A PRELIMINARY ANALYSIS OF THE PROCESS OF SPIRITUAL JIHAD AMONG U.S. MUSLIMS by SEYMA N. SARITOPRAK Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts Thesis Advisor: Julie J. Exline, PhD Department of Psychological Sciences CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY January, 2018 ii CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES We hereby approve the thesis/dissertation of Seyma N. Saritoprak candidate for the Master of Arts degree *. (signed) Julie J. Exline, Ph.D. (chair of the committee) Brooke N. Macnamara, Ph.D. (committee member) Sandra Russ, Ph.D. (committee member) (date) Thursday, June 29th, 2017 *We also certify that written approval has been obtained for any proprietary material contained therein. iii Table of Contents List of Tables .....................................................................................................................vi List of Figures....................................................................................................................vii List of Appendices ...........................................................................................................viii Abstract ..............................................................................................................................ix Literature Review ................................................................................................................1 Spiritual Jihad: An Islamic Perspective ..........................................................................…5 Spiritual Jihad: Attributing Wrongdoings to the Nafs........................................................ 9 Spiritual Jihad: Cognitive and Behavioral Components..................................................... 9 Spiritual Jihad: Implications for Virtues, Vices, and Well-Being.................................... 12 Virtues .............................................................................................................................. 12 Vices ................................................................................................................................ 15 The Present Study .............................................................................................................18 Hypotheses ........................................................................................................................18 Spiritual Jihad, Perceived Closeness with God, and Islamic Religiousness..................... 18 Spiritual Jihad, Religious Coping, Struggle Engagement................................................. 19 Spiritual Jihad, Growth, and Decline................................................................................ 19 Spiritual Jihad, Psychological Well-Being, and Life Satisfaction.................................... 19 Spiritual Jihad and Religious/Spiritual Struggles............................................................. 19 Spiritual Jihad, Virtues, and Vices.................................................................................... 20 Method ............................................................................................................................. 20 Participants and Procedure................................................................................................ 20 Measures........................................................................................................................... 20 iv Spiritual Jihad Mindset..................................................................................................... 21 Religious Coping and Struggle Engagement.................................................................... 18 Islamic Religiousness........................................................................................................ 22 Closeness with God .......................................................................................................... 23 Post-Traumatic Growth .................................................................................................... 24 Spiritual Growth and Decline .......................................................................................... 24 Satisfaction with Life ....................................................................................................... 25 Anxiety. ............................................................................................................................ 25 Depression ........................................................................................................................ 26 Religious and Spiritual Struggles ..................................................................................... 26 Vices................................................................................................................................. 27 Gratitude .......................................................................................................................... 27 Forgiveness. ..................................................................................................................... 28 Patience ............................................................................................................................ 28 Social Desirability ............................................................................................................ 29 Demographic Questionnaire............................................................................................. 29 Data Analysis.................................................................................................................... 29 Results .............................................................................................................................. 29 Descriptive Statistics ........................................................................................................ 29 Exploratory Factor Analysis ............................................................................................ 31 Internal Consistency ........................................................................................................ 32 Hypothesis Set (1): Spiritual Jihad, Perceived Closeness with God, and Islamic Religiousness.................................................................................................................... 32 v Hypothesis Set (2): Spiritual Jihad, Religious Coping, Struggle Engagement....................................................................................................................... 34 Hypothesis Set (3): Spiritual Jihad, Growth, and Decline................................................ 34 Hypothesis Set (4): Spiritual Jihad, Psychological Well-Being, and Life Satisfaction........................................................................................................................ 36 Hypothesis Set (5): Spiritual Jihad and Religious/Spiritual Struggles ............................ 36 Hypothesis Set (6): Spiritual Jihad, Virtues, and Vices ................................................... 37 Discussion ........................................................................................................................ 38 Key Findings .................................................................................................................... 38 Implications for Research and Practice ............................................................................ 43 Limitations and Future Directions ................................................................................... 45 References ........................................................................................................................ 95 vi List of Tables Table 1: Skewness, Kurtosis, and Standard Error for Community Sample...................... 47 Table 2: Descriptive Statistics for Demographics............................................................ 49 Table 3: Descriptive Statistics for Main Variables........................................................... 51 Table 4: Internal Consistency for Main Measures............................................................ 52 Table 5: Summary of Exploratory Factor Analysis Results for the Spiritual Jihad Mindset Measure Using Maximum Likelihood Extraction............................................................ 54 Table 6: Pearson Product-Moment Correlations Between Spiritual Jihad Mindset Measure and Main Variables............................................................................................ 56 Table 7: Pearson Product-Moment Correlations Between Spiritual Jihad Mindset Measure and Forms of Positive Religious Coping........................................................... 57 Table 8: Summary of Hierarchical Regression Analysis for Spiritual Jihad Mindset Predicting Spiritual Growth after Controlling for Islamic Religiousness (MTurk).......... 58 Table 9: Summary of Hierarchical Regression Analysis for Spiritual Jihad Mindset Predicting Spiritual Growth after Controlling for Islamic Religiousness (Community)...59 Table 10: Summary of Hierarchical Regression Analysis for Spiritual Jihad Mindset Predicting Post-Traumatic Growth after Controlling for Islamic Religiousness (MTurk)..............................................................................................................................60 Table 11: Summary of Hierarchical Regression Analysis for Spiritual Jihad Mindset Predicting Post-Traumatic Growth after Controlling for