Doctoral Dissertation Research: Religiosity, Culture, and Well-being: A Study of Cultural Models and Health among Brazilian Pentecostals

阿拉巴马大学博士生H.J.弗朗索瓦·登加将在威廉·W·德雷斯勒的指导下，研究宗教文化和谐对幸福感的影响。特别是，这项研究询问理想追随者身份和行为的宗教概念是否缓冲了巴西五旬节派教会在社会和经济上被边缘化的成员所经历的日常压力。从1960年到1985年，巴西的新教徒人口翻了两番。然而，这种扩张在巴西的穷人、被剥夺公民权的少数群体中占了不成比例的比例。这项研究假设，五旬节派社区提供了一种替代的文化景观来创造身份、权力和地位，这可能会与主导的行为规范相矛盾、弥补甚至挑战。因此，宗教文化和谐可能是被边缘化的巴西五旬节派教徒用来缓解日常生活中生理和心理压力的一种特定机制。这项混合方法研究将在巴西S圣保罗的里贝朗·普雷托进行。这项研究将与两个特定社区的成员一起进行：德乌斯大会和Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus(IURD)。AD在神学上比IURD更宗派，主张他们的信仰与世俗世界更大的分离。这种神学上的差异对于考察宗教性和宗派主义在评价和体现心理-社会压力方面的不同交互作用将是有价值的。参与者的观察和访谈将集中在(1)理想人格和生活方式的宗教文化模型的构建和分布；(2)通过心理健康调查和生理健康测量来评估幸福感。本研究提供了关于宗教如何影响生理和心理健康的理解。更具体地说，这项研究将实证地展示宗教可能是一种适应性策略，贫困人口通过提供一套可替代和可实现的生活目标和身份认同来缓解日常生活的压力。最终，这项研究将有助于理解拉丁美洲和世界各地新教的快速发展。

University of Alabama doctoral student, H.J. François Dengah, under the guidance of William W. Dressler, will investigate the influence of religious cultural consonance on well-being. In particular, this study asks if religious conceptions of ideal acolyte identity and behavior buffer daily stressors experienced by socially and economically marginalized members of Brazilian Pentecostal churches. Between 1960 and 1985, the Protestant population of Brazil quadrupled. This expansion however, is disproportionately among Brazil's poor, disenfranchised, and minority populations. This research posits that Pentecostal communities offer an alternative cultural-landscape to create identity, power, and status, which may contradict, compensate, and even challenge the dominant behavioral norms. Thus, religious cultural consonance may be a specific mechanism that marginalized Brazilian Pentecostals utilize to mitigate the physiological and psychological stress of their daily lives.This mixed-methods research will be conducted in Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo, Brazil. The research will be conducted with the membership of two specific communities: The Assembléia de Deus (AD) and Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus (IURD). The AD is theologically more sectarian than the IURD, advocating a greater separation between their faith and the secular world. This theological difference will be valuable for examining the differential interaction of religiosity and sectarianism in the appraisal and embodiment of psycho-social stress. Participant observations and interviews will focus on (1) the construction and distribution of religious cultural models of ideal personhood and lifestyle; and (2) evaluating well-being through mental health surveys and physiological health measures.This research offers an understanding of how religion influences physiological and psychological well-being. More specifically, this research will empirically show how religion may be an adaptive strategy that impoverished populations utilize to moderate the stress of their daily lives by offering an alternative and attainable set of life goals and identities. Ultimately, this research will contribute to understanding the rapid Protestant growth occurring in Latin America and throughout the world.