تصاویری از مادر، خود و خدا بعنوان پیش بینی کننده بی قراری در نمونه غیربالینی

This study explored the interactions between individuals' images of mother, self, and God as predictors of dysphoria in a sample of 200 mostly Christian undergraduates. The study was intended to replicate and extend previous work, which has focused on only two or three of these variables. We predicted that results would support Jeffrey Young's early maladaptive schema conceptualization, which posits a predictive relationship between images of parents, self image (or schema), and emotional well-being. We further anticipated that God image would mediate the effects of the parent image on image of self and well-being. Instruments used included the multiple affect adjective checklist, the Young parenting questionnaire, and the adjective checklist. While path analysis of results provided support for Young's conceptualization, no support was found for the indirect effects of God image. Correlational findings were generally replicated in a public university sample (N=68).

Previous studies have explored various aspects of the interaction between the individual's view of his or her parents, self image, conception of God, and emotional well-being. Pieces of this complex picture have been studied from various psychological perspectives, including object relations (Brokaw & Edwards, 1994; Rizzuto, 1974; Tisdale, Key, Edwards, & Brokaw, 1997; Underwood, 1986; White, 1984), cognitive (Benson & Spilka, 1973), and social cognitive (Chartier & Goehner, 1977; Nelson & Kroliczak, 1984) theories, as well as from studies on images of God and religious coping (Bickel et al., 1998; Murphy et al., 2000). Early research in the relationship between parent and God imagery largely ignored the influence of self image (Heinrichs, 1982). A favored model of more psychoanalytically-oriented theorists that has arisen in different guises is the idea that the individual's God image is a projection of his or her parent image (Rizzuto, 1974). While Freud's early exposition of this idea focused narrowly on the son–father dynamic (Birky & Ball, 1988), more recent empirical work has shown that composite representations of both parents may be even more closely related to God image (Birky & Ball, 1988; Justice & Lambert, 1986), and object-relations theorists like Rizzuto (1974) have adapted Freud's theory and given it broader application. In essence, according to the object-relations perspective, the God representation is different than other object representations in that it is not based directly on experiences of God, but relies on the utilization of representations acquired within the context of relationships with significant others, particularly parents (Birky & Ball, 1988; Lawrence, 1997). Another vein of research explored the relationship between self image and God image, this time largely ignoring the influence of parent images. While there have been inconsistencies in findings in this area (e.g., Lawrence, 1997), there appears to be a substantive relationship between positive self image and positive God image (e.g., Benson & Spilka, 1973; Chartier & Goehner, 1977). Based on a model of cognitive consistency, Benson and Spilka (1973) hypothesized that one's self image influences how one views God. Consistency theory posits that data that imply the opposite of one's usual self-perception create cognitive dissonance (Benson & Spilka, 1973). To minimize the psychological discomfort caused by such dissonance, the individual may use techniques such as denial, distortion, or selective perception to ensure that information is consistent with self image. As consistency theory applies to one's image of God, the individual's self image may determine or influence his or her ability to see God as nurturing or accepting. Benson and Spilka (1973) note that “A theology based on a loving, accepting God is cognitively compatible with high self-esteem, but it could be a source of discomfort for a believer low in self-esteem. It does not make good cognitive sense to be loved when one is unlovable”. While Benson and Spilka favor the above explanation to account for the apparent relationship between one's view of oneself and view of God, Chartier and Goehner (1977) prefer Benson and Spilka's alternative suggestion that a third factor may play an important role, namely that parents may influence both God image and self image. Rejecting parents may induce a negative view of both oneself and of God, whereas accepting parents may impel a more favorable perspective. These researchers note that belief-in-an-accepting-God tends to develop in the same sort of family atmosphere required for the development of self-acceptance. Other investigators have examined the parent–God–self interaction from a social cognitive perspective. Nelson and Kroliczak (1984) emphasize that parents often play a direct role in educating a child about religion and God, and the parents' qualities, for better or for worse, are often bound up in that education. This study notes that some parents employ enforcement threats such as “God will punish you if you misbehave”, and children who subscribe to such beliefs have a more negative self image. This perspective, like that of Chartier and Goehner, underscores the complexity of the tripartite interaction between self, God, and parent image. The interactions between religious belief and emotional well-being have also been studied, and this is another area in which results have been somewhat inconsistent (Bickel et al., 1998; Murphy et al., 2000). While some studies have found indications that religious belief is related to lower levels of dysphoria or depression, others, including Murphy et al. (2000), found a positive association between belief and depression, which “points to the complexity of the role belief plays” (Murphy et al., 2000, p. 1102). The authors suggest that perhaps depression impels individuals to turn to religion for solace. The current study attempted to analyze all of these images and their effects on emotional well-being in a single comprehensive model. Using Young's (1999) theory of early maladaptive schema formation to integrate various psychological perspectives (object relations, cognitive, and social cognitive), and to explain the hypothetical links between reports of parental rejection, self image, and emotional functioning, we added the dimension of God image to the equation to estimate its influence as a mediator of the effects of parent image on self image and emotional well-being. According to Young (1999), childhood interactions with parents and siblings are either satisfying, in that they gratify core human needs for connection, acceptance, and autonomy, among other needs, or else they are frustrating––sometimes traumatically so––and these noxious childhood experiences lead to the formation of “early maladaptive schemas,” which Young defines as “stable and enduring themes that develop during childhood, are elaborated throughout an individual's lifetime, and are dysfunctional to a significant degree. These schemas serve as templates for the processing of later experience” (Young, 1999, p. 9). According to this formulation, the negative parental images endorsed by individuals as adults, for example by our study participants on the Young parenting questionnaire (YPQ), are the origins of their maladaptive self images, or schemas, and these schemas are in turn responsible for adult emotional distress and disturbances in interpersonal functioning. Young describes the kinds of parental images and interactions that hypothetically correspond to each of 18 early maladaptive schemas, which he groups into five broad “schema domains” (Young, 1999). The relevant domain for our purposes is that of “disconnection and rejection”, which Young (1999) defines as the “expectation that one's needs for security, safety, stability, nurturance, empathy, sharing of feelings, acceptance, and respect will not be met in a predictable manner” (p. 12). Parental images that hypothetically lead to the endorsement of this schema domain are “cold, detached, withholding, explosive, abusive, or rejecting.” Based on this model, we expected that the parental image of a disconnected and rejecting mother would directly and inversely predict a nurturing self image (H1) and positively predict dysphoria (H2), and that the image of self (or schema) would exert an indirect or mediating effect in that relationship (H3). In addition, based on previous findings, we predicted that parental image would directly predict image of God (H4), and we further expected that this relationship would be mediated by image of self (H5). Finally, we anticipated that an image of a nurturing God might mediate the effects of parental rejection on dysphoria (H6). We tested these hypothesized relationships within a path analytic model in our original sample from Fordham University (N=200) and attempted to reproduce the correlations matrix in a smaller replication sample from Northern Arizona University (N=68).