The debate over whether or not chapel should be mandatory has been discussed in the Student Movement since at least the 1980s, so today we will revisit the topic to discover what’s new and what the psychological implications of mandatory chapels are.
Chapel is a part of student life at Andrews. Traditional undergraduates under the age of 25 need to attend at least 30 co-curricular programs, including 12 chapels. If they fail to complete this requirement they are charged a $25 fine for each missed program. This policy is not unique to Andrews University, as all Adventist universities and many Christian universities have some form of a chapel requirement as well. In fact universities such as Princeton and Harvard formerly required chapels. Just last year, the Andrews University Student Association and Senate sought to reduce the chapel requirements due to the pandemic, but the higher-ups at Andrews said a chapel requirement was needed to be accredited as an Adventist university.
As a result of these policies, towards the end of the semester here at Andrews, you may hear people say something along the lines of “I’m glad I finished my chapel credits,” implicitly suggesting that they are not going to attend chapel now that they do not need to. Now what causes such a response?
With mandatory chapels, universities are essentially telling students to go to church to avoid punishment and fees, giving it an economically perverse incentive. Once students leave college and the threat of punishment is removed, they may ask why they need to go to church if there is no requirement to fulfill.
The psychological explanation for this response is the overjustification effect. The American Psychological Association defines this as “a paradoxical effect in which rewarding (or offering to reward) a person for his or her performance can lead to lower, rather than higher, interest in the activity. It occurs when the introduction of an extrinsic reward weakens the strong intrinsic motivation that was the key to the person’s original high performance.” Essentially, the overjustification effect, which is well-documented in psychological literature, occurs when people who genuinely enjoy an activity are incentivized for doing an activity they already enjoyed doing, so they lose their enjoyment as a result.
As college is a major transition point in students’ lives, it is vital that Christian universities provide a strong foundation for their students’ faith. I do not believe mandatory chapels fulfill this requirement. Not only do they reduce students’ intrinsic motivation, they also create an improper mindset in the budding spiritual lives of students. Requiring chapel creates “checklist Christianity,” a fate suffered by many Seventh-day Adventists, where faith is simply a set of tasks that must be performed and completed.
According to a study by Anne Horan in the Journal of Research on Christian Education, while mandatory chapels are among the most frequently implemented program types at Christian colleges, they are not the most effective at bolstering spiritual formation. Instead, based on her research she discovered that “personal relationships, mentoring, and role modeling (the relational theme) are perceived as the most effective way to bolster spiritual formation.”
As a result, I believe the higher-ups in the Adventist education system should consider these psychological findings and replace mandatory chapel with more voluntary and relational programs if they truly desire the best for the spiritual lives of their students.
The Student Movement is the official student newspaper of Andrews University. Opinions expressed in the Student Movement are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors, Andrews University or the Seventh-day Adventist church.