Everyday goals, religious motivations, and well-being: The mediating role of emotions

Abstract

Building on previous conceptualization of different religious reasons for goal striving we tested whether normative religious motivation (NRM, e.g., following church norms) and transcendental religious motivation (TRM, e.g., striving for spiritual communion with the transcendent) for personal projects predict positive and negative emotions as well as well-being indices. In this cross-sectional study 396 Hungarian adults rated their most characteristic everyday goals from the aspect of their religious reasons (NRM and TRM) and the positive and negative emotions associated to them, and also scored their satisfaction, level of self-actualization, and meaningfulness regarding these goals. Results showed that NRM was associated with negative emotions, while TRM was connected more to positive emotions. Moreover, emotional meaning of the projects mediated between the religious reasons for projects and well-being.