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2016-03-24 Grubbs, Dissertation ETD.pdf (2.17 MB)

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DEMANDINGNESS, DESERVINGNESS, AND SPIRITUAL WELL-BEING: THE ROLE OF ENTITLEMENT IN PREDICTING RELIGIOUS/SPIRITUAL STRUGGLES

Grubbs, Joshua Briggs
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2642-1351
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1458817510

Abstract Details

2017, Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, Psychology.
A growing body of research has illustrated the prevalence of religious and spiritual (r/s) struggles among adults in the U.S. In response to this new line of research, there is now a growing interest in examining those factors that might predispose one to experience r/s struggles, One such factor is psychological entitlement, which has emerged as a robust predictor of certain struggles. The present work sought to build upon this finding, examining how spiritual entitlement, a domain specific manifestation of psychological entitlement, predicted a variety of religious and spiritual struggles. Using a large, cross-sectional sample of adults (N = 747), the structure of the Spiritual Entitlement Scale was tested using both confirmatory factor analyses and item response theory, revealing two dimensions of spiritual entitlement. The first dimension—Positive Expectations— reflected an optimistic attitude toward one’s spiritual life and was wholly unrelated to r/s struggle when psychological entitlement was held constant statistically. The second dimension — Maladaptive Spiritual Entitlement— reflected demanding attitudes toward deity and a sense of unmerited deservingness in one’s spiritual life. This second dimension was robustly predictive of r/s struggles with the divine, but not with any other r/s struggles. The implications of these findings are discussed.
Julie Exline, Ph.D. (Committee Chair)
Arin Connell, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Heath Demaree, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Timothy Beal, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
125 p.
Clinical Psychology; Mental Health; Personal Relationships; Personality; Personality Psychology; Psychology; Religion; Social Psychology; Theology
Religion; Spirituality; God; Psychological Entitlement; Narcissism; Spiritual Struggle; Religious Coping; Divine Entitlement

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Grubbs, J. B. (2017). DEMANDINGNESS, DESERVINGNESS, AND SPIRITUAL WELL-BEING: THE ROLE OF ENTITLEMENT IN PREDICTING RELIGIOUS/SPIRITUAL STRUGGLES [Doctoral dissertation, Case Western Reserve University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1458817510

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Grubbs, Joshua. DEMANDINGNESS, DESERVINGNESS, AND SPIRITUAL WELL-BEING: THE ROLE OF ENTITLEMENT IN PREDICTING RELIGIOUS/SPIRITUAL STRUGGLES. 2017. Case Western Reserve University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1458817510.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Grubbs, Joshua. "DEMANDINGNESS, DESERVINGNESS, AND SPIRITUAL WELL-BEING: THE ROLE OF ENTITLEMENT IN PREDICTING RELIGIOUS/SPIRITUAL STRUGGLES." Doctoral dissertation, Case Western Reserve University, 2017. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1458817510

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

case1458817510
1,884
© 2014, some rights reserved.Creative Commons License DEMANDINGNESS, DESERVINGNESS, AND SPIRITUAL WELL-BEING: THE ROLE OF ENTITLEMENT IN PREDICTING RELIGIOUS/SPIRITUAL STRUGGLES by Joshua Briggs Grubbs is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at etd.ohiolink.edu.
This open access ETD is published by Case Western Reserve University School of Graduate Studies and OhioLINK.
Release 3.2.12