Empirical Support for a Model of Well-Being, Meaning in Life, Importance of Religion, and Transcendent Experiences

A model developed in an investigation of the effects of transcendent experiences on subjective well-being may provide insight into the weak, positive correlation between religious commitment and well-being. This model suggests that religious commitment influences a person's sense of meaning in life, which, in turn, influences well-being. The model also suggests that transcendent experiences can affect religious commitment, which then influences meaning in life and well-being. The data from a convenience sample of 182 people are very consistent with this causal chain model. More importantly, numerous other studies of the relationships between specific components of the model are consistent with the model. However, the available data and structural equation methods are ambiguous about the direction of causation along this chain path, and reciprocal or bi-directional causation is likely. Although the direction of causation may vary, the intervening or mediating roles appear to apply with either causal direction. The weak relationship between religious involvement and psychological well-being is somewhat surprising given the prevalence of religious beliefs in the United States. Gallup surveys report that 94% of Americans say they believe in God, 54% say that religion is very important in their lives, and 38% say their religious involvement has been a "very positive" experience (Gallup and Castelli, 1989:35,45). Beliefs that have such widespread affirmation might be expected to have a strong positive impact on peoples' lives. In addition, as Koenig (1990) noted, a strong association between religious commitment and well-being would be expected based on individual testimonials. However, reviews of research on the relationship between religious commitment and psychological well-being find only a weak positive association overall (Bateson, Schoenrade and Ventis, 1993:287; Bergin, 1983; Koenig, 1990; Witter, Stock, Okun, and Haring, 1985). In a recent project that investigated the effects of transcendent experiences on people's lives, our initial data supported a model that may offer some insight into the relationship between religious commitment and well-being. Although our data were from a nonrandom sample from a selected population, the resulting model appears remarkably consistent with and integrates a