Belief in God's control of the world is common to many of the world's religions, but there are conflicting predictions regarding its role in shaping attitudes toward the welfare state. While the devout are expected to support pro-social values like helping others, and thus might be supportive of the welfare state, the possibility of taking action is undermined by the belief in God's absolute co...

Chaves (2010) argues that much of the work in the sociology of religion is susceptible to the religious congruence fallacy—the tendency to assume consistency between religious beliefs and one’s attitudes and behaviors across situations when they are in fact highly variable. We build on and extend this argument by focusing on intersecting group identities as a mechanism for identifying such inco...

Building upon a series of works by Thomas J. Bouchard, Lindon J. Eaves, Hans J. Eysenck and other contemporaries, we present strong evidence that the assumed causal relationship between personality and left–right ideology is too simplistic. We suggest the relationship is not predictive and instead is better understood by dividing the overarching left–right ideological spectrum into more meaning...

In this study, we test Durkheim’s (1897) conceptualization of suicide as a pattern of suicidal behavior caused by sociological conditions and its effects on attitudes towards state sanctioned death through examining support for assisted suicide and the death penalty. Using secondary-data and quantitative analytical methods, we empirically examine personal attitudes towards assisted suicide for ...

Building upon a series of works by Thomas J. Bouchard, Lindon J. Eaves, Hans J. Eysenck and other contemporaries, we present strong evidence that the assumed causal relationship between personality and left–right ideology is too simplistic. We suggest the relationship is not predictive and instead is better understood by dividing the overarching left–right ideological spectrum into more meaning...

A quantitative survey was undertaken to determine the attitudes of nurses towards mentally ill people at King Edward VIII Hospital, large academic hospital in Durban. Data were collected by a questionnaire intended to measure attitudes according to cognitive, affective and behavioral components in a sample of 100 black nurses. The results of this study were analyzed through a statistical softwa...

OBJECTIVE Historical and contemporary research has posited links between eating disorders and religious asceticism. This study aimed to examine relationships between eating disorders, religion, and treatment. METHOD Qualitative study using purposeful sampling, applying audiotaped and transcribed depth interview, subjected to interpretative phenomenological analysis. RESULTS Participants wer...

Using data on adults ages 55 and over from the second wave of the National Survey of Families and Households (NSFH-2), this study models the main and interactive effects of religious involvement and race/ethnicity on four items of attitudes towards intergenerational assistance. Results indicate that African Americans and Hispanics tend to express stronger support for intergenerational assistanc...

The mission of schools has broadened beyond academics to address risk behaviors such as substance use, delinquency, and socialization problems. With an estimated 3.4% of all U.S. youth being homeschooled, this study examines how U.S. homeschoolers fare on these outcomes given their lack of access to these school services. Adolescents (ages 12-17) from the 2002 through 2011 National Surveys of D...