Religiosity, optimism, and pessimism among African Americans

Journal of Black Psychology

Volumn 30, Issue 2, 2004, Pages 187-207

  Mattis, Jacqueline S ^a   Fontenot, Dwight L ^b   Hatcher Kay, Carrie A ^b   Grayman, Nyasha A ^a   Beale, Ruby L ^c  

^a NEW YORK UNIVERSITY   (United States)

^b UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN   (United States)

^c HAMPTON UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

African American; Expectancy; Optimism; Pessimism; Religiosity

Indexed keywords

EID: 15544374309     PISSN: 00957984     EISSN: 15524558     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/0095798403260730     Document Type: Article

References (63)

1. Beck, S. (1971). Cosmic optimism in some Genesis myths. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 41(3), 380-389.
2. Berdyaev, N. (1939). Spirit and reality. London: The Centenary Press.
3. Billingsley, A., & Caldwell, C. H. (1991). The church, the family and the school in the African American community. Journal of Negro Education, 60, 427-440.
4. Brodsky, A. (2000). The role of religion in the lives of resilient, urban, African American, single mothers. Journal of Community Psychology, 28, 199-219.
5. Bromberger, J., & Matthews, K. (1996). A longitudinal study of the effects of pessimism, trait, anxiety, and life stress on depressive symptoms in middle-age women. Psychology and Aging, 11, 207-213.
6. Carson, E. (1990). Patterns of giving in Black churches. In R. Wuthnow, V. Hodgkinson, et al. (Eds.), Faith and philanthropy in America: Exploring the role of religion in America's voluntary sector (pp. 232-252). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
7. Chang, E. (1996). Cultural differences in optimism, pessimism, and coping: Predictors of subsequent adjustment in Asian American and Caucasian American college students. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 43(1), 113-123.
8. Chang, E. (1998). Does dispositional optimism moderate the relation between perceived stress and psychological well-being? A preliminary investigation. Personality and Individual Differences, 25, 233-240.
9. Chang, E., Maydeu-Olivares, A., & D'Zurilla, T. (1997). Optimism and pessimism as partially independent constructs: Relationship to positive and negative affectivity and psychological well-being. Personality and Individual Differences, 23, 433-440.
10. Chang, E., Rand, K., & Strunk, D. (2000). Optimism and risk for job burnout among working college students: Stress as a mediator. Personality and Individual Differences, 29, 255-263.
11. Cheng, S., & Hamid, P. (1997). Dispositional optimism in Chinese people: What does the Life Orientation Test measure? International Journal of Psychology, 32(1), 15-22.
12. Cone, J. (1997). God of the oppressed. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books.
13. Dember, W. (2001). The optimism-pessimism instrument: Personal and social correlates. In E. Chang (Ed.), Optimism and pessimism: Implications for theory, research, and practice (pp. 281-299). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
14. Dember, W., & Brooks, J. (1989). A new instrument for measuring optimism and pessimism. Test-retest reliability and relations with happiness and religious commitment. Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society, 27, 365-366.
15. Eckstein, Y. (2000). The role of faith in shaping optimism. In J. Gillham (Ed.), The science of optimism and hope: Research essays in honor of Martin E. P. Seligman (pp. 341-345). Philadelphia: Templeton Foundation Press.
16. Eshun, S. (1999). Cultural variations in hopelessness, optimism, and suicidal ideation: A study of Ghana and U.S. college samples. Cross-Cultural Research, 33(3), 227-238.
17. Grant, J. (1989). White women's Christ and Black women's Jesus: Feminist Christology and womanist response. Atlanta: Scholars Press.
18. Hatcher, C. (2001). African American individuals' perceived relationships with God and psychological well-being. Unpublished dissertation, University of Michigan.
19. Heine, S., & Lehman, D. (1995). Cultural variation in unrealistic optimism: Does the West feel more invulnerable than the East? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 68, 595-607.
20. Houf, H. (1945). What religion is and does: An introduction to the study of its problems and values. New York: Harper and Brothers.
21. Jagers, R. (1997). Afrocultural integrity and the social development of African American children: Some conceptual, empirical, and practical considerations. Journal of Prevention and Intervention in the Community, 16, 7-34.
22. Krause, N., Chatters, L., Meltzer, T., & Morgan, D. (2000). Negative interaction in the church: Insights from focus groups with older adults. Review of Religious Research, 41, 510-533.
23. Lai, J. (1995). The moderating effect of optimism on the relation between hassles and somatic complaints. Psychological Reports, 76, 883-894.
24. Lee, Y., & Seligman, M. (1997). Are Americans more optimistic than the Chinese? Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 25(1), 32-40.
25. Levin, J., Chatters, L., & Taylor, R. (1995). Religious effects on health status and life satisfaction among Black Americans. Journal of Gerontology, 50B, 154-163.
26. Levin, J., & Taylor, R. (1998). Panel analyses of religious involvement and well-being in African Americans: Contemporaneous vs. longitudinal effects. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 37, 695-709.
27. Levin, J., Taylor, R., & Chatters, L. (1995). A multidimensional measure of religious involvement for African Americans. Sociological Quarterly, 36(1), 157-173.
28. Lincoln, C., & Mamiya, L. (1990). The Black church in the African American experience. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
29. Long, C. (1997). Perspectives for a study of African-American religion in the United States. In T. Fulop & A. Raboteau (Eds.), African-American religion: Interpretive essays in history and culture (pp. 23-35). New York: Routledge.
30. Lupfer, M., Tolliver, D., & Jackson, M. (1996). Explaining life-altering occurrences: A test of the "God-of-the-gaps" hypothesis. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 35, 379-391.
31. Marx, G. (1967). Protest and prejudice. New York: Harper and Row.
32. Mattis, J. (2000). African American women's definitions of spirituality: A qualitative analysis. Journal of Black Psychology, 26(1), 101-122.
33. Mattis, J. (2001). Religion and African American political life. Political Psychology, 22(2), 263-278.
34. Mattis, J. S. (2002). Religion and spirituality in the meaning-making and coping experiences of African American women: A qualitative analysis. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 26, 308-320.
35. Mattis, J., Fontenot, D., & Hatcher-Kay, C. (2003). Religion, racism, and optimism among African Americans. Personality and Individual Differences, 34, 1025-1038.
36. Mattis, J., Jagers, R., Hatcher, C., Lawhon, G., Murphy, E., & Murray, Y. (2000). Religiosity, communalism and volunteerism among African American men: An exploratory analysis. Journal of Community Psychology, 28(4), 391-406.
37. McAdoo, H. (1995). Stress levels, family help patterns, and religiosity in middleand workingclass African American single mothers. Journal of Black Psychology, 21(4), 424-449.
38. Neighbors, H., Musick, M., & Williams, D. (1998). The African American minister as a source of help for serious personal crises: Bridge or barrier to mental health care? Health Education and Behavior, 25(6), 759-777.
39. Nelson, T. (1997). He made a way out of no way: Religious experience in an African American congregation. Review of Religious Research, 39, 5-24.
40. Norem, J., & Cantor, N. (1986). Defensive pessimism: Harnessing anxiety as motivation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51, 1208-1217.
41. Pargament, K. (1997). The psychology of religion and coping: Theory, research, practice. New York: Guilford Press.
42. Pargament, K., & Hahn, J. (1986). God and the just world: Causal attributions to God and health situations. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 25, 193-207.
43. Peterson, C. (2000). The future of optimism. American Psychologist, 55(1), 44-55.
44. Rutter, D., Quine, L., & Albery, I. (1998). Perceptions of riskin motorcyclists: Unrealistic optimism, relative pessimism and predictions of behaviour. British Journal of Psychology, 89, 681-696.
45. Scheier, M., & Carver, C. (1985). Optimism, coping, and health: Assessment and implications for generalized outcome expectancies. Health Psychology, 4, 219-247.
46. Scheier, M., & Carver, C. (1987). Dispositional optimism and physical well-being: The influence of generalized outcome expectancies on health. Journal of Personality, 55(2), 169-210.
47. Scheier, M., Matthews, K., Owens, J., Magovern, G., Lefebvre, R., Abbott, R., et al. (1989). Dispositional optimism and recovery from coronary bypass surgery. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 57(6), 1024-1040.
48. Scheier, M., Weintraub, J., & Carver, C. (1986). Coping with stress: Divergent strategies of optimists and pessimists. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51(6), 1257-1264.
49. Sethi, S., & Seligman, M. (1993). Optimism and fundamentalism. Psychological Science, 4(4), 256-259.
50. Sethi, S., & Seligman, M. (1994). The hope of fundamentalists. Psychological Science, 5(1), 58.
51. Shulz, R., Bookwala, J., Knapp, J., Scheier, M., & Williamson, G. (1996). Pessimism, age, and cancer mortality. Psychology and Aging, 11, 304-309.
52. Stevenson, H. (1997). Managing anger: Protective, proactive, or adaptive racial socialization identity profiles and African American manhood development. Journal of Prevention and Intervention in the Community, 16, 35-61.
53. Stewart, C., III. (1996). Street corner theology. Nashville: James Winston Publishing.
54. Taylor, R., Ellison, C., Chatters, L., Levin, J., & Lincoln, K. (2000). Mental health services in faith communities: The role of clergy in Black churches. Social Work, 45(1), 73-87.
55. Taylor, R., Mattis, J., & Chatters, L. (1999). Subjective religiosity among African Americans: A synthesis of findings from five national samples. Journal of Black Psychology, 25(4), 524-543.
56. Tennen, H., & Affleck, G. (1987). The costs and benefits of optimistic explanations and dispositional optimism. Journal of Personality, 55(2), 377-393.
57. Tiger, L. (1999). The past of an illusion: How optimism brings us to God. Free Inquiry, 19(3), 28-29.
58. Vickers, K., & Vogeltanz, N. (2000). Dispositional optimism as a predictor of depressive symptoms over time. Personality and Individual Differences, 28(2), 259-272.
59. Ward, J. (1995). Cultivating a morality of care in African American adolescents: A culture based model of violence prevention. Harvard Educational Review, 65(2), 175-188.
60. Weinstein, N. (1980). Unrealistic optimism about future events. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 39, 806-820.
61. West, C. (1993). Race matters. Boston: Beacon Press.
62. Wilcox, C., & Gomez, L. (1990). Religion, group identification, and politics among American Blacks. Sociological Analysis, 51, 271-285.
63. Zinnbauer, B., Pargament, K., Cole, B., Rye, M., Butter, E., Belavich, T., et al. (1997). Religiousness and spirituality: Unfuzzying the fuzzy. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 36(4), 549-564.