Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-mlc7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T15:45:53.616Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Strong beliefs and coping in old age: a case-based comparison of atheism and religious faith

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2009

PETER J. WILKINSON  and
PETER G. COLEMAN
PETER J. WILKINSON*
Affiliation:
Academic Geriatric Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK.
PETER G. COLEMAN
Affiliation:
Academic Geriatric Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK.
*
Address for correspondence: Peter J. Wilkinson, Academic Geriatric Medicine, Level E (807), Centre Block, Southampton General Hospital, Southampton SO16 6YD, UK E-mail: peterwilkinson@lavabit.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Although a variety of research projects have been conducted on the benefits of religious coping in older adults, no direct comparison between atheism and religious faith has been published. The study reported in this paper tackled this issue by interviewing two matched groups of people aged over 60 years living in southern England, one of 11 informants with strong atheistic beliefs, and the other of eight informants with strong religious beliefs. Five paired comparisons were undertaken to examine the role of the content of the belief system itself in coping with different negative stresses and losses commonly associated with ageing and old age. The pairs were matched for the nature of the loss or stress that the two people had experienced, but the two individuals had opposed atheistic and religious beliefs. The analyses showed that all the study participants – regardless of their beliefs – were coping well, and suggested that a strong atheistic belief system can fulfil the same role as a strong religious belief system in providing support, explanation, consolation and inspiration. It is postulated that the strength of people's beliefs and how those beliefs are used might have more influence on the efficacy of coping than the specific nature of the beliefs. Further research into the strength of belief systems, including atheism, is required to test and elaborate this hypothesis.

Keywords

belief systemsmental healthcopingatheismreligious belieffinitude
Type
Articles
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 30 , Issue 2 , February 2010 , pp. 337 - 361
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Braam, A. W., Beekman, A. T. F. and van Tilburg, W. 1999. Religion and depression in later life. Current Opinion in Psychiatry, 12, 4, 471–5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coleman, P. G. 1993. Adjustment in later life. In Bond, J., Coleman, P. G. and Peace, S. (eds), Ageing in Society: An Introduction to Social Gerontology. Sage, London, 97–132.Google Scholar
Coleman, P. G. 2002. Doing case study research in psychology. In Jamieson, A. and Victor, C. R. (eds), Researching Ageing and Later Life. Open University Press, Buckingham, UK, 135–54.Google Scholar
Coleman, P. G. 2005. Spirituality and ageing: the health implications of religious belief and practice. Age and Ageing, 34, 4, 318–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Coleman, P. G. In press. Religion and age. In Dannefer, D. and Phillipson, C. (eds), International Handbook of Social Gerontology. Sage, London.Google Scholar
Coleman, P. G., Ivani-Chalian, C. and Robinson, M. 1999. Self and identity in advanced old age: validation of theory through longitudinal case analysis. Journal of Personality, 67, 5, 819–49.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Coleman, P. G., Ivani-Chalian, C. and Robinson, M. 2004. Religious attitudes among British older people: stability and change in a 20-year longitudinal study. Ageing & Society, 24, 2, 167–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crowther, M. R., Parker, M. W., Achenbaum, W. A., Larimore, W. L. and Koenig, H. G. 2002. Rowe and Kahn's model of successful aging revisited: positive spirituality – the forgotten factor. The Gerontologist, 42, 5, 613–20.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Culliford, L. 2002. Spirituality and clinical care: spiritual values and skills are increasingly recognised as necessary aspects of clinical care. British Medical Journal, 325, 1434–5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davie, G. 2000. Religion in modern Britain: changing sociological assumptions. Sociology 34, 1, 113–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davie, G. and Vincent, J. 1998. Religion and old age. Ageing & Society, 18, 1, 101–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dawkins, R. 1998. Unweaving the Rainbow. Penguin, London.Google Scholar
Dawkins, R. 2006. The God Delusion. Bantam, London.Google Scholar
Dein, S. and Stygall, J. 1997. Does being religious help or hinder coping with chronic illness? A critical literature review. Palliative Medicine, 11, 4, 291–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Folkman, S., Lazarus, R. S., Pimley, S. and Novacek, J. 1987. Age differences in stress and coping processes. Psychology and Aging, 2, 2, 171–84.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gall, T. L. and Cornblat, M. W. 2002. Breast cancer survivors give voice: a qualitative analysis of spiritual factors in long-term adjustment. Psycho-Oncology, 11, 6, 524–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hill, P. C. and Pargament, K. I. 2003. Advances in the conceptualization and measurement of religion and spirituality: implications for physical and mental health research. American Psychologist, 58, 1, 64–74.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hitchens, C. 2007. The Portable Atheist: Essential Reading for the Nonbeliever. Da Capo, London.Google Scholar
James, W. 1902/2004. The Varieties of Religious Experience. Barnes and Noble, New York.Google Scholar
King, M., Jones, L., Barnes, K., Low, J., Walker, C., Wilkinson, S., Mason, C., Sutherland, J. and Tookman, A. 2005. Measuring spiritual belief: development and standardization of a beliefs and values scale. Psychological Medicine, 36, 1–9.Google ScholarPubMed
King, M., Speck, P. and Thomas, A. 2001. The Royal Free interview for spiritual and religious beliefs: development and validation of a self-report version. Psychological Medicine, 31, 1015–23. doi: 10.1017/S0033291701004160.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kirby, S. E., Coleman, P. G. and Daley, D. 2004. Spirituality and well-being in frail and nonfrail older adults. Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences, 59B, 3, P123–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kirkpatrick, L. A. 2005 a. Attachment, Evolution and the Psychology of Religion. Guilford, London.Google Scholar
Kirkpatrick, L. A. 2005 b. Evolutionary psychology: an emerging new foundation for the psychology of religion. In Paloutzian, R. F. and Park, C. L. (eds), Handbook of the Psychology of Religion and Spirituality. Guilford, London, 101–19.Google Scholar
Koenig, H. G. 1993. Religion and aging. Reviews in Clinical Gerontology, 3, 2, 195–203.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koenig, H. G. 1999. Religiosity as a protective factor in depressive disorder. American Journal of Psychiatry, 156, 5, 810.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koenig, H. G. 2000. Religion, spirituality and medicine: application to clinical practice. Journal of the American Medical Association, 284, 13, 1708.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Koenig, H. G. 2006. Religion, spirituality and aging. Aging and Mental Health, 10, 1, 1–3.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Krause, N. 2003. Religious meaning and subjective well-being in late life. Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences, 58B, 3, S160–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lazarus, R. S. and Lazarus, B. N. 2006. Coping with Aging. Oxford University Press, Oxford.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Liu, R. 2007. Exploring the Relationship between Spiritual/religious Beliefs, Life Events and Depression: A Qualitative Study. Unpublished dissertation, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK.Google Scholar
Marcoen, A. 2005. Religion, spirituality and older people. In Johnson, M. L., Bengston, V. L., Coleman, P. G. and Kirkwood, T. B. L. (eds), The Cambridge Handbook of Age and Ageing. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 363–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mayne, M. 1995. This Sunrise of Wonder: Letters for the Journey. Harper-Collins, New York.Google Scholar
McClain-Jacobson, C., Rosenfeld, B., Kosinski, A., Pessin, H., Cimino, J. E. and Breitbart, W. 2004. Belief in an afterlife, spiritual well-being and end-of-life despair in patients with advanced cancer. General Hospital Psychiatry, 26, 6, 484–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCullough, M. E. and Larson, D. B. 1999. Religion and depression: a review of the literature. Twin Research, 2, 2, 126–36.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McFadden, S. H. 1996. Religion, spirituality and aging. In Birren, J. E. and Warner Schaie, K. (eds), Handbook of the Psychology of Aging. Fourth edition, Academic, San Diego, California, 162–77.Google Scholar
McFadden, S. H. 1999. Religion, personality and aging: a life span perspective. Journal of Personality, 67, 6, 1081–104.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McFadden, S. H. 2000. Religion and meaning in late life. In Reker, G. T. and Chamberlain, K. (eds), Exploring Existential Meaning: Optimizing Human Development Across the Life Span. Sage, Thousand Oaks, California, 171–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McFadden, S. H. 2005. Points of connection: gerontology and the psychology of religion. In Paloutzian, R. F. and Park, C. L. (eds), Handbook of the Psychology of Religion and Spirituality. Guilford, London, 162–75.Google Scholar
Miller, W. R. and Thoresen, C. E. 2003. Spirituality, religion and health: an emerging research field. American Psychologist, 58, 1, 24–35.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Moberg, D. O. 2001. Research on spirituality. In Moberg, D. O. (ed.), Aging and Spirituality: Spiritual Dimensions of Aging Theory, Research, Practice and Policy. Haworth, New York, 55–69.Google Scholar
Nelson, C. J., Rosenfeld, B., Breitbart, W. and Galietta, M. 2002. Spirituality, religion and depression in the terminally ill. Psychosomatics, 43, 3, 213–20.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Paloutzian, R. F. and Park, C. L. 2005. Handbook of the Psychology of Religion and Spirituality. Guilford, London.Google Scholar
Pargament, K. I. 1997. The Psychology of Religion and Coping: Theory, Research, Practice. Guilford, London.Google Scholar
Park, C. L. 2005. Religion and meaning. In Paloutzian, R. F. and Park, C. L. (eds), Handbook of the Psychology of Religion and Spirituality. Guildford, London, 295–314.Google Scholar
Powell, L. H., Shahabi, L. and Thoresen, C. E. 2003. Religion and spirituality: linkages to physical health. American Psychologist, 58, 1, 36–52.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pritchard, C. 1995. Suicide: The Ultimate Rejection? A Psycho-social Study. Open University Press, Buckingham, UK.Google Scholar
Ricard, M. 2007. Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life's Most Important Skill. Translated by J. Browner, Atlantic, London.Google Scholar
Sacks, O. W. 1973/1991. Awakenings. Picador, London.Google Scholar
Sacks, O. W. 1985. The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat. Picador, London.Google Scholar
Wilkinson, P. J. and Coleman, P. G. Forthcoming. Atheism and agnosticism: coping with ageing among British humanists. In Coleman, P. G. (ed.), Belief and Ageing: Spiritual Pathways in Later Life. Policy, Bristol.Google Scholar
Zigmond, A. S. and Snaith, R. P. 1983. The hospital anxiety and depression scale. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 67, 6, 361–70.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zinnbauer, B. J. and Pargament, K. I. 2005. Religiousness and spirituality. In Paloutzian, R. F. and Park, C. L. (eds), Handbook of the Psychology of Religion and Spirituality. Guilford, London, 21–42.Google Scholar