In this ethnographic study, I explore the ways, in which the engagement of Polish Catholics with Swedish society generates both adaptation and resistance. The thesis begins with an overview of the history of the Swedish Catholic Church and notes how Poles became one of the most numerous immigrant groups in Sweden during past decades. I then make use of fifteen in-depth interviews along with more than twenty sessions of observation in a Polish milieu in the Mälaren Valley. Polish Catholics often consider themselves, as one put it, as "weird creatures" in Sweden, not only for being a religious minority, but also due to conflicts between Catholic moral teachings and prevailing modern liberal views in Swedish society. Also, interviewees tend to blame Sweden for weakening the religiosity of their compatriots. Catholicism often presents particular challenges for the adaptation and integration of Poles, especially teenagers, who are, as one out it, seen "like freaks here". Also notable is the controversial stance of parishioners and the clergy on gender questions. While many laity see feminism as a threat, some priests assert that "feminism and Catholicism have so much in common". Among other challenges for the religious life of Poles in Sweden are consumerism, which leads to the formulation "prosperity destroys people" and is seen as a competitor to the church; and the Swedish language, which divides first and second generations. Interviewees also express shared interests with Muslims and solidarity with Orthodox Christians.

The Gender Role Stress paradigm asserts that individuals experience distress when they cannot or do not want to live up to the roles prescribed to their gender, and this stress is related to Gender Role Ideology. Within American Christian culture, gender roles are socialized and shaped according to tradition and the Bible. To investigate the intersection of these factors, Christian adults will respond to questionnaires about their Gender Role Ideology, Gender Role Stress, and religiosity. Significant positive correlational relationships between Gender Role Ideology and Gender Role Stress, between religiosity and Gender Role Ideology, and between religiosity and Gender Role Stress are expected for both men and women. However, Gender Role Ideology is expected to partially mediate any relationship found between religiosity and Gender Role Stress. This will imply that for Christian individuals, religiosity and Christianity are related to Gender Role Stress but this relationship is dependent on an individual’s beliefs about gender roles. Implications and further directions are discussed, including spiritual gender role negotiation and the sanctification paradigm.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Family Studies and Human Services / Kristy Archuleta / This dissertation explores the association of culture with financial satisfaction. Social identity theory, a successor of symbolic interaction framework (Mead, 1930) serves as the theoretical framework for this study, conceptualizing the impact of culture on identity formation through the values, norms, and beliefs of cultures adopted by individuals. Social identity theory also provides an understanding of the power and influence of reference groups supplied by culture through the context provided for the internal determination of satisfaction. The cultures examined (e.g., geography, socioeconomic status, religiosity), each had associations with life domains which influence satisfaction according to well-being research. The associations of cultures with financial satisfaction is a largely unexplored area of research, perhaps due to the difficulty in defining and measuring culture, as well as the challenges associated with influencing financial satisfaction. Data for this study was obtained from the 2012 General Social Survey, conducted by the National Opinion Research Center. This study found the geographic characteristics of home ownership and living in a single family home were associated with financial satisfaction and individuals living in the same state as they did when age 16 had more points of association with financial satisfaction than those not living in the same state. Further, of the SES measures in the study, income was found to be consistently associated with financial satisfaction. Religiosity, including religiosity by religious text (e.g., Bible, Torah, Quran) and prayer were not found to be associated with financial satisfaction. However, frequency of attendance at religious services had a statistically significant association with financial satisfaction and was found to be a moderator of the financial satisfaction of those living in the Eastern and Western U.S. Regions. Understanding the association of culture with financial satisfaction may provide planners with insights into factors which contribute to a client’s values, beliefs and attitudes about their finances. An awareness of the power of cultural values, beliefs and values to influence satisfaction may make a positive contribution to the quality of conversation between planners and clients as they work toward establishing authentic goals and objectives for the client and develop plans to achieve those goals.

Master of Science / Journalism and Mass Communications / Joye C. Gordon / Widespread debates about scientific issues, from global warming to vaccinations, have raised questions about public trust in science and scientists. Many studies have attempted to determine the cause of observed declines in public trust. This project employs framing theory, suggesting that the way science frames research might improve public trust. Research questions explore whether political conservatism, public religiosity, and exposure to a feature story about a scientist affects trust in science and scientists. A between-subjects quasi-experiment exposed participants to feature articles about scientists in either controversial or non-controversial fields, and asked a series of questions in order to measure the participant’s trust in science and scientists. Results indicated that participants who were male or participants who had some college education and who read the non-controversial feature story were statistically more likely to have a higher level of trust in science and scientists than any other group. Suggestions for future studies are discussed.

This study explored the relationship between religiosity, hope, and subjective well-being among a group of 430 participants (28.8% male, 88.4% black, 8.4% white) residing in the Gauteng Province South Africa. The sample consisted of students (n = 210) as well as family members of these students (n = 220). A cross-sectional quantitative survey design was used. Data was gathered using the Adult Trait-hope Scale, a three item measure of religiosity, the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS), and the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS). Descriptive statistics were computed in SPSS 22. Following this, correlations between all latent variables were calculated in Mplus Version 7.11, where after latent variable modelling was performed. During this process, an initial measurement model was specified, which was examined for goodness of fit, and compared against two competing measurement models. The best fitting model was then subjected to a process of model development, and subsequently re-specified as a structural model. The fit of this model was again assessed and compared to two competing structural models. Finally, indirect effects between religiosity, hope, and subjective well-being (comprised of positive affect, negative affect, and life satisfaction) were investigated. The results revealed that religiosity was a significant predictor of both agency and pathway hope, and that the strength of this relationship was moderate in the case of agency hope, and weak in the case of pathway hope. In turn, agency hope predicted higher levels of life satisfaction and positive affect, and lowered levels of negative affect. However, with the exception of positive affect (with which it was positively associated), pathway hope was not related to any of the subjective well-being variables, suggesting that it is less significantly associated with subjective well-being than agency hope. The results of the mediation analysis revealed that agency hope acted as a significant mediator of the relationship between religiosity and life satisfaction, positive affect, and negative affect. Pathway hope mediated the relationship between religiosity and positive affect. These results suggest that the elevated levels of subjective well-being often found in relation to religiosity can at least in part be attributed to the fact that religion is associated with elevated levels of hope. The mini-dissertation is concluded with a chapter that outlines the conclusions and limitations related to the study, and on this basis, several recommendations were proposed for future research and practical application of the findings. / MA (Positive Psychology), North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2014

This study explored the relationship between religiosity, hope, and subjective well-being among a group of 430 participants (28.8% male, 88.4% black, 8.4% white) residing in the Gauteng Province South Africa. The sample consisted of students (n = 210) as well as family members of these students (n = 220). A cross-sectional quantitative survey design was used. Data was gathered using the Adult Trait-hope Scale, a three item measure of religiosity, the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS), and the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS). Descriptive statistics were computed in SPSS 22. Following this, correlations between all latent variables were calculated in Mplus Version 7.11, where after latent variable modelling was performed. During this process, an initial measurement model was specified, which was examined for goodness of fit, and compared against two competing measurement models. The best fitting model was then subjected to a process of model development, and subsequently re-specified as a structural model. The fit of this model was again assessed and compared to two competing structural models. Finally, indirect effects between religiosity, hope, and subjective well-being (comprised of positive affect, negative affect, and life satisfaction) were investigated. The results revealed that religiosity was a significant predictor of both agency and pathway hope, and that the strength of this relationship was moderate in the case of agency hope, and weak in the case of pathway hope. In turn, agency hope predicted higher levels of life satisfaction and positive affect, and lowered levels of negative affect. However, with the exception of positive affect (with which it was positively associated), pathway hope was not related to any of the subjective well-being variables, suggesting that it is less significantly associated with subjective well-being than agency hope. The results of the mediation analysis revealed that agency hope acted as a significant mediator of the relationship between religiosity and life satisfaction, positive affect, and negative affect. Pathway hope mediated the relationship between religiosity and positive affect. These results suggest that the elevated levels of subjective well-being often found in relation to religiosity can at least in part be attributed to the fact that religion is associated with elevated levels of hope. The mini-dissertation is concluded with a chapter that outlines the conclusions and limitations related to the study, and on this basis, several recommendations were proposed for future research and practical application of the findings. / MA (Positive Psychology), North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2014

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of women's anger and religiosity on their expression of violence toward their partner. The sample consisted of the 664 women who completed three interviews for Project HOW: Health Outcomes of Women, a study of low-income, ethnically diverse women in Dallas county. Across the waves, women completed measures of relationship violence, anger, and religiosity. Religiosity was not found to moderate the relationship between women's anger and their use of violence. When partners' threats and violence were included in the regression equations, these variables were consistently related to women's behavior. Due to several methodological limitations, clinical implications of the results should be considered with caution.

Rituals are an integral part of society. The focus of research on rituals has been shifting to highlight the effect rituals may produce on individual resilience and ability to function. This study examined the relationships between participation in family rituals and several conceptually related facets of the human experience, including religiosity, openness to experience, and anxiety. Participants responded to questions on an assessment instrument (Family Ritual Questionnaire) designed to measure participation in a broad variety of identified family rituals; they were grouped according to responses on that questionnaire, and the resulting groups were compared on their responses to questionnaires addressing religiosity (Religious Background and Behavior Questionnaire), openness to experience (Revised NEO Personality Inventory Openness to Experiences scale), and anxiety (State-Trait Anxiety Inventory). The four-group classification system did not produce significant differences on measures of religiosity, openness to experience, or trait anxiety. Nor were there any significant differences noted when the groups were examined on the basis of the demographic characteristics of age, gender, separation time from family of origin, or academic status. The demographic descriptive which was associated with specific group differences related to adult composition of family of origin: participants described the adults present in their families of origin, and the family types were grouped into traditional, mixed, and nontraditional families. A difference was identified between the traditional and nontraditional families on level of ritualization. This finding may be indicative of a useful direction for subsequent research inquiry.

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EN The purpose of my thesis is to analyse the process of secularization in the post-war era in Italy. The study is focused on lower social classes. The aim of my thesis is to show the complexity of the process such as secularization; on the one hand there are statistic numbers showing the trend of falling religiosity, on the other hand we know Italians as believers in God and Italy as a country with catholic symbols appearing openly in public. To understand this ambivalence, it is necessary to distinguish church, religion and faith. As a primary source for my thesis I have chosen novels of the neorealist writers. As neorealism tries to capture predominantly the social reality and the writers show greater capability of uncovering the motivation of historical figure than any other possible sources, selecting the works of the neorealist writers proves to be more than suitable. The main methodology chosen for my thesis is typification, through which I tried to define the social stereotypes. The thesis is composed of nine chapters. Chapters one to three describe the political, economic and social situation of post-war Italy and define the social segment on which the thesis is focused. Presented is a characterization of neorealism and the authors as well as the most important theories of secularization...