ISSEP-2024-04

GRANT ID#: ISSEP-2024-04

GRANT TITLE: Taking religion research to church: Examining religious socioecologies and self-transcendent positive emotions among Christians

GRANTEE: University of Florida

PRIMARY INVESTIGATOR: Joshua Perlin

CO-PRIMARY INVESTIGATOR: Erin Westgate

GRANT AMOUNT: USD $13,495.00

DURATION OF GRANT PROJECT: February 15, 2024 – July 15, 2025

Description of the Project

Executive summary:

There is a robust link between religion and self-transcendent positive emotions (STPEs). But religion is a diverse category encompassing vastly different traditions, each with unique practices (e.g., rosaries vs. private prayer) and settings (e.g., cathedrals vs. mega-churches) which together constitute a religious tradition’s “socioecology”. STPEs are not all the same either; for example, awe is markedly different from gratitude, but both are STPEs. This seed project probes the general link between religion and STPEs by examining two disparate socioecologies within the same religion—high church (traditional, ritualistic) vs. low church (contemporary, spontaneous) contexts in Christianity—and their unique relations to three STPEs: awe, gratitude, and elevation. To do this, we will conduct three studies: a high-impact field experiment, a high-power online experiment, and a high-specificity qualitative interview. This seed project will illuminate the importance for existential psychologists to consider specific forms of self-transcendence and specific socioecologies when studying religion.

Itemized budget:

The projected expenses are detailed below:

• Study 1 data collection is mostly complete; however, the data in its existing form cannot answer this proposal’s question comparing the three STPEs. Therefore, we are requesting $55 to purchase a 1-year LIWC license to run linguistic analyses on the open-ended responses in these data.

  For Study 2, the only costs are participant payments. A smaller sample of Christians will be recruited from our university SONA pool to rate the church spaces on church lowness-to-highness. For the experimental study, we will use Prolific Academic to recruit 432 Christians to participate in a 10-minute experiment. Prolific participants will be compensated $2.10, which amounts to approximately $12.50/hour. Including Prolific’s 25% service fee, the total amount requested for Study 2 is $1,134.

  Finally, Study 3 current costs are covered by a grant to study the life stories of seminarians. In order to examine this proposal’s specific questions related to STPEs, we are adding 7 interview questions to our protocol. Therefore, we are requesting funds to pay for the increased cost of transcription and participant compensation, as well as to extend the visit at each seminary to have more time to document in vivo religious experiences related to awe, gratitude, and elevation. A transcription service that contracts with our university has quoted $1.89/minute. With 7 extra questions, we are estimating 50–55 minutes added per interview (~7.5 minutes/question), totaling approximately $1,400 across 14 participants. We are also requesting $175 to supplement current participant payment ($12.50/participant for the extra hour). Finally, we are requesting $236 for the PI to spend two additional days at each seminary (although one seminary will feed and house the PI, free of charge), accounting for $36/day food expenses and approximately $85/night for two days at the other seminary.

($55 + $1,134 + $1,400 + $175 + $236 = $3,000 total)

The total amount approved is USD $3,000.