Prayer as Coping: A Psychological Analysis

Engaging in prayer and holding positive attitudes toward religion are empirically associated with personal wellbeing, health, and the relief of distress. This paper starts with those findings and builds on the Jamesian concept of prayer as "inward communication or conversation with a power recognized as divine." Within this framework, the paper employs selected, well recognized psychological constructs to offer a theoretical explanation of how and why prayer contributes to the relief of distress, and to the health and psychological wellbeing of the person who engages in prayer.