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Attachment to God and Psychological Well-Being: Shame, Guilt, and Self-Compassion As Mediators Mary Elizabeth Varghese Purdue University

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Attachment to God and Psychological Well-Being: Shame, Guilt, and Self-Compassion As Mediators Mary Elizabeth Varghese Purdue University Purdue University Purdue e-Pubs Open Access Dissertations Theses and Dissertations Spring 2015 Attachment to God and psychological well-being: Shame, guilt, and self-compassion as mediators Mary Elizabeth Varghese Purdue University Follow this and additional works at: https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/open_access_dissertations Part of the Counseling Psychology Commons Recommended Citation Varghese, Mary Elizabeth, "Attachment to God and psychological well-being: Shame, guilt, and self-compassion as mediators" (2015). Open Access Dissertations. 578. https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/open_access_dissertations/578 This document has been made available through Purdue e-Pubs, a service of the Purdue University Libraries. Please contact [email protected] for additional information. Graduate School Form 30 Updated 1/15/2015 PURDUE UNIVERSITY GRADUATE SCHOOL Thesis/Dissertation Acceptance This is to certify that the thesis/dissertation prepared By Mary E. Varghese Entitled Attachment to God and Psychoogical Well-being: Shame, guilt, and self-compassion as mediators For the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Is approved by the final examining committee: M. Carole Pistole, Ph.D. Eric Deemer, Ph.D. Chair Yukiko Maeda, Ph.D. Susan Prieto-Welch, Ph.D. To the best of my knowledge and as understood by the student in the Thesis/Dissertation Agreement, Publication Delay, and Certification Disclaimer (Graduate School Form 32), this thesis/dissertation adheres to the provisions of Purdue University’s “Policy of Integrity in Research” and the use of copyright material. Approved by Major Professor(s): M. Carole Pistole Approved by: Ala Samarapungavan 4/17/2105 Head of the Departmental Graduate Program Date i ATTACHMENT TO GOD AND PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING: SHAME, GUILT, AND SELF-COMPASSION AS MEDIATORS A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of Purdue University by Mary E. Varghese In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy May 2015 Purdue University West Lafayette, Indiana ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF TABLES…………………………………………………………………………v LIST OF FIGURES……………………………………………………………………….vi ABSTRACT…………………………….………………………………………………...vii CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………1 Introduction……………………………………………………………………….1 The Current Study………………………………………………………………….2 Importance of the Study……………………………………………………………8 Statement of Purpose……..…………………………………………………….…11 Relevance to Counseling Psychology……………………...………………...……11 CHAPTER 2. LITERATURE REVIEW……………………………………..…………17 Attachment Theory……………………………….……………………………….17 Historical Overview………………….…………………………………………...18 Individual Differences in Attachment.……………………………………...…….20 Anxious Attachment ………………………………...…………………....23 Avoidant Attachment…………………………………….…………...…..24 Secure Attachment………………………………………..….…………...25 ii Attachment to God………………...………………………………………….....26 Individual Differences in Attachment to God…………………….....…..30 Attachment to God and Psychological Outcomes………………………32 Shame, Guilt, and Self-Compassion………………………………………..……34 Shame and Guilt………………………………………………..….……...34 Self-Compassion……………………….…………………………………37 Psychological Well-being…………………….………..…..…….………..38 Rationale, Research Questions, and Hypotheses………………………………...…..….41 Overview………………………………………………………………………...41 The Mediation Model……………………………………………………………43 iii Page Rationale for the Hypotheses…………………………………………….……....46 Anxious Attachment to God………………………………………………47 Avoidant Attachment to God…………………...………………….……..50 Research Questions and Hypotheses…………………………………………......52 CHAPTER 3. METHOD..………………………………………………………………...54 Participants……………………………………………………………….….……54 Procedure………………………………………………………………....……....60 Instruments…………………………………………………………………….….60 Demographic Information…………………………………………………..….…61 Attachment to God……………………………………………………..………....61 Shame and Guilt…………………………………….………………………...…..63 Self-Compassion………………………………………………………..…….…..65 Psychological Well-Being…………………………………………………....…...66 CHAPTER 4. RESULTS…….…………………………………………………….….….69 Preliminary Data Analyses…………………………………………………….....,69 Analyses of the Hypotheses………………………………………………………74 Hypothesis 1 Results……...………………………………………………………78 Hypothesis 2 Results………………………………………………………....…..81 Summary of Results………………………………………………………..……..85 iii CHAPTER 5. DISCUSSION …………..………………………………………...………87 Preliminary Analyses……………………………………….…………………….87 Analyses of the Hypotheses…………………………………………………….. .88 Hypothesis One (H1) – Anxious Attachment………………………………….…88 Direct subhypotheses……………………………………………………………..89 Indirect effects…………………………………………………………………… 92 Mediation Model………………………………………………………………….93 Hypothesis Two (H2) – Avoidant Attachment…………….……………………...96 Direct subhypotheses……………………….……………………………………..96 Indirect effects…………………………………………..……………………… 100 iv Page Mediation Model…………………..………………………………………….…101 Limitations………………………………………………………………….……102 Implications for Counseling Psychology Research and Practice……………......103 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………….110 REFERENCES………….………………………………………………………………110 APPENDICES A: Initial Recruitment Email ….………………………………………………...134 B: International Student Demographics ……....………………….…….............135 C: IRB Approval……………...………………...….……………………………136 D: Follow-up Recruitment E-mail…………….…..…………………………….138 E: Recruitment Information Letter………………...……………………….…....140 F: Demographic Questionnaire………………….....……………………………142 G: Attachment to God Inventory………………..…………………………….....146 H: Self-Compassion Scale…………………….…………………….………...…148 I: Supplemental Information relevant to Chapter IV Analyses…….……………150 VITA………………………………………………………………………………….…155 iv v LIST OF TABLES Table .............................................................................................................................. Page Table 1: Demographics Characteristics of Sample and University Students……………57 Table 2: Means, Standard Deviations, and Internal Consistency Estimates…………......71 Table 3: Summary of Intercorrelations for AGI, TOSCA-3, SCS, and SPWB……..…...72 Table 4: Identified Gender Differences for All Variables……………………..………...73 Table 5: Coefficients for the Anxious Attachment Mediation Model………………..….78 Table 6: Indirect (Mediated) Effects of Anxious Attachment to God and Psychological Well-being……………………………………………………………………………….80 Table 7: Coefficients for the H2 Mediation Model of Avoidant Attachment to God and Psychological Well-being……………………………………..…………………………82 Table 8: Indirect (mediated) Effects of Avoidant Attachment to God and Psychological Well-being…………………………….………………………………………………….83 Table 9: Similarities and Differences in the H1 and H2 Models…………….………….86 Table I1: MANOVAs for Preliminary Analyses……………………………………….154 v vi LIST OF FIGURES Figure ............................................................................................................................. Page Figure 1: Hypothesized directions of paths in mediation models……………………....44 Figure 2: H1 and H2 mediation models…………………………...……………………75 Figure 3. Direct effect coefficients among variables in H1 anxious attachment mediation model……………………………………………………………………………………79 Figure 4. Indirect effect coefficients among variables in H1 mediation model………...80 Figure 5. Direct effect coefficients among variables in H2 avoidant attachment mediation model……………………………………………………………………………………82 Figure 6. Indirect effect coefficients among variables in H2 avoidant attachment mediation model………………………………………………………………………...83 vi vii ABSTRACT Varghese Mary E. Ph.D., Purdue University, May 2015. Attachment to God and Psychological Well-being: Shame, Guilt, and Self-compassion as Mediators. Major Professor: Mary Carole Pistole In this study, I used attachment theory to examine individual differences in people’s relationships with God or their Higher Power and the influence of these relationships on shame, guilt, self-compassion, and overall psychological well-being. H1 was that shame, guilt, and self-compassion fully mediate the relatedness of anxious attachment to God and psychological well-being. H2 was that shame, guilt, and self- compassion fully mediate the relatedness of avoidant attachment to God and psychological well-being. Young adults (N = 163) of diverse religious backgrounds from a large Midwestern university completed demographic questions and four scales: (a) The Attachment to God Inventory (AGI; Beck & McDonald, 2004); (b) Test of Self- Conscious Affect-3 (TOSCA-3; Tangney & Dearing, 2003); (c) The Self-Compassion vii Scale (SCS; Neff, 2003a); and (d) The Scales of Psychological Well-being (SPWB; Ryff, 1989). To examine the two overarching hypotheses, I conducted two mediation analyses, one for anxious attachment and one for avoidant attachment, using a nonparametric bootstrapping procedure (Preacher & Hayes, 2008). Both H1 and H2 were partially supported in that the overall mediation was partial. That is, shame, guilt, and viii self-compassion accounted for some, but not all, of the relatedness between anxious (H1) and avoidant (H2) attachment to God and psychological well-being. Results indicate that shame, guilt, and self-compassion are some of the pathways through which attachment to God influences psychological well-being. I discuss limitations of the study as well as the implications for research and practice. viii 1 CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION In this chapter, I introduce my study. I am most interested in better understanding people’s religious and spiritual relationships and how these relationships are related to their psychological well-being. The broad context of my study is the intersection
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