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13 results

The Psychology of Religion
  • A Social Force
  • Neil J. Kressel
  • Published online:
    01 November 2024
    Print publication:
    31 October 2024
  • Many of the greatest minds in psychology have tried to unravel the mysteries, power, appeal, and consequences of religion. The task of understanding human behaviour will never be complete without the use of science and logic to examine the psychology of religion and spirituality. This undergraduate textbook provides an engaging and accessible tour of the field, drawing on historical, theoretical, and cutting-edge sources. It explores the origins and meaning of various forms of religious belief around the globe, with enhanced coverage of non-Christian religions, non-believers, and diverse populations. By focusing on the personal, medical, moral, social, and political consequences of religion, it explores how these findings can be applied in real-world scenarios. Students are supported by clear learning objectives, defined key concepts, varied end-of-chapter questions, further reading suggestions, and visual content, making this an invaluable resource for undergraduates in the psychology of religion and spirituality.

  • 1 - The Untold Story of the Psychology of Religion and Spirituality

  • from Part One - Introduction
  • Neil J. Kressel, William Paterson University, New Jersey
  • Book:
    The Psychology of Religion
    Published online:
    01 November 2024
    Print publication:
    31 October 2024, pp 3-44

  • Summary

    In recent decades, scientific efforts to probe religious behavior and mental states have increased markedly in quantity and sophistication, yet the fascinating story of the psychology of religion remains unfamiliar not only to the general public, but also to many social scientists. This chapter starts with case studies of how religion has functioned in several prominent human lives. We consider why the psychology of religion matters and delve deeply into the many problems associated with defining religion, spirituality and the psychology of religion. The psychology of religion probes religious beliefs, attitudes, behaviors, emotions, experiences, and relationships, paying particular attention to the consequences of religion for health, well-being, morality and social relations. Scholars debate: (1) the importance of the field’s history and grand theories, (2) the acceptability of the historical emphasis on Western Christianity, (3) the generalizability of much empirical work, (4) the meaning of spirituality outside of religion, and (5) whether the discipline is biased in favor of or against religion.

  • Chapter 8 - Sin and Virtues

  • Edited by Jeffrey Hanson, Harvard University, Massachusetts, Sharon Krishek, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
  • Book:
    Kierkegaard's <I>The Sickness Unto Death</I>
    Published online:
    26 August 2022
    Print publication:
    21 July 2022, pp 128-147

  • Summary

    Kierkegaard’s writings are a mosaic of explorations of such spiritual excellences as faith, love, hope, patience, compassion, forgiveness, and bold confidence, explorations designed to “build up” the reader in these traits. The treatment of faith in The Sickness unto Death follows the classical pattern of virtue as an actualization of a creature’s potentiality. Faith is that state in which people realize the human telos; it is the completion of human nature. In Kierkegaard’s thought, all the other virtues presuppose the virtue of faith. But The Sickness unto Death also presents sin, the psychological condition that underlies wrongdoing, as deep and pervasive in a way that rules out some of the classical features of human virtues, for example that they are realizable perfections developed by habituation, and that virtue has not been achieved in a person who still has to struggle against vicious impulses. The features of Christian virtues that make them compatible with sin are that they depend on grace, that their development is subject to an “inverse dialectic,” that the conceptual grammar of many of the virtues makes reference to sin and sinfulness and more broadly accountability to God, and that the Christian virtues are not, at least in this life, perfections.

  • A preliminary study of dyads of stroke patients and their female partners: Exploring the role of spirituality, religiousness and quality of life in rehabilitation

  • V. Giannouli, K. Giannoulis
  • Journal:
    European Psychiatry / Volume 64 / Issue S1 / April 2021
    Published online by Cambridge University Press:
    13 August 2021, p. S426
    • Article
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  • Introduction

    The concepts of spirituality and religiousness has not been investigated so far in patients after stroke.

    Objectives

    The aim of this study is to explore whether self-reports in two questionnaires measuring the personal experience of spirituality and religiousness can influence quality of life and estimations of rehabilitation in male older adult patients and their wives when compared with control dyads.

    Methods

    Fifteen male stroke patients and their wives participated one year after their hospitalization for stroke. The mean age of the patients and their wives was 75.58 years (SD = 7.50, range 61-90), level of education 15.47 years (SD = 3.82). In addition to that, fifteen married couples with similar demographics, were also measured. Depressive symptoms of the participants were assessed with the 15-item Geriatric Depression Scale. Family dyads consisting of an older adult and one family member, in all cases the wife, also responded to the Daily Spiritual Experience Scale, the Systems of Belief Inventory (SBI-15R), and the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS). A 5-point Likert scale question was also administered examining the opinion of rehabilitation achieved.

    Results

    indicated that there was a statistically significant difference between the two groups regarding the levels of spirituality, religiousness and quality of life in both partners, with the stroke patient dyad showing lower scores, but positive stronger correlations.

    Conclusions

    Although spirituality, religiousness and quality of life are lower in the stroke patient dyad, they show significantly statistical positive correlations in older adults suffering from stroke as well as their wives.

  • Does spirituality and religiousness influence verbal functions in stroke patients?

  • V. Giannouli, K. Giannoulis
  • Journal:
    European Psychiatry / Volume 64 / Issue S1 / April 2021
    Published online by Cambridge University Press:
    13 August 2021, p. S427
    • Article
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  • Introduction

    Patients after stroke may experience different cognitive and emotional changes based on the levels of their spirituality and religiousness.

    Objectives

    This preliminary study aims to explore whether self-reports in two questionnaires measuring the personal experience of spirituality and religiousness can influence cognition and more specifically performance on neuropsychological tests examining verbal functions.

    Methods

    Fifteen male stroke patients participated voluntarily one year after their hospitalization. The mean age of the patients was 75.58 years (SD = 7.50, range 61-90), level of education 15.47 years (SD = 3.82). In addition to that, fifteen controls with similar demographics, free of physical and mental diseases, were also examined. Depressive symptoms of the participants were assessed with the 15-item Geriatric Depression Scale. The Daily Spiritual Experience Scale, the Systems of Belief Inventory (SBI-15R) and a number of standardized tests examining verbal functions such as word list learning (number of words on immediate and delayed recall), story learning (number of words on immediate and delayed recall).

    Results

    showed a statistically significant difference between the control group and the stroke group in performance regarding verbal functions, with the first group showing higher scores. No statistically significant difference was found between the two groups regarding the levels of spirituality and religiousness.

    Conclusions

    Although spirituality and religiousness may be related with quality of life, cognitive functions such as verbal functions are not influenced one year post-stroke.

  • A preliminary study of stroke patients and attention: Exploring the role of spirituality and religiousness on cognition

  • V. Giannouli, K. Giannoulis
  • Journal:
    European Psychiatry / Volume 64 / Issue S1 / April 2021
    Published online by Cambridge University Press:
    13 August 2021, pp. S426-S427
    • Article
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      • Open access
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  • Introduction

    Spirituality and religiousness are not so far extensively investigated in patients after stroke.

    Objectives

    The aim of this preliminary study is to explore whether self-reports in two questionnaires measuring the personal experience of spirituality and religiousness can influence cognition and more specifically performance on neuropsychological tests examining attention.

    Methods

    Fifteen male stroke patients participated voluntarily one year after their hospitalization. The mean age of the patients was 75.58 years (SD = 7.50, range 61-90), level of education 15.47 years (SD = 3.82). In addition to that, fifteen controls with similar demographics, free of physical and mental diseases, were also examined. Depressive symptoms of the participants were assessed with the 15-item Geriatric Depression Scale. The Daily Spiritual Experience Scale, the Systems of Belief Inventory (SBI-15R) and a number of standardized tests examining attention were administered: Trail Making Test-Part A (TMT-A) time to completion, the Digit Span (WAIS-III) greatest forward span, the Ruff 2 & 7 Selective Attention Test automatic detection speed (ADS) and controlled search speed (CSS).

    Results

    indicated that there was a statistically significant difference between the control group and the stroke group in attention. No statistically significant difference was found between the two groups regarding the levels of spirituality and religiousness.

    Conclusions

    Although spirituality and religiousness may be related with quality of life, cognitive functioning such as attention does not seem to be influenced by these variables one year post-stroke. Future research should further investigate the possible influence of the abovementioned factors in post-stroke recovery and rehabilitation.

  • Stroke patients and visual memory: Exploring the role of spirituality and religiousness

  • V. Giannouli, K. Giannoulis
  • Journal:
    European Psychiatry / Volume 64 / Issue S1 / April 2021
    Published online by Cambridge University Press:
    13 August 2021, p. S427
    • Article
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      • Open access
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  • Introduction

    The relationship of spirituality, religiousness and stroke is a topic of interest.

    Objectives

    The aim of this preliminary study is to explore whether self-reports in two questionnaires measuring the personal experience of spirituality and religiousness can influence cognition and more specifically performance on neuropsychological tests examining visual memory.

    Methods

    Fifteen male stroke patients participated voluntarily one year after their hospitalization. The mean age of the patients was 75.58 years (SD = 7.50, range 61-90), level of education 15.47 years (SD = 3.82). In addition to that, fifteen controls with similar demographics, free of physical and mental diseases, were also examined. Depressive symptoms of the participants were assessed with the 15-item Geriatric Depression Scale. The Daily Spiritual Experience Scale, the Systems of Belief Inventory (SBI-15R) and a number of standardized tests examining visual memory were administered: visual perception (copy condition) and memory (Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure Test-number of correct components on immediate and delayed recall trials and recognition-true positive responses).

    Results

    indicated a statistically significant difference between the control group and the stroke group in performance regarding visual memory. There was no statistically significant difference between the two groups regarding the levels of spirituality and religiousness.

    Conclusions

    Visual memory does not seem to be influenced by spirituality and religiousness one year post-stroke. Future research should further investigate the possible influence of the abovementioned factors in post-stroke recovery and rehabilitation.

  • God de re et de dicto: Kierkegaard, faith and religious diversity

  • Paul K. Moser
  • Journal:
    Scottish Journal of Theology / Volume 74 / Issue 2 / May 2021
    Published online by Cambridge University Press:
    26 May 2021, pp. 135-146
    Print publication:
    May 2021

  • In his Concluding Unscientific Postscript, Kierkegaard, writing as Johannes Climacus, famously distinguishes two kinds of religiousness, kind A and kind B. He claims that, even though kind A is basic to kind B, including as represented in Christian religious commitment, kind A both has God ‘in its ground’ and ‘can be present in paganism’ that is atheist or agnostic. This apparent conflict calls for a resolution, if kind A is to be coherent. This article offers a new resolution with a familiar distinction between God de re and God de dicto, even though interpreters have overlooked the importance of this distinction for understanding Kierkegaard. In addition, the article contends that this distinction is supportable from Kierkegaard's own writings, even though he himself did not draw it explicitly. The article also explains the importance of the distinction for understanding Kierkegaard on religious diversity in intellectual content. It proposes that it enables Kierkegaard to offer a compelling position on such diversity, given his understanding of God's perfectly good character and activity.

  • Examining the link between religiousness and fitness in a behavioural ecological framework

  • Janko Međedović
  • Journal:
    Journal of Biosocial Science / Volume 52 / Issue 5 / September 2020
    Published online by Cambridge University Press:
    26 November 2019, pp. 756-767

  • In recent years there have been attempts to explain religiousness from an evolutionary viewpoint. However, empirical data on this topic are still lacking. In the present study, the behavioural ecological theoretical framework was used to explore the relations between religiousness, harsh environment, fitness (reproductive success and parental investment) and fitness-related outcomes (age at first birth, desired number of children and the romantic relationship duration). The data were collected from 461 individuals from a community sample who were near the end of their reproductive phase (54% females, Mage = 51.75; SD = 6.56). Positive links between religiousness, harsh environment, fitness and fitness-related outcomes were expected, with the exception of age at first birth, for which a negative association was hypothesized. Hence, the main assumption of the study was that religiousness has some attributes of fast life-history phenotypes – that it emerges from a harsh environment and enables earlier reproduction. The study findings partially confirmed these hypotheses. Religiousness was positively related to environmental harshness but only on a zero-order level. Religious individuals had higher reproductive success (this association was especially pronounced in males) but religiousness did not show associations with parental investment. Religiousness was positively associated with desired number of children and negatively associated with age at first birth, although the latter association was only marginally significant in the multivariate analyses. Finally, path analysis showed that desired number of children and age at first birth completely mediated the relation between religiousness and reproductive success. The data confirmed the biologically adaptive function of religiousness in contemporary populations and found the mediating processes that facilitate fitness in religious individuals. Furthermore, the findings initiate a more complex view of religiousness in a life-history context which could be fruitful for future research: a proposal labelled as ‘ontogeny-dependent life-history theory of religiousness’.

  • Are religiousness and death attitudes associated with the wish to die in older people?

  • Anke Bonnewyn, Ajit Shah, Ronny Bruffaerts, Koen Demyttenaere
  • Journal:
    International Psychogeriatrics / Volume 28 / Issue 3 / March 2016
    Published online by Cambridge University Press:
    24 August 2015, pp. 397-404
  • Background:

    A wish to die is common in older persons and is associated with increased mortality. Several risk factors have been identified, but the association between religiousness and a wish to die in older adults has been underexplored, and the association between death attitudes and the presence of a wish to die has not been investigated yet. The aim of this study is to explore the relationship between religiousness and death attitudes on the one hand and wish to die on the other hand, adjusting for clinical factors such as the presence of depression or somatic disorder.

    Methods:

    The sample comprised 113 older inpatients (from a psychiatric and somatic ward) with a mean age of 74 years. Psychiatric diagnoses were assessed by the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Disorders, and logistic regression analyses estimated the unique contribution of religiousness and death attitudes to the wish to die, controlling for socio-demographic variables, depressive disorder, and somatic symptoms.

    Results:

    Both religiousness and death attitudes were associated with a wish to die in univariate models. Adding these variables in a multivariate logistic hierarchical model, death attitudes remained significant predictors but religiousness did not; 55% of the pseudovariance of the wish to die was explained by these variables, with an effective size of 0.89. Major depressive episode, somatic symptoms, Fear of Death, and Escape Acceptance were the most important predictors of the wish to die.

    Conclusions:

    This study suggests that how older adults perceive death partly determines whether they have a wish to die. There may be a clinical, patient-oriented benefit in discussing with older patients about how they perceive death, as this can play a role in the early detection (and prevention) of death or suicide ideation and associated behaviors in older adults.

  • Familial Resemblance in Religiousness in a Secular Society: A Twin Study

  • Dorte Hvidtjørn, Inge Petersen, Jacob Hjelmborg, Axel Skytthe, Kaare Christensen, Niels C. Hvidt
  • Journal:
    Twin Research and Human Genetics / Volume 16 / Issue 2 / April 2013
    Published online by Cambridge University Press:
    22 February 2013, pp. 544-553
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  • It is well known that human behavior and individual psychological traits are moderately to substantially heritable. Over the past decade, an increasing number of studies have explored the genetic and environmental influence on religiousness. These studies originate predominantly from countries generally considered more religious than the very secular northern European countries. Comparisons of the results are complicated by diverse definitions of religiousness, but several studies indicate that the influence of the family environment is most predominant in early life, whereas genetic influences increase with age. We performed a population-based twin study of religiousness in a secular society using data from a Web-based survey sent to 6,707 Danish twins born 1970–1989, who were identified in the Danish Twin Registry. We applied Fishman's three conceptual dimensions of religiousness: cognition, practice, and importance. In all polygenic models and biometric analyses, we controlled for gender and age. The study sample comprised 2,237 same sex twins, a response rate of 45%. We found high correlations within both monozygotic and dizygotic twin pairs in most items of religiousness, indicating a large influence from shared environmental factors. Personal religiousness such as praying to God, believing in God, and finding strength and comfort in religion were more influenced by genetic factors than were social forms of religiousness such as church attendance. We found a small tendency for increasing genetic influence with increasing age for some religious items, but not for all.

  • Intrinsic and extrinsic religiousness: genetic and environmental influences and personality correlates

  • Thomas J Bouchard, Jr, Matt McGue, David Lykken, Auke Tellegen
  • Journal:
    Twin Research / Volume 2 / Issue 2 / 01 April 1999
    Published online by Cambridge University Press:
    21 February 2012, pp. 88-98
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  • This report presents findings for the Intrinsic (IR) and Extrinsic (ER) religiousness scales from the Minnesota Study of Twins Reared Apart. The scales were shown to be internally consistent, sufficiently distinct from the scales of the California Psychological Inventory and the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire and unrelated to a number of measures of response style to justify treating them as distinct traits. The I scales also showed considerable evidence of construct validity in its correlations with religious fundamentalism and authoritarianism as assessed by the MMPI and Altemeyer's Right-Wing Authoritarianism scale. Data on IR and ER from 35 pairs of monozygotic twins reared apart (MZA) and 37 pairs of dizygotic twins reared apart (DZA) were fitted to a biometric model and demonstrated significant heritability (0.43 and 0.39), with a model containing genetic plus environmental factors fitting significantly better than a model containing only an environmental component. Twin similarity could not be explained by placement on a self-reported measure of family Moral Religious Emphasis as measured by the Family Environment Scale.

  • 12 - Making Christianity difficult: The “existentialist theology” of Kierkegaard's Postscript

  • Edited by Rick Anthony Furtak, Colorado College
  • Book:
    Kierkegaard's 'Concluding Unscientific Postscript'
    Published online:
    04 August 2010
    Print publication:
    29 July 2010, pp 219-246

  • Summary

    Any attempt to identify the "theology" of Concluding Unscientific Postscript is confronted from the outset by several difficulties. The notion of Christianity as an existence-task leads Johannes Climacus to state that Christianity is not a doctrine, but an existence-communication. This notion of Christianity as an existence-communication forms the basis of Climacus' critique of contemporary theology. In order to assist the subjective thinker in thinking about his existence and existing in his thinking, a new type of dialectic is needed, namely what Climacus calls "the Greek or the existence-dialectic", "concrete dialectics", or, more frequently, "qualitative dialectics". Qualitative dialectics is concerned with the problem of identifying the absolute telos and ensures that the human being sustains a relationship to the absolute telos in existence. Climacus describes the absolute orientation of the individual to the absolute telos by renunciation, suffering, and guilt-consciousness as "the religion of immediacy" or "religiousness A".