24: Religion & Psychology. A conversation with Ken Pargament.

This conversation explores the research into religion. Ken began his academic search when he started to ask deeper question about the nature of human experience such as morality, values, how people can live better lives, and he is a skeptic and seeking to ground his work in empirical research. Dr. Pargament discusses the relationship between attachment and religion - how one’s developmental history and environment interrelate and often informs one’s relationship with “God.” Dr. Parament’s work involves looking at each person’s religious experience and asking them questions about the nature of that relationship to the sacred in their lives. How have they come to relate to the divine – theist and atheist alike? His research helps us understand not only the nature of the relationship but also the outcome of the relationship. One question he asks is: How has one's relationship to the divine impacted how that individual copes with suffering? “From a talk presented at Harvard: Empirical studies indicate that people attribute sacred qualities to many aspects of life, such as relationships, nature, work, virtues, and the body. Perceptions of sacredness have important implications for health and well-being. A growing body of research indicates that people are more likely to: (a) organize their lives around sacred goals and values; (b) preserve and protect aspects of life they hold sacred; and (c) invest more of their resources into and derive greater satisfaction and meaning from sanctified objects. However, perceptions of sacredness can be problematic when: (a) people experience the loss or violation of what they hold sacred; (b) when they imbue inappropriate objects (e.g., drugs, violence, despots) with sacred qualities; and (c) when people are intolerant of divergent views of the sacred.” (https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/rshm/event/dr-kenneth-pargament-sacred-matters-spirituality-vital-aspect-health-and-well-being). Bio: Dr. Pargament's nationally and internationally known research addresses religious beliefs and health. His current research program addresses how elderly people who struggle with their religious beliefs and hold negative perceptions about their relationships with God and life meaning have an increased risk of death, even after controlling for physical and mental health and demographic characteristics. He also studies the process by which people create perceptions about the sanctity of aspects of their life activities and the beneficial effects of "sanctification" for individual and interpersonal well-being. A strong emphasis on this work is how individuals and couples "sanctify" their marriage and how that sanctification is a strong predictor of marital quality and stability. Dr. Pargament won the 2000 Virginia Staudt Sexton Mentoring Award from the American Psychological Association for his generous work in encouraging both faculty, undergraduate, and graduate research in the psychology of religion. Website: https://www.bgsu.edu/arts-and-sciences/center-for-family-demographic-research/about-cfdr/research-affiliates/kenneth-i-pargament.html Theme music provided by: http://www.modernnationsmusic.com Band of the week: The Hundred Inevitables https://www.facebook.com/thehundredinevitables/ Music page: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/decade-of-downtime/1017437376 Learn more about this project at: http://www.thesacredspeaks.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesacredspeaks/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/thesacredspeaks