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Personality and Social Psychology Approaches to Religious and Spiritual Development in Adolescents

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Abstract

The fields of personality and social psychology, with their focus on individual differences and human communalities, have much to offer the study of religious and spiritual development in adolescence. This review describes the ways McAdams and Pals’ comprehensive personality theory and Saroglou’s Big Four functional account of religion inform the scientific understanding of adolescents’ religious and spiritual development. These theories suggest religious/spiritual development of adolescents should be studied at three levels of personality (traits, characteristic adaptations, and narrative identity/objective biography) and account for the potential functions of religion in relation to behaving (moral), believing (cognitive), belonging (social), and bonding (emotional) across diverse cultural contexts. The utility of these theories for investigating adolescent religious/spiritual development is illustrated through description of empirical studies and lines of research based on methodologies commonly employed in personality and social psychology, including longitudinal studies, religious priming experiments, and experience sampling methods. Likewise, this review highlights areas for future investigation and provides specific suggestions for inquiry on adolescent religious/spiritual development, which include deploying experimental designs, merging narrative identity with identity status approaches, and adopting a more holistic view of traits through analysis of experience sampling data.

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Notes

  1. Although the authors could not test for subsequent changes in goal meaning and conflict in this study, previous research with the organization supports that continued involvement in Young Life activities corresponds to increases in meaning and purpose in life (Schnitker et al. 2014a).

  2. However, cross-sectional findings find that both global and situational meaning partially mediate the relationship between religious belief and coping in adolescents (Krok 2015).

  3. Developmental psychologists tend to focus more on cultural identity when examining intergroup exclusion. See Brenick and Killen (2014).

  4. Although Marica’s status model has largely been replaced by more dimensional approaches in the developmental literature (e.g., Luyckx et al. 2005; Verschueren et al. 2017), research on religious and spiritual development has not always adopted the newer approaches.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the John Templeton Foundation [61221, 2018-21]; the opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the John Templeton Foundation. The first author received an honorarium to present these initial ideas at the Society for Research on Adolescence 2020 preconference on Adolescent Religious and Spiritual Development.

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  1. Psychology and Neuroscience, Baylor University, One Bear Place 97334, Waco, TX, 76798, USA

    Sarah A. Schnitker, Emily G. Williams & Jay M. Medenwaldt

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  1. Sarah A. Schnitker
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SS constructed the overall outline/direction for the manuscript, wrote first the first draft of many manuscript sections (i.e., introductory, trait research, and characteristic for bonding sections), and heavily revised the entire manuscript; EW wrote the first draft of the characteristic adaptations for belonging and characteristic adaptations for behaving sections; JM wrote the first draft of the characteristic adaptations for believing and identity sections. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Sarah A. Schnitker.

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Schnitker, S.A., Williams, E.G. & Medenwaldt, J.M. Personality and Social Psychology Approaches to Religious and Spiritual Development in Adolescents. Adolescent Res Rev 6, 289–307 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40894-020-00144-z

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