Given that a large number of churches in the US now preach a 'positivism gospel' (for want of a better term), it is no great surprise that one might find a statistical relationship between church attendance and optimism.
Paul C. Bernhardt Department of Psychology Frostburg State University Frostburg, Maryland -----Original Message----- From: Mike Palij [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Fri 11/11/2011 10:33 AM To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) Cc: Mike Palij Subject: [tips] Why I'm Going To Start Going To Church Again Because the media are reporting results of a recent study that shows, quoting CNN: |A new study shows that attending religious services regularly can |mean a more optimistic, less depressed, and less cynical outlook on life. http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2011/11/10/study-links-regular-religious-service-attendance-outlook-on-life/ See also this article with the headline "Women Who Attend Church Are More Optimistic"; http://www.urbanchristiannews.com/ucn/2011/11/study-women-who-attend-church-are-more-optimistic.html Now, to be fair, several of the news stories provide the qualification that this study (which is based on the Women's Health Initiative; see: http://www.whi.org/ and http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/whi/os.htm ) is merely correlational and that there is only a link, not a causal relationship between church attendance and optimism etc. One odd point is that the news stories say that the study was published in the "Journal of Religion and Health" (a Springer pub) but examination of the Springer website does not appear to contain it. In their "Online First" pre-publication of article, the most recent article is from October; see: http://ezproxy.library.nyu.edu:2421/content/0022-4197/preprint/?sort=p_OnlineDate&sortorder=desc&o=10 So I wonder how this study got released to the media so fast. -Mike Palij New York University [email protected] --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13441.4e79e96ebb5671bdb50111f18f263003&n=T&l=tips&o=14082 or send a blank email to leave-14082-13441.4e79e96ebb5671bdb50111f18f263...@fsulist.frostburg.edu --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=14158 or send a blank email to leave-14158-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
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