Introduction:
The positive and multiple aspects of spirituality have been demonstrated throughout many studies. According to them, it would contribute to the physical, mental and social well-being of individuals and more specifically to self-esteem.
Spirituality has been theorized as a multidimensional construct composed of four main factors: the search for meaning, transcendence, the sacred and the connection (Renard & Roussiau, 2021). In other words, it acts as a force that drives individuals to seek a connection with an enriching experience between oneself and an element greater than life itself.
Many authors have shown that spirituality has a positive impact on well-being and satisfaction in life. Spirituality provokes the individual to focus on the relationship he has with himself. Eventually, it leads to an increasing their self-esteem, whereas social comparison we tend to use every day leads to tearing it down.
Festinger (1954) developed the theory of social comparison, which is the fact of examining similarities and differences between oneself and others (ex: am I better than them?). On the other hand, Albert (1977), in a complementary theory, studied temporal comparisons being when the individual compares himself at different periods of his life (am I happier than I was 5 years ago?). These two types of comparisons are a marker for the individual and increase well-being. However, when it does not work, it is risky and can lead to anxiety and suffering (Crocker & Park, 2004).
The present study investigates the influence of spirituality as an internal contingency in the decrease of social and temporal comparison and the increase of self-esteem.
Method:
In order to analyze that, we have used four questionnaires that were filled by 331 participants and evaluated the different variables. For the purpose of evaluating spirituality, we used the unidimensional scale of a-religious spirituality of Roussiau and al. (2018) in 16 items. For the social and temporal comparison, participants completed the scales of Pye and Wilson (2006). And for the last self-esteem variables, we used the 10 items developed by Rosenberg (1990). The benefit to use a quantitative scale was to distribute the questionnaire on internet (more particular on the social network Facebook) to have a big sample.
Results:
The correlational analysis results confirm our hypotheses that individuals with high spiritual scores have low social and temporal comparison and high self-esteem (indeed, this shows the positive effects of spirituality). On the other hand, the exploratory results also showed that the more people have a religious belief, the more they compare themselves socially and have a high self-esteem (some people may be religious yet not be spiritual).
Discussion:
We discussed the limits of this research, especially methodological ones. We first reckon that many other factors are involved as data collection (only online, without direct physical interaction), the sample (many spiritual persons), auto-questionnaire (people are over or under evaluating themselves) and no parity sample (91% of women).
Despite these limitations, this study contributes to literature and the role of spirituality in our daily life. Further studies will be needed to establish the exact impact of spirituality on these various aspects. Here, it would have been interesting to have qualitative data to supplement the study.
What interests me in this topic is seeing how spirituality is able to help us to maintain self-esteem and positively reinforce it. I think it’s important because in our society, we are often facing social comparison (for example with social- networks) which decreases self-esteem and leads to other negatives aspects (sadness, depression…). Try to improve and be aware of your spirituality, this can be a major source of information to guide your behavior towards happiness!
Key words: spirituality, social comparison, temporal comparison, self-esteem
Bibliography:
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