
correlate with using cognitive strategy in coping with
anxiety. However, a significant inverse correlational
relationship was found between using prayer and avoidance in
coping. Subjects who expressed that they viewed prayer
Iintrinsically tended to report less trait-anxiety, higher
frequency and believability about prayer; whereas, such
relationships were not clear for subjects who viewed prayer
extrinsically. Directions in future research on prayer

were recommended. A comprehensive literature review of

empirical studies on prayer was also included.

Copyright by
TOMMY HINGMOON CHAN
1994

DED I CAT I ON

This work is dedicated to my wife Leanne, a woman of prayer.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express my gratitude to the doctoral
dissertation committee in assisting me in the completion of
this research. Dr. Elaine Donelson, the chairperson, has
given me valuable insights and support throughout this
project. Other members of the committee, Drs. Norman Abeles,
John Powell and John McKinney, have also given me

constructive feedback.

I would also like to extend my appreciation to my wife

Leanne for her help in editing this work.

Most of all, I want to thank my Lord, Jesus Christ, who
gave me ever-present help from the beginning of this work,

and told me the following words that inspired this research:

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by
prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your
requests to God. And the peace of God, which
transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts

and your minds in Christ Jesus."

(Philippians 4:6-7, Holy Bible)

vi

TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of Tables ...............................
List of Figures ..............................
Introduction .................................

Background: The History of Psychology of
Religion ....................

The Importance of Studying Prayer .......

A Comprehensive Literature Review of Empirical
Studies on Prayer .......................

Literature Review on Coping and Anxiety ......

Major Theoretical Approaches in

Understanding Anxiety ..... . .............
Coping ....... . ..........................
Effects of Coping .......................
Allport's Intrinsic versus Extrinsic Religious
Orientation ......... ... ...... . ..........
The Role of Social Desirability ..... .........
Four-fold Typology of Religious Orientation ..

Intrinsic and Extrinsic Religious Orientation

and Prayer ....... . ....... ...............
Purpose of this study ........................
Hypotheses .......... .........................
Operational Hypotheses ..................
Method .......... ..... ................ ........

Characteristics of Research Participants

vii

......... xi
......... xiii

......... l

......... 1-4

......... 4-7

......... 7-19

......... 19

......... 20-23

......... 29-30

......... 31-36
......... 37-38

......... 39-40

......... 40-41
......... 42-43
........ .44-46

......... 46-48

Materials ........................................ 59-65

Social Functioning and Resources Scale .......... 60-61
Demographic Inventory ........................... 61
Coping Strategy Scale ........................... 61-63

Feagin-Chan Intrinsic-Extrinsic Prayer Inventory.63-64

Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory ....... 64-65
Johnson-Chan Prayer Effectiveness Scale ......... 65
Procedure ........................................ 66
Part I ......................................... 66-70
Part II ........................................ 70-71
Results ............................................... 72-119
Experimental Design .............................. 73-74
First Hypothesis ................................. 75
Second Hypothesis ................................ 75-76
Third Hypothesis ................................. 76-94
Part I ........................................ .76-92
Part II . ....................................... 92-94
Fourth Hypothesis ....................... . ........ 95
Fifth Hypothesis ................................. 95-96
Sixth Hypothesis ................................. 96-97
Post-hoc Analysis ................................ 97-119
Female Subjects ................................ 98-108
Male Subjects ................. . ..... . ......... 109-118
Johnson-Chan Prayer Effectiveness Scale ...... .118-119
Discussion ........................................... 120-137
The Degree of Anxiety and Prayer ................ 120-122

viii

Male - Female Differences in Frequency of

Prayer

Anxiety Reduction and Prayer

......................... ......IOOO...

Cognitive, Avoidance Strategies and the Use of

Prayer in Coping

Intrinsic vs.
Prayer and Anxiety

Appendices

Appendix
Appendix
Appendix
Appendix
Appendix

Appendix

Appendix

Appendix

Appendix
Appendix
Appendix
Appendix
Appendix

Appendix

Appendix

Appendix

Appendix

A:

'IJMUON

P:

Q:

Extrinsic Style of Viewing

Consent Form
Instruction Sheet
Social Functioning and Resources Scale

Demographic Inventory

Coping Strategy Scale .................

Feagin-Chan Intrinsic-Extrinsic
Prayer Inventory ....

Description of the Current Most
Distressing Event

Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety
Inventory

Group Instruction Sheet
Inspirational Stories ...
One-item Manipulation Check ......
Instruction for the Following Six Days
Instruction Sheet (Follow-up Session)
State-Trait Anxiety

(State version for the
Session)

Spielberger
Inventory
Follow-up

Johnson-Chan Prayer Effectiveness
Scale ..... ......

Religious Opinion Survey

Religious Behavior Survey

ix

..122-124

..124-131

..131-132

..132-137

..138-139
..140

..141-143
..144-145

..146

..147-148

..149

..150-151
..152-154
..155-168
..169
..170-173
.174

.175

..176-177
..178-179
..180

Appendix R: Final Manipulation Check ................ 181

Appendix 8: Feedback Sheet .......................... 182
Appendix T: Research Participation Recruitment

Advertisement ......................... 183-184
Appendix U: A Correlation Matrix with Relevant

Coefficients .......................... 185-186
List of References ................................... 187-195

Table

Table

Table

Table
Table

Table

Table

Table

Table

Table

Table

Table

Table

Table

Table

10:

11:

12:

13:

14:

15:

LIST OF TABLES

Bipolar Approaches to Measuring
Religiousness

Some Theoretical Multidimensional Models

Intrinsic/Extrinsic Religious Orientation
and Other Variables

Demographic Data
Denominational Affiliations

Types of the Most Troublesome Life Event
That Caused Anxiety in the Last 12 months

Types of the Most Troublesome Life Event

That Cause Anxiety at the Present Time ....

S-Anxiety Scores: Mean (Standard
Deviation)

F Summary Table of Time by Group (3 x 3)...

F Values of Simple Comparisons of Group
at Time 2 and Time 3

F Values of Simple Comparisons of Time
at Group I, II, and III .........

Mean and Standard Deviation of Gain
Score 1

Summary of the Analysis (Gain Score 1 by
Group with Time 1)

Mean and Standard Deviation of Gain
Score 2

Summary of the Analysis (Gain Score 2 by

Group with Time 1)

xi

Page

32

.32

35

51

52

.57

..58

..77

..80

..82

..84

..88

..88

..91

..91

Table

Table

Table

Table

Table

Table

Table

Table

Table

Table

Table

Table

Table

Table

16:

17:

18:

19:

20:

21:

22:

23:

24:

25:

26:

27:

28:

29:

F Values of Gain Scores by Group and F
Values of the Associated Simple
Comparisons Between Groups .................. 94

S-Anxiety Scores: Mean
........................ 99

Female Subjects'
(Standard Deviation)

Summary of the Analysis with Female
Subjects' S-Anxiety Scores (Group X Time) .102
Mean and Standard Deviation of Female

Subjects' Gain Score 1 ...................... 104

Summary of the Analysis (Gain Score 1 by
Group with Time 1) for Female Subjects
Only ........................................ 104

Mean and Standard Deviation of Female
Subjects' Gain Score 2 .. .................... 107

Summary of the Analysis (Gain Score 2 by
Group with Time 1) for Female Subjects
Only ...... ............... . ................ 107

S-Anxiety Scores: Mean
........................ 110

Male Subjects'
(Standard Deviation)

Summary of the Analysis of Male Subjects'
S-Anxiety Scores (Group x Time) ............. 113

Mean and Standard Deviation of Male
Subjects' Gain Score 1 ...................... 115

Summary of the Analysis (Gain Score 1 by
Group with Time 1) for Male Subjects
Only .... .................................... 115

Mean and Standard Deviation of Male
Subjects' Gain Score 2 ...................... 117

Summary of the Analysis (Gain Score 1 by
Group with Time 1) for Male Subjects
Only .................. ...... ...... . ......... 117

Rank, Mean and Standard Deviation of

items in Johnson-Chan Prayer Effectiveness
Scale ....................................... 119

xii

Figure

Figure

Figure

Figure

Figure

LIST OF FIGURES

Page
Experimental Design: Pre-test Post-test
Control Group Design ....................... 73
State-Anxiety Scores of All Subjects
(Group X Time) ............................. 78
S-Anxiety Scores of Female Subjects Only
(Group X Time) ............................. 100
S-Anxiety Scores for Male Subjects Only
(Group X Time) ............................. 111
A Correlation Matrix with Relevant
Coefficients ............................... 185-186

xiii

I N TRODUCT I ON

Background: The History of the Psychology of Religion

The study of religious behaviors was one of the most
common topics of study in the early history of psychology
(Meadow and Kahoe, 1984). Eminent psychologists such as G.
Stanley Hall, the first American Ph.D. psychologist,
delivered a lecture series on religious behaviors from a
psychological perspective in 1881, at Harvard University.
Hall later founded the first professional psychological
journal on religion, The Journal of Religious Psychology, and
many of his students such as James Leuba and E. D. Starbuck
soon followed in his footsteps. Researching and writing on
the subject of religious behaviors flourished. Religious
behaviors, for example, conversion, factors in worship and

prayer, were popular subjects in psychological writings.

Another prominent pioneering psychologist, William
James, published a momentous book in the area of psychology
of religion, The Varieties of Religious Experience, in 1902.
This book received much popularity at the time and is still
regarded as one of the classics of psychological reading in

Inodern times. The content of the book succinctly reflects

l

2
the immense interest of psychological study of religion at
the turn of the century. James wrote, "to the psychologist
the religious propensities of man must be at least as
interesting as any other of the facts pertaining to his
mental constitution. It would seem, therefore, that, as a
psychologist, the natural thing for me would be to invite you

to a descriptive survey of those religious propensities

(P-4)-"

The impetus of studying religious behaviors triggered a
series of debates regarding the positive or negative impact
of religious behaviors on mental health. Sigmund Freud
published a series of papers stating that religious rituals
were associated with neurotic obsessive behaviors. In his
book, The Future of Illusion (Freud, 1927), he vehemently
denounced the usefulness of religion, and asserted that God
is merely the "exalted father figure" in our unconsciousness.
The psychoanalytic interpretation of religious behaviors
began to dominate the psychology of religion for the next few

decades.

Other major writers in studying the relationship between
religious behaviors and mental health include Jung (1933),
Allport (1950), Mowrer (1961) and Rokeach (1968). More
recently, Batson and Ventis (1982) tabulated 67 empirical
studies attempting to decipher the relationship between

religious behaviors and mental health. While the controversy

3
over whether religion is beneficial or harmful to one's
mental health remains unresolved, the importance of the field
of psychology of religion began to diminish. For example,
Paul Johnson's The Psychology of Religion (1945) was the only
textbook written in the field between 1920's and 1950's
(Meadow and Kahoe, 1984). Nonetheless, there has always been
a group of psychologists interested in studying religious
issues. For instance, Division 36 (Psychology of Religion)
of the American Psychological Association aims to encourage
the development of research, theory and practice in the
psychology of religion. Currently, more than 1,500

psychologists belong to this division.

In spite of the apathetic attitude toward studying
religious behaviors in modern psychology, religion seems
important to most people in modern times. A Gallup poll in
the U.S. (1987) indicated that 91% of the respondents
reported a religious preference, 69% had church or synagogue
membership, 55% stated that religion was very important in
their lives. Almost one third of the respondents agreed that
their religious beliefs were the most important aspect of
their lives (Gallup, 1981, 1987). In addition, Ross (1950)
stated that 64% of women and 38% of men reported praying
daily. A recent Gallup poll (1993) reported that, among 688
adults interviewed by telephone, 24% of the sample stated
that they prayed 3 or more times a day; 51% once or twice a

day; and 25% less than once a day. Furthermore, Batson and

4
Ventis (1983) cited studies asserting that increased
education correlates positively with church membership and
attendance. Although research indicated that college
students were less likely to endorse orthodox religious
beliefs than people who have not gone to college, other
findings showed that their religious beliefs and attitudes
tended to become more orthodox and conservative after they
graduated and entered the adult society. Batson and Ventis
(1983) concluded that "for many people college brings about

only a temporary decline in religious orthodoxy (p.44)."

These statistics demonstrate that most people have some
concern about religion, and a sizable percentage of
respondents see religion as very important. It is the
author's view that studying religious behaviors from a
psychological viewpoint would generate fruitful findings in

understanding human behaviors more holistically.

The Importance of Studying Prayer

One of the most central elements of religious behaviors
is prayer, as this is the means by which the individual seeks
to commune with God. It is assumed essential to investigate
the psychological impact of prayer in order to understand the
relationship between religion and mental health. Based on

the author's observation and personal insight, personal

5

prayer in solitude, rather than outward religious activities,
provides a more accurate assessment of the religiosity of a
person. Outward religious activities, such as participating
in religious ceremonies (e.g, baptism in Christianity), could
always potentially be a reflection of the individual's effort
to meet social and/or cultural demands (e.g., family
expectations, cultural practice, or social necessities in a
religious community, etc.). In contrast, personal prayer is

more likely to reflect the authenticity of one‘s faith.

A number of authors have suggested that prayer could
have a positive influence on one's psychological functioning.
For instance, based on his observations of people who report
a high frequency of prayer, Johnson (1956) asserted that
there are ten positive psychological effects of prayer. They
are: a) Awareness of needs and realities; b) Confession and
sense of forgiveness; c) Trust and relaxation; d) Perspective
and clarification; e) Decision and dedication; f) Renewal of
emotional energy; g) Social responsiveness; h) Joy,
gratitude, and reconciliation; i) Loyalty and perseverance;
and j) Integration of personality. Although most of these
ideas have not been empirically tested directly, they provide
a hypothetical framework in suggesting that prayer has a
positive influence on one's coping with anxiety. This
present study adapted these ideas, and formulated a scale,

the Johnggg-Qhag Eggye; Effectiveness Scale, in order to

systematically investigate the reported reasons for the

6

effectiveness of prayer (see Method section and Appendix 0).

Despite the fact that prayer plays a central role in
religions, and that there are numerous accounts of the
positive effects of prayer reported by individuals who pray,
there has been very scanty systematic research about the
relationship between prayer and mental health in the

psychological literature (Finney and Malony, 1985).

Thus, by investigating the different ways of viewing
prayer (intrinsic vs. extrinsic) in dealing with anxiety,
this study seeks to fill the gap in the lack of psychological
knowledge about prayer in relation to mental health. This
study also seeks to explore the relationship between the use
of prayer and other coping strategies. A broad definition of
prayer is used for the purpose of this study. Prayer can be
defined as "every kind of inward communion or conversation
with the power recognized as divine" (James, 1902, p.454).
Obviously prayer has different theological meanings and takes
on various forms in different religions. References to

prayer in this study subscribe to the Christian world view.

Some researchers tend to distinguish between different
"3Y5 of praying, such as verbal versus contemplative prayer,
in their research. Heiler (1932, 1958) analyzed different
tYPes of prayer phenomenologically. He stated that there are

in general two types of prayer, namely, mystical and

7
prophetic. Mystical prayer refers to the attempt to seek
union with God and is characterized by silent attentiveness
to God instead of using verbal expressions. Prophetic
prayer, however, is a spontaneous expression of emotions, and
usually words are used in prophetic prayer. Such a
distinction generated a profuse amount of discussion (e.g.,
von Balthasar, 1981, 1982; Bouyer, 1963, Simpson, 1965,
Tillich, 1967, and Tinsley, 1969). The current study focuses
on the influence of verbal prayer. A comprehensive
literature review on empirical studies about prayer and its
association with coping strategies and anxiety will be
presented in the following section before a delineation of
the specific research questions and methodology of this

study.

A Comprehensive Literature Review of Empirical Studigg on
Prayer

Approximately 130 publications alluding to prayer,
written within the last twenty years, could be found in the
psychological literature. Only a handful of them are
empirical studies that deal with prayer and anxiety. Only
one published study (Elkins, Anchor and Sandler, 1979) used
an experimental approach in studying the relationship between
prayer and anxiety. This study attempted to investigate
experimentally whether prayer has an anxiety reduction
effect. Nineteen men and twenty-three women were recruited

from the Glendale Baptist Church in Nashville, Tennessee.

8
Participants were given training using two styles of prayer
(i.e. reflective and intercessory prayer) and relaxation
training within a 10-day period. At the end of the training
period, different groups of subjects were requested, by audio
tape instruction, to engage in a specific style of prayer or
relaxation exercise for five minutes. A control group was
included which went through the same procedure, except that
they spent their 5-minute period engaged in no activity.
Pre- and post-test measurements of physiological data

(electromyogram) and subjective data (the Spielberger State-

Trait Anxiety Inventory) were gathered.

Results showed that, as predicted, the prayer group
reduced their tension level on both measures, although the
differences failed to reach the conventional significance
level (p = 0.05). The relaxation training group, however,
had a significantly reduced level of muscle tensions and STAI
scores compared to the control group. The researchers
concluded that although neither style of prayer significantly
reduced the level of objective muscle tensions and self-
report anxiety, data indicated that prayer may tend to reduce
anxiety especially for people who prayed more frequently and
who perceived prayer as more effective and important.
However, these findings are suggestive at best because of the
methodological weakness in the design of the study. As
stated by the authors, not only was the size of subject pool

small, but also subjects were all recruited from one

9
particular church. Generalizations of findings are
questionable. Nevertheless, it was a worthwhile pioneering
attempt to investigate the influence of prayer in coping with

anxiety.

The study of prayer in relation to anxiety has occurred
with various populations. Compared to other age groups, the
religious behaviors of the elderly has been studied the most
mainly because this group is purportedly more religious.
Koenig (1988) examined the role of the use of prayer and
other religious activities in coping with death anxiety among
the elderly. Seven hundred and eight elderly people, aged 60
or more, were recruited in a senior lunch program and were
asked to complete a 26-item questionnaire regarding their
religious beliefs and activities, feelings about death,
stress and coping levels. Subjects were asked, for instance,
"When you are facing a difficult situation, how likely are
you to use prayer to help you deal with the situation."
Possible responses to this item included "unlikely,"

"somewhat likely, and "very likely."
Results indicated that only a small percentage of
participants had experienced fear of death. Participants who
self-identified as being very likely to use religious beliefs
and prayer during stressful situations were significantly
xnore likely to score low or no fear about death than those

'who did not (24.3% vs. 10.3%). This tendency was stronger

10
among older subjects and among women. Lower death anxiety
levels were also found among participants who had high levels
of involvement in the religious community. The researchers
concluded that "the use of prayer and religious beliefs when
coping with stress was found to have a particularly strong
inverse relationship with death anxiety." However, these
findings were preliminary because of the lack of validity and
reliability information among instruments used. In addition,
the inflated 57% non-response rate may also confound these
findings. Similar to the previous study reviewed, these
findings are suggestive but not conclusive, due to

methodological flaws.

Prayer among youth was the focus in another study.
Janssen, Hart and Draak (1990) asked 192 Dutch high school
students about their views on prayer. A computerized
procedure (TexTable) was used to content analyze their
answers. The sample represented three major denominations,
that is, 60 Catholic, 34 Dutch Reformed, 37 Calvinist; and 61
self-reported as non-affiliated. The three open-ended
questions about prayer were: a) "What is praying to you?";
b) "At what moments do you feel the need to pray?"; and c)
"How do you pray?" Seven structural elements, namely, Need,
Action, Direction, Time, Place, Method and Effect were
identified by the authors. More importantly, results showed
that respondents prayed when they were in trouble.

Respondents reported that they usually prayed for help,

11
trust, and blessing instead of immediate cure while they were
ill. Thus, researchers concluded that prayer was primarily
described by youths as a coping strategy, mostly used to make
things, such as death, acceptable as they were. Results also
showed that subjects sometimes also viewed prayer as a
motivational device or as an anticipatory action to change

things according to one's wish.

Another study identified prayer as one of the coping
strategies against anxiety among children. Mooney, Graziano,
and Katz (1985) surveyed opinions from both 178 parents and
their children, ranging in age from 8 to 13 regarding types
of fear during the nighttime and various coping strategies
used by both parents and children. Results from factor
analysis showed that prayer was one of the coping responses
reported by both the parent group and the children group.

The factor, Prayer, accounted for 6.9% and 7.7% of total
variance for children and parents' coping response

respectively.

The investigation of how prayer served as a coping
strategy of daily anxiety among an ethnic minority group was
also studied. Neigbors, Jackson, Bowman and Gurin (1983)
conducted a study of the pattern of c0ping with stress among
African-American adults. A sample with a national
representation across age (18 or older), geographic areas and

socioeconomic levels was obtained. 2,107 African-Americans

12
were recruited and tested, representing a response rate of
70%. The concept of "stressful episode" was used in
investigating various coping strategies in dealing with
stress. Subjects were asked to recall one single incident
they had experienced that had led to a significant amount of
distress. Information pertaining to the nature of the
problems and the severity of distress was collected. A
series of questions designed to elicit various coping
strategies in time of distress were asked. Subjects were
asked if they engaged in the following coping behaviors:

"make your problem easier to bear, relaxation," "put it out
of your mind," "pray," "drink liquor or get high," "take
pills or medicine," "keep busy," or "face the problem and do

something specific about it."

The most prevalent anxiety-inducing problems reported
in rank order were: interpersonal problems, economic
difficulties, physical health problems, emotional adjustment
and death of loved ones. The use of prayer was the most
commonly used and most important coping response reported,
with 44% of the subjects with a problem responding that
praying helped them the most. It is also noteworthy to
mention the relationship among the use of prayer, subjects'
motivation to face the problem, and the level of problem
severity. Results indicated that the percentage of
respondents indicating prayer as the most helpful coping

response increased as the severity of problem increased. The

13
opposite relationship was found between facing the problem
and the problem severity. Income level was also related to
the perceived helpfulness of prayer. A significantly higher
percentage of the lower income group (under $10,000)
perceived prayer as most helpful than the higher income group
(above $10,000) (50.3% vs. 34.9%). Gender was also reported
to be a significant correlate of perceived helpfulness of
prayer. More women saw prayer as more helpful than men
(50.7% vs. 30.2%). In addition, there was a tendency for a
higher percentage of the use of prayer in coping with
distress as age increased (e.g. 32.2%, 46.6% and 64.3% of
subjects between age 18-24, 35-54 and above 55 respectively
identified prayer as the most helpful coping strategy). In
summary, researchers concluded that "prayer gives blacks
(particularly the poor, women and the elderly) a sense of
strength with which to meet personal crisis, thereby
indicating that religion and the church continue to be of

significance in maintaining psychological well-being."

The findings that the higher the severity of problem,
the more likely people would pray seems to be consistent with
results of another study. Lindenthal, Myers, Pepper and
Stern (1970) investigated the relationships between mental
impairment and two aspects of religious behavior --
institutional attendance and prayer. This study of 938
adults included proportional representation of all ethnic,

racial and socioeconomic groups in metropolitan New Haven.

l4
Findings showed that in response to particular life crises,
the greater the symptoms measured by a 20-item psychiatric
symptom scale (Gurin, Veroff and Feld, 1960), the less likely
subjects would participate in the institutional aspect of
religious behaviors such as church attendance; whereas, the
greater of the extent of psychological impairment, the more
likely that subjects would pray in coping with the crisis.
Consistent with findings in other studies, subjects were more
likely to pray about events over which they perceived little
personal control such as health and catastrophic events. On
the contrary, subjects were less likely to pray about
situations that they perceived as having greater degree of

control such as relocation and interpersonal concerns.

Given these previous findings, this study investigates
the relationship between the level of perceived distress and
the likelihood of using prayer in coping with anxiety

provoking events (see hypothesis 1).

In addition, the use of prayer was found to be one of
the eight factors which resulted from a factor analysis of
the coping strategies in marital situations. Burke and Weir
(1979) investigated different coping strategies with daily
tensions utilized by 85 husband-wife pairs. Subjects were
asked to rate how likely they would use 38 different types of
coping strategies during times of tension and strain on a

7-point Likert scale. Results showed that husbands and wives

15
used different coping mechanisms in dealing with daily
tensions and anxieties. The difference in the use of various
coping behaviors in general conformed to stereotypical
notions of sex-role behaviors in that men tended to make
greater use of problem solving and women tended to use
methods such as prayer, withdrawal, and suppression of

problems.

Consistent with these findings regarding gender
differences in religious behaviors, Batson and Ventis (1982)
summarized different studies that indicated that women are
more religious than men. For instance, more women attend
church, 55% to 45% (Gallup, 1972), report praying daily, 64%
to 38% (Ross, 1950), report mystical experiences, 44% to 36%
(Back and Bourque, 1970), tend to adhere more strongly to
orthodox religious beliefs (Gallup, 1960, 1968), and have
more favorable attitude toward the church (Jones, 1970). In
view of these findings, this study seeks to provide further
evidence to show that women tend to use prayer more often

than men in coping with anxiety (see hypothesis 2).

Furthermore, several studies (Baldree et al., 1982;
Murphy, 1982; Spilka, Spangler and Constance, 1983; Sutton
and Murphy, 1989; Swanson, 1981) identified prayer as a
commonly used coping strategies among patients who face
distressing situations relating to physical illnesses. For

instance, Sutton and Murphy (1989) investigated patterns of

16
coping among renal transplant patients. Forty patients with
less than 4 years of postrenal transplant were asked to rate
the severity of 35 potential stressors on a 5-point scale and
to rate the extent to which they used any of the forty coping
strategies on the Jalowiec Coping Scale (Jalowiec and Powers,
1981). Results showed that cost factors and fear of kidney
rejection were being identified as the most stressful. More
relevant to this study, patients, particularly those who had
kidney transplants 2 to 4 years previously, reported that
prayer and looking at the problem objectively were used most
in coping with stress. Researchers also concluded that as
the length of time since the transplant increased, patients
tended to use more affective-oriented strategies such as
"prayer" and less problem-oriented strategies such as "try to
look at the problem more objectively." As patients'
appraisal of the stressful situations as less amenable to
change increased, they tended to shift from using problem-
oriented strategies to affective-oriented strategies in

dealing with their anxiety.

The use of prayer in coping with distress among cancer
patients was also studied. Spilka, Spangler, and Constance
(1983) evaluated the experiences of 45 parents (mean age,
37.2) of children with cancer and 101 cancer patients (mean
age, 52.5) who were visited by home pastors and hospital
chaplains. Researchers hypothesized that when death

threatens, patients would experience greater satisfaction

17
with clergy who provide both spiritual and psychological
support. Reviewing the content of interactions between
patients and clergy, 22% to 47% patient contacts involved
prayer; whereas 44% to 58% of the parent-pastor interactions
relate to prayer. Prayer and talking about family matters
were the activities most commonly noted by both patients and
parents. Both groups also stated that praying with home
pastors, but not with hospital chaplains, resulted in
favorable feelings. Moreover, perceptions of sympathy or

kindness shown by clergy were usually associated with prayer.

The use of prayer was also demonstrated to be a common
coping strategy in crisis situations. Henderson and Bostock
(1977) gave an account of the coping behaviors of seven men
who survived a shipwreck near the S. E. coast of Tasmania,
Australia, after being rescued at the end of 13 days. The
primary coping behaviors recalled by the survivors were:
attachment ideation, drive to survive, modeling, prayer and
hope. Other coping behaviors reported by one or two of the
men included: denial, humor, redirected activity for anxiety
reduction, deliberate suppression, altruism for the others,
fantasy about rescue, food and warmth. Although none of them
were previously religious, six of the seven reported praying
as a coping response. For example, one man recalled that he
prayed, "Oh, God, get me out of this . . . I didn't know a
prayer -- I sort of talked to Him in more or less as many

words as I could remember out of a prayer and filled the rest

18

"was

up with my own." Researchers contended that prayer
essentially adaptive in that it reduced anxiety and allowed

the retention of hope for some of the men."

Other publications in the psychological literature that
briefly and/or indirectly allude to the use of prayer as a
way of coping with anxiety encompass various contexts,
topics, and populations. Since they are mostly brief in
alluding to the use of prayer, and not particularly relevant
to the current study, a detailed review of these studies and
articles is not within the scope of this research.
Nonetheless, they represent a growing interest in the
psychological literature in investigating prayer and mental
health and related issues. This group of literature
includes: the relationship between prayer and physical
symptoms (Bearson and Koenig, 1990); a case study of a
woman's use of prayer during the death of four children
(Boersma, 1989); using prayer as a prevention
strategy of burnout by corporate executives in business
settings (Nelson, Quick and Quick, 1989); AIDS patients
(Flaskerud, Jacquelyn and Rush, 1989); grieving the death of
spouses (Shuchter and Zisook, 1988); institutionalized
elderly (Karr, 1985; Uhlman and Steinke, 1985); pastors'
wives (Hsieh and Rugg, 1983); a case study of sexually abused
woman (Barshinger and LaRowe, 1985); marital adjustment
(Gallagher, 1985); dealing with the nuclear crisis (Nelson,

1984); psychic healing (Krippner, Solfvin, 1984); Orthodox

19
Christians (Gass, 1984); Mexican American elderly (Markides,
1983); relaxation practices (Benson, 1983); therapeutic
aspects of prayer in a church setting (Griffith, 1982); a
healing ministry (Griffith, 1983); role of sublimination in
prayer as a coping behavior (Gay, 1978); lack of slowing of
brain electrical activity during prayer (Surwillo and Hobson,
1978); disruptive behavior of a retarded child during dinner
(Sajway, Hedges, 1973); reduction of psychosomatic symptoms
and subjective emotional distress (Parker, 1957); and
independent correlations with affect and frustration

(Welford, 1947).

In summary, most of the studies reviewed suggest that
people across age, gender and ethnic groups tend to use
prayer in coping with anxiety in various contexts. Most data
indicated that people reported that prayer was an effective
means of coping with anxiety. In order to further elucidate
the anxiety reduction effect of prayer, two main hypotheses

of this study are formulated (see hypotheses 3a and 3b).

Litgratupg Review on Cgping and Anxiety

Coping refers to both overt and covert behaviors that
aim to master, reduce or eliminate psychological stress or
anxiety-provoking conditions. Before reviewing various

studies on coping with anxiety, it is important to understand

20

the meaning of anxiety postulated by different theorists.

Major Theoretical Apprggchegiin Understanding Anxiety

Anxiety is one of the most unpleasant emotions human
beings experience. It may be defined as subjective feelings
of tension, nervousness, apprehension and worry, triggered by
a combination of cognitive, emotional, physiological and

behavioral factors.

Major theorists have written about anxiety since the
early history of psychology. One of the most prominent
writers on the topic is Sigmund Freud (1936), who viewed
anxiety as the specific, unpleasant state that originated
from intrapsychic conflicts between a person's concept of
self and an unacceptable impulse. According to Freud,
anxiety is the consequence of an unconscious ego reaction to
the danger of disrupting impulse. In addition, anxiety

frequently becomes a central feature in neurosis.

While rejecting most of Freud's theory, existential
theorists, such as May (1950), retained a fundamentally
intrapsychic view of anxiety. May viewed anxiety as the
consequence of the inner struggle of being. According to his
theory, the human being, as the creator of meaning, is under

the risk of nonmeaning either from despair or death.

21
Anxiety, being the necessary part of life, was viewed as the

inner struggle of self-assertion and self-validation (Benner,

1985).

Interpersonal theorist Harry S. Sullivan defined anxiety
from a different point of view. Instead of theorizing that
anxiety derived from intrapsychic conflicts, he viewed
anxiety as primarily an interpersonal phenomenon which arises
from the childhood anticipation of disapproval from parenting
figures in the environment (Sullivan, 1953). He postulated
that if the intensity of anxiety became too severe, the
individual would develop a predominant orientation in life to
protect himself or herself from evidence of this disapproval
so that the "self-dynamism" might be kept intact. According
to Sullivan, the three main defenses against anxiety are:

dissociation, parataxic distortion, and sublimation.

Similar to Sullivan's conceptualization that social
forces, instead of biological forces, influence personality
development, Horney (1937) defined anxiety ("basic anxiety")
as "an insidiously increasing, all-pervading feeling of being
lonely and helpless in a hostile world." "Basic anxiety" is
one of the most central tenets in her theory of personality.
She reasoned that "basic anxiety" is the foundation of
neuroses. She believed that regardless of the type of
anxiety, the manifestations of anxiety are quite similar.

These include feelings of being "small, insignificant,

22
helpless, deserted, endangered, in a world that is out to
abuse, cheat, attack, humiliate, betray . . . ." Horney
theorized that individuals use techniques, such as "gaining

affection," "being submissive, attaining power," and

"withdrawing" to self-protect against anxiety.

Another personality theorist, Raymond B. Cattell (1964,
1965, 1978) also viewed anxiety as an essential element of
personality in his trait approach to personality, mainly
because of the harmful consequence anxiety can exert on both
psychological and biological functioning. Cattell theorized
that anxiety can be manifested either as a state of being or
as a trait of personality. State-anxiety refers to the
varying degrees of anxiety as a result of stressful and
threatening circumstances; whereas, trait-anxiety refers to
the phenomenon that anxiety permeates the personality and
that the individual is chronically anxious. In Cattell's
factor analytic research of personality structure, anxiety
was identified as a unitary entity that encompasses five

factors.

Consistent with Cattell's theory, Charles D. Spielberger
(1966) also conceptualized that anxiety exhibits two
different forms (State vs. Trait anxiety). State-anxiety
refers to an acute and intense discomfort, usually as a
reaction to a perceived threat. This form of anxiety, in

general, lasts only momentarily and can occasionally happen

23
in a person's life. On the other hand, trait-anxiety
signifies the more chronic and ingrained response of a person
who possess an anxious life style. Individuals with trait-
anxiety tend to cope with stressful situations by worrying
and anticipating a frightful future. Such a distinction is
conceptually similar to the construct of exogenous vs.
endogenous differentiation in the case of depression.
Spielberger, Gorsuch, & Lushene (1970) developed a
psychological test which distinguishes state and trait-
anxiety. This present study subscribes to this theoretical
understanding of anxiety. The Spielbergep State-Tpait
Anxiety Scale (STAI) is used as the primary dependent

variable.

Coping

Since the 1960's, the notion of coping with stress and
anxiety begin to emerge from the cognitive-behavioral
paradigm in the psychological literature (e.g., Lazarus,
1964). It has been widely conceptualized that different
people use different coping strategies in dealing with
anxiety-provoking situations. Folkman and Lazarus (1980)
stated that there is also growing support that the ways
people cope with anxiety and stress influence their
psychological, physical, and social well being (for reviews,

Antonovsky, 1979; Coelho et al., 1974; Cohen and Lazarus,

24
1979, Janis and Mann, 1977; and Moos, 1977). Coping
strategies are commonly viewed as having a buffering function
against daily stress and anxiety in an individual's

psychological functioning.

Research on coping has focused primarily on three
aspects: a) the development of typology of coping behaviors;
b) the examination of the impact of coping on psychological
distress; and c) the investigation of factors affecting the
use of different coping behaviors (Fleishman, 1984). With
respect to a typology of coping behaviors, there is no
consensus among researchers in classifying different coping
responses. Folkman and Lazarus (1984) and Suls and Fletcher
(1985) proposed a dichotomous typology in which coping
strategies are either problem-focused or emotion-focused.
They postulated that coping efforts serve two functions: the
management or modification of the person-environment
relationship that is the genesis of stress (problem-focused
coping) and the regulation of the stressful emotions of the
person (emotion-focused coping). Problem-focused strategies
emphasize resolving the problem and therefore overcoming the
anxiety. These include the various ways of "defining the
problem, generating alternative solutions, weighing the
alternatives in terms of their costs and benefits, choosing
among them, and acting." Emotion-focused strategies, on the
other hand, aim to reduce the emotional distress. These

include "avoidance, minimization, distancing, selective

25
attention, positive comparisons, and wresting positive value
from negative events." This distinction was also recognized
by George (1974), Kahn et al. (1964), Murphy and Moriarty
(1976), Murphy (1974), White (1974), Mechanic (1962), Pearlin

and Schooler (1978).

One study demonstrated empirically such a classification
of coping strategies. In Folkman and Lazarus (1980), 100 men
and women aged between 45 to 64 were asked how they coped
with stressful events in the previous year. Interviews and a
68-item Way of C0ping checklist were used. Results showed
that for 1,332 stressful life events recalled by 98% of the
subjects, coping efforts could be classified as either
problem-focused strategy (e.g., "I made a plan of action and
followed it") or emotion-focused strategy (e.g., "I tried to

look on the bright side of things.")

Deriving their conceptualization from earlier research
(Lazarus, 1966; Moos, 1977), Billing and Moos (1981)
developed a related typology of coping methods. They stated
that there are three approaches to cope with stressful life
events, namely, active-cognitive (intrapsychic), active-
behavioral, and avoidance strategies. Active-cognitive
coping refers to attempts to manage one's perception of the
stressful life event, such as "tried to see the positive side
of the situation" and "drew on my past experiences in similar

situations." Active-behavioral coping signifies overt

26
behavioral attempts to directly deal with the problem and its
effects, for example, "tried to find out more about the
situation" and "took some positive action." Avoidance
strategy refers to actively avoiding confronting the problem,
such as "avoided being with people in general," "kept my
feelings to myself," or to directly reduce the anxiety by

behaviors such as eating or smoking more, etc.

Using this typology of coping strategies, Holahan and
Moos (1987) examined various predictor variables of the use
of different coping behavior during distress among two
samples. Four hundred subjects from a community sample, and
a sample of over 400 persons entering psychiatric treatment
for unipolar depression, were asked to choose the most
important problem they faced during the previous year. They
were then asked to indicate how often they used each of a
variety of coping strategies to deal with their problems.
Information was obtained regarding sociodemographic factors
(e.g., education, income), personality disposition (i.e.,
self-confidence and easy-going manner), contextual factors
(e.g., the extent of family support). Results indicated that
all predictive factors included in the study made a
significant incremental contribution to predicting active
(cognitive or behavioral) and avoidance coping strategies
among both community and patient groups. Active coping (both
cognitive and behavioral) strategies were associated with

more personal and contextual resources and avoidance coping

27
was associated with fewer. For instance, normal and
depressed subjects of higher socioeconomic status were more
likely to report utilizing active-behavioral strategies and
less prone to depend on avoidance coping. However, predictive
factors tended to have weaker relationships with active-
cognitive coping than with active-behavioral and avoidance
strategies. Results also indicated that more self-confident
persons were more likely to report active-coping strategies
and less likely to report avoidance coping. In addition,
the extent of family support positively correlated with the
use of both active coping strategies and inversely related to

avoidance coping.

This current study adopts this typology of coping
behavior because it is conceptually sound and statistically
sophisticated in operationalizing constructs. Items used in
each coping scale are empirically shown to be discriminative.
For instance, Holahan and Moos (1987) reported that the
coping strategy scale discriminated between recovered and
relapsed alcoholics and matched community controls in a
predictive manner (Moos, Finney, and Chan, 1981). The
measures also have been shown to be related to psychological
functioning among clinically depressed patients (Billings and
Moos, 1984). It also predictably discriminated between
remitted and nonremitted depressed patients and matched
community controls (Billings and Moos, 1985). However, the

current study will modify the existing scale (Billings and

28
Moos, 1981) by adding a prayer dimension (Appendix E), which

will be further elaborated in the Method section.

McCrae and Costa (1986) reported that other studies that
demonstrated different coping strategies tended to focus on
particular kinds of problems: chronic illnesses (Felton and
Revenson, 1984), job disruptions (Pearlin, Lieberman,
Menaghan, & Mullan, 1981), marital problems (Mennaghan,
1982). Thus, it is difficult to generalize results of
particular studies that investigate the coping pattern of
specific problems to the coping patterns of other types of

problems.

Different sets of coping mechanisms were also used in
other studies, such as a lengthy list of coping by Haan
(1977) and the 27 conceptually distinct coping mechanisms of

McCrae, (1982a, 1984, and 1986).

It is important to note that the item "prayed for
guidance or strength" was included in the Active Cognitive
Sub-scale of the Coping Strategy Scale (Billings and Moos,
1981, Holahan and Moos, 1987). This suggests that
researchers assumed that praying about one's problems
provides a beneficial influence in the level of cognition in
one's coping response. For example, people who pray about
problems may tend to think more positively and to cognitively

re-structure their problems in a more manageable and non-

29
threatening way during the process of praying. As a result,
the mere process of praying about their problems may clarify
one's cognitive understanding of problems, and thus lead to a
positive effect in coping. In other words, the process of
praying about one's problems would force oneself to face
problems cognitively, instead of allowing oneself to avoid
dealing with the problem. In short, it is the author's
postulation that aside from religious interpretations of the
effectiveness of prayer, the positive cognitive effects
during the process of prayer enhance one's coping ability in
times of distress. One would expect to find that people who
tend to use prayer in coping with distress would be more
likely to use Active Cognitive strategies in coping than
using Avoidance strategies. Thus, this research attempts to
investigate such relationships among the use of prayer and

other coping mechanisms (see hypotheses 4a and 4b).

Reviewing various studies on coping, Holahan and Moos
(1987) concluded that active (both cognitive and behavioral)
and problem-oriented coping strategies have been found to
moderate the adverse effects of negative life events on
psychological functioning. Menaghan (1982) stated that
coping strategies, such as negotiation and optimistic

comparisons, were associated with a reduction in concurrent

30

stress and a decrease in future role problems. Mitchell,
Cronkite, 8 Moos (1981) also found that the proportion of
problem-focused coping relative to total coping responses
also has been associated with reduced depression. In one
study, ex-smokers who used some type of coping strategies in
dealing with anxiety as a result of quitting smoking were
found to be four times as likely to succeed at quitting
smoking than ones who failed to utilize coping techniques

(Shiffman, 1985).

The use of avoidance coping strategy was also found to
be related to health consequence. Billings and Moos (1981)
showed that avoidance coping positively correlated with
psychological distress. Consistent with this finding, Kobasa
(1982) demonstrated that lawyers who used more avoidance
coping tended to exhibit more psychological and physical
symptoms related to stress. Pearlin and Schooler (1978) also
found that selective ignoring (one type of avoidance coping)
may exacerbate stress in marriage and parenting. One study
also found that individuals who exhibit less physical and
psychological symptoms in responding to stress were less
inclined to depend on avoidance coping than were people who
have psychological dysfunction under stress (Holahan and

Moos, 1986).

31
Allport'g Igtrinsic versus Extrinsic Religious Orientation

 

The controversy of whether being religious is beneficial
or detrimental to mental health dominated the early
psychology of religion (for review, Batson and Ventis, 1982).
However, a more recent approach has been focusing on a more
fruitful and credible research question, namely, what kinds
of religiosity would have a positive or negative impact on

what specific psychological functioning.

Different conceptualizations have been made to describe
various religious orientations. The ideas of various
theorists, including bipolar conceptualizations (i.e., "good"
versus "bad" kind of religiosity) and multidimensional
models, were reviewed by Meadow and Kahoe (1984). Table 1

and 2 summarize their results.

Table 1:

 

Theorist

Allport
(1959)

Lenski
(1961)

Allen
(1965)

Nock
(1961)

Dewey
(1934)

Clark
(1958)

Source:

32

Bipolar Approaches to Measuring Religiousness

Positive religiosity

 

Intrinsic (for religious
motives)

Associational (life-
permeating commitment)

Committed (internalized
religious values)

Conversion (self-chosen
commitment)

Being religious (sub-
mission to a pervasive
ideal)

Primary religion (harm-
onizing life with one's
vision)

Meadow and Kahoe (1984)

 

Negative religiosity

Extrinsic (for "fringe
benefits")

Communal (social-
group focus)

Consensual (conformity
to religious patterns)

Adhesion ("inherited"
social religion)

Observing a religion
(following the forms of
a religion)

Tertiary religion (habit
ual, conditioned relig-
ion)

Table 2: Some Theopetical Multidimensional Models

ck 959 196 Whiteman (1962) Thoule 1961 71
Ideological Belief Intellectual
Ritualistic Participation Traditional
Experiential Feeling Experiential
Intellectual Intellectual

Commitment

Consequential

Source: Meadow and Kahoe (1984)

Personal need

33

While reviewing different theoretical discussions of
religious orientation is not within the scope of this study,
special attention should be devoted to one particular
orientation that is relevant to the current study --
Allport's intrinsic vs. extrinsic religious orientation.
This theoretical dimension has been known as one of the most
commonly researched topics in the psychology of religion
(Meadow and Kahoe, 1984). The present study adopted this
construct in deriving a prayer scale (see Method section)

that measures different ways of praying.

The terms intrinsic versus extrinsic religious
orientation were coined by Gordon Allport (1959), following
research of intrinsic versus extrinsic motivations in job
settings. In several major papers, Allport provided formal
definition of intrinsic and extrinsic religious orientation
in the context of research regarding racial prejudice
(Allport, 1960, 1966; Allport & Ross, 1967). Allport stated
that:

"Intrinsic religion marks the life that has interiorized
the total creed of [one's] faith without reservation,
including the commandment to love one's neighbor. A person

of this sort is more intent on serving . . . religion than on
making it serve him [her]."

"Extrinsic religion is a self-serving, utilitarian,
self-protective form of religious outlook, which provides the
believer with comfort and salvation at the expense of
outgroups" (1960).

"People with this [intrinsic] orientation find their
master motive in religion. Other needs, strong as they may
be, are regarded as of less ultimate significance, and they

34
are, in so far as possible, brought into harmony with the
religious beliefs and prescriptions. Having embraced a creed
the individual endeavors to internalize it and follow it
fully."

"Persons with this [extrinsic] orientation are disposed
to use religion for their own ends . . . Extrinsic values are
always instrumental and utilitarian. Persons with this
orientation may find religion useful in a variety of ways --
to provide embraced creed is lightly held or else selectively
shaped to fit more primary needs. In theological terms the

extrinsic type turns to God, but without turning away from
self" (1967).

Allport viewed these orientations as polar opposites.
He claimed that all religious people fall on a continuum
between the two orientations. Given such assertion, one
would anticipate that the correlation coefficient between the
two sub-scales should approximate -1.00. However, an
empirical study reviewed by Hunt and King (1971) indicates
that correlations between the two factors ranged from .37 to

-.54.

A number of correlational studies demonstrated the
relationship between this religious orientation construct
with other variables. Table 3 summarizes more than a decade

of empirical findings.

35

Table 3: IntrinsicZExtrinsic Religious Orientstion and Other

 

Variables

Religious Orientstion
Correlatsd variables Intrinsic Extrinsic
Authoritarianism .03 .33’
Dogmatism scale .04 .30“
Internal locus of control .24* -.25*
Responsibility .29‘ -.40'
Intrinsic motivation .45' -.25*
Extrinsic job motivation -.01 .15'
Extrinsic personal motivation -.04 .05
American College Test .10 -.19'
Freshman grade point average .25‘ -.23*

*p < .01

Source: Kahoe (1974a)

36
These data further confirmed the concept that the role
of religion in mental health generally should not be
considered as a single, unified variable. The intrinsic-
extrinsic concept illustrates that there are different
implications of religion, depending on one's religious

motives.

Despite some data which indicates that intrinsic vs.
extrinsic religious orientations are not polar opposites, as
originally construed, this construct does conceptually
provide an insightful dimension of orientation in
religiosity. An intrinsic orientation has a reference
outside the experiencing person; whereas, someone with an
extrinsic orientation would primarily serve the self or ego.
Researchers have postulated that people with an intrinsic
religious orientation, in general, reflect a "healthier" way
of being religious, as opposed to having an extrinsic
religious orientation. For instance, Meadow and Kahoe (1984)
stated that "in evaluative terms, psychologists have
considered the self-orientation to reflect a degree of
maladjustment, whereas the outward-looking orientations have

been related to positive mental health."

37

The R c'a i a ' it

Batson and Ventis (1982) raised a potential confound
that may have biased the predictive validity of the
Intrinsic-Extrinsic scale in relating to other variables such
as racial prejudice. They suggested that in order to score
high on the extrinsic orientation a person must indicate that
he or she uses religion basically for self-serving ends.

This information does not put the person in a good light in
the society. On the contrary, for respondents to score high
on the intrinsic orientation a person must indicate himself
or herself as being a devout believer who takes religion very
seriously and agrees with such statements as "Nothing is as
important to me as serving God as best I know how." This may
potentially earn him or her social praise and admiration.
They concluded that "the more a person is concerned to appear
socially desirable, the more that person is likely to show or
at least report devout, intrinsic involvement in religion

(p.273)."

In view of this concern, Batson, Ventis, and Pate (1978)
studied the relationship between religious orientation and
racial prejudice when social desirability factors were
controlled. Results showed that, as predicted, scores on the
extrinsic orientation correlated positively with scores on
the prejudice questionnaire, while scores on the intrinsic

orientation correlated negatively. However, when social

38
desirability was controlled, the relationship between
intrinsic orientation and scores on the prejudice
questionnaire also became positive. In addition, they found
that intrinsic orientation correlated positively with scores
on the Social Desirability scale (Crowne and Marlowe, 1964)
(p < 0.01), while the extrinsic orientation did not. They
concluded that "intrinsic orientation is related to only the

appearance of low prejudice (p.281)."

Other researchers supported the idea that one needs to
control for social desirability in religious orientation
research. Hoge (1972) suggested that the tendency for
respondents to score more intrinsically is because the
perception that extrinsic items represent idolatrous way of
thinking, and imply that one subordinates God to family,
fame, and success. Some may view these values as less

socially acceptable.

Nevertheless, other empirical studies (Hunsberger and
Ennis, 1982; Waalkes, 1987) also indicate that social
desirability is not as salient as previously postulated.

The role of social desirability in influencing the way people
respond to the Religious Orientation Scale is still unclear

and inconclusive.

39

F - d o o of Re i ious Or'enta ' n

Some empirical evidence indicated that subjects who
scored high on the Extrinsic scale do not necessarily score
low on the Intrinsic scale. It did not support the
postulation that the intrinsic vs. extrinsic concept
represents a bipolar continuum. As a result, Allport and
Ross (1967) proposed a four-fold typology of religious
orientations. In addition to Intrinsic and Extrinsic
categories (high on one, low on the other), Allport
categorized subjects who tended to answer affirmatively to
all questions dealing with religion (high on both intrinsic
and extrinsic dimensions) as Indiscriminately Pro-religious.
They were described as seeing all religion as all good. In
contrast, some respondents may regard all religions as
undesirable. Allport and Ross referred to this group as
Indiscriminately Anti-(or Non) religious, although they had
no such respondents in their sample of church goers. Later
empirical research on the four-fold typology of religious

orientation indicates its usefulness.

Despite criticism that the four-fold typology is
psychometrically unsound (Kahoe, 1976), Hood (1978) supported
the validity of this typology. He provided evidence that
people who were Indiscriminately Pro and Anti-Religious were
different from each other and from people who were purely

intrinsic and extrinsic-oriented in the areas of mystical

40
experience, stress, and repression-sensitization in a
predictable manner. He concluded that the four-fold typology
of religious orientation increases the predictive validity of

the scale.

Intrinsig and Extrinsic Religious Orientation and Prayer

 

Particularly relevant to the current study, the
intrinsic versus extrinsic religious orientation is thought
to have a significant influence on various religious
practices, such as the focus of this research -- prayer. It
is this researcher's view that people who exhibit an
intrinsic religious orientation would view prayer as an
intrinsically worthwhile act of serving God. Such
individuals would pray consistently and persistently, and use
prayer to serve as a means of remaining close to God.
Consequently, it is conceivable that intrinsically religious
people are healthier and more adaptive in the way they pray
in dealing with anxiety. On the other hand, people who are
extrinsically oriented instead see prayer as a "self-serving
technique for manipulating some practical result . . . In
essence, God is treated as a cosmic Santa Claus" (Myers,
1978). As a result, their use of prayer may not be as
adaptive as the prayer of intrinsically-oriented individuals

in coping with anxiety.

41

Such a distinction in the different ways people pray is
somewhat similar to Pratt's (1920) theoretical discussion of
objective vs. subjective prayer. Objective prayer tends to
focus on the object of one's religious devotion, God.
Subjective prayer tends to be constantly preoccupied with the
needs and concerns of the person. Citing Pratt (1920), Clark
(1958) contended that each of the two forms of prayer
"intermingle" and "interact" within the inner experience of
the person. According to Clark, examples of subjective
prayer are intercessory and didactic prayer. Pratt further
illustrated two prominent forms of objective prayer being
adoration/praise and thanksgiving. Consequently, Clark
believed that different ways of praying would have different
influences on mental health. In his words, Clark asserted
that, "once the distinction between the two is pointed out,
their psychological significance becomes apparent, for there
is a world of difference between the attitude that sees the
benefits of religion accruing to man and that which thinks of
"God" as their recipient." Consistent with these theoretical
ideas, the current study seeks empirical evidence of how
different ways of viewing prayer (intrinsic vs. extrinsic) is
associated with the coping effectiveness of anxiety (see
hypotheses 5a and 5b). This study also investigates the
relationship between frequency and believability about prayer
and different ways (intrinsic vs. extrinsic) of praying (see

hypotheses 6a and 6b).

42

Purpose gf this study

In light of the initial reviewed studies indicating some
positive psychological effects of prayer in coping with
anxiety, this study is designed to further elucidate the

relationship between prayer and coping with anxiety.

Specifically, this study first aims to investigate the
relationship between the use of prayer and the reported

degree of distress (see hypothesis 1).

Second, this study attempts to investigate the
relationship between gender and the use of prayer in coping

with anxiety (see hypothesis 2).

Third, by measuring subjective reports of the level of
anxiety before and after praying about an current anxiety-
provoking incident, an experimental design is used in this
study to ascertain the short-term (immediately after prayer
in the initial session) and the long-term (after one-week
prayer training) state-anxiety reduction effects of prayer

(see hypotheses 3a and 3b).

Fourth, this study investigates the relationships
between the use of prayer as a coping strategy and other
coping strategies, such as active-cognitive, active-

behavioral and avoidance strategies. The author expects that

43
this study will provide empirical evidence to elucidate
whether praying for one's problems would predict a tendency
to use cognitive strategies in coping with the distress (see
hypothesis 4a). It also investigates whether it has an
inverse relationship with the likelihood of using avoidance

coping strategies (see hypothesis 4b).

Fifth, the current study seeks to understand if
different ways of viewing prayer (intrinsic vs. extrinsic)
would influence differently the effectiveness of coping with
trait-anxiety (see hypotheses 5a and 5b) and its relationship

to the frequency and believability of prayer (6a and 6b).

44

Hypotheses

The following hypotheses are proposed:

1) The reported likelihood of the use of prayer as a coping
strategy will correlate positively with the degree of

reported distress.

2) Women will tend to use prayer as a coping strategy with

anxiety more often than men.

3) There will be a significant reduction of the reported
level of state-anxiety after praying about one's anxiety
provoking problems compared to other cognitive activities
(Please refer to the methodology section for the
designated treatment condition of each experimental

groups):

a) Subjects instructed to pray about their problems
(Group I) will report significantly more state-anxiety
reduction than those instructed to write a letter to
a best friend about the problem (Group II) and those
instructed to read and write about an inspirational

story (Group III).

b) Subjects instructed to write a letter to a best

friend about their problems (Group II) will report

45

significantly more state-anxiety reduction than those

instructed to read and write about

story (Group III).

an inspirational

4) The use of prayer will correlate significantly with

various coping strategies:

a) The reported likelihood of the use of prayer as a

coping strategy will correlate positively with the use

of cognitive coping strategies.

b) The reported likelihood of the use

of prayer as a

coping strategy will correlate negatively with the use

of avoidance coping strategies.

5) Different ways of viewing prayer will

significantly with the reported level

a) The reported likelihood of viewing
will correlate negatively with the

anxiety reported.
b) The reported likelihood of viewing
will correlate positively with the

anxiety reported.

6) Different ways of viewing prayer will

correlate

of trait-anxiety:

prayer intrinsically

level of trait-

prayer extrinsically

level of trait-

correlate

46
significantly with the frequency and believability about

prayer:

a) The reported likelihood of viewing prayer intrinsically
will correlate positively with the frequency of
personal prayer and the level of believability about

prayer.

b) The reported likelihood of viewing prayer extrinsically
will correlate negatively with the frequency of
personal prayer and the level of believability about

prayer.

0 e ' n l otheses

1) The ratings of using prayer as a coping strategy reported

in the Qoping Stpspsgy Sgsls will correlate positively

with the degree of distress regarding the most anxiety

provoking incident in the last 12 months reported.

2) The ratings reported by women in the Prayer

Subscale of the Coping Sppstegy Sgsle will be

significantly higher than those of men.

3a) The level of anxiety reduction demonstrated by the

ratings of the S-STAI.(Stste Scale) of subjects in Group

3b)

4a)

4b)

5a)

5b)

47
I between Time 1 (before treatment) and Time 2 (after
treatment during the initial session), and Time 1 and
Time 3 (after one-week treatment during the follow-up
session) will be significantly higher than those in
Group II and Group III (see the Procedure section for
further descriptions of Time 1, Time 2, and Time 3

measurements).

The level of anxiety reduction demonstrated by the

ratings of the S-STAI (State Scale) of subjects in Group

II between Time 1 and Time 2, and Time 1 and Time 3 will

be significantly higher than those in Group III.

The reported ratings of using prayer as a coping strategy

will correlate positively with ratings of the use of

cognitive coping strategies in the Qopipg sppstsgy Scale.

The reported ratings of using prayer as a coping strategy

will correlate negatively with ratings of the use of

avoidance coping strategies in the Qgpipg_§ppgpggy_§gslg,

The ratings of viewing prayer intrinsically reported in

the

 

will correlate negatively with the ratings of anxiety

reported in the T-STAI (Tpait Scals).

The ratings of viewing prayer extrinsically reported in

48
the Feagin-Chan Intrinsic-Extrinsic Prayer Inventory
will correlate positively with the ratings of anxiety

reported in the STAI (Trsit Scale).

6a) The ratings of viewing prayer intrinsically reported in
the Feagin-Chan Intrinsic-Extrinsic Prayer Inventory
will correlate positively with the frequency of prayer;
and the level of believability about prayer reported in

the Demographic Inventory and in the Johnson-Chsp Prayer
Effectivsness Scale.

6b) The ratings of viewing prayer extrinsically reported in
the Fgagin-Chan Intrinsic-Extrinsic Prayer Inventopy
will correlate negatively with the frequency of prayer;
and the level of believability about prayer reported in
the Demographic Inventory and in the Johnson-Chan Prayer
Effiggtivepess Scalp.

METHOD

Characteristics of Research Psrticipants

A total of 101 research subjects were recruited to
participate in this study, entitled "Verbal Communication and
Anxiety," in Spring, 1992. The two criteria for admitting
subjects to the study were that they should have: 1) no
strong feelings against religion; and 2) previous experience

in personal prayer.

The research participants included 74 female subjects
(73.27%) and 27 male subjects (26.73%) (total N = 101).
Sixty-five participants were recruited through the Psychology
Subject Pool, by complying with the subject recruitment
procedures of the university. Another thirty-six
participants were recruited through eleven college religious
fellowship groups and ministries in the East Lansing, MI
area, in order to ensure that there were sufficient
participants who maintained active praying practices. These
groups included the: United Methodist Student Center/Wesley
Foundation, University Christian Outreach, InterVarsity
Christian Fellowship (for undergraduates), Graduate
InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, St. John's Catholic
Student Church, St. Andrew's Orthodox Catholic Church, MSU
Bible Study, Campus Crusade, Christians in Action, University

Reformed Church College Fellowship and University Lutheran

49

50

Church College Fellowship (n = 11). The principal
investigator briefly introduced the study to potential
participants during their regular scheduled group meetings.
A statement that described the nature of the participation
and a sign-up sheet were then circulated to solicit
participants. Subjects were informed that their
participation was completely voluntary, confidential, and
that they were permitted to withdraw their participation,

without penalty, at any time during the course of the study.

Self-report demographic information was obtained at
different stages of the experiment. They are presented in
the following Table 4. Of note, one subject left responses
to demographic questions blank, for unknown reasons, during
the first session. Thus, 100 sets of demographic responses
were collected (n = 100). Information regarding "religious
preference" was collected during the second session. Since a
total of 14 subjects did not return for the follow-up session
(return rate: 86.14%), a total of 87 subjects responded to
the questions about their general religious preference (n =

87).

51

Table 4: Demographic Data

Age (n = 100):

Mean: 20.96
Standard Deviation: 5.44
Range: 18 - 48

Marital Status (n = 100):
Single 94
Married 6

Ethnicity (n = 100):

 

Caucasian: 85
African-American: 7
Asian: 4
Hispanic: 0
American Indian: 1
Mixed heritage: 3

Xear ip School (n = 100):

Freshman: 25
Sophomore: 28
Junior: 26
Senior: 12
Graduate School 7
Not Apply: 2

Religiogs Ppeference (n = 87):

Protestant: 54 (62.07%)
Catholic: 25 (28.74%)
None: 4 (4.60%)
Other: 3 (3.45%)
Jewish: 1 (1.15%)

 

52

In addition to the above information, subjects who
identified themselves as "Protestant" were asked during the
end of the follow-up session about their denominational
affiliation/background. A total of 41 "Protestant" subjects
responded to this question, and the following Table 5, rank-
ordered by frequency, indicates the distribution and diverse

representation of eleven Protestant religious denominations.

Table 5: Denominational Affiliations N

Baptist: 1
United Methodist/ Methodist:
Lutheran:

Episcopal:

Presbyterian:
Charismatic/Pentecostal
Christian Reformed/Reformed
Evangelical:
Inter-denominational
Wesleyan:

Fundamental Bible Church

HHNNNU’UWU‘GU’

53

The three subjects who identified their denominational
affiliation as "other" included two participants as
"Non-denominational Christian" and one participant as
"Orthodox/Catholic." No other religious affiliations were
reported, although the subject recruitment process did not
restrict subjects with a non-Judeo-Christian background from

participating in the study.

An 86.14% return rate was represented after 14
participants did not return for the follow-up session.
Among subjects recruited from the Psychology Subject Pool,
the return rate was 92.31%, compared with a lower 75% return
rate among subjects recruited from the religious groups. A
total of 5 subjects from the Psychology Subject Pool and 9
subjects from the religious groups did not return. This
difference may be explained by the fact that subjects
recruited from the Psychology Subject Pool were more eager to
return to the follow-up session in order to receive extra
credit for their psychology courses; such incentive to return
did not exist among subjects recruited from other groups.
However, it is important to note that results from t-test
analyses indicated that there were no significant differences
in the degree of seriousness in participation between
subjects recruited from the psychology subject pool and those
recruited from other groups at different stages of the
experiment. Two-tailed t-tests were conducted on the level

of seriousness during the first testing session, the one-week

54

activity, and the follow-up session. The t values were: 0.78

(df 1, 98, p > 0.01); 0.10 (df = 1, 84, p > 0.01) and 1.77

(df l, 83, p > 0.01), respectively.

All participants were randomly assigned to each of the
three experimental conditions (see the Procedure section).
There were 33 subjects assigned to Group I (praying), 33 to
Group II (letter-writing), and 34 to Group III (reading and
writing about inspirational stories) (total N = 101).
Results further indicated that there was no significant
difference in the drop-out rate among subjects who were
assigned to the three experimental groups. Four subjects
from Group I, four from Group II and six from Group III
failed to return for the follow-up session. Thus, the
distribution of subjects who successfully completed the study
included 30 in Group I, 29 in Group II, and 28 in Group III
(n = 87). The distribution of subjects recruited from the
religious fellowship groups were reasonably even among the

three experimental groups.

In addition, results from the Analysis of Variance
(ANOVA) indicated that there were no significant differences
on "Degree of Pre-treatment Anxiety Level," "Believability

' and Frequency of

about Prayer," "Importance of Prayer,‘
Prayer" among the three experimental groups (F values = 0.82,
p > 0.05; 2.92, p > 0.05; 1.76, p > 0.05; and 2.38, p >

0.05). This confirmed the effectiveness of the

55

randomization process in group assignment of subjects, so
that between-group errors were minimized. Thus, it is
reasonable to view all recruited subjects as one subject
group, despite differences in the method of subject

recruitment.

Only results from subjects who completed all stages of
the study (i.e., providing results from all three measures of
State-Anxiety at different times) were used in the analysis
of anxiety reduction. However, data from the initial
session, provided by all 101 subjects, were used in other

analyses.

Further examination of the raw data revealed that one
Group I subject identified no current anxiety-inducing life
event, and reported only a very minimal degree of pre-
treatment anxiety level (S-STAI = 21 with the lowest possible
score = 20), and a "none" rating to the question: "Compared
to other troublesome experiences, how would you rate the
level of anxiety regarding this [anxiety-provoking event]
experience"). Due to the failure to meet the criterion of
possessing any current anxiety-provoking life experience,
this subject was discarded in the analysis of anxiety
reduction. Another subject from Group I was dropped because
of failure to comply with instructions. This subject not
only "prayed" for only 4 days, instead of six consecutive

days, as requested, but also provided prayers in writing that

56

were less than half a page per day, substantially shorter
than those of other participants. Data from one other
subject from Group II were discarded due to poor degree of
seriousness in participation. This subject identified
himself/herself as exceptionally low in the level of
seriousness in participation when compared with other
participants. Thus, the number of subjects that were
included in the analyses of anxiety reduction were: 28 from

each experimental group (n = 84).

Results of the types of the most anxiety-inducing life
events in the last 12 months, and at the present time, that
subjects identified are tabulated and rank-ordered according

to frequency in Table 6 and Table 7:

57

Table 6: Types of the Mgst Troublesome Life Event That

Caused Anxiety in the Last 12 Months

 

Types N
Interpersonal Concerns ........................... 26 25.74

a)Romantic Relationships (n = 16; 15.84%)
b)Friends/Roommates (n = 8; 7.92%)
c)Family relationships (n = 2; 1.98%)

Illness/Deaths in Family and Friends ............. 20 19.80
School-related ................................... 17 16.83
Worrying about the Future ......................... 13 12.87
Finances .......................................... 8 7.92
Personal Physical Illnesses ........................ 3 2.97
Engagement/Marriage-related ........................ 2 1.98
Parents' Divorce ................................... 2 1.98
Job-related ........................................ 2 1.98
Concerns for the Well- -being of Others .............. 2 1.98
Car Accidents ..................................... 2 1.98
Fraternities/Sororities/Extra- -curricular

Activities ...................................... 2 1.98
Gang-related ....................................... 1 0.99
Property Loss ...................................... 1 0.99

Total N: 101

58

Table 7: Typss of the Most Troublssome Life Event That
Csused Anxisty st the Pressnt Time

 

 

Types N %
School-related .................................... 38 37.62
Interpersonal Concerns ............................ 28 27.72

a)Romantic Relationships (n = 25; 24.75%)

b)Friends/Roommates (n = 1; 0.99%)

c)Family Relationships (n = 2; 1.98%)
Worrying about the Future .......................... 8 7.92
Illnesses and Deaths in Family and Friends ......... 5 4.95
Finances ........................................... 3 2.97
Engagement/Marriage-related ........................ 3 2.97
Job-related ........................................ 3 2.97
Concerns for the Well-being of Others .............. 2 1.98
Personal Physical Illnesses ........................ 1 0.99
Accidents .......................................... 1 0.99
Fraternities/Sororities/Extra-curricular

Activities ....................................... 1 0.99
Time Pressure ...................................... 1 0.99
Parking-related .................................... 1 0.99
Weight-related ..................................... 1 0.99
New Responsibilities ............................... 1 0.99
Spiritual Concerns ................................. 1 0.99
Sexual Frustration ................................. 1 0.99
Legal Matters ...................................... 1 0.99
None .......................................... .1 0.99

TotalON:.101

59

Materials

The following forms and instruments were used in the

study. They are arranged below, in the order in which they

were compiled in research packets presented to subjects

(except Appendix T).

a)
b)

C)
d)

e)

f)

9)

h)

i)
:i)
k)
1)

m)

the Consent Fopm for participation (Appendix A),

the self-explanatory Inspruggigp Shaat (Appendix B),
the Social Fapctionipg aad Resourcas Scala (Appendix C),
the namggraphic Invantory and the Qascpiptiga of the
Mgst Qispressipg Evept ia the last 12 mopths (Appendix
D).

the modified version of the Copiag Stpategy Scale
(Billings and Moos, 1981; Holahan and Moos, 1987)
(Appendix E),

the Seagin-ghan Intrinsic-Extrinsic Prayer Inventopy
(Appendix F),

the Sascsiption of the Cgrrent Most pistpassing Event
(Appendix G),

the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Invantory (STAI)
(Appendix H),

the group Instruction Sheet (Appendix I),

the Inspisational Spopies (Appendix J),

the One-item Manipulation Check (Appendix H),

the Lastpuction for the Next 6 Days (Appendix L),

the Follow-up Sessign Instrgctign Sheet (Appendix M),

60

n) the Spielbergar State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (State

 

Scale) (S-STAI) for the follow-up session (Appendix N),
o) the Sghason-Chan Prayer;§ffectiveness Scale (Appendix 0),
p) the RaligioussOpinion Survay_(Appendix P),
q) the Ralagious Behavior Survsy_(Appendix Q),
r) the Final Manipulation Check (Appendix R),

s) the Feedback Sheet (Appendix S),

t) the Reseapch Partigipaats Regpuitmept Adveptisemeat
(Appendix T).

The availability of social resources has been found to
be an important mediating factor in coping with anxiety. In
order to elucidate the relationship between prayer and coping
with anxiety, it was important to take into account the
influence of factors such as social resources in the process
of coping among subjects, so that potential biases would be
minimized. Thus, information about social resources was
obtained. The Sggaal_Eaagaipaiag_aag_gasggpgas_Sgala in this
study was adopted from Moos, Cronkite, and Finney's (1990)
Health and Daily Living Form. There are four sections in
this scale. First, a 12-yes/no-item subscale assessed the
number of social activities with friends in the last twelve
months by having subjects identify from a list of 12
activities (Cronbach alpha: 0.73). Second, a S-item
subscale ascertained the number of social network contacts of
subjects (Cronbach alpha: 0.48). Third, a two-item subscale

asked about the number of close relationships subjects

61

maintained. Fourth, a 6-item subscale measured the quality
of significant relationship by having respondents rate on
5-point scales ranging from zero (never) to four (often)

(Cronbach alpha: 0.72).

The Demographic Invantory, constructed by this author,
assessed information from subjects, such as age, gender,

ethnicity, level of education and marital status.

The gaping Strategy Scale, a modified version of
Billings and Moos (1981) and Holahan and Moos (1987) was used

to ascertain the pattern of coping strategies utilized by
subjects during the most distressing life event in the last
twelve months. This 24-item scale consisted of four methods
of coping. It included a 6-item active-cognitive strategy
subscale, a 6-item active-behavioral strategy subscale, and a
6-item avoidance strategy subscale. A 6-item prayer strategy
subscale devised by this author was included. Subjects were
asked whether or not they used each strategy in coping on

"yes-no" items. The score of this instrument is the sum of

yes items from each subscale.
Billings and Moos (1981) reported that the
categorization of coping strategies was formulated according
to cluster analyses, the ratings of several judges and
previous research (Sidle et al., 1969; Moos, 1976, 1977).

Research on the psychometric properties indicated

62

satisfactory results. The internal consistencies (Cronbach
alpha corrected for number of items) of the different coping
strategies were: 0.72 for active-cognitive coping strategy;
0.80 for active-behavioral coping strategy; and 0.44 for
avoidance coping strategy. These coefficients indicated that
both the sub-categories and the entire item set (alpha =
0.62) showed moderate internal homogeneity. The
intercorrelations among the first three coping strategies
(mean correlation = 0.21) were relatively low, representing
that sub-categories measured independent constructs.
However, researchers cautioned that "an upper limit may be
placed on internal consistency coefficients by the fact that
the use of one coping response may be sufficient to reduce
stress and thus lessen the need to use other responses from

either the same or other categories of coping."

Of note, since the internal coefficient of the avoidance
scale of Billing and Moos' (1981) coping scale was moderate
(Cronbach alpha: 0.44), it was replaced by 6 items of the
avoidance scale (Cronbach alpha: 0.60) as reported by Holahan
and Moos (1987). For the purpose of the current study, only
the cognitive coping strategy subscale by Billing and Moos

(1981) was used.

Since the prayer coping scale was newly formulated by
this author, previous information regarding its internal

consistency is not available. Using the "Kuder-Richardson

63

formula 20," developed by Kuder and Richardson (1937),
results in this study showed that the reliability coefficient
of this prayer coping scale is relatively high: 0.82. In
order to augment the construct validity, the prayer coping
scale was formulated in such a way that it encompassed
commonly reported elements of prayer during times of
distress, namely, praise, thanksgiving, confession, and

petition.

The Feagin-Chan Intpinsic-Extrinsig Prayer Inventory is

a modification, by this author for the purpose of this study,
of a scale published by Feagin (1964). The Feagin (1964)
scale is a version of the Allport and Ross's Religious
Orientation Scale (1967) that measured intrinsic vs.
extrinsic religious orientation. Results from factor
analyses of Feagin's scale generated two separated factors,
intrinsic and extrinsic, and each consisted of six items.
Although most of the research on intrinsic and extrinsic
religious orientation has used a derivation of the Feagin
scale, a number of researchers have recognized that the
Feagin scale is more refined in its psychometric properties.
Meadow and Kahoe (1984) stated that "these [Feagin's]
factorial scales are probably the most succinct and
psychometrically the best measures of the two religious
orientations -- though unfortunately not the most frequently
used." This study modified the Feagin scale by changing the

wording of each item to specify the religious behavior as

64

being prayer. For example, the original item "I try hard to
carry my religion over into all my other dealings in life"
was modified to "I try hard to pray about all areas of my

life."

It is also important to note that the current research
is an unprecedented attempt to apply the concept of intrinsic
vs. extrinsic religious orientation to the context of prayer.
Preliminary results indicated that the newly formed, Feagin-
Chan Intpipsic-Sxtrinsic Prayer Inventory significantly and
positively correlated with their respective religious
orientation, formulated by Allport (1950). The concurrent
validity was demonstrated to be relatively high for both
intrinsic and extrinsic prayer scales (r = 0.85, 0.70,
respectively p < 0.01). This was expected, as the Feagin-
Chan's scale was adapted from the original intrinsic vs.
extrinsic religious orientation scale. The test-retest
reliability (one week apart) was also shown to be reasonably
high for both the intrinsic prayer subscale and the extrinsic
prayer subscale (i.e., 0.90 and 0.68, respectively, p <

0.01).

The Spielbesger State-Trait Anaiety Inventory (STAI)

(Y-form) was used in ascertaining the reported level of
anxiety in this study. The STAI has been adapted in more
than 40 languages for cross-cultural research and clinical

practice, and is the most widely used self-report measure of

65

anxiety since its introduction more than 15 years ago
(Spielberger and Gorsuch, 1966). Over 2,000 publications
using the S2A1_to measure anxiety were reported. Although
most studies using the SEAL_were psychological and medical
research, the STA;_was used research in other disciplines
including: counseling and guidance, criminal justice,
education, nursing, physical education, and speech and
hearing (Spielberger, 1983). The test-retest reliability for
the Trait-Anxiety scale was reasonably high for the college
students, ranging from .73 to .86. The alpha coefficients
for the State-Anxiety scale were above .90 for the samples of
working adults, students, and military recruits, with a
median coefficient of .93. This data demonstrated high
internal consistency in the State-Anxiety scale. The SIAL_
has also been shown to have reasonably high validity compared

with other anxiety measures (Spielberger et al., 1983).

The Johnson-Chap Prayer Effectiveness Scale was adapted
from Johnson (1956), by this author. The 10-item scale asks

subjects to rate, on a 7-point Likert scale, each of the ten
psychological effects of prayer postulated by Johnson (1956).
Since this is a newly adapted scale, an alpha coefficient was

not available.

66

Proce re

The entire research procedure involved a one-week
testing period. It included an initial group session, an
assigned daily activity for the following six days, and a
follow-up group session. A total of eight periods of
participation (including all three components) were scheduled
at different times, in order to maximize the number of
subjects who could participate. The experimental sessions
were conducted in different classrooms, with very similar
physical conditions, in the same building. A typical
experimental procedure is described more specifically as

follows:

East I

The initial experimental session took place in a large,
well-lit and quiet room in a group setting. Efforts were
made to ensure that the seating arrangement allowed each
subject to have plenty of space away from other participants.
Upon arrival at the experimental site, each subject was given
a research packet, instructed to take a seat and not to open
the packet until they were told to do so. Research packets
had been stacked according to the order: group number I, II
and III. Thus, when subjects were being handed a research
packet, they were randomly assigned to each of the three

experimental groups. This process also ensured that, as much

67

as possible, an equal number of subjects were present in each
experimental group. Upon the arrival of all scheduled
subjects, participants were instructed to open up the
research packet and read the Consant Form for their
voluntary, confidential and anonymous participation and a
self-explanatory instruction sheet placed on the top two

pages (see Appendix A and B).

After completing the 3-page Social Functioning and
Resources Scale (Appendix C) and providing some personal
demographic information, subjects were instructed to recall
and identify the most anxiety-provoking life event that had
happened to them in the last 12 months (Appendix D). A list
of potential anxiety-provoking events were presented, in
order to help subjects identify such an incident. They were
then requested to rate the level of distress on a 7-point
Likert scale item: "Compared to other troublesome life events
in the past, how would you rate the level of anxiety

regarding this event?"

Then, they were asked to complete the Copiag Sppategias
Sgala_(Appendix E), which assessed ways of coping with that
event, and the Peagip-Chan Intrinsic-Extpinsic Prayer
Inveatopy (Appendix F). Subjects were further instructed to
identify, in writing, the current most anxiety-provoking
incident that was troubling them (Appendix G). Subjects were

also requested to describe the worst possible scenario about

68

that particular experience, and to rate their level of
distress on a 7-point Likert scale. Since it is possible
that the current anxiety-provoking incident qualified as the
most distressing experience in the last twelve months,
subjects were informed that it was permissible to identify
the same incident they had reported previously. Immediately
following their descriptions, subjects were asked to complete
the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (Appendix H) as
a pre-treatment measure of the level of anxiety (the State-
Anxiety scores constituted the Time 1 measure of state-

anxiety).

Subjects were then instructed to engage in one of the
three different tasks based on the pre-arranged randomization
process (see Appendix I). They were asked to individually
read specific instructions for one of the three treatment

conditions as follows:

aggap_1: Subjects in this group served as the
experimental group. They were given a brief written
instruction to pray about the event, the way they usually
would in the past. They were instructed to continuously pray
about the problem for 10 minutes, while simultaneously
writing down their prayers on sheets of 8 1/2" X 11" paper

for 10 minutes.

Group II: Subjects in this group served as the first

69

control group. They were informed to write a personal letter
to their best friend about their problem. Similar to Group
1, subjects were asked to write, without interruptions,

through a lO-minute period.

Group III: Subjects in this group served as another
control group. For 10 minutes, they were asked to read an
inspirational story about a famous psychologist (Appendix J),

and to write their reflections on it.

Immediately following the completion of the assigned
task, subjects were asked to complete only the State scale of
the Spielberger State-Tpait Anxiety Inveatory (S-STAI) (Time
2 measure of state-anxiety), and the One-item Manipulation

Check (Appendix K), which ascertained the level of

 

seriousness during their participation.

Subjects were then asked to engage in similar activities
daily, at about the same time each day, regarding the same
incident, throughout the following week (Appendix L). They
were told that it was essential to complete the assignment on
the sheets of paper provided, as instructed, and to return
results to the experimenter during the follow-up session one
*week later. Subjects in Group I and Group II were informed
that in the event that the distressing incident they
originally identified no longer posed feelings of anxiety,

‘they should continue to write about the same incident in a

70

different way. For example, Group I subjects may thank God
for feeling better; and Group II subjects may thank their

friends for listening, etc.

The entire procedure for the initial session took

approximately one hour.

Part II

Upon returning to the follow-up experimental session
after one week, subjects were requested to return the written
materials they had completed. The experimenter then
distributed follow-up research packets to subjects which
contained the self-explanatory Follow-pp Session Instructioa
Saaap_(Appendix M) S 'e be e tate-Tr 't ° t Invento
(State Scale) (S-SIAI) (Time 3 measure of state-anxiety)
(Appendix N), the Paagia-Shan latpiasig-Satrinsic Prayar
Invantory (Appendix F), the Johnsoa-Chan Prayer Effectiveness
Sgala,(Appendix O), the Religigus Qpipiop Saryey (Appendix
P), the 5-item Religious Sahavior Supvay (Appendix Q) and the
Pipal Maaipglatioa Check Quastignnaire (Appendix R), which
ascertained the level of seriousness in fulfilling the
assignment during the week and during the follow-up session.
Of note, subjects were reminded to rate their current
feelings regarding the specific distressing incident they had

originally identified during the initial session on the S;

71

Subjects were asked to complete each of the scales in
the order presented in the research packet. The whole
procedure of the second part of the experiment took

approximately 30 minutes.

Upon finishing all inventories, subjects were debriefed
by receiving a Feedback Sheet (Appendix S) and thanked for
participation. Subjects who were recruited through the
department of psychology's subject pool were given 6 research
credit points for the total of about three hours of research
participation, which could be redeemed toward their class

grades.

72

RESULTS

Correlational analyses, t-tests and Analysis of
Variance, were used in ascertaining the relationships between

different variables.

The data regarding levels of anxiety collected was
analyzed according to appropriate statistics for the
pretest-posttest control group design (Campbell and Stanley,
1963) of this study. The experimental design can be

represented in the following Figure 1:

73

 

 

 

Time 1 Time 2 Time 3
81': X1. X1. X1.
Gro Pra ; : : :
$26: X28 X28 X26
$2.9 : X2) X26 X26
Gpoup II: Control (Letter) . ; ; ;
$56: X56 X56 X56
8:. 7 : X5 1 X5} X5}
Group III: Control 3 E ; ;
(Inspirational Stgries) $34: XS4 X64 X84

8.: subjects
Xn: dependent variables - scores of the State scale of the
Spielbepger State-Trait Anaiety inventory (S-STAI) of
subject n at Time 1, Time 2 and Time 3.
Time 1: Pre-treatment measure of anxiety (S-SIAI) during the
initial session.
Time 2: Post-treatment measure of anxiety (S-STAI) during the
initial session.
Time 3: Post-treatment measure of anxiety (S-STAI) after the
one-week training.

(1'

e : x e imenta De i : P e-s_st Pgst-tesp Qggppgl
Group Pesign

74

This experimental design has been recognized as one of
the most popular research designs employed by applied
researchers because of its several advantages. It controls
internal validity, including effects of history, maturation,
instrumentation, testing, regression, mortality, selection,
and any interactions among these effects. It also offers a
high degree of versatility. Instead of comparing only two
groups (an experimental group and a control group, or two
experimental group with two treatment conditions), this
design accommodates additional comparison groups (Gilmore,

1984; Huck and McLean, 1975).

The SPSS computer software statistical program (version
5.0), operated on a Macintosh personal computer, was used in
computing most of the data presented in the following

section.

75

First Hypothesis:

The first hypothesis stated that using prayer as a
coping strategy would correlate positively with the degree of
reported distress regarding the most anxiety provoking

incident in the last 12 months.

Using the Pearson product-moment correlation, results
did not confirm this hypothesis (r = 0.12, p > 0.05). No
significant linear correlational relationship between the
degree of distress about the most anxiety provoking life
event in the last 12 months identified, and the score of the
6-item prayer coping subscale that signified using prayer as
a coping strategy, was found in this sample (this and other
relevant correlational results are summarized in a

correlation matrix in Figure 5 of Appendix U.)

Secoad Hypothesis

The second hypothesis proposed that women will use

prayer as a coping strategy significantly more than men.

A two-tailed t-test was conducted on the scores of the
prayer coping subscale of the Coping Strategy Scale between
female (n = 74) and male subjects (n = 27) (t value = 0.09,

p > 0.05, df = 1,99). There was no significant difference

76

between men and women in the number of items endorsed that
represent using prayer as a coping strategy. The second

hypothesis was not confirmed.

Third Hypothesis

Part I:

The first part of the third hypothesis asserted that the
degree of anxiety (state-anxiety) reduction among subjects in
Group I (praying) between Time 1 (pre-treatment measure) and
Time 2 (immediate post-treatment measure), and Time 1 and
Time 3 (after the one-week treatment period during the
follow-up session) would be significantly higher than those
in Group II (letter-writing) and Group III (reading and
writing about inspirational stories). Results supported the

first part of hypothesis 3.

The mean and standard deviation of the dependent
variable, state-anxiety scores at different stages of the

study are in Table 8 and depicted in Figure 2:

77

Table 8: S-Anxisty Scoras: Mean (Standard Deviation)

 

 

 

 

Tims l Tima:2 Time 3
Group I 53.86(11.93) 34.68(10.20) 33.36(10.49)
Group II 48.50(11.71) 43.96(15.62) 37.00(10.90)

Group III 52.07(14.71) 44.50(16.35) 41.54(15.85)

 

78

S-Anxiety
Scores
0
60--
55--
50--
45--
Group III (Story)
40-- A1 (n=28)
Group II (Letter)
35-- A2 (n=28)
Group I (Prayer)
30-- A3 (n=28)
25--
201 ------- 4 ------------ I ----------- 4 ---------------
Time 1 Time 2 Time 3
Time 1: Pre-treatment measure of state-anxiety (S-STAI)
during the initial session.
Time 2: Post-treatment measure of state-anxiety (S-STAI)
during the initial session.
Time 3: Post-treatment measure of state-anxiety (S-STAI)

after the one-week training.

Figure 2: State-Ansiety Scorgs of All Subjects (Group X

Time).

79

The ANOVA of this data with the dependent variable,
State-Anxiety, and the independent variable, Group, was
conducted. The results of the omnibus F-test are provided in
Table 9. The analysis represented a 3 X 3 Mixed Two-Factor
Design with A as the non-repeated factor (Group), and B as
the repeated factor (Time). There were 28 subjects in each

cell.

80

Table 9: F Summary Table of Time by Group (3 X 3)

 

Source of Variation SS df MS F

A 1228.67 2 614.33 1.63
S/A 30523.44 81 376.83

B 480968.68 2 4533.89 59.14‘*'
A X B 1835.90 4 458.98 5.99"'
B X S/A 12420.31 162 76.67

Total 55076.11 251

N = 84, “‘ p < 0.001

Geisser-Greenhouse Correction: MS: and MSxxa were evaluated
with df (1, 81) and (2, 81) instead, respectively. Both B
and A X B F ratios were found to be significant at 0.01 and
0.05 levels, respectively, after correction. This
statistical correction was used in order to correct the
possible bias due to violations of the homogenity assumptions
in view of the current repeated-measure design.

81

In light of a significant interaction effect, the
analysis of simple effects of factor A and B were conducted
(Maxewell and Delany, 1989). Results indicated that
significant simple effects were present at 82 and B3, but not
at Bl (F; at 81, B2, B3 = 1.26 (p > 0.05), 4.16 (p < 0.05),
2.94 (p < 0.10), respectively, df = 2, 81). A summary of
results of simple comparisons of group mean of the non-

repeated factor A at B2 and B3 is tabulated in Table 10:

82

Tab e: 10
F Values of Simple Comparisons of Group at Time 2 and Time 3

B2 Time 2
Al A2 A3
A1 5.86" 6.58"
A2 0.02
Mimi).
A1 A2 A3
A1 1.16 5.86'
A2 1.80

* p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, df = (1. 81).

83

Results also showed that significant simple effects of B
(Time) at A1, A2 and A3 (Group I, II, III) were found (F; at
A1, A2, A3 = 97.17, 10.54 and 8.04, respectively, p < 0.01,
df = 2, 54). A summary of results of simple comparisons of

group mean of the repeated factor B is tabulated in the

following Table 11:

84

Table: 11
F Values of Simple Comparisons of Time at Group I. II and III

 

Al Grou I

B1 32 B3
Bl 135.74** 155.10"
B2 0.65

A2 Grou II

31 32 33
31 3.23 20.74::
32 7.61“

3 Gro III

Bl B2 B3
31 7.81*' 15.12"
B2 1.20

' p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, df = (1, 54).

85

More importantly, since the third hypothesis was
essentially concerned with differences in the degree of
anxiety reduction among the three treatment groups, the Gain
Score Analysis was used as the main approach in analyzing
these data. This statistical approach was reported to be one
of the most appropriate methods in analysing the current
data. This method was also most suitable in addressing the
current research question, which investigated the possible
differences in the degree of anxiety reduction among the
three treatment groups between Time 1 and Time 2, and Time 1
and Time 3. For instance, Maxewell and Delany (1989) stated
that "the unique advantage of analysing gain scores is that
it allow one to ask the question, was there significant
change from pre-treatment to post-treatment? . . . For
example, if a variety of clinical treatment groups are being
compared for their effectiveness in helping a group of
clients, one is almost certain to be interested in whether
there was significant evidence for improvement overall

(p.392)."

Thus, the analyses of variance (ANOVA) of Gain scores
were conducted. Gain Score 1 was computed by subtracting
Time 1's state-anxiety scores from Time 2's state-anxiety
scores, and Gain score 2 was computed by subtracting Time 1
scores from Time 3 scores. The ANOVA was conducted among the
three treatment groups, in which the Gain scores served as

the dependent variable and the treatment conditions as the

86

independent variable.

Although the state-anxiety levels at Time 1 among all
three experimental groups were not statistically significant,
as stated, a small degree of variability of Time 1's state-
anxiety scores may have inadvertently influenced the
distribution of Gain scores. Therefore, Time 1 scores were
included as a covariate in the ANOVA, in order to address the
question: If the pre-treatment level of state-anxiety was the
same among the three groups, would there be significant
differences in the degree of anxiety reduction between Time 1

and Time 2; and Time 1 and Time 3?

It is also noteworthy, that although the results from
the Sgcial Fapctigning agg Resources Scale was predicted to
be correlated with the anxiety reduction at the beginning of
the study, results from correlational analyses indicated that
they are not significant. Minimal relationships between the
scores in the Social Papctigniag and Resoupces Sgala, and
Gain score 1 and 2, and state-anxiety scores at Time 1, 2 and
3 were found (r = 0.03, 0.19, -0.16, -0.16, 0.03,
respectively, p > 0.05). Since the main criterion for a
covariate is a reasonably high degree of linear correlation
with the dependent variable (Keppel, 1982), data from the

Sgcial Paactigaing aad Rasgupces Scale was not included as a

covariate.

87

The mean and standard deviation of Gain Score 1 of each
group, and the ANOVA of Gain Scores 1 by Group, with Time 1
scores serving as a covariate are presented in Table 12 and

Table 13:

88

Table 12: Mean and Standard Deviation of Gain Score 1

Gain Score 1 Mean S(Standard Deviation)

 

Group I: -19.18 (9.55)
Group II: -4.54 (12.42)
Group III: -7.57 (11.52)

Table l3: Sammary of tha Analysis (Gain Score 1 by Group with

 

 

Time 1)

Source of Variation SS df MS F Sign. of F
Covariates

Time 1 1477.42 1 1477.42 12.71 .001
Main Effects

Group 2776.52 2 1388.26 11.95 .000"
Explained 4253.94 3 1417.98 12.20 .000
Residual 9296.63 80 116.21
Total 13550.57 83 163.26

N = 84, '* p < 0.01

89

A significant result was found in the main effect, Group
on Gain score 1 (Time 2 minus Time 1) (F = 11.95, p < 0.01,
df = 2, 80). Simple comparisons of Gain score 1's group mean
were then conducted to elucidate the pattern of Gain score 1
differences among the three groups. Computational procedures
to correct unequal variances between groups were used. That
is, the error terms of the analysis were computed by
averaging the variances of groups under comparison (Keppel,
1982). Results showed that a significant difference between
Group I and Group II was found (Fcomp 1 6 2 = 24.47, p <
0.001, df = 1, 54). The mean of Gain score 1 in Group I was

significantly higher than that in Group II.

Significant results were also recorded when comparing
the group mean of Gain score 1 between Group I and Group III
(Fcomp 1 6 3 = 16.86, p < 0.001, df = 1, 54). The mean of
Gain score 1 in Group I was significantly higher than that in

Group III.

Similar procedures were conducted to compute the gain
score differences between Time 1 and Time 3 among the three
experimental groups. Gain Score 2 was formulated by
subtracting Time 1 scores from Time 3 scores of all subjects.

Time 1 scores were used as a covariate.

90

The mean and standard deviation of Gain score 2 of each
group, and the ANOVA of Gain Score 2 by Group, with Time 1
scores serving as a covariate, are presented in Table 14 and

Table 15:

91

Table 14: Mean and Standard Deviation of Gain score 2

 

 

_ain Score 2 Maan (Standard Deviation)
Group I: —20.5 (9.25)
Group II: -11.5 (11.55)
Group III: -10.54 (14.88)

Table 15: Summary of the Analysis (Gain Score 2 by Grogp with

 

Time 1)

Source of Variation SS df MS F Sign. of F
Covariates

Time 1 3133.94 1 3133.94 27.71 .000
Main Effects

Group 1137.82 2 568.91 5.03 .009"
Explained 4271.75 3 1423.92 12.59 .000
Residual 9048.95 80 113.11
Total 13320.70 83 160.49

N = 84, “ p < 0.01

92

Significant F was found on the the main effect, Group on
Gain score 2 (Time 3 minus Time 1) (F = 5.78, p < 0.01, df =
2, 81). Simple comparisons of Gain score 2's group mean were
then conducted. Results showed that there was a significant
difference on Gain Score 2 between Group I and Group II

(Fcoup. 1 5 2 = 10.37, P < 0.01, df

1, 81). This
demonstrated that the mean of Gain Score 2 in Group I was

significantly higher than those in Group II.

Furthermore, there was a significant difference on the
Gain score 2's group mean between Group I and III (Fcomp. 1 6
3 = 9.06, p < 0.01, df = 1, 54). A Significantly higher mean
of Gain score 2 was found in Group I than Group III. This
showed that the degree of anxiety reduction between Time 1
and Time 3 (Gain score 2) was significantly more in Group I

than those in Group III.

In view of these findings, the first part of hypothesis
3 was confirmed. The levels of anxiety reduction in Group I
between Time 1 and Time 2, and Time 1 and Time 3 were
significantly higher than those in Group II and Group III, as

predicted.

Par; II:

The second part of hypothesis 3 stated that the level of

anxiety reduction in Group II between Time 1 and Time 2, and

93

Time 1 and Time 3 would be significantly higher than those in

Group III.

In light of significant F ratios on Gain score 1 and 2,
as reported above, similar simple comparisons of the mean of
Gain scores of Group II and III were conducted. Results
showed that there was no significant difference on Gain score
1 between Group II and Group III (Fcomp 2 6 3 = 0.90, p >

0.05, df = 1, 54).

Similarly, no significant result was found when
comparing the Gain Score 2's group mean between Group II and
Group III (Fcomp 2 6 3 = 0.07, p > 0.05, df = 1, 54). The
degree of anxiety reduction between the two groups between
Time 1 and Time 2, and Time 1 and Time 3 was not
significantly different. Thus, the second part of hypothesis

3 was not confirmed.

The above findings are summarized in Table 16 as

follows:

94

Table 16: F Values of gain Scoras by Group aad F Values of
the Associated Simple Comparisons Between Groups

 

 

 

F values Simpls Comparisons of Gain Scores
(with 3 Between Groups
_grpgpal
I 8 II I & III II 8 III
Gain score 1 11.95** 23.82** 16.86** 0.90
(Time 2 minus
Time 1)
Gain score 2 5.03** 10.37** 9.06** 0.07
(Time 3 minus
Time 1)
** p < 0.01, df = (2, 80) for the Gain scores; df = (1, 54)

for simple comparisons.

95

Fogrth Hypothasis:

The first part of hypothesis 4 stated that the ratings
of using prayer as a coping strategy would significantly
correlate with the ratings of using cognitive coping

strategies in the positive direction.

Results from the Pearson product-moment correlation did
not substantiate this hypothesis. There was no significant
correlational relationship between these two variables (r =

0.14, p > 0.05).

The second part of hypothesis 4 predicted that the
ratings of using prayer as a coping strategy would
significantly correlate with the ratings of using avoidance

strategies in the negative direction.

Results demonstrated that this hypothesis was supported.
A significant negative correlation coefficient was found

between the two variables (r = -0.24', p < 0.05).

Piith Hypothesis:

The first part of hypothesis 5 stated that the
likelihood of viewing prayer intrinsically would

significantly correlate with the ratings of trait-anxiety in

96

the negative direction.

Results from the Pearson product-moment correlation
showed that this hypothesis was confirmed. A significant
negative correlation coefficient was found between the two

variables, as predicted (r = -0.25', p < 0.05).

The second part of hypothesis 5 predicted that the
likelihood of viewing prayer extrinsically would
significantly correlate with the ratings of trait-anxiety in

the positive direction.

Results did not support this hypothesis. The
correlation coefficient between the two variables was found

to be not significant (r = 0.16, p > 0.05).

W:

The first part of hypothesis 6 stated that the reported
likelihood of viewing prayer intrinsically would
significantly correlate with the frequency of prayer, the

level of believability about prayer, and the ratings of the

Jghpson-Chan Prayep Effectiveness Scala in the positive

direction.

Results from the Pearson product-moment correlation

97

indicated that this hypothesis was confirmed. Significant
positive correlation coefficients were found between these

variables (r = 0.77, 0.67, and 0.66, respectively, p < 0.01).

The second part of hypothesis 6 predicted that the
reported likelihood of viewing prayer extrinsically would
significantly correlate with the frequency of prayer, the

level of believability about prayer, and the ratings of the

Jgansgn-Cpaa Pgayer Effectiveaess Scale in the negative
direction.

Results did not support this hypothesis. The
correlation coefficients of these variables were found to be
not significant (r = 0.20, 0.18 and 0.39, respectively, p >
0.05).

Past-hoe Analysis:

It is noteworthy that gender may play an important role
in influencing the degree of anxiety reduction of different
treatment conditions. Thus, in order to ascertain whether or
not the above findings of anxiety reduction could be
generalized to both female and male subjects, separate
analyses for each gender group were conducted. Similar
procedures in analysing anxiety reduction data by mainly

using Gain Score Analysis were conducted, as the above

98

overall data, for each gender group.

Female Subjects:

The mean and standard deviation of state-anxiety scores
for female subjects at different stages of the experiment are

reported in Table 17 and depicted in Figure 3:

99

Table 17: Female Subjects' S-Anaiety Scores: Mean (Standard

 

 

Deviation)

Tim; 1 Tima 2 Time 3
Group I 54.82 (11.75) 33.77 (9.35) 32.86 (10.59)
(n = 22)
Group II 48.52 (12.28) 44.76 (16.72) 36.67 (11.76)
(n = 21)
Group III 51.09 (14.54) 43.61 (15.72) 39.65 (14.33)

(n = 23)

100

 

S-Anxiety
Scores
0
60--
55--
50--
45--
Group III (Story)
40-- Al (n=23)
Group II (Letter)
35-- A2 (n=21)
Group I (Prayer)
30-- A3 (n=22)
25--
20- ------- -b ----------- F ----------- P --------------
Time 1 Time 2 Time 3

Time 1: Pre-treatment measure of state-anxiety (S-STAI)
during the initial session.

Time 2: Post-treatment measure of state-anxiety (S-STAI)
during the initial session.

Time 3: Post-treatment measure of state-anxiety (S-STAI)
after the one-week training.

Figure 3: State-AnxietygScoras of Female Subjagts
OnlyIIGroup X Tima)

 

101

The ANOVA of the dependent variable, State-Anxiety was
conducted, and the results of the omnibus F-test for female
subjects is provided in Table 18. The analysis represented a
3 X 3 Mixed Two-Factor Design with A as the non-repeated
factor (Group), and B as the repeated factor (Time). Due to
the unequal number of subjects in each cell, the Unweighted-

means Analysis was utilized in computation.

102

Table 18: Summary of Analysis with Eemale Subjects' S-Anxiety
Scares (Group X Time)

 

 

 

Source of Variation SS df MS F

A 636.49 2 318.25 0.87
S/A 23155.83 63 367.55

B 7967.05 2 3983.53 50.49"'
A X B 1918.60 4 479.65 6.08"

B X S/A 407636 162 78.90

N = 66, “ p < 0.01, *" p < 0.001

Geisser-Greenhouse Correction: MS; and MSaxa are evaluated
with df (1, 63) and df (2, 63) instead, respectively. Both B
and A X B F ratios are found to be significant at 0.001 and
0.01 levels, respectively, after correction.

103

Similar to the previous analysis with the overall
subject group, the Gain Score Analysis was used to ascertain
possible differences in anxiety reduction among the three

treatment groups.

A summary of the mean and standard deviation of Gain
Score 1 for the three groups is presented in Table 19, and
a summary of the ANOVA of Gain score 1 for female subjects
only, with Time 1 serving as a covariate, are presented in

Table 20 as follows:

Table 19:

104

Gain Score 1

 

 

Female Gain Score 1 Mean

Group I (n = 22): -21.05 (6.90)
Group II (n = 21): -3.76 (13.85)
Group III (n = 23): -7.48 (11.52)

Mean and Standard Deviation of Female Subjects'

4(Standard Deviation)

Table 20: Summary of tha Analysis (Gain Scora l by Group with

 

e or Fema e u 'ects Onl

Sogrca of Variation SS df MS F Sign. oi P
Covariates

Time 1 1420.63 1 1420.63 12.49 .001
Main Effects

Group 2889.88 2 1444.94 12.71 .000*'
Explained 4310.51 3 1436.84 12.63 .000
Residual 7051.31 62 113.73
Total 11361.82 65 174.80
N = 66, " p < 0.001

105

Results showed that a statistical significance for the
main effect, Group, was found. Simple comparisons were then
conducted among the mean of Gain score 1 among the three
experimental groups. The method of Unweighted-means analysis
was used in view of the unequal cell sizes. Statistical
adjustments in computation were also made due to unequal

variances among the three groups (Keppel, 1982).

When comparing the mean of Gain score 1 between Group I
and Group II, a significant F ratio was found (Fcomp 1 6 2 =
27.93, p < 0.001, df = 2, 63). The Gain score 1 was
significantly higher in Group I than in Group II. Female
subjects in Group I reported significantly more anxiety

reduction between Time 1 and Time 2 than those in Group II.

Significant results were also recorded when comparing
the group mean of Gain score 1 between Group I and Group III
(Fconp 1 6 3 = 22.25, p < 0.001, df = 1, 43). The Gain score
1 in Group I was significantly higher than that in Group III.
This demonstrated that the degree of anxiety reduction in

Group I was significantly higher than that in Group III.

However, no significant finding was recorded when
comparing the group mean of Gain score 1 between Group II and
Group III among female subjects (Fcoup 2 6 3 = 0.95, p >
0.05, df = 1, 42). The degree of difference in Gain score 1

between Group II and III among female subjects was not

106

significant. The extent of anxiety reduction between Time 1
and Time 2 for female subjects in Group II and III was not

significant.

A similar analysis was conducted on female subjects'
Gain Score 2 (Time 3 minus Time 1). A summary of the female
subjects' Gain Score 2 for the three groups is presented in
Table 21, and a summary of the F table for the ANOVA of Gain
score 2 (Time 3 minus Time 1), with Time 1 serving as a
covariate, for female subjects only is presented in Table 22

as follows:

Tabla 21: Maap and Standard Deviation of Female Subjects'

t

107

Gain Score 2

 

 

 

Famale Gain Score 2 Mean .(Standard Deviation)
Group I (n = 22): -21.96 (8.68)
Group II (n = 21): -11.86 (12.04)
Group III (n = 23): -11.44 (14.24)
Ta 1 22: 8 ar of th na is 'n Score b Grou with
Time for Female Sub'ects Onl
Source of Variation SS df _MS F Sign. of F
Covariates
Time 1 2758.46 1 2758.46 25.70 .000
Main Effects
Group 853.90 2 426.95 3.98 .024'
Explained 3612.36 3 1204.12 11.22 .000
Residual 6654.26 62 107.33
Total 10266.62 65 157.95

N = 66, ' p < 0.05

108

Results showed that F ratio was significant for the main
effect, Group. Simple comparisons of different group mean,
as used in the above analyses were conducted. When comparing
the group mean between Group I and Group II, a significant
difference was found (Fcoup 1 6 2 = 10.29, p < 0.05, df 1,
41). This indicated that female subjects in Group I reported
the level of anxiety reduction as significantly higher than

those among female subjects in Group II.

Significant results were also found when comparing the
group mean of Gain score 2 between Group I and III (Fcolp 1 6
3 = 8.69, p < 0.01, df = 1, 43). This revealed that female
subjects in Group I reported significantly more anxiety

reduction than female subjects in Group III.

No significant result was found when comparing the group
mean of Gain score 2 between Group II and III (Fcomp 2 6 3 =
0.01, p > 0.05, df = 1, 42). Female subjects in Group II did
not report significantly different levels of anxiety

reduction, as compared with female subjects in Group III.

In summary, it is important to note that the pattern of
significant differences on Gain Score 1 (Time 2 minus Time 1)
and Gain Score 2 (Time 3 minus Time 1) among female subjects

of the three experimental groups was identical to those found

in the entire subject group (n - 84), as reported previously.

109

W3

Similar analyses were conducted for male subjects only.
The mean and standard deviation of state-anxiety scores for
male subjects at different stages of the experiment are

reported in Table 23 and depicted in Figure 4:

110

1_bls 23: Male Subjects' S-Anaiaty Scores: Mean (Standard

 

 

 

Peviation)

Tima 1 Tim_ 2 Time 3
Group I 50.33 (13.00) 38.00 (13.31) 35.17 (10.83)
(n=6)
Group II 48.43 (10.69) 41.57 (12.58) 38.00 (8.49)
(n=7)
Group III 56.60 (16.29) 48.60 (20.47) 50.20 (21.23)

(n=5)

111

 

S-Anxiety
Scores
0

60.1-

55—4..
Group III (Story)

50-- A3 (n=5)

45--

40--
Group II (Letter)
A2 (n=7)

35-- Group I (Prayer)
A3 (n=6)

30--

25--

20a -------- u- ----------- I— ----------- I- --------------

Time 1 Time 2 Time 3

Time 1: Pre-treatment measure of state-anxiety (S-STAI)
during the initial session.

Time 2: Post-treatment measure of state-anxiety (S-STAI)
during the initial session.

Time 3: Post-treatment measure of state-anxiety (S-STAI)
after the one-week training.

Figgre 4: State-Anaiety Scores of Male Subjects Only
(grouan Tima)

112

The ANOVA of the dependent variable, State-Anxiety was
conducted, and the results of the omnibus F-test for male
subjects was provided in Table 24. The analysis represented
a 3 X 3 Mixed Two-Factor Design with A as the non-repeated
factor (Group), and B as the repeated factor (Time). Due to
the unequal number of subjects in each cell, the Unweighted-

means Analysis was used in computation.

113

 

Table 24: Summary of Analysis of Male Subjects' S-
Anxiety Scoras (Group X Time)

 

 

Source of Variation SS df MS F

A 1122.56 2 561.28 1.23
S/A 6843.43 15 456.23

8 1120.99 2 560.50 7.77"
A X B 152.29 4 38.07 0.53
B X S/A 2164.16 30 72.14

N = 18, “ p < 0.01

Geisser-Greenhouse Correction: MS; was evaluated with df (1,
15) instead, and the F ratio of B was found to be significant
at p < 0.05 level, after correction.

114

A significant main effect, the repeated factor, B (Time)
was found. In view of the fact that this study investigated
the possible differences in anxiety reduction among the three

experimental groups, the Gain Score Analysis was performed.

A summary of the mean and standard deviation of the Gain
Score 1 (Time 2 minus Time 1) is reported in Table 25, and a
summary of the results of ANOVA of Gain score 1, with Time 1
serving as a covariate, for male subjects is presented in

Table 26 as follows:

115

Iabls 25: Mean and Standard Deviation of Male Subjects'
Gain Score 1

 

 

 

Male Gain Score 1 Maan (Standard Deviation)
Group I (n = 6): -12.33 (14.84)
Group II (n = 7): -6.86 (6.79)
Group III (n = 5): -8.00 (12.85)

Table 26: Summary of the Analysis (Gain Scors 1 by Grogp with
Time 1 for ale ub'ec s O l

 

Source of Variation SS df MS F Sign. of F
Covariates

Time 1 101.99 1 101.99 0.74 0.40
Main Effects

Group 110.33 2 55.16 0.40 0.68
Explained 212.32 3 70.77 0.51 0.68
Residual 1929.68 14 137.83
Total 2142.00 17 126.00

N = 18

116

No significant F ratios were found. Male subjects in
the three experimental group did not significantly differ in
the level of anxiety reduction (F = 0.40, p > 0.05). No

further simple comparisons were conducted.

Similar procedures were used in analysing the Gain score
2 (Time 3 minus Time 1) of male subjects. A summary of the
mean and standard deviation of each group is presented in
Table 27, and a summary of the ANOVA of Gain score 2, with
Time 1 serving as a covariate, for male subjects only, is

presented in Table 28 as follows:

117

gable 27: Mean and Standard Deviation of Male Subjects;

Gain Score 2

(Standard Deviation)

 

Male Gain Scors 2 Maan
Group I (n = 6): -15.17
Group II (n = 7): -10.43
Group III (n = 5): -6.40

 

(10.09)
(10.71)
(18.81)

Tabla 28: Summary of ths Analysis (Gain Score 1 by Group with
Time 1) for Male Subjects Only

 

Source of Variation SS df MS Siga. of E
Covariates

Time 1 428.14 1 428.14 2.92 0.11
Main Effects

Group 345.21 2 172.61 1.18 0.34
Explained 773.35 3 257.78 1.76 0.20
Residual 2050.43 14 146.46
Total 2823.78 17 166.11

N = 18

118

Similar to findings in the analysis of Gain score 1 for
male subjects, no significant F ratios were found in the
above analysis. This indicated that male subjects in the
three treatment conditions did not significantly differ with
each other in the degree of anxiety reduction in Gain score 2
(Time 3 minus Time 1) (F = 1.18, p > 0.05). No further

simple comparisons were conducted.

In short, the existing data with male subjects only did
not reflect the same pattern of differences among treatment
groups, as shown by the overall results presented above.
Specifically, male subjects in the three treatment groups did
not differ from each other on Gain Score 1 and 2. The degrees
of anxiety reduction among the three groups of male subjects

were not significantly different from each other.

Jo on-C a a er f ct'ven ss Scale

This study also gathered preliminary data regarding the
possible effects of prayer in the Johnson-Chan Prayer
Effacgivaaass Sgala. Results from the 10-item scale were
rank-ordered, according to item, based on the size of their
mean (the results were scored reversely, 1 = strong
disagreement; 5 = strong agreement). They are summarized

below (see Appendix 0 for definitions of each item):

 

119

gable 29: Rank, Mean and StandardIEaviation of Items in

Qohnsoa-Chan Prayer Effectiveness Scale

 

 

ank Itam Maan Std. Deviation
1 Trust and relaxation 4.20 0.98
2 Confession and sense of 4.03 0.99

forgiveness
3 Loyalty and Perseverance 3.97 1.18
4 Joy, gratitude, and

reconciliation 3.95 1.08
5/6 Perspective and Clarification 3.93 1.08
5/6 Awareness of needs and

realities 3.93 1.04
7 Social responsiveness 3.76 1.17
8 Integration of personality 3.68 1.13
9 Decision and dedication 3.62 1.12
10 Renewal of emotional energy 3.44 1.18

DI SCUSSION

To reiterate, this study primarily investigates the
state-anxiety reduction effects of prayer in comparison with
two control groups. In addition to studying the possible
discrepancy between genders in using prayer as a means of
coping, it also attempts to ascertain the correlational
relationship between using prayer as a coping strategy and
the degree of distress; and other coping strategies. Other
main topics of interest include investigating the
relationship between viewing prayer intrinsically versus
extrinsically and trait-anxiety. The following section
elaborates on the meanings of the current findings. Their
implications for future psychological research on prayer will

also be discussed.

Tha Degree of Eaxiety and Prayer

The current findings did not replicate previous results
of similar studies (Lindenthal, Myer, Pepper and Stern, 1970;
Gurin, Veroff and Feld, 1960), which suggested that the
greater the degree of anxiety, the more likely subjects would
use prayer in coping with the anxiety provoking life events.
Although the correlation coefficient between the two
variables (namely, the level of anxiety regarding the most

anxiety provoking life event in the last 12 months and the

120

121

likelihood of using prayer as a coping strategy) indicated a
positive relationship, as predicted, it did not reach the
conventional level of statistical significance.

Nevertheless, it is interesting to note that the magnitude of
the relationship between these two variables (r = 0.12) was
slightly higher than the correlational relationship between
the degree of anxiety and using other coping strategies, such
as the cognitive strategy (r = -0.11) and the avoidance

strategy (r = 0.06).

One could speculate on different reasons for this lack
of a significant correlational relationship. It is important
to acknowledge that the prayer subscale of the Coping
Stpategy Scale was an exploratory one by nature. Subjects'
scores on this scale composed of items that reflected
different ways of praying such as petition, worship,
thanksgiving and claiming God's promises, etc. At the
beginning of the study, this researcher assumed that subjects
may use all of these methods of praying in dealing with an
anxiety provoking situation. However, a closer examination
of the prayer materials from Group I's subjects revealed that
they did not appear to do this. The content of prayers
offered regarding their current most anxiety provoking life
event were essentially petitionary by nature. Thus, it is
possible that the present finding would have been significant
should all of the prayer subscale's items tapped into only

the frequency of petitionary prayer, instead of encompassing

122

other types of prayers.

The insignificant correlational relationship found may
also have resulted from the restriction of range. It is
noteworthy that only subjects who had had previous experience
in prayer were recruited to this study. It is conceivable
that the strength of the correlational relationship was
substantially reduced because only a highly selected group
(i.e. people who prayed regularly) were recruited to the
study. That is, the correlational relationship was non-
significant, perhaps due to the fact that the variability of
one of the two factors in the correlational analysis was
curtailed. In essence, the correlational relationship was
possibly lowered by the fact that subjects who prayed
regularly would maintain a relatively similar level of
praying activity, regardless of the level of anxiety over

their immediate distressing life event.

Ma e - Female Dif erences in Fre uenc o Pra er

The present findings did not substantiate the second
hypothesis, which predicted that female subjects would tend
to use prayer as a coping strategy with an anxiety producing
life event more frequently than male subjects. The non-
significant t-test result does not replicate previous

findings, which indicated that women generally engaged in

123

praying activities more often than men (Ross, 1950). Results
of this study showed that female subjects did report using
prayer as a way of coping slightly more than male subjects,

however, the difference was not significant (4.51 vs. 4.44).

Further t-test analysis also revealed that female and
male subjects in this study did not significantly differ in

' on average (t value

their self-report "Frequency of Prayer,‘
= 0.49, p > 0.05, df = 1, 85). Although the mean frequency
of prayer by female subjects was slightly higher than those
by the male subjects (means = 8.03 vs. 7.75), the difference

was not significant.

It is possible that the lack of significant results in
the frequency of using prayer as a coping strategy between
male and female subjects may have been biased due to the
discrepancy between the number of female (n = 74) and the

number of male subjects (n = 27) recruited in this study.

In addition to this, the differences in using prayer may
have been minimized by the fact that only subjects, in both
sexes, with a reasonable level of frequency in practicing
prayer were recruited in this study. As a result, the gender
differences in using prayer may have been "washed out"
because of such criteria. The frequency of using prayer as a
coping strategy and the frequency of praying in general may

have been significantly higher for female than male subjects

124

in a less restricted sample.

The approximately 7:3 ratio for female and male
participation in this study may reflect that male college
students are less interested in the subject of prayer, and
are less likely to have previous experience of praying, as

required by this study.

Previous findings regarding gender differences in the
frequency of praying are derived from responses of subjects
representing the characteristics of the general population in
1950's, instead of the college students in 1990's.
Substantial changes in how each gender views and practices
prayer may have occurred. Further research, that is
specifically designed to investigate this possible
difference, and its implications to future research in gender

differences and religious behavior, would prove fruitful.

Aaaiety Reduction aad Prayer

The first half of the third hypothesis concerned the
central and most significant portion of this study. It
predicted that subjects instructed to pray about their
current most distressing life event (Group I) will report
significantly more state-anxiety reduction than those

instructed to write a letter to a best friend about the

125

distressing event (Group II) and those instructed to read and
write about an inspirational story (Group III). Results
stated above indicated that the first part of hypothesis
three was confirmed. The degree of state-anxiety reduction
in Group I was significantly more than that in Group II and
Group III between Time 1 and Time 2, and Time 1 and Time 3.
Subjects who prayed about their most anxiety provoking life
event reported significantly more reduction in state-anxiety
than ones who wrote letters to their best friend, and than
ones who read and wrote their thoughts about some
inspirational stories. This reinforced the general pattern
of the cited research reviewed, which suggests that the use
of prayer is an effective way of coping with state-anxiety.
These results also serve as one of first empirical data in
recent years that document that the use of prayer is helpful
in coping with psychological distress, as widely believed and

practiced by the religious community.

These findings are meaningful as one examines the
experimental design of the present study, especially, the
treatment conditions of Group I and Group II. Since Group I
subjects were instructed to write down their prayers
simultaneously as they prayed, they were engaged in a very
similar activity to Group II subjects, who were asked to
write to a best friend about the problem. This experimental
manipulation, in combination with other factors, such as the

randomization of subjects in group assignment and the

126 ‘

uniformity of experimental conditions except the independent
variables, allow the researcher to conclude that the
differences in the degree of subjective state-anxiety
reduction between the two groups were indeed due to the
particular effectiveness of prayer in coping with state-

anxiety.

It is noteworthy that there were no pre-existing
significant differences among the three groups in several
relevant variables, as stated, such as "Seriousness in
Participation," "Pre-treatment Anxiety Level," "Believability

about Prayer,‘ and "Importance of Prayer." Further
examination of the written materials provided by Group I and
Group II also reveal that they are reasonably similar in
length, involvement and complexity. These conditions

reinforce the validity of the current findings.

Written materials provided by Group III, were generally
shorter than the other two groups, as expected, because of
the extra amount of time involved in the reading of
inspirational stories within the lO-minute treatment
intervals. Reviewing the written materials provided by these
subjects show that the content tend to focus on reflections
about the stories, and relatively less on current personal
distress, as compared with other groups. One may speculate
that the shorter and less personal entries account for the

least degree of overall anxiety reduction reported by

127

subjects in Group III, as compared with subjects in Group I
and Group II (-10.54 vs. -20.50 and -11.50, respectively).
These results indicate that reading and writing about
inspirational biographical stories is a significantly less

effective means than using prayer in coping with anxiety.

The pre-existing level of self-report state-anxiety is
rather high in this sample, compared with the norm for
college students provided in the the manual of the
Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Ipvantopy (i.e. 51.48 vs.
37.62) (Spielberger, Gorsuch, Lushene, 8 Jacobs, 1983). This
could be attributed to the timing during which this study was
conducted. The research was carried out immediately
preceding the final examination time. Types of distressing
events categorized demonstrated that subjects were most
concerned about examinations and grades (37.62%). This
artificial and unexpected elevation of state-anxiety provided
the researcher with an appropriate subject group in

investigating the state-anxiety reduction effects of prayer.

Research findings from this study also provided some
preliminary data that elucidate the specific reasons why
prayer is effective in coping with anxiety. The ten possible
psychological effects of prayer, postulated by Johnson (1956)
were investigated and rank-ordered. Results in this study
seemed to be in agreement with Johnson's ideas about the

psychological effects of prayer. For example, half of the

128

items on the 10-item Johnson-Chan Prayer Effectivenss Scale

 

received a score of over 3.9 on the 1 to 5 Likert scale (1 =

strongly disagree; 5 = strongly agree). Consistent with the

state-anxiety reduction effect of prayer as shown, it is also
interesting to note that one of the Johnson's ten possible

' was endorsed by subjects in

effects, "Trust and Relaxation,'
this sample as the most likely effect of prayer among the 10

possible effects (mean = 4.20).

Besides the religious interpretations of why prayer
offers significant anxiety reduction, theoretical ideas
reviewed by Finney and Malony (1985) are worth investigating.
For example, they summarized that prayer uniquely offers: a)
a deautomatization of perception and cognition; b) a
conditioning of a lower level of arousal through induction of
a relaxation state; c) desensitization; and d) hypnotic

suggestion, etc.

Examining the written materials provided by subjects in
the present study offers additional insights about the
anxiety reduction property of prayer. It is this author's
view that the content of prayers appeared to be, not only
"cathartic" in nature, but they also tended to focus more on
hopefulness and joy in resolving the anxiety-provoking
situations, as compared with the content of letters written
to best friends. This qualitative difference may explain the

elevated anxiety reduction experienced by subjects who

129

prayed.

Since it is beyond the scope of this study to
investigate the specific psychological processes involved in
contributing to state-anxiety reduction through prayer,
further research to clarify the psychological processes would

be beneficial to the existing prayer and coping research.

It is also noteworthy that compared with subjects in
both control groups, Group I subjects' extent of anxiety
reduction was most prominent between Time 1 and Time 2, that
is, before and immediately after the treatment condition.
However, Group I subjects' degree of state-anxiety reduction
was minimal between Time 2 and Time 3, that is, before and
after one-week administration of the treatment. After Time
2, the level of state-anxiety reduction was maintained,
without substantial decrease at Time 3. This state-anxiety
reduction pattern could be described as the demonstration of
a basal effect, in that the state-anxiety reduction property
of prayer was maximized immediately after the initial praying
activity. Any additional praying activity, such as praying
about the same event for the following 6 days, merely
sustained the already relatively low state-anxiety level
following prayer, instead of contributing to additional

degrees of state-anxiety reduction.

Although the actual praying activity was evaluated and

130

ensured based on writings provided by subjects, it is unclear
whether other factors, such as other ways of coping, or
unexpected changes in life circumstances during the one-week
interval (between Time 2 and Time 3) could have caused the
state-anxiety reduction between Time 2 and Time 3. Caution
is needed in interpreting the validity of state-anxiety

results from Time 3.

Results did not confirm the second part of hypothesis 3,
which stated that the level of anxiety reduction among
subjects in Group II (letter-writing) between Time 1 and Time
2, and Time 1 and Time 3 would be significantly higher than
those in Group III (reading and writing about inspirational
stories). No significant difference was found in the degree
of state-anxiety reduction between the two control groups,
Group II and Group III between Time 1 and Time 2, and Time 1
and Time 3. These two control groups did not differ in the
extent of state-anxiety reduction, as predicted. There is no
significant difference between writing to a friend about
ones' problem and being exposed to an external stimuli
(inspirational stories) and writing about them in coping.
Both strategies were shown to have less state-anxiety

reduction, when compared with Group I.

Post-hoc findings also revealed that the significant
state-anxiety reduction effects of prayer appeared to apply

only to female subjects, but not to male subjects. Although

131

results from female subjects reflected basically the same
pattern of reduction for all three treatment groups as the
entire subject group, male subjects in Group I did not seem
to self-report significantly more state-anxiety reduction
than the control groups. The degrees of state-anxiety
reduction were not significantly different from each other
among male subjects in the three experimental groups. It
appears that the use of prayer did not lead to more state-
anxiety reduction than other means of coping for male
subjects. However, this finding is suggestive and
preliminary at best, due to the small sample size of male
subjects (n = 18), when compared with female subjects (n =
74). In light of current findings that indicate a state-
anxiety reduction effect of prayer, future research in
comparing such effects between genders would be pertinent and

meaningful.

Cognitive. Avoidanca Strategies and the Use of Prayer
in Copiag

Results did not support the first half of hypothesis
four. Subjects who tended to pray about their anxiety
producing life event did not necessarily utilize cognitive
coping strategies as well. Although the correlation
coefficient between using prayer and using cognitive
strategies were positive in direction, it did not reach the

conventional statistical significant level. Results

132

generated by this sample did not provide evidence to support
previous studies' (e.g., Billings and Moos, 1981; Holahan and
Moos, 1987) and this researcher's assumption that the mere
process of praying is associated with the tendency to clarify

one's cognitive understanding of problems in coping.

However, as predicted, current results demonstrated a
significant inverse correlational relationship between
praying about one's problems and using avoidance strategies
in coping. Although some may view that using prayer is
passive, inactive, and thus an avoiding behavior in coping,
the current data indicate that using prayer to cope is not
associated with one's tendency to avoid dealing with the
anxiety producing event. On the contrary, there is less
likelihood for one to avoid, when he or she prays about the
specific problem. This may be explained by the fact that
prayer provides a structure in which to encounter the
specific problem. It takes personal effort and internal
motivation, instead of avoidance, for one to pray about one's
concerns. This result reinforces the notion that prayer is

one of the active means of coping with anxiety.

ntrinsic vs. Extrinsi t le 0 Viewin Pra er an An i t

Results of this study indicated that subjects who viewed

prayer intrinsically tended to self-report less subjective

133

trait-anxiety (r = -0.25, p < 0.05), as predicted; whereas
with subjects who viewed prayer extrinsically, no such
significant correlational relationship with self-report
trait-anxiety was found (r = 0.16). These results provide
the first empirical evidence to demonstrate that viewing
prayer intrinsically is a more adaptable and effective means
in coping with anxiety than viewing prayer extrinsically, as
postulated. The current findings show that having an
internalized, well-integrated, high-believability, other-
oriented view about prayer and viewing prayer as a foundation
of one's religious life, instead of predominantly being
self-preoccupied with one's own needs in prayer, is
associated with less subjective trait-anxiety. It is
possible that being concerned less with one's own needs, and
being more interested in serving others and God, would
relieve one from self-worry, and thus would experience less
trait-anxiety. This conjecture is worth investigating in the

future.

Findings also revealed that an intrinsic style of
viewing prayer is significantly associated with a high
frequency of prayer and a high believability about prayer.
These findings further reinforced the notion that people who
view prayer as a central component of one's life, and seek to
integrate different areas of life in prayer would pray more
frequently. Naturally, one would also expect them to believe

in the effectiveness of prayer more, as shown by the data.

134

This study further illustrates the stance that it is
constructive and informative to study the association of
specific religious behaviors and their unique influence on
specific areas of mental health. In the context of the
current research on prayer, present findings show that people
who carry an attitude that prayer is a way of serving others
and God, a central part of one's life and motive, and an
internalized activity, tend to express less trait-anxiety.
"Intrinsic prayer" appears to be a "healthier" means to cope
with anxiety. Findings showed that people self-reported less
trait-anxiety when they fully integrated different facets of
their life through prayer, or saw prayer as one of the
central parts of life. These findings are commensurate with
previous results, which showed that high intrinsic religious

orientation was regarded as "healthier."

However, such a pattern was not demonstrated to be as
clear in relation to viewing prayer extrinsically in the
current sample. Although a positive correlational
relationship was found between viewing prayer extrinsically
and trait-anxiety, the coefficient did not reach the
statistical significance level. Viewing prayer extrinsically
also did not significantly correlate with low frequency of

prayer (r = 0.20) and believability about prayer (r = 0.18).

Several implications can be drawn in light of the lack

of a significant relationship with the extrinsic factor.

135

First, these results may simply show that viewing prayer as a
way of solely serving the self, or personal gain, instead of
caring for others or serving God does not necessarily
associate with high self-report trait-anxiety. Results
suggest that the extrinsic factor is irrelevant in predicting
the level of trait anxiety, frequency and believability about
prayer. Second, intrinsic and extrinsic styles of prayer do
not represent polar opposites, as demonstrated by research in
religious orientation reviewed above. One does not
necessarily score high on one factor and low on the other
factor. These two styles may simply describe different,
rather than opposite ways of viewing prayer. Thus, they
would not have an opposite correlational relationship with
anxiety between each other. Third, it is also possible that
the current results were biased by the social desirability
factor. That is, since scoring high on the extrinsic prayer
subscale involved endorsing items that imply using prayer
basically for self-serving ends, this does not put the person
in a positive light. Thus, the correlational relationship
was under-estimated due to the fact that subjects were less
likely to endorse extrinsic prayer items. The impact of
social desirability in religious orientation and related
research is still unclear, as reviewed. Further study in
this area is recommended. In addition, the lack of
significant findings with the extrinsic factors, in
conjunction with obscure findings previously reported about

the extrinsic religious orientation, raises doubts about the

136

construct validity of this factor.

In short, the current study represents the first
empirical research that investigates the theoretical
construct: intrinsic vs. extrinsic view of prayer, their
association with frequency and believability about prayer,
and trait-anxiety. The intrinsic factor is associated with
several variables about prayer. However, refinement of the

extrinsic factor is needed.

It is this researcher's opinion that other factors
relating to prayer, such as the form (e.g. verbal vs.
nonverbal; spontaneous vs. liturgical, etc.), length,
consistency, and setting of prayer (e.g. individual vs. group
prayer); and the population (e.g., college student vs. non-
college population, and subjects from different age groups),
etc. need to be further examined in order to elucidate their
relationship with anxiety reduction and with other mental

health variables.

This study only included self-report data of the self-
perceived level of anxiety as the dependent variable.
Measurements were subjective as to the degree of anxiety, or
anxiety reduction. It would be of interest for future
research to investigate if current findings could be
generalized to objectively measure variables of anxiety, for

example, muscular tension level used in Elkins, Anchor, and

137

Sandler's (1979) study.

In conclusion, the debate over whether religious
behavior is beneficial or harmful to one's psychological
health has lasted for over a century. It is the researcher's
view that it is inaccurate to regard all religious behaviors
as antithetical to one's psychological health. Neither is it
valid to assume that all religious behaviors are helpful in
promoting psychological health. The most appropriate
question to address is: What types of religious behaviors are
beneficial to what aspects of psychological health? This
would provide more fruitful findings, and prevent one from
over-generalizing results, consequently misinforming the
public. The underpinnings of the current study illustrate
this pre-supposition. In essence, it provides empirical
findings in demonstrating whether one particular religious
behavior, prayer, is helpful or not in coping with a mental
health variable, state-anxiety. Results indicated that using
the religious behaviors of prayer is a more effective means
of reducing subjective state-anxiety, as compared with other
means used in control groups. Further empirical research on
the relationship between human psychology and religious
behaviors would help to decipher the myriad impacts of
religion on human behaviors, an area that has been largely
misunderstood and neglected in the field of psychological

science in recent years.

APPENDICES

1.

138

Appendix A

Consent Form

I have freely consented to take part in a scientific study
regarding verbal communication and anxiety conducted by
Tommy Chan, M.A. under the supervision of Dr. Elaine
Donelson, Professor of Psychology.

Participation in this research will involve three

components:

a) Today's session: this part of the study will require
that I recall some troublesome life events, engage in
a 10-minute communication-related activity (some of
the subjects will be involved in prayer), and to
answer some questionnaires measuring the way I feel
and other personal variables. This session will take
about one hour.

b) Daily activity: I will be instructed to engage in a
similar lO-minute communication-related activity
daily for the following six consecutive days.

c) Follow-up session: I will be required to answer some
questionnaires regarding the way I feel and other
personal variables. This session will take about 1/2
hour. The total time of participation will be about
three hours.

This study has been explained to me and I understand the
explanation that has been given and what my participation
will involve.

I understand that I am free to discontinue my
participation in the study at any time without penalty.

I understand that I (for psychology students) will receive
research credits for my participation only when I complete
all three components of this research as instructed. No
partial credits will be given.

I understand that the results of the study will be treated
in strict confidence and that I will remain anonymous.
Within these restrictions, results of this study will be
made available to me at my request.

I understand that my participation in the study does not
guarantee any beneficial results to me.

I understand that, at my request, I can receive additional
explanations of the study after my participation is
complete.

139

9. I indicate my voluntary and anonymous agreement to
participate by completing and returning all testing
materials as instructed.

140

Appendix B

Instruction Sheet

The following pages include different sets of questions
asking for some information about you, your family and your
friends. Please answer different sets of questions according
to the order presented. You will also be asked to engage in
some type of communication-related activity. Please read
different instructions carefully before you begin.

You should write your answers on the pages from p.3 to
Big) and pig, However, beginning from p.7 (items 1 to 97),
you should record your answers by blackening the appropriate
circles on the inserted computer data sheet.

Please be sure to record your answers corresponding to
the number of the items on the computer data sheet.

Since the study is strictly confidential and anonymous,
please answer each question as honestly as possible. Please
also remain quiet, and do not talk with other research
participants while the session is in progress.

For now, please begin with p.3, and stop at the end of
9.11 (item 76) beforavyou are reguested to continua.

141

Appendix C

(Social Functioning and Resources Scale)
SOME QUESTIONS ABOUT YOUR FAMILY AND FRIENDS

About how many friends do you have, people you

know more than just casually? ................. friends
How many close friends do you have, people you

feel at ease with and can talk to about

personal problems? ............................ friends

How many people do you know from whom you can
expect real help in times of trouble? ......... people

How many clubs and organizations (e.g., church
group, union, PTA, bowling team) do you
belong to ..................................... clubs

Do you belong to a close circle of friends, a
group of people who keep in touch with each
other ......................................... yes no

How often do you attend religious services?

never

once or twice a year
several times a year
once or twice a month
every week

more than once a week

DURING THE LAST MONTH, have you done or attend,
any of these activities?

Together with Together with

another family one or more
member friends

Yes No Yes No

Athletic event .......
Board games (chess,
checkers, Scrabble)
Card game ............
Concert, opera, or
museums ..............
e. Had a long talk ......
f. Helped out on some

project ..............
g. Hike or long walk

U‘m

0:0

h. Hunting or fishing
i. Meeting of a club

or organization ......
3. Party ................
k. Picnic ...............
1 Swimming or tennis

YOUR FAMILY AND FRIENDS

DURING THE LAST MONTH, how often did you get together with
one or more friends?

Friends visited Got together with friends
at your home times outside your home times

DURING THE LAST MONTH, how often did you visit with
relatives?

Relatives visited Visited with relatives
at your home times outside your home times

Different people do their household tasks in different ways.
DURING THE LAST MONTH, how have the following tasks been done
in your household?

key: 1: you only
2= you mostly
3= you plus someone else equally
4= someone else mostly
5= someone else only
6: does not apply

Shops for groceries .............................
Plans and cooks meals ...........................
Takes out garbage ...............................
Cleans the house ................................
Does heavy housework ............................
Makes minor household repairs ...................
Tends the yard ..................................
Handles the bill . ...............................
Decides how the money should be spent ...........
Brings car in for repairs .......................
Drives to family outings ........................
Helps children with homework ....................
Disciplines children ............................ ___
If you indicate "someone else" helped with some of the above
household tasks, was that person generally you spouse, child,
or another person?

spouse child another person

143

Pamily Activitiss

Do any of the following topics often cause disagreements in
your family?

Discipline
Major purchases

Use of the car
Watching TV

yes no yes no
___ ___ Friends ___ ___ Helping with chores
___ ___ Relatives ___ ___ Sex

___ ___ Driving habits ___ ___ Drugs

___ ___ Politics ___ ___, Alcohol

___ ___ Money ___ ___ Cigarette smoking

Think of a person who is important to you. Indicate their
relationship to you.

Relationship: spouse child parent other

How often do the two ofaygu: some- fairly
never saidom times often often

Calmly discuss something
together? ...................

 

 

 

Have a stimulating exchange
of ideas? ...................

 

 

 

Disagree about something
important? ..................

 

 

Become critical and
disapproving? ...... .........

 

 

 

Have a good time together

 

 

 

Become angry? ...............

 

 

 

144

Appendix D

(Demographic Inventory)

Some Facts About You
(Please put your answers on this sheet).

Date of Birth: Age: Sex: Female Male

Marital status: (check)
single married divorce widowed

Ethnic group: (check)

American Indian Asian-Pacific
African-American Hispanic
Caucasian Others: (specify)

What year are you in school? (check)

Freshman Sophomore Junior Senior
Graduate School

 

(Description of the Most Distressing Event in the Last 12
Months)

The following are examples of troublesome life events that
could cause subjective feelings of anxiety, worry,
apprehension, and nervousness.

a) Worrying about the future

b) Death of a close friend

c) Trouble with friends, roommates, or neighbors
d) Argument with boyfriend or girlfriend

e) Breaking up with boyfriend or girlfriend
) Death of a family member

9) Worrying about the performance of a class
h) Writing a research paper

i) Preparing for an upcoming examination

j) Worrying about finances

k) Legal problems

1) Assaulted or robbed, etc.

Please identify the most troublesome life event, in one or
two statements, that happened to you during the last 12
months, which caused feelings of anxiety, worry,
apprehension, tension, and/or nervousness.

 

 

145

Comparing to other troublesome life events in the past, how
would you rate the level of anxiety regarding this event?
(Please circle the appropriate number on this page).

1 1 I 2 (L 3 l 4 l 5 1 6 J 7 I
None Very much
Level of anxiety

146

Appendix E

Coping Strategy Scale

Instructions: The following is a list of coping strategies
people used in dealing with troublesome life events that
cause anxiety, worries, apprehension, and nervousness. In
coping with the most troublesome event in the last 12 months
past you just identified, please indicate whether you have
used each of the following strategy (l= yes; = no).

Please begin to put your answers by blackening the
appropriate circlss on the computer data sheetsprovided.

Key:
l= yes
2: no
1. Tried to see positive side
2. Tried to find out more about the situation
3. Took it out on other people when I felt angry or

depressed

4. Tried to focus on God through prayer and worship

5. Tried to step back from the situation and be more
objective

6. Talked with professional person (e.g. doctor, clergy,
lawyer) about the situation

7. Kept my feelings to myself

8. Prayed for God's will about the situation

9. Prayed for guidance or strength

10. Took some positive action

11. Avoided being with people in general

12. Tried to be thankful to God in prayer because I may
learn something good through the difficulty

l3. Took things one step at a time

14. Talked with spouse or other relative about the
problem

15. Refused to believe that it happened

16. Tried to be reminded of God's promises through prayer

17. Considered several alternatives for handling the
problem

18. Talked with friend(s) about the situation

19. Tried to reduce the tension by drinking more

20. Prayed for God's help, direction, and peace

21. Drew on my past experience I was in a similar
situation before

22. Exercise more

23. Tried to reduce the tension by eating more

24. Prayed for the resolution of the problem

147

Appendix F

(Feagin-Chan Intrinsic-Extrinsic Prayer Inventory)
Prayer Assessment Inventory

Instructions: The following is a list that describes how
people see prayer. Please identify each statement with the
response that best applies to you (1: strong agreement to 5=
strong disagreement).

For items 33 and 34, please use choices below the statement.
Please record your answers on the computer data sheet.

 

Key:
L_ 1 l 2 L 3 J 4 J 5 1
Strong Strong
Agreement Disagreement

25. What prayer offers me most is comfort when sorrow and
misfortune strike.

26. I try hard to pray for all areas of my life.

27. Prayer helps to keep my life balanced and steady in
exactly the same way as my other refreshing
activities.

28. One reason for me to pray at church is because it
would help me to be acceptable by the religious
community.

29. The purpose of prayer is to secure a happy and
peaceful life.

30. My prayer life really serves as a foundation of my
religious life.

31. The prayers I say when I am alone carry as much
meaning and personal emotion as those said by me
during group situations.

32. Participating in prayer groups, or related activities
is most important as a way of formulating good social
relationships.

33. If not prevented by unavoidable circumstances, I
attend prayer meeting, or I pray with other people
about:
1= more than once a week
2= once a week
3= two or three times a month
4= once every month or two

5: rarely
34. I read literature about prayer:
= frequently

= somewhat frequently
= occasionally
= rarely

35.

36.

148

5= never

It is important to me to spend periods of time in
private prayer and meditation.

The primary purpose of prayer is to gain relief
and protection.

149

Appendix G

(Description of the Current Most Distressing Event)

Similar to the previous question that asked you to identify
the most troublesome life event in the last 12 months, please
identify the most troublesome life event in one or two
statements that is troubling you pay, at thisimoment. That
is, an event that is causing you feelings of anxiety, worry,
apprehension, tension and/or nervousness now.

(If the current event qualifies as the most troublesome life
event in the last 12 months, it is permissible to identify
the same event reported earlier).

 

 

In the space below, please briefly describe how is it
influencing you now? Also, what would be the worst possible
scenario?

 

 

 

 

 

Compared to other troublesome experiences, how would you rate
the level of anxiety regarding this experience? (Please
circle the appropriate number on this page).

[I l J, 2 J 3 J 4 L 5 (La 6 J 7 J
None Very much

Level of anxiety

150

Appendix H

(Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory)
(State version)
Self Evaluation Questionnaire
Developed by Charles D. Spielberger
in collaboration with
R. L. Gorsuch, R. Lushene, P. R. Vagg, and G. A. Jacobs
STAI Form Y-l

DIRECTIONS: A number of statements which people have used to
describe themselves are given below. Read each statement and
then blacken the appropriate circle on the computer data
sheet to indicate how you feel right now) at this moment,
regarding theaabove identified most troublesome life event
that is troubliag you now.

There are no right or wrong answers. Do not spend too much
time on any one statement but give the answer which seems to
describe your present feelings best.

Remember: rate how you feel regarding the current most
troublesome life event.

1: Not At All

2: Somewhat

3: Moderately So

4. Very Much So
37. I feel calm 1 2 3 4
38. I feel secure 1 2 3 4
39. I am tense 1 2 3 4
40. I feel strained 1 2 3 4
41. I feel at ease 1 2 3 4
42. I feel upset 1 2 3 4
43. I am presently worrying over possible

misfortunes l 2 3 4

44. I feel satisfied 1 2 3 4
45. I feel frightened 1 2 3 4
46. I feel uncomfortable I 2 3 4
47. I feel self-confident 1 2 3 4
48. I feel nervous 1 2 3 4
49. I am jittery 1 2 3 4
50. I am indecisive 1 2 3 4
51. I am relaxed 1 2 3 4
52. I am content 1 2 3 4
53. I am worried I 2 3 4
54. I feel confused 1 2 3 4
55. I feel steady 1 2 3 4
56. I feel pleasant 1 2 3 4

151

(Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory)
(Trait version)

Self-Evaluation Questionnaire
STAI Form Y-2

DIRECTIONS: A number of statements which people have used to
describe themselves are given below. Read each statement and
blacken the appropriate circles on the computer data sheet to
indicate how you geneially feel. There are no right or
wrong answers. Do not spend too much time on any one
statement but give the answer which seems to describe your
present feelings best.

Remember: rate how you generally feel.

1: Almost Never
2: Sometimes
3: Often
4. Almost Always
57. I feel pleasant 1 2 3 4
58. I feel nervous and restless 1 2 3 4
59. I feel satisfied with myself 1 2 3
60. I wish I could be as happy as others seems
to be 1 2 3 4
61. I feel like a failure 1 2 3 4
62. I feel rested 1 2 3 4
63. I am "calm, cool, and collected" 1 2 3 4
64. I feel that difficulties are piling up so
that I cannot overcome them 1 2 3 4
65. I worry too much over something that really
doesn't matter 1 2 3 4
66. I am happy 1 2 3 4
67. I have disturbing thoughts 1 2 3 4
68. I lack self-confidence 1 2 3 4
69. I feel secure 1 2 3 4
70. I make decision easily 1 2 3 4
71. I feel inadequate 1 2 3 4
72. I am content 1 2 3 4
73. Some unimportant thoughts runs through my
mind 1 2 3 4
74. I take disappointments so keenly that I
can't put them out of my mind 1 2 3 4
75. I am a steady person 1 2 3 4
76. I get in a state of tension or turmoil as I
think over my recent concerns and interests 1 2 3 4

Please stop hereysand do not turn to the nest page.
The next segment of this session requires:avery one
to begin at the_same time. Plaase gait until you ass
told to proceed.

 

152

Appendix I

(Group Instruction Sheet)
(Group 1)
Instruction
It is not uncommon for people who face anxiety in life
to pray to God about the problem. Please pray about your
current most troublesome life event that you just identified
(i.e., the event that is causing you anxiety now).

Please pray as you usually would in the past.

You should simulianeously put your prayer in writing on
the sheets of paper provided. In other words, please record

your prayer in writing as you pray.

Please pray/write continuously without making any
changes.

Write legibly, and use the single-spaced, one-sided
format for about 10 minutes.

Please continaa praying/writing until you are signaled
to stop.

Please begin now.

153

(Group Instruction Sheet)

(Group II)
Instruction

It is not uncommon for people who face anxiety in life
to write letters to a best friend about the problem. Please
write a letter about your current most troublesome life event
that you just identified (i.e., the event that is causing you

anxiety now).
Please write as you usually would in thespast.

Please write continuously without making any changes.

You should put your writing on the sheets of paper
provided.

Write legibly, and use the single-spaced, one-sided
format for about 10 minutes.

Please continue writing until you are signaled to stop.

Please begin now.

154
(Group Instruction Sheet)
(Group III)
Instruction

It is not uncommon for people who face anxiety in life
to read biographical stories. Please read the story on the
next page. Then, write your thoughts, reflections, and/or
opinions about the story.

You should write any thoughts about the story as it
relates to the current most troublesome life event that you
just identified (i.e., the event that is causing you anxiety
now).

Please write continuously without making any changes.

Write legibly, and use the single-spaced, one-sided
format for about 10 minutes.

Please continue writing until you are signaled to stop.

Please begin now.

1...:
U1
(11

Appendix J

(Inspirational Stories)
(Inspirational Story 1):

Rollo Reese May was born in Ada, Ohio in 1909. Neither
of his parents was well educated and May's early intellectual
climate was virtually nonexistent. In fact, when his older
sister had a psychotic breakdown some years later, May's
father attributed it to too much education.

He spent most of his childhood in Michigan. May's
parents had frequent arguments and eventually they separated.
As a child May was not particularly close to either parent.
His father moved frequently during May's youth, and his
mother was a "bitch-kitty on wheels." He attributed his own
two failed marriages to her unpredictable behavior and to his
older sister's psychotic episode. May found solitude and
relief from family strife by playing on the shores of the St.
Clair River. He attended college at Michigan State where he
majored in English. However, he was asked to leave school
soon after he became editor of a radical student magazine.
After receiving his bachelor from another college, May
travelled throughout eastern and southern Europe. After
returning to the U.S. he enrolled at Union Theological
Seminary in New York. May did not enter the seminary in
order to become a minister, but rather to ask the ultimate
questions concerning the nature of human beings. He also
studied psychoanalysis and worked as a counselor.

Prior to receiving his doctorate, May underwent the most
profound experience of his life. While still in his early
thirties, he contracted tuberculosis and spent three years at
the Saranac Sanitarium in upstate New York. At that time
there was no medication for the disease, and for a year and a
half May did not know whether he would live or die. He felt
hopeless.

He began to develop some insight into the nature of his
illness. He realized that the disease was taking advantage
of his helpless and passive attitude. He saw that the
patients around him who accepted their illness were the very
one who tended to die, while those who fought against their
condition tended to survive. As May learned to listen to his
body he discovered that healing is an active, not a passive
process. The person who is sick must be an active
participant in the therapeutic process. May realized this
truth for himself as he recovered from tuberculosis, but it
was only later that he was able to see that his psychotherapy
patients also had to fight against their disturbance in order

156

to get better.

During his illness, May was writing a book on anxiety.
After he recovered from his illness he wrote his dissertation
on the subject of anxiety and the next year published it
under the title The Meaning of Anxiety. He received his Ph.D
in psychology in 1949. May has been a visiting professor at
both Harvard and Princeton and has lectured at such
institutions as Yale, Dartmouth and Columbia. He has also
been the chairman for the Council for the Association of
Existential Psychology and Psychiatry, president of the New
York Psychological Society, and a member of the Board of
Trustees of the American Foundation for Mental Health.
Through his writings May has become the best known American
spokesperson for the existential movement.

(Inspirational Story 2):

Erik H. Erikson was born in 1902 in Frankfurt, Germany,
to Danish parents. His father left before the child was
born, and the young Erikson moved with his mother to
Karsruhe, where three years later, his mother married his
pediatrician, Dr. Theodore Homburger. Erikson was given his
stepfather's last name. He was not told for some years that
Homburger was not really his father. Erikson later called
this an act of "loving deceit." Thus, he was unsure not only
his psychological identity, but also of his actual identity
in a fundamental sense -- his name. He kept the name
Homburger until he was 37 and changed it to Erikson in 1939,
when he became an American citizen.

Another crisis of identity began when he was old enough
for school. He considered himself a German, despite his
Danish parentage, but his German classmates rejected him
because he was Jewish. At the same time, his Jewish peers
rejected him because of his tall, blond, Aryan appearance.

At the synagogue, he was called "the goy." He later converted
to Christianity.

He became a dropout from society for a while and
wandered throughout Germany and Italy, reading, recording his
thoughts in a notebook, and observing life around him. He
described himself during that time as being morbidly
sensitive and hovering on the vague borderline between
psychosis and neurosis. He studied for brief periods at two
art schools and had an exhibition in Munich, but each time he
left formal training to resume his wandering, still searching
for his own identity. This experience posed an significant
impact of his personality theory on identity.

In 1927, at the age of 25, he was invited to come to
Vienna to teach at a small school, established for the
children of Sigmund Freud's patients and friends. During the
next years, he received his training in psychoanalysis. He
married a Canadian woman, and they emigrated to the U.S. in
1933 because of the Nazi. They settled in Boston, where
Erikson set up a private practice specializing in the
treatment of children.

He began to study for a Ph.D. in psychology at Harvard
but quit after a few months because of disaffection with a
formal program of academic study. In 1936, he was invited to
the Institute of Human Relations at Yale, where he continued
his work with both normal and troubled children and also
taught at the medical school.

In 1943, Erikson also investigated the life of two
American Indian tribes. He began to notice symptoms revolved
around a sense of uprootness from one's cultural traditions
and resulted in the lack of a clear self-image or identity, a

158

phenomenon he called identity confusion or more commonly
known as identity crisis.

His strong interest in the role of history as it affects
youth has resulted in a number of psychosocial studies, on
such figures as Adolf Hitler, Maxim Gorky, Martin Luther and
Mahatma Gandhi. Although Erikson received no university
degrees, he remains extremely productive. His primary
activity now is continued psychohistorical analyses to
demonstrate the role of identity confusion in the lives of
influential people.

159

(Inspirational Story 3):

Karen Horney was born in a small village not far from
Hamburg, in northern Germany. Her father was a ship captain
of Norwegian background, and her mother was Dutch. While the
father was a devout Bible reader, domineering, imperious,
morose, and silent, the mother was attractive, vivacious, and
a freethinker. The father was away at sea for long periods,
and when he was home, the opposing natures of the parents
often led to arguments.

We can see the roots of Horney's theory of personality
in her own childhood experiences. Her biographer, Jack
Rubins, noted: "Her work comes through as a product of her
personality and of her external milieu . . . filtered through
her personality." For most of her childhood and adolescence,
she doubted that her parents, particularly her father, wanted
her.

The young Horney admired her father and desired his love
and attention, but she was intimidated by him. She long
remembered "his frightening blue eyes" and his stern,
demanding manner. Throughout her early years she felt
rejected by him. He made frequent disparaging comments about
her appearance and intelligence. She felt belittled and
unattractive, despite the fact that she was pretty.

She was close to her mother and became the "adoring
daughter," as a way of getting affection. Until the age of 8
she was a model child, clinging and compliant, "like a little
lamb," she wrote. In spite of these efforts, she still did
not believe that she had the love and security she needed.
Self-sacrifice and good behavior were not working, so she
changed her tactics.

At age 9, she became ambitious and rebellious. She
decided that if she could not have love and security, she
would take revenge for her feelings of unattractiveness and
inadequacy. Years later she wrote, "If I couldn't be
beautiful, I decided I would be smart." She vowed always to
be the first in her class. As an adult she came to realize
how much hostility she had developed as a child. Horney's
personality theory describes how a lack of love in childhood
helps to foster basic anxiety and hostility.

At the age of 12, she decided to seek a medical career.
In spite of spirited opposition from her father and her
strong feelings of worthlessness and despair, Horney worked
hard in high school to prepare herself for medical school.
So strongly did her father resist the idea that, when she
began her studies at the University of Freiburg, her mother
left him and moved nearby.

At the age of 24, in 1909, she married Oscar Horney, a

aux!“

,hnroz ”1.;
1C1...» O ‘v P:

160

Berlin lawyer, and in due course had three children and
entered into psychoanalysis training.

In 1926, she and her husband separated, and six years
later she emigrated to the United States, working first in
Chicago, and then settling permanently in New York. During
these years she developed most of her theory. Toward the end
of her life, she became interested in Zen Buddhism, and she
visited a number of Zen monasteries in Japan the year before
she died.

161

(Inspirational Story 4):

The second of six children, Alfred Adler was born on
February 7, 1870 and raised in a suburb of Vienna. Adler
only knew a few Jewish children and so was influenced more by
Viennese than by his Jewish culture.

Adler's early childhood was not a happy one. It was
marked by sickness, an awareness of death, unhappiness, and
jealousy of his older brother. He suffered from rickets,
which kept him from running and playing with other children.
At the age of 3, he witnessed the death of a younger brother
in the next bed; at 4, Adler himself was close to death from
pneumonia. It was then when he heard the doctor tell his
father "Your boy is lost" that he decided to become a doctor
himself.

A sickly child during the first two years of his life,
he was pampered at first by his mother, only to be dethroned
by the arrival of a a new brother. There is some suggestion
of rejection on the part of his mother, but Adler was clearly
his father's favorite.

As he grew older and his health improved a bit, he began
to spend more time outdoors, primarily because he was not
happy at home. In spite of his clumsiness and
unattractiveness, he worked hard to become popular with his
playmates and found a sense of acceptance and self-esteem
that he had not found at home. In his personality theory, he
emphasized the importance of a child's relations with his or
her peer group. He saw the role of other children, both
siblings and outsiders, as much more important to personality
development than Freud did.

In school he was unhappy and was only a mediocre
student. In fact, one of his teachers advised his father to
apprentice him to a shoemaker; the teacher felt that the
young Adler was unfit for anything else. He was particularly
bad in mathematics, but through persistence and hard work he
rose from a failing student to the best in his class.

In many ways, his childhood reads like a tragedy, it
also reads like a textbook example of Adler's later theory of
overcoming childhood weaknesses and inferiorities and shaping
one's destiny instead of being shaped by it. The man who
would give the world the notion of inferiority feelings
certainly spoke from the depths of his own early experiences.

He later studied medicine at the University of Vienna.
He entered private practice as an ophthalmologist but shifted
after a few years to general medicine.

By 1910, although Adler was president of what was then
called the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society and co-editor of its

162

new journal, he was also an increasingly vocal critic of
Freudian theory. In 1911, Adler severed all connection with
psychoanalysis and went on to develop his own system. In
1912, Adler founded the Society for Individual Psychology.

After serving in the Austrian army during World War I,
Adler was asked to organize government-sponsored child-
counseling clinics in Vienna. These clinics soon grew
rapidly in number and popularity. In 1926, Adler made the
first of an increasingly frequent series of visits to the

U.S., where he taught and made highly successful lecture
tours.

163

(Inspirational Story 5):

Harry Stack Sullivan spend his childhood on his parents'
farm in Norwich, New York. His boyhood years were spend
largely in isolation from others of his own age. He was the
only child of his parents to survive and was one of very few
Catholics in a small, predominantly Protestant community.

His later phenomenal insight into the loneliness of
schizophrenia may have stemmed from his own solitary years as
a child. It is fascinating that Sullivan, who later stressed
the importance of interpersonal relations, had such enormous
difficulties dealing with people himself, especially during
his childhood and adolescence. Sullivan's early life
provides an obvious parallel with his personality theory.

His childhood was spent isolation not only from other
children but also, in an emotional sense, from his parents.
His father was taciturn and withdrawn. The young Sullivan
never felt close to him. His mother was an embittered semi-
invalid, constantly complaining to her only child about the
former glories of her family and how degraded she felt by her
husband's failure to be anything more than a factory laborer.

At school, Sullivan was always a misfit, accepted by no
one, a shy, moody, reclusive, socially inept boy whose only
esteem came from doing well in his classes. When he was 8
years old, he established his first close relationship, and
it had a disastrous effect on his life. Longing for
friendship and acceptance, he became friends with a
13-year-old boy who exploited Sullivan in a homosexual
liaison. The nature of their relationship became known in
the community, and this further ensured Sullivan's status as
an outsider. Sullivan's biographer, A. H. Chapman reported
that neither boy became heterosexual or married. Both
eventually became psychiatrists.

After graduating from high school at the top of his
class, Sullivan entered Cornell University but dropped out
after a year; he had failed all of his courses. He supported
himself by taking odd jobs and saved enough money to enter
medical school in 1911, the only professional school one
could enroll in at that time with only a high school degree.
During his medical training, he studied psychoanalysis and
entered into it as a patient. Following military service
during World War I, he worked for the government until 1922,
when he joined the staff of St. Elizabeth's Hospital.

In 1923, Sullivan moved to the Sheppard and Enoch Pratt
Hospital in Baltimore and joined the teaching staff of the
University of Maryland Medical School. Over the next several
years, he developed his techniques of interpersonal
psychiatry, working primarily with male schizophrenia; he did
not get along well with female patients. He also received
more than 300 hours of psychoanalysis during this period.

164

In 1929, Sullivan moved to New York City and established
a private practice at a fashionable Park Avenue address. He
continued to be very active in professional affairs. He was
a founder and director of the Washington School of Psychiatry
(a training institute), an editor of the journal of
Psychiatry, and a consultant to the Selective Service Board
and to UNESCO.

(Inspirational Story 6):

Henry A. Murray was born to great wealth. He spent his
childhood in a house in New York City on what is now the site
of Rockefeller Center. Summers were spent on a Long Island
beach. While still a child, he accompanied his parents on
four long trips to Europe.

At an early age, he became highly sensitized to the
emotional problems and sufferings of others, due to his
exposure to two neurotic aunts, one of whom was a hysteric
while the other suffered intense bout of depression.

As a child, Murray was afflicted with internal
strabismus (cross eyes). At the age of 9, in the dining room
of his home, he was operated on to correct the condition. As
a result, he no longer had internal strabismus; it was now
external strabismus, thanks to a slip by the surgeon, and
Murray was left without stereoscopic vision. After his
surgery, no matter how hard he tried he was never able to
play well at tennis, baseball, or any such game, because he
could not focus both eyes on the ball. It was at that time
that he began to stutter. He remained unaware of the visual
defect until he was in medical school, when a physician asked
him if he had had trouble playing games as a child.

These two defects -- stuttering and ineptness at sports
-- created a need to compensate. When he played football, it
had to be as quarterback (and he never stuttered when giving
signals); he also took up boxing in school.

After Groton prep school, Murray went to Harvard. He
majored in history and got mediocre grades because he devoted
so much time in athletics. His career then followed a devious
route to the study of personality. In 1919, he graduated
from Columbia University Medical School as the top-ranking
member of his class. Following that, he received an M.A. in
biology from Columbia, then taught physiology for a short
time at Harvard. In 1927, he received his Ph.D. in
biochemistry from Cambridge University.

Murray's sensitivity to the sufferings of others was
reinforced during his internship when he began to search for
psychogenic factors in the backgrounds of his patients.
Then, in 1923, he was greatly influenced by Jung's book
Psychological Types.

In 1927, Murray was offered an appointment by
psychologist Morton Prince as an assistant in founding the
Harvard Psychological Clinic, which was set up expressly to
study personality.

In later 1930's, Murray developed the well-known
Thematic Apperception Test (TAT), one of the most widely used

166

projective measures of personality in both research and
treatment settings. For some 25 years Murray investigated
the work of author Herman Melville, and in 1951 he published
an analysis of the psychological meaning of the novel Moby
Dick. Murray stayed at Harvard until his retirement in 1962.
Well respected and recognized in psychology, Murray has been
awarded the Gold Medal Award of the American Psychological
Foundation and the Distinguished Scientific Contribution
Award.

(Inspirational Story 7):

Abraham Maslow was born in 1908 in Brooklyn, New York.
His parents were immigrants with little education and little
prospect of rising above the marginal conditions under which
they lived. As with so many immigrant parents, their hopes
were for the next generation; they hoped that their children
would rise to a higher station in life. Maslow's father, at
the age of 14, had walked and hitchhiked from Russia across
all of Western Europe, so great was his ambition to emigrate
to America. This drive and motivation to succeed seems to
have been instilled in the young Maslow.

Maslow's childhood was not an idyllic one. As the only
Jewish boy in his neighborhood, he was very aware of his
minority-group status. By his own description, he was
isolated and unhappy, growing up without friends or
companions. He was not especially close to his parents. As
so many others have done in similar situations of isolation
and loneliness, Maslow turned to books for companionship.
The library became the playground of his childhood and books
and education the road out of the ghetto of poverty and
loneliness.

At his father's insistence, Maslow began the study of
law, but he decided after two weeks that he didn't like it.
What he really wanted to do was study "everything," a desire
his father found difficult to understand.

Maslow received his Ph.D. from Wisconsin in 1934 and
returned to New York, first to Columbia University and then
to Brooklyn College, where he remained until 1951. During
his early post-Ph.D. years, Maslow continued his Wisconsin
research on sexual behavior but shifted from monkeys to
humans. The research lasted until 1941, when his interests
changed at the start of World War II, an event that moved him
deeply. The beginning of the war was an intensely emotional
experience. Maslow told of watching, with tears streaming
down his face, a ragtag parade, shortly after the attack on
Pearl Harbor. "The moment changed my whole life," he
wrote,"and determined what I have done ever since." He
resolved to devote his life to the development of a
psychology that would deal with the highest ideals and
potentials of which we are capable. He wanted to improved
the human personality and to demonstrate that human beings
can display more noble behaviors than hatred, war, and
prejudice. Thus, it was a personal experience that led to
Maslow's theory of personality.

In 1951, he went to Brandeis University, where he later
became chairman of the psychology department. He remained at
Brandeis, developing and refining his theory until 1969.
Toward the end of his life, he became an immensely popular
figure. After he suffered a heart attack, he threw himself

168

into his work more vigorously than ever and gave up favorite
activities such as plays, poetry reading, and long walks in
the woods. In one of his last interviews, he said, "How can
I piddle around at these things when work has to be done, and
mankind has to be helped." During his lifetime, Maslow
received a great many awards and honors, including election
to the presidency of the American Psychological Association
in 1967.

169

Appendix K

(One-item Manipulation Check)

97. How serious were you during the 10-minute prayer time?
(Please record the answer on the computer data sheet).

L, 1 (La 2 (J 3 J 4 J 5 J 6 J 7 J
Not Very Very
Serious Serious

170

Appendix L

(Instruction for the Following Six Days)

(Group I)

Before the end of today's session, please pay attention to
the following instructions.
Instruction for the followipg six days:

1) You are to continue praying to God about the current most

2)

3)

4)

5)

6)

7)

8)

9)

troublesome life event that you identified. Pray daily
for the next six days just as you did in this session.

Before you pray, please be alone in a quiet place. Ea
silent for a brief moment. Then, pray and simultaneously
put your prayer in writing on sheets of paper provided
(single-spaced, one-sided format) for 10 minutes,
approximately during the same time of the day. Please do
not skip any day.

Pray as you usually would in the past.
Pray/write continuously without making any changes.

Start a new page each day and put the date, beginning time
and closing time of the 10-minute segment on top of the

page.

Please continue to pray for the same event identified, and
do not switch to othar troublaspma lifa events_during the
lO-minute prayer time.

In the event that the troublesome life event originally
identified no longer poses any feelings of anxiety, please
continue to pray about the situation, perhaps in a
different way. For example, you could thank God for
feeling better, or praise God about the circumstance, etc.

Bring this instruction sheet and the following sheets of
paper.together with the file folder provided home for your
daily assignment.

It is essential that you bring all your written materials
back for your follow-up session in the file folder
provided.

10)Research credits will be given contingent upon the

completion of the assignment during the week, the return
of the writing materials, and your 1/2 hour participation
during the follow up session.

171

11)Please return all other materials before you leave this
room.

12)Please return to the same room at the same time on the
same day next week.

172

(Group 11)

Before the end of today's session, please pay attention to
the following instructions.
Instruction for the fpllowing six days:

1)

2)

3)

4)

5)

6)

7)

8)

9)

 

You are to continue writing to your best friend about the
current most troublesome life event that you identified.
Write daily for the next six days justa§§_you did in this
session.

Before you write, please be alone in a quiet place. Es
silent for a:brief moment. Then, write on sheets of paper
provided (single-spaced, one-sided format) for 10 minutes,
approximately during the same time of the day. Please do
not skip any day.

Write as you usually would in the past.
Write continuously without making any changes.

Start a new page each day and put the date, beginning time
and closing time of the 10-minute segment on top of the

page.

Please continue to write for the same event identified,
and do not switch to other troublesomsilife events during
the lO-minute letter writing time.

 

In the event that the troublesome life event originally
identified no longer poses any feelings of anxiety, please
continue to write about the situation, perhaps in a
different way. For example, you could tell your friend
that how you feel better, or to thank him/her for
listening, etc.

Bring this instruction sheet and the following sheets of
paper together with the file folder provided home for your
daily assignment.

It is essential that you bring all your written materials
back for your follow-up session in the file folder
provided.

10)Research credits will be given contingent upon the

completion of the assignment during the week, the return
of the written materials, and your 1/2 hour participation
during the follow up session.

11)Please return all other materials before you leave this

room.

12)Please return to the same room at the same time on the

same day next week.

(Group III)

Before the end of today's session, please pay attention to
the following instructions.

Instruction for the follpsing six days:

 

1)

2)

3)

4)

5)

6)

7)

8)

9)

You are to continue writing your thoughts, reflections,
and opinions about one biographical story provided, daily
for the next six days just as you did in this session.

Before you write, please besalone in a quiet place. Es
silent for asbrief moment. Then, read one story, and write
on sheets of paper provided (single-spaced, one-sided
format) for 10 minutes, approximately during the same time
of the day. Please do not skip any day.

 

Write continuously without making any changes.

Start a new page each day and put the date, beginning time
and closing time of the 10-minute segment on top of the

page.

Please do one biographical story daily in the order that
is presented.

Bring this instruction sheet, biographical stories, and
the following sheets of paper together with the file
folder provided home for your daily assignment.

It is essential that you bring all your written materials
back for your follow-up session in the file folder
provided.

Research credits will be given contingent upon the
completion of the assignment during the week, the return
of the written materials, and your 1/2 hour participation
during the follow up session.

Please return all other materials before you leave this
room.

10)Please return to the same room at the same time on the

same day next week.

174

Appendix M

Instruction Sheet
(Follow-up Session)

The following pages include different sets of questions
asking for some information about you. Please answer
different sets of questions according to the order presented.

Please record your answers by blackening the appropriate
circles on the computer data sheet for item 1 to 61.

Since the study is strictly confidential and anonymous,
please answer each question as honestly as possible. Please
also remain quiet, and do not talk with other research
participants while the session is in progress.

When finished, please return all the writing materials
from the last six days, all other sheets of paper, and this
packet. Then, you will receive research credits and a
feedback sheet telling you about the study.

Please begin now.

175

Appendix N

(Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory)
(State version for the Follow-up Session)
Self Evaluation Questionnaire
Developed by Charles D. Spielberger
in collaboration with
R. L. Gorsuch, R. Lushene, P. R. Vagg, and G. A. Jacobs
STAI Form Y-l

DIRECTIONS: A number of statements which people have used to
describe themselves are given below. Read each statement and
to indicate how you feel right now, at this moment, regarding
the current most troublesome life event phat you identified
during the initial session last week.

There are no right or wrong answers. Do not spend too much
time on any one statement but give the answer which seems to
describe your present feelings best.

Please record your answers on the computer data sheet.
Remember: rate how you feel regarding the current most

troublesome life event that you identified during the initial
session last week.

1: Not at all

2: Somewhat

3: Moderately so

4. Very much so
1. I feel calm l 2 3 4
2. I feel secure 1 2 3 4
3. I am tense l 2 3 4
4. I feel strained 1 2 3 4
5. I feel at ease 1 2 3 4
6. I feel upset l 2 3 4
7. I am presently worrying over possible

misfortunes 1 2 3 4

8. I feel satisfied 1 2 3 4
9. I feel frightened 1 2 3 4
10.1 feel uncomfortable 1 2 3 4
11.I feel self-confident l 2 3 4
12.1 feel nervous 1 2 3 4
13.1 am jittery 1 2 3 4
14.1 am indecisive l 2 3 4
15.1 am relaxed I 2 3 4
16.I am content 1 2 3 4
17.1 am worried 1 2 3 4
l8.I feel confused l 2 3 4
l9.I feel steady 1 2 3 4
20.I feel pleasant 1 2 3 4

 

176

Appendix 0

(Johnson-Chan Prayer Effectiveness Scale)

Instructions: The following is a list of possible effects of
praying. Please identify the response that best applies to
you for each statement (1= strong agreement to 5: strong
disagreement).

 

Key:
I112J314J5J
Strong Strong
Agreement Disagreement

33) Awareness of needs and realities:
Prayer helps me to acknowledge my real needs, to lay
aside self-deception, and to develop better understanding
of my problem.

34) Confession and sense of forgiveness:
Prayer helps me to find assurance of forgiveness and to
gain a sense of relief in dealing with my problem.

35) Trust and relaxation:
Prayer helps me to release tensions, to bring peace ot
mind, to dispose worry and fear, and to undergird
insecurity with basic confidence in dealing with my
problem.

36) Perspective and clarification:
Prayer helps me to see life steadily and whole in the
perspective of God. Prayer also helps me to sort out
confusions and to work out practical plans of action for
my problems.

37) Decision and dedication:
Prayer helps me to relieve indecision in how I should
deal with my problems.

38) Renewal of emotional energy:
Prayer helps me to experience euphoria and energy, and to
inspire insights in dealing with my problems.

39) Social responsiveness:
Prayer helps me to become more socially sensitive to
needs of other, and not only mine.

40) Joy, gratitude, and reconciliation:
Prayer affirms values, enlarges appreciation, and
recognizes present good and helps me to remain joyful in
light of my problems.

 

41)

42)

177

Loyalty and perseverance:
Prayer affirms ultimate goals of life, and helps me to
persist to carry on in the face of obstacles and fatigue.

Integration of personality:

Prayer helps me to recollect the major purpose of
conflicted motives, and helps me to unify the energies by
focusing my attention on a supreme loyalty. It helps me
to give life poise and inner peace.

178

Appendix P

Religious Opinion Survey

Instructions: The following is a list that describes how
people see religion. Please identify each statement with the
response that pas; applies to you (1= strong agreement to 5:
strong disagreement).

For items 51 and 52, please use choices below the statement.
Please record your answers on the computer data sheet.

 

Key:
L1121314J5]
Strong Strong
Agreement Disagreement

43. What religion offers most is comfort when sorrow and
misfortune strike.

44. I try hard to carry my religion over into all other
dealings in life.

45. Religion helps to keep my life balanced and steady in
exactly the same way as my citizenship, friendship, and
other memberships do.

46. One reason for my being a church member is that such
membership helps to establish a person in the community.

47. The purpose of prayer is to secure a happy and
peaceful life.

48. My religious beliefs are what really lie behind my whole
approach to life.

49. The prayers I say when I am alone carry as much
meaning and personal emotion as those said by me
during services.

50. The Church is most important as a place to formulate good
social relationships.

51. If not prevented by unavoidable circumstances, I
attend Church about:
1) more than once a week
2) once a week
3) two or three times a month
4) once every month or two
5) rarely

52.

53.

54.

179

I read literature about my faith (or church):
1) frequently

2) quite frequently

3) occasionally

4) rarely

5) never

It is important to me to spend periods of time in
private religious thoughts and meditation.

The primary purpose of prayer is to gain relief
and protection.

180

Appendix Q

(Religious Behavior Survey)

Some Facts About You

 

55.What is your religious preference?
1)Catholic 2)Protestant 3)Jewish
4)Others:(specify) 5)None

56.How much do you believe in the effectiveness of
prayer?

J1J2J3J4J5J617J

T v

None IVery much
57.How important is prayer in your life?

1 1 J 2 J 3 J 4 l 5 J 6 l 7 1
None Very much

58.How often do you engage in personal prayer on average?
1) never
2) once a year or less
3) once every 6 months
4) once a month
5) 2-3 times a month
6) once every week
7) 2-3 times a week
8) 4-6 times a week
9) once every day
10)more than once every day

59.How often do you read the bible on average?
1) never
2) once a year or less
3) once every 6 months
4) once a month
5) 2-3 times a month
6) once every week
7) 2-3 times a week
8) 4-6 times a week
9) once every day
10)more than once every day

1.1
00
1..»

Appendix R

(Final Manipulation Check)

60.How serious were you during this last week's assigned
activities?

L 1 J 2 J 3 J 4 l 5 J 6 J 7 _J
Not Very Very

Serious Serious

61.How serious were you during the participation of
today's segment of the study?

 

L 1 J 2 J 3 J 4 J 5 J 6 J 7 J
Not Very Very
Serious Serious

What do you think this study is all about? Include any
comments regarding this study.

The End.
Please return all the writing materials from the last six
days, all other sheets of paper, and this packet. Then, you

(psychology students) will receive research credits and a
feedback sheet.

182

Appendix S

Feedback Sheet

The current study primarily investigates the use of
prayer in coping with anxiety. Since an experimental design
was utilized, participants were involved in one of the three
verbal communication methods during the treatment condition.
Pre- and post-measurements of the level of anxiety were
recorded and compared among different groups.

Other factors involved in the use of prayer in coping
with anxiety such as the believability, frequency, and
orientation of viewing prayer were also studied in relation
to its anxiety-reduction effects.

Although the relationship between the use of prayer, and
its anxiety reduction effects are widely practiced and
accepted in the Christian and other religious world views,
only scanty empirically-based, psychological research could
be found. This study aims to provide some data regarding the
relationship between the use of prayer and its anxiety coping
properties.

Some of the seminal works regarding religious behavior
and mental health issues include: G. W. Allport (1950)'s The
Individual and His Religion, D. Batson and W. L. Ventis
(1982)'s The Religious Experience, and P. E. Johnson (1956)'s
Psychology of Religion.

A brief summary of the results of this study will be
available to interested participants in the future. Please
drop a note to the principal investigator, Tommy H. M. Chan,
M.A. at the Graduate Office of Psychology, Room 149 Snyder
Hall, MSU, E. Lansing, MI 48825 if you are interested to
obtain a copy.

All data collected will continue to remain confidential
and anonymous throughout the course of data analysis and
report.

Thank you for your participation.

 

183

Appendix T

(Research Participants Recruitment Advertisement)
RESEARCH PARTICIPANTS NEEDED

Title: Verbal Communication and Anxiety
Nature of Participation: Completing surveys and
involving in a 10-minute communication-related activity.

Pagticipaiion time reguired:
a) Initial session: one hour
b) Weekly activities: 10 minutes each day for 6 days
c) Follow-up session: 30 minutes
Total: 2 1/2 hours

DatelTimelPlace:

Period 1
4/29/92 (Wed.) at 5:15 - 6:15 p.m. in 321 Baker Hall
5/6/92 (Wed.) at 5:15 - 5:45 p.m. in 321 Baker Hall

Period 2
4/30/92 (Thurs.) at 4:15 - 5:15 p.m. in 455 Baker Hall
5/7/92 (Thurs.) at 4:15 - 4:45 p.m. in 455 Baker Hall

Period 3
5/1/92 (Fri.) at 9:00 - 10:00 a.m. in 455 Baker Hall
5/8/92 (Fri.) at 9:00 - 9:30 a.m. in 455 Baker Hall

Period 4 '
5/11/92 (Mon.) at 5:00 - 6:00 p.m. in 555 Baker Hall
5/18/92 (Mon.) at 5:00 - 5:30 p.m. in 555 Baker Hall

Period 5
5/19/92 (Tues.) at 5:00 - 6:00 p.m. in 555 Baker Hall
5/26/92 (Tues.) at 5:00 - 5:30 p.m in 555 Baker Hall

Period 6
5/20/92 (Wed.) at 5:00 - 6:00 p.m. in 321 Baker Hall
5/27/92 (Wed.) at 5:00 - 5:30 p.m. in 321 Baker Hall

Period 7
5/21/92 (Thurs.) at 5:00
5/28/92 (Thurs.) at 5:00‘

6:00 p.m. in 455 Baker Hall
5:30 p.m. in 455 Baker Hall

Period 8
5/22/92 (Fri.) at 9:00 - 10:00 a.m. in 555 Baker Hall
5/29/92 (Fri.) at 9:00 - 9:30 a.m. in 555 Baker Hall

184

Criteria for participation:

Individuals who meet the following criteria will

be accepted to the study:

a) You do not have strong feelings against religion
and prayer practices.

b) You have engaged in personal prayers.

Benefits:

a) be familiarized to the a research area in
psychology of religion.

b) access to the research findings in the future.

If interested, please print your name, phone number,
and choose one of the eight periods listed that you
can participate on the sign-up.

Please write the time slot and location you choose on
your calender as a reminder.

A copy of the sign-up sheet will be available on a
bulletin board in the hall way facing the Graduate
Office of the Department of Psychology (135 Snyder
Hall).

For further information, please call the principal
Investigator: Tommy Chan, M.A.

1613 Drexel Rd.

Lansing, MI 48915

(517) 482-5119

185

Appendix U
Relayant Corrsiational Coefficients

FP FC FA TA P.Freq. P.Bel. JCPE IO EO
D.Dis 0.12
FP 0.14 -0.24'
FC
FA
IP -0.25‘ 0.77" 0.67H 0.66u 0.84"
EP 0.16 0.20 0.18 0.39" 0.7"
SR8
Time 1
Time 2

Time 3

£21:
D.Dis= Degree of distress of the most troublesome event in
the last 12 months.

FP= Frequency of using prayer as a coping strategy.

FC= Frequency of using cognitive method as a coping strategy.

FA= Frequency of using avoidance as a coping strategy.

IP= the intrinsic prayer subscale of the Feagin-Chan
Intrinic-Extrinsic Prayar Inysntory

EP= the extrinsic prayer subscale of the Feagin-Chan
Intrinic-Extrinsic Prayer Inventory

TA= Trait Anxiety (T-STAI).

P.Freq= Frequency of prayer.

P.Bel.= Degree of Believability about prayer.

JCPE= ratings in Johnson-ChaaiPrayer Effectiveness Scals

IO= Intrinsic religious orientation.

EO= Extrinsic religious orientation.

SRS= Social Functioning and Resources Scale.

Time 1= State-Anxiety scores (S- STAI) at Time 1

Time = State- Anxiety scores (S- STAI) at Time 2

Time = State-Anxiety scores (S-STAI) at Time 3

Gain = Time 2's S-STAI scores minus Time 1's S-STAI scores

Gain = Time 3's S-STAI scores minus Time 1's S-STAI scores

IP2= second measure of the intrinsic prayer subscale of the

Feagin-Chan Intrinic-Extrinsic Prayer Invantory
EP2= second measure of the extrinsic prayer subscale of the

Feagin-Chan Intrinic-Extrinsic Prayer Inventory

 

 

Time 1
D.Dis
FP
FC
FA
IP
EP
SRS -0.16
Time 1
Time 2
Time 3
(n = 101)

186

Time 2 Time 3 Gain 1 Gain 2 IP2 EP2 EP

0.90'* 0.31'*
0.68"
-0.16 0.03 -0.03 0.19
-0.33‘* -0.49*'
0.57” -0.07

0.09 0.50"

' Significance at 0.05 level; " Significance at 0.01 level

(2-tailed)

Figurs 5: A

Correlation Matrix with Relayant Coefficients

 

LIST OF REFERENCES

Allport, G. W. (1950). The individual and his religion.
New York: MacMillian.

Allport, G. W. (1959). Religion ang prejudice. The Crane
Review, 2, 1-10.

Allport, G. W. (1960). Personalityaand social encounter.
Boston: Beacon Press.

Allport, G. W. (1966). The religious context of prejudice.

Journal for the Scientific Study gf Eeligion, 5, 447-457.
Allport, G. W. (1968). The person in psychology. Boston:

Beacon Press.

Allport, G. W. 8 Ross, J. M. (1967). Personal religious

orientation and prejudice. Joafpal of Personality apd
Social Psychology, 5, 432-443.

Antonovsky, A. (1979). Health, stpess, and coping.
Jossey-Bass, San Francisco.

Back, C. W. 8 Boruque, L. B. (1970). Can feelings be
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Batson, D. 8 Ventis, W. L. (1982). The religioas
experience. New York: Oxford University Press.

Batson, D. 8 Naifeh, S. J., 8 Pate, S. (1978). Social
desirability, religious orientation and prejudice.

Jgarnal for fha Scientifig Stggy of Religion, 17, 31-41.

Baldree, X., Murphy, 8., 8 Powers, M. (1982). Stress
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Balthasar, H. U. von. (1981). Christian and non-Christian
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Balthasar, H. U. von. (1982). The Balthasar reader (M.
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Barshinger, C., 8 LaRowe, L. (1985). A developmental
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187

188

Psychology and Christianity, 4, 2, 62-64.

Bearson, L. B., 8 Koenig, H. G. (1990). Religious
cognitions and use of prayer in health and illness.
Gerontologist, 30, 2, 249-253.

Benner, D. G. (1985). Baker sncyclopedia of psychology.
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Benson, H. (1983). The relaxation response and
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Integrative Psychiatry, 1, 1, 15-18.

Billings, A. G., 8 Moos, R. H. (1981). The role of coping
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157-189.

 

Boersma, F. J. (1989). Listening to voices within through ‘

prayer and active imagination. Medigal Hypoaaalysis
Joufhal, 4, 4, 168-173.

Bouyer, L. (1963). The s iritualit o t e New Test ment
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Billing, A. G., 8 Moos, R. H. (1984). Coping, stress, and
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Joufnal of Personalify and Social Psychology, 46,
877-891.

Billing, A. G., 8 Moos, R. H. (1985). Psychosocial
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