God and the Just World: Causal and Coping Attributions to God in Health Situations

Health-related situations pose a particular challenge to the need to find justice, meaning and control in life. This study points to the rich and varied ways that attributions to God are integrated into attempts to maintain meaningful views of the world and to cope with the world. A sample of 124 undergraduates was presented with four health-related situations depicting responsible or irresponsible behavior followed by a positive or negative outcome. They then responded to causal and coping attribution items. As predicted, attributions to God's will, God's love and God's anger were greater in noncontingent/unjust, positive outcome, and negative outcome situations respectively. Attributions to God's will appeared to represent a benign, external, alternative explanation to chance attributions. The results also support the view that people turn to God for help in coping more commonly as a source of support during stress than as a moral guide or as an antidote to an unjust world. Generally, these findings underscore the need for further integration of religious concepts into the general attribution and coping literatures.