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Article
Delight or Distraction: An Exploratory Analysis of Sabbath-Keeping Internalization
Faculty Publications
  • Karl G. D. Bailey, Andrews University
  • Arian C. B. Timoti, Andrews University
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
10-1-2015
Keywords
  • DISTRACTION (Psychology) -- Religious aspects,
  • SABBATH,
  • REST -- Religious aspects -- Christianity,
  • INTERNALIZATION,
  • MOTIVATION (Psychology) RELIGIOUS aspects
Disciplines
Abstract

Internalization of religious motivation is associated with increased subjective well-being. However, much of the work on internalization focuses on widespread, low-cost religious practices. We propose that distinctive, high-cost, and meaningful Christian practices, such as Sabbath keeping, may be related to the internalization of religion—and thus increased well-being—when they occur within a community. Using a factor-cluster approach to develop an instrument to measure the internalization of Sabbath keeping among Seventh-day Adventists, we found a positive relationship between deeper internalization and higher subjective well-being. Importantly, the relationship between internalization of Sabbath-keeping practice and well-being was only weakly meditated by a more general measure of religious internalization, suggesting separate contributions of internalization for distinctive high-cost practices and widespread low-cost practices.

Journal Title
Journal of Psychology & Theology
First Department
Behavioral Sciences
Citation Information
Karl G. D. Bailey and Arian C. B. Timoti. "Delight or Distraction: An Exploratory Analysis of Sabbath-Keeping Internalization" Vol. 43 Iss. 3 (2015) p. 192 - 203
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/karl_bailey/72/