Browsing by Author "Medenwaldt, Jay M., 1982-"

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How anger and gratitude toward God affect beliefs about God.
(2023-08) Medenwaldt, Jay M., 1982-; Schnitker, Sarah A.
Research on anger and gratitude toward God has primarily focused on discovering wellbeing correlates of dispositional anger and gratitude toward God, with only a handful of studies investigating state gratitude to God and no studies investigating state anger toward God. Thus, I sought to test the effects of state anger and gratitude toward God as well as state anger and gratitude toward people on cognitions about God. I hypothesized that gratitude and anger would have divergent effects on cognitions about God. I randomly assigned participants to write about a time when they were angry or grateful to God, angry or grateful to another person, and a control condition. The gratitude toward God condition was not different than the control condition on any dependent variables, but the anger toward God condition rated arguments for God as weaker, rated God as less benevolent, and had more doubt about religious beliefs than the control condition and other conditions for some outcomes. The results suggest that anger toward God, if not resolved, can decrease positive cognitions about God.