Members of any institutionalized religion participating at only a cultural level, differ from those who follow their faith to the letter. Ysseldyk, Matheson & Anisman (2010) suggest that, "social identities do not exist in isolation, and religious identification might interact with other identities in unique ways to influence psychosocial functioning". Group theories, such as social identity theory, point to self-esteem and social benefits among reasons for membership within any group and when considering cultural religious participation it is no different. This project will look at how culturally inclined or 'secular' Jews, maintain membership and view themselves as members of an institutionalized religion and as a sometimes disadvantaged minority group. In Study 1, participants are Jews living in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada who were given a survey asking about; Life satisfaction, personal/group self-esteem and religious participation. Self-esteem is chosen as a dependant variable as it is hypothesized in this study that group membership should increase self-esteem as self-esteem gives reason for continued group membership. Study 2, still in process, asks Jews living in Vancouver about; Life satisfaction, personal/group self-esteem, religious participation, intrinsic/extrinsic motivations and geographic location. Evidence can be found for the prevalence of social motivations over religious motivations for membership. It is also found that participating as cultural members influences self-esteem as opposed to active religious participation.

Supervisors : Prof. Dr. M.B. ter Borg and Dr. E.M. de Boer

Noah is originally from Vancouver, Canada where he obtained his bachelor of arts (psychology) from the University of British Columbia he then moved to Universiteit Leiden where he completed his master of arts (Psychology and Sociology of Religion) and continues to do research at the Leiden Institute for Religious Studies as a PhD candidate and an assistant and lecturer for the psychology of religion bachelor and master courses. He is a member of The International Association for the Psychology of Religion, The Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, The Association for the Sociology of Religion and The Association for Canadian Jewish Studies/ l'Association d'études juives canadiennes.

Contact information: n.j.millman@umail.leidenuniv.nl
                              +31(0)646431219