Showing papers by "Michael E. McCullough published in 2009"

Religion, self-regulation, and self-control: Associations, explanations, and implications.

Abstract: Many of the links of religiousness with health, well-being, and social behavior may be due to religion's influences on self-control or self-regulation. Using Carver and Scheier's (1998) theory of self-regulation as a framework for organizing the empirical research, the authors review evidence relevant to 6 propositions: (a) that religion can promote self-control; (b) that religion influences how goals are selected, pursued, and organized; (c) that religion facilitates self-monitoring; (d) that religion fosters the development of self-regulatory strength; (e) that religion prescribes and fosters proficiency in a suite of self-regulatory behaviors; and (f) that some of religion's influences on health, well-being, and social behavior may result from religion's influences on self-control and self-regulation. The authors conclude with suggestions for future research.

Does devoutness delay death? Psychological investment in religion and its association with longevity in the Terman sample

Abstract: Religious people tend to live slightly longer lives (M. E. McCullough, W. T. Hoyt, D. B. Larson, H. G. Koenig, & C. E. Thoresen, 2000). On the basis of the principle of social investment (J. Lodi-Smith & B. W. Roberts, 2007), the authors sought to clarify this phenomenon with a study of religion and longevity that (a) incorporated measures of psychological religious commitment; (b) considered religious change over the life course; and (c) examined 19 measures of personality traits, social ties, health behaviors, and mental and physical health that might help to explain the religion-longevity association. Discrete-time survival growth mixture models revealed that women (but not men) with the lowest degrees of religiousness through adulthood had shorter lives than did women who were more religious. Survival differences were largely attributable to cross-sectional and prospective between-class differences in personality traits, social ties, health behaviors, and mental and physical health.

Parents' and Children's Religiosity and Child Behavioral Adjustment among Maltreated and Nonmaltreated Children.

Abstract: We investigated the role of parents’ and children’s religiosity in behavioral adjustment among maltreated and nonmaltreated children. Data were collected on 170 maltreated and 159 nonmaltreated children from low-income families (mean age = 10 years). We performed dyadic data analyses to examine unique contributions of parents’ and children’s religiosity and their interaction to predicting child internalizing and externalizing symptomatology. A four group structural equation modeling was used to test whether the structural relations among religiosity predictors and child outcomes differed by child maltreatment status and child gender. We found evidence of parent-child religiosity interaction suggesting that (1) parents’ frequent church attendance was related to lower levels of internalizing symptomatology among nonmaltreated children with low church attendance and (2) parents’ importance of faith was associated with lower levels of internalizing and externalizing symptomatology among nonmaltreated children with low faith. The results suggest that independent effects of parents’ religiosity varied depending on children’s religiosity and parent-child relationship.

Dynamic Factor Analysis of Worldviews/Religious Beliefs and Well-Being among Older Adults

Abstract: Intraindividual patterns of time-lagged relationships among self-reports of worldviews/religious beliefs, self-concept, and physical and psychological well-being were investigated. Participants were older adults (mean age = 77 years) who were measured weekly covering a total of 25 weeks. Dynamic Factor Models were fitted to multivariate repeated measures data pooled over subsets of participants. The results showed significant time-lagged cross-factor relationships suggesting that worldviews/religious beliefs had a significant direct effect on self-concept and physical health over 2 weeks. For each factor series, there were substantial autoregressive effects indicating persisting effects of factors on themselves over 1 or 2 weeks. A link between worldviews/religious beliefs and physical health was found in the time-lagged structure of within-person variability. The findings underscore the need to study both intraindividual change and interindividual differences in intraindividual variability to obtain a better understanding of behavior and behavioral development.

Deberíamos agradecer a los contribuyentes por pagar nuestro rescate

Abstract: ReliantShare Bank esta a punto de recibir US$ 5.000 millones de ayuda del gobierno de EE.UU. Despues de tener mucha mala prensa, su CEO Ben Marshall sabe que debe enviar un mensaje positivo a los clientes y al mercado. Su directora de clientes, Ammon Rodriguez, propone una campana publicitaria para agradecer a los contribuyentes por su �inversion�. El director de finanzas Vernon Scott sostiene por el contrario que hay que llevar la atencion de los inversionistas y los analistas financieros hacia el balance recapitalizado del banco y las perspectivas de crecimiento futuro. ?Que mensaje deberia enviar ReliantShare para restaurar la confianza publica? Una campana eficaz de agradecimiento, dice el profesor de University of Miami Michael McCullough, deberia incluir una declaracion clara de la intencion del banco de convertir los US$ 5.000 millones en una mayor capacidad para atender al publico. Pero si Ben no esta dispuesto a bajar la cabeza, entonces Vernon tiene razon: es mejor guardarse los agradecimientos y reconstruir la empresa en silencio. El presidente de Brunswick Group, Alan Parker, sostiene que ReliantShare debe mostrar contricion y reconocer su papel en la creacion del problema en que se encuentra, aunque eso no sera suficiente. El banco probablemente necesitara nuevos lideres. Parker sugiere que Ben se anticipe a los acontecimientos y orqueste una salida limpia y ordenada para expresar publicamente que lamenta las perdidas de los accionistas, asegurando que los ejecutivos no recibiran bonos extravagantes, y presentando su renuncia. r C. William Pollard, ex presidente y CEO de ServiceMaster, dice que Ben empeoraria las cosas si renunciara, porque al nuevo equipo de liderazgo le tomaria demasiado tiempo agarrar vuelo. Pero Pollard tambien cree que hay mucho que hacer respecto de las relaciones publicas: no solo una campana que expresa gratitud, sino una que enfatice la responsabilidad, la transparencia y la recuperacion de la confianza.