{"id":10306,"date":"2016-09-30T16:38:29","date_gmt":"2016-09-30T20:38:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.redeemer.ca\/?post_type=news&p=8487"},"modified":"2021-07-14T16:39:20","modified_gmt":"2021-07-14T20:39:20","slug":"the-impact-of-religious-faith-on-desire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.redeemer.ca\/resound\/the-impact-of-religious-faith-on-desire\/","title":{"rendered":"The impact of religious faith on desire"},"content":{"rendered":"

Most people think hard partying is a typical (even celebrated) rite of passage for university students. But not everyone chooses to participate in the revels: research shows that religious students tend to participate less often in risky behaviour. Researchers have typically attributed this outcome to better self-control among students of faith. But is stronger will power really the reason religious students are less likely to engage in negative or risky behaviours?<\/p>\n

Maybe not.<\/p>\n

Dr. Marie Good, assistant professor of psychology, is interested in how religious beliefs and practices shape our desires, which she describes as \u201cthose emotionally charged feelings of wanting something and being motivated to obtain it.\u201d As one of Redeemer\u2019s 2016-17 Zylstra grant winners<\/a>, Good will explore the relationship between religion and desire. She believes that, when it comes to searching for an answer to the question of why religiously devout youth tend to avoid negative behaviours, the shaping of desires may be just as (or more) important than the resistance of temptations.<\/p>\n

\u201cHumans are notoriously bad at saying \u2018no\u2019 to things we really want,\u201d Good explains. \u201cProperly-ordered desires may be a much more effective behaviour regulation strategy than efforts to resist strong desires.\u201d Her theory is that rather than possessing the ironclad will to resist the lures of risky behaviours, religious students might not be all that \u201ctempted\u201d to begin with.<\/p>\n

She continues, \u201cBeing part of a religious community or holding certain religious beliefs may have the effect of decreasing desire for certain chancy activities. Low desire, in turn, would make it easier to say no to restricted behaviours\u2014which could explain why religious youth are more likely than their non-believing peers to pass on a glass (or two or three) of wine, or the offer to go home with that cute girl from the bar.\u201d<\/p>\n

“Humans are notoriously bad at saying \u2018no\u2019 to things we really want.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

With the Zylstra grant awarded by Redeemer\u2019s Centre for Christian Scholarship<\/a>, Good will test her theory about religion\u2019s effect on desire, and Redeemer students will participate as research assistants or volunteer subjects. Besides conducting her large laboratory experiments at Redeemer, Good will also draw on data already collected with collaborators at other institutions.<\/p>\n

From there, Good will communicate her findings in multiple spheres, from publishing academic articles to meeting with religious and public youth organizations to discuss the role of religion as a force for developing properly ordered desires. \u201cThis is an important, as-yet unexplored question,\u201d Good states, \u201cwith the potential to make a unique contribution to our understanding of how religion affects the mind.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Why do religious youth tend to avoid negative behaviours? Shaping desires may more important than the resistance of temptations, Redeemer researcher theorizes.","protected":false},"author":3029,"featured_media":10711,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[187,75,79,84,86,131],"acf":{"sub_title":"","post_featured_image":false,"post_image_vertical_position":"center","post_hero":false,"post_featured":false,"post_featured_order":"0","post_hide_me":false,"use_drop_cap_and_lead_in":false,"hide_recent_articles_sidebar":false,"hide_popular_stories_in_body":false,"cover_story":false,"related_faculty_members":[{"ID":15514,"post_author":"4603","post_date":"2017-09-13 13:43:54","post_date_gmt":"2017-09-13 17:43:54","post_content":"Marie started working at Redeemer in July of 2014. She is a developmental psychologist who is fascinated by the role that spiritual and religious beliefs play in the social, emotional, and physical well-being of adolescents and young adults. In her doctoral work in Brock University\u2019s Adolescent Development Lab, she focused examining on the difference between \u201creligiosity\u201d and \u201cspirituality\u201d, particularly in terms of how they are differentially related to emotional well-being and engagement in risky activities (e.g., substance use). Her doctoral finding that religiosity (but not spirituality) tended to predict lower engagement in alcohol use, led to a postdoctoral fellowship in the Social Neuroscience Lab at the University of Toronto, where she studied cognitive and neural mechanisms that may help explain why<\/em> religious adolescents drink less than their non-religious peers. She has published her findings in journals such as Developmental Psychology, Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, Religion Brain and Behavior, <\/em>and Journal of Youth and Adolescence. <\/em>With collaborators at Brock University and University of Guelph, she has also dabbled in research on general risk-taking and mental health in adolescence. For example, she has published work on identity development; the functions of non-suicidal self-injury; the relation between violent video games and aggression; and the association between depression and risk-taking behaviours.","post_title":"Dr. Marie Good","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"dr-marie-good","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2022-10-07 12:07:55","post_modified_gmt":"2022-10-07 16:07:55","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/www.redeemer.ca\/?post_type=faculty-manager&p=15514","menu_order":0,"post_type":"faculty-manager","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"related_academic_programs":[{"ID":2108,"post_author":"4605","post_date":"2015-07-06 18:33:11","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-06 18:33:11","post_content":"","post_title":"Psychology","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"psychology","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-04-19 11:10:11","post_modified_gmt":"2024-04-19 15:10:11","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/www.redeemer.ca\/?post_type=programs&p=2108","menu_order":0,"post_type":"programs","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}]},"yoast_head":"\nThe impact of religious faith on desire | Redeemer University<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.redeemer.ca\/resound\/the-impact-of-religious-faith-on-desire\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The impact of religious faith on desire | Redeemer University\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Why do religious youth tend to avoid negative behaviours? 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