By Rev. Ken
Blank and Dr. John Campbell – Oklahoma Health Center Clinical Pastoral
Education Institute, Inc. Ó 2005
In the September, 2004, issue of Science and
Theology News, Mike Martin writes about what motivates people to be
religious. He quotes Steven Reiss, a professor of psychology and
psychiatry at Ohio State University, as saying that ‘previous
psychologists tried to explain religion in terms of just one or two overarching
psychological needs – fear of death and guilt, for example”. Dr. Reiss is further quoted: “ religion
is multi-faceted – it can’t be reduced to just one or two desires”.
Dr. Reiss’ own theory, called “sensitivity theory”,
is that sixteen basic human needs actually motivate people toward
religious consideration. Some of the other motivations include power,
family, status, romance, and tranquility, to name a few. Dr. Reiss says that
these are “needs embraced by every person but to a different extent”.
“Sensitivity theory” was developed by Dr. Reiss
following his use of a research tool he developed in 1998 with Susan
Havercamp, a former graduate student and now psychology professor at the University
of North Carolina Chapel Hill. This tool he calls the “desire profile”.
It is a 120-question survey of 10,000 people quantifying the extent religious
and non-religious people embrace these needs or motivations.
How can a medical practitioner use this information when managing the doctor-patient relationship?
If the medical practitioner knows (1) the wider range
of motivations for a person to be religious and (2) is aware, from the growing
array of literature on the positive effects on physical and mental health
of patients with religious and/or
spiritual beliefs, then (3) the practitioner may be able to encourage
corrective medical changes in a patient’s lifestyle, compliance, outlook,
or other aspects of care by appealing to one of the other potential
motivators for religion well before development of the type of serious
illness where only “fear of death” may be the prime motivator.
In other words, more routine medical advice could be
accompanied by showing relevance to a motivation factor connected with religion
that could avoid the situation from developing into a more serious medical
consequence for a patient. For example, perhaps “family motivation” may be
tied to religious thoughts about not smoking because the family needs to remain
whole, not missing a member who might die early because of the ill effects of
smoking or because of the consequences of second-hand smoke.
Report and Commentary by Rev. Ken Blank, M.Div..,
Executive Director, and Dr. John Campbell, PhD., Director of Research,
Oklahoma Health Center Clinical Pastoral Education Institute, Inc.Ó 2005
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