God give me strength: exploring prayer as self-disclosure

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Religious Studies
• Health Psychology

Background:

• Written self-disclosure is a known psychological intervention.
• The role of prayer in psychological well-being is widely discussed.
• The structural and functional similarities between prayer and self-disclosure are not well-established.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if written prayers about difficult life events function as self-disclosure.
• To compare the structure and effects of written prayers to other forms of written self-disclosure.
• To examine the short-term impact of written prayers on mood and physical well-being.

Main Methods:

• 155 participants completed four writing sessions.
• Participants wrote about mundane experiences (control), traumatic/stressful events, or prayers to God.
• Lexical analysis and mood/well-being assessments were conducted.

Main Results:

• Written prayers were lexically similar to other trauma narratives.
• Written prayers were distinct from the control group (mundane experiences).
• Immediate effects on mood and physical well-being were similar across trauma writing conditions.

Conclusions:

• Written prayers function similarly to self-disclosure in terms of language and immediate psychological effects.
• These findings suggest prayer can be a form of psychological coping.
• Further research is needed to understand the long-term health implications of personal prayer.