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Christianity: Positive affects and subjective wellbeing
Author(s)
Date Issued
2025
Citation
Lai, C. H. L. (26 Jun 2025). Christianity: Positive affects and subjective wellbeing. Positive Psychology 2.0 International Conference 2025 (PP 2.0 2025), Tung Wah College, Hong Kong.
Type
Conference Paper
Abstract
This study aimed to examine the affective composition of Christians in terms of the
homeostatically protected mood (HPMood). HPMood is a construct inspired by Russell (2003) and conceived as a neuro-physiologically generated affect comprised of a simple, constant, and non-reflective feeling (Cummins, 2010; Cummins & Wooden, 2014; Lai, 2021). The initial supportive evidence for the domination of subjective wellbeing (SWB) by HPMood was obtained from Davern et al. (2007), represented HPMood using three descriptive affects, namely, content, happy and excited. These positive affects were postulated to be the dominant constituents of SWB and were later confirmed by Blore et al. (2011) and Tomyn and Cummins (2011). Moreover, the level of HPMood represents the SWB set-point for every individual, and it is this set-point that homeostasis strives to defend (Cummins & Wooden, 2014). Following on from this, SWB is characterized as stable and positive.
It is postulated that biblical teaching may have an enhancement effect on the affective aspect of Christians. Some examples are cited. Christians are taught to rejoice evermore (1 Thessalonians 5:16). Also, it is taught that a merry heart doeth good like a medicine (Proverbs 17:22). Furthermore, it is stated that because of God, my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiced (Psalms 16:9). Hence, due to the religious learning and experience, it is predicted that the three positive affects of content, happy and excited are able to explain significant SWB variance of Christians.
By means of convenient sampling, 173 adult Christians in Hong Kong were recruited to participate in a survey by filling in a questionnaire. The demographic information is that the samples are slightly dominated by females, middle-aged adults (36-45 years) and high-income group (HKD20,001 & above). In this study, SWB was measured by the Personal Wellbeing Index (PWI) (International Wellbeing Group, 2013). The reliability coefficient for the current study was .88. The three affective indicators-content, happy and excited, were measured by asking participants to indicate how each of them described their feelings when they thought about their life in general. An 11-point end-defined scale was used for all items, for its advantages of response simplicity and scale sensitivity over 5 or 7-point Likert scales (Cummins, 2003).
The result of multiple regression revealed that, among these three affects, only content was able to explain significant SWB variance (12%). This result was explained with reference to a circumplex model including 31 affective descriptors defined by two dimensions (vertical dimension: activated vs. deactivated; horizontal dimension: pleasant vs. unpleasant) (Davern et al., 2007). According to this model, while content together with other affects like at ease, relaxed, serene, calm were located in the pleasant-deactivated quadrant, excited/happy were belonged to/closed to the pleasant-activated one. Hence, the finding of only content explained SWB significant variance implies that Christianity learning and experience are more likely to nurture the pleasant-deactivated nature of affects. Hence, to better understand the affective composition of Christians, the affective indicators like at ease, relaxed, serene, calm should be included in the future studies.
It is postulated that biblical teaching may have an enhancement effect on the affective aspect of Christians. Some examples are cited. Christians are taught to rejoice evermore (1 Thessalonians 5:16). Also, it is taught that a merry heart doeth good like a medicine (Proverbs 17:22). Furthermore, it is stated that because of God, my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiced (Psalms 16:9). Hence, due to the religious learning and experience, it is predicted that the three positive affects of content, happy and excited are able to explain significant SWB variance of Christians.
By means of convenient sampling, 173 adult Christians in Hong Kong were recruited to participate in a survey by filling in a questionnaire. The demographic information is that the samples are slightly dominated by females, middle-aged adults (36-45 years) and high-income group (HKD20,001 & above). In this study, SWB was measured by the Personal Wellbeing Index (PWI) (International Wellbeing Group, 2013). The reliability coefficient for the current study was .88. The three affective indicators-content, happy and excited, were measured by asking participants to indicate how each of them described their feelings when they thought about their life in general. An 11-point end-defined scale was used for all items, for its advantages of response simplicity and scale sensitivity over 5 or 7-point Likert scales (Cummins, 2003).
The result of multiple regression revealed that, among these three affects, only content was able to explain significant SWB variance (12%). This result was explained with reference to a circumplex model including 31 affective descriptors defined by two dimensions (vertical dimension: activated vs. deactivated; horizontal dimension: pleasant vs. unpleasant) (Davern et al., 2007). According to this model, while content together with other affects like at ease, relaxed, serene, calm were located in the pleasant-deactivated quadrant, excited/happy were belonged to/closed to the pleasant-activated one. Hence, the finding of only content explained SWB significant variance implies that Christianity learning and experience are more likely to nurture the pleasant-deactivated nature of affects. Hence, to better understand the affective composition of Christians, the affective indicators like at ease, relaxed, serene, calm should be included in the future studies.
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