The purpose of this study was to examine, from an Adlerian perspective, how religious conversion enables some individuals to make life-style changes. Data was collected from the autobiography of Thomas Merton, and interviews of two men and two women over the age of fifty having had religious conversions at least ten years in the past. The interview consisted of a life-style analysis, a measure of social interest, an analysis of conversion memories, a contextual report of the conversion, and a comparison of before and after the conversions in terms of five life tasks--work, love, community, spirituality and self-regulation. This research indicated that no one life-style type was predisposed to conversion. Change in life-style after religious conversion appeared to correlate with increased social interest rather than with change in dominant goal of behavior. Thus, changing life-style does not appear to require the difficult task of changing the dominant goal of behavior.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:arizona.edu/oai:arizona.openrepository.com:10150/291791 |
| Date | January 1993 |
| Creators | Richardson, Virginia Anne, 1946- |
| Contributors | Christensen, Oscar C. |
| Publisher | The University of Arizona. |
| Source Sets | University of Arizona |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text, Thesis-Reproduction (electronic) |
| Rights | Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. |
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