Chapter 10: Religion, Spirituality, and Well-Being

Test Bank

Multiple Choice

1. ______ is the type of meaning that addresses questions about whether “life in general or at least human life fits into some overall coherent pattern.”

A. Cosmic meaning

B. Sense of purpose

C. Sense of significance

D. Personal meaning

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Types of Meaning

Difficulty Level: Easy

2. Cosmic meaning is what people search for when they need ______.

A. a sense of direction in life

B. a feeling that life has inherent value and is worth living

C. to believe that some design or order exists in the universe

D. to believe that they have had meaningful relationships in this world

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Types of Meaning

Difficulty Level: Medium

3. Tedeschi and Calhoun (1995) noted that ______brings three potential benefits: a possibility of increased self-confidence, opportunities for enhanced interpersonal relationships, and avenues for changing one’s philosophy of life.

A. suffering

B. optimism

C. vertical transcendence

D. horizontal transcendence

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Suffering

Difficulty Level: Easy

4. Which of the following is TRUE?

A. Spirituality refers to a search for the sacred grounded specifically in institutional forms.

B. Affiliation with traditional faiths has been increasing for young Americans.

C. Both spirituality and religion encompass a need to relate to something greater than the self.

D. The majority of the U.S. population (over 90%) identifies itself as spiritual but not religious.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Religion, Spirituality, and Well-Being

Difficulty Level: Hard

5. Paul Wong (2017) used the term ______ to describe well-being derived from the spiritual/existential dimension.

A. coherence

B. noetic happiness

C. horizontal transcendence

D. elation

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Religion and Subjective Well-Being

Difficulty Level: Medium

6. Which of the following is TRUE?

A. Highly educated people tend to show stronger relations between well-being and religiousness than their less educated counterparts.

B. European Americans tend to show stronger relations between well-being and religiousness than African Americans.

C. Older people tend to show stronger relations between religiousness and well-being than their younger counterparts.

D. Men tend to show stronger relations between religiousness and well-being than women.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Religion and Subjective Well-Being

Difficulty Level: Easy

7. Which of the following is TRUE?

A. There have been only a few studies that have found a link between religiousness and better health.

B. People who are more religious have fewer acute illnesses but do not live as long as those who are less religious.

C. Attendance at religious services is only weakly related to health and longevity compared to other components of religiosity.

D. People who are more religious have lower rates of cancer and heart disease.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Religion and Health

Difficulty Level: Easy

8. Which type of prayer is the most consistent negative predictor of well-being measures?

A. adoration

B. confessional

C. thanksgiving

D. reception

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Prayer and Well-Being

Difficulty Level: Easy

9. Of the following, who believed that abilities to experience and express gratitude are key signs of emotional health?

A. Freud

B. Maslow

C. Jung

D. Horney

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Gratitude and Appreciation

Difficulty Level: Medium

10. According to research, who would be the most likely to forgive?

A. J. M., a child in elementary school

B. J. M., a high school student

C. J. M., an emerging adult who recently graduated from college

D. J.M., a grandparent who recently retired after working for 30 years at the same place

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Forgiveness

Difficulty Level: Medium

11. Which of the following is NOT one of the four phases of forgiveness outlined by Enright, Freedman, and Rique (1998)?

A. bargaining

B. uncovering

C. decision

D. work

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Four Phases of Forgiveness

Difficulty Level: Medium

12. In the Buddhist tradition, the two hallmarks of optimal well-being are ______.

A. optimism and compassion

B. compassion and wisdom

C. empathy and honesty

D. openness and self-reflection

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Compassion and Empathy

Difficulty Level: Medium

13. The big difference between the Big 5 model of personality and the HEXACO model is that the HEXACO model contains a sixth factor called ______.

A. resilience

B. generativity

C. honesty–humility

D. emotional intelligence–social cognitive skills

Cognitive Domain: Conceptual

Answer Location: Humility

Difficulty Level: Medium

14. Krause (2016) found that humility was related to ______. Without it, the balance between appropriate humility and self-deprecation might be weak.

A. optimism

B. wisdom

C. extraversion

D. socioeconomic status

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Humility

Difficulty Level: Medium

15. People who score low on ______ tend to score high on personality scales that measure narcissism and psychopathology.

A. spirituality

B. noetic happiness

C. humility

D. gratitude

Cognitive Domain: Conceptual

Answer Location: Humility

Difficulty Level: Medium

16. Which of the following is FALSE?

A. Transcendent experiences are religious or spiritual experiences that often leave people feeling they have entered a higher state of consciousness.

B. Religious or transcendent experiences are relatively rare.

C. The emotional consequences of religious or transcendent experiences can be extremely positive.

D. It is common among people who have transcendent experiences to say that it was the most meaningful occasion of their life.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Religious Experiences

Difficulty Level: Medium

17. After watching a news report of a young person who gave a homeless man his sneakers when he realized he had no shoes, research shows that common reactions to witnessing such a compassionate acts include ______.

A. resolution to become a better person

B. feelings of guilt for not having done similar good deeds or making a meaningful contribution

C. increased compassion, but less desire to affiliate with others because of the fear of not being able to meet their needs

D. increased well-being, but less desire to help others because of diffusion of responsibility

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Elation and Awe

Difficulty Level: Medium

18. Keltner and Haidt (2003) suggested that two appraisals are necessary for ______: a sense of perceived vastness and an inability to assimilate the experience into current mental structure.

A. peak experiences

B. numinous experiences

C. awe

D. resacralization

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Elation and Awe

Difficulty Level: Hard

19. Karen’s 86-year-old mother died less than 6 months after the loss of her 92-year-old father. As an only child who spent over a decade caring for her parents, she is struggling to find a new “normal.” Maslow would describe Karen’s situation as ______.

A. desacralization

B. a nadir experience

C. a numinous experience

D. vispassana

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Peak Experiences

Difficulty Level: Medium

20. Shanah meditates on the phrase “Ahem Prema” that translates to “I am Divine Love.” This type of meditation belongs to the style called ______.

A. arhat meditation

B. insight meditation

C. vipassana

D. concentration meditation

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Meditation in Spiritual Traditions

Difficulty Level: Medium

True/False

1. All of the world’s major religions subscribe to the “golden rule” or the belief that you should do to others as you would have others do to you.

Cognitive Domain: Conceptual

Answer Location: Religion Provides Social Support

Difficulty Level: Medium

2. The association between religiousness and better physical health has been shown by only a few studies to date.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Religion and Health

Difficulty Level: Medium

3. Maslow coined the term “nadir experiences” to refer to experiences that had the same intensity as peak experiences, but possessed negative emotionality.

Cognitive Domain: Conceptual

Answer Location: Peak Experiences

Difficulty Level: Medium

4. Most of the research on conversion experiences has been studied experimentally.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Conversion

Difficulty Level: Medium

5. Freud is credited with finding the specialty known as transpersonal psychology in 1969.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Transpersonal Psychology

Difficulty Level: Medium

Essay

1. Describe at least three factors that explain the reason that religion impacts mental and physical health.

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Why Is Religion Related to Well-Being?

Difficulty Level: Medium

2. Give an example of two different types of prayer. Which type of prayer was found to be the most consistent negative predictor of well-being measures?

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Prayer and Well-Being

Difficulty Level: Medium

3. Explain the difference between intrinsic and extrinsic religiousness as defined by Allport.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Intrinsic and Extrinsic Religiousness

Difficulty Level: Medium

4. What is the name of the sixth factor of the HEXACO model of personality that distinguishes it from the Big Five model? Discuss research showing how this personality attribute correlates with outcomes relative to positive psychology.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Humility

Difficulty Level: Medium

5. Researchers have studied forgiveness mostly using reactions to hypothetical situations. Who has been shown to be more forgiving?

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Forgiveness

Difficulty Level: Medium