Document Type

Unpublished Research Paper

Publication Date

2018

Abstract

A diverse literature from several different disciplines addresses the issues of identity, settings and spirituality. This paper focuses upon drawing these traditions together in order to understand the relationship from a more holistic perspective, and to discern to what degree the three domains interact in a sociological sense. Several hypotheses are tested to discover if setting influences the salience of people’s spiritual identity or the levels of their spiritual transcendence, as well as whether or not age, controlling for other factors, explains or influences these two aspects of spiritual expression. Findings indicate that neither setting nor age significantly influence identity salience. Religious affiliation and sex are found to have significant relationships to spiritual identity salience. Additional findings indicate that while setting does not significantly influence transcendence, age and other controlling factors do have significant relationships to levels of transcendence. Several methods are used to test the hypotheses, including the McNemar Ratio, Ordinal Logistic Regression of Maximum Likelihoods, and OLS regression. Concluding comments suggest directions for future research.

Department

Sociology and Corrections

Recommended Citation

Ebel, Donald J., "Dreaming of Eden: A Sociological Inquiry into Sacred Selves and Public Places" (2018). Sociology Department Publications. 43.
https://cornerstone.lib.mnsu.edu/soc_corr_soc_fac_pubs/43