Psychology of Religion (Term Paper Sample)

Psychology of Religion
Name
Institution
Abstract
Religion and spirituality plays a very crucial role in people’s lives. This means that religion has been a major influence in the history of mankind, and its influence is still being felt today in people’s lives. Psychology of religion consists of the utilization of interpretive frameworks and psychological methods to religious traditions both to non-religious and religious persons. This implies that psychology of religion is the study of religious thought, religious feeling and religious behaviour. Science has been trying to give explanations on the origin, details and uses of religious behaviours and beliefs. The religious lives of people are better comprehended by examining the psychological dimensions of the respective religions. The psychological models that have been employed to study psychology of religion include the humanistic model, the socio-cultural model, psychoanalytic/ psychodynamic model, and the behavioural model. Additionally, the familiar methods that have used in the social scientific research on religion are the extrinsic and intrinsic religiosity. Religion is a crucial dimension of people’s lives. The psychology of religion has evolved over time. It was established that its topics interact with nearly all areas of psychology. There has been also an increased collaboration between psychologists specialised in religion and those in anthropology, neuroscience, evolutionary biology, and cognitive science. This shows the interaction between science and religion. Consequently, most of the scientific views are accepted and applicable in religion. Psychology of religion affects development, religious drug use, public and mental health, and rituals. Religious development usually emphasizes religious development in children and adolescents, as well as spirituality in older adults.
Psychology of Religion
Introduction
Evidence has shown that an estimated 60% people attend religious services, and 95% say they have belief in God. 75 % say they pray. About 97% of the population in India, 89 % in Italy, 74 % in France, and 65% in Scandinavian nations report that they believe in God (Paloutzian & Park, 2013). Religion has been associated with various psychological concepts. Psychology of religion is regarded as both the oldest and newest field of research in psychology. Psychology of religion flourished in the 1920s and later went dormant for about four decades (Paloutzian, 2009). Human life is usually motivated by religion thus making it a very crucial dimension in people’s lives. Durkheim defines religion as an organized collection of global views, beliefs and cultural systems linking humanity to an order of existence (Durkheim, 2011, p.45). It is estimated that there are about 4,100 religions in the whole world. These religions have narratives, sacred histories and symbols that are aimed at explaining the meaning of life along with its origin. Additionally, they also try to explain the origin of the universe. Most of these religions have organized behaviours and clergy. This implies that there are various psychologies that are associated with religion.
On the other hand, psychology necessitates the observation of people, recording those observations and attempting to understand what has been seen and recorded. Therefore, psychology of religion is the study of religious thought, feeling and behaviour (Fitzgerald, 2012). Psychology of religion emerged as a self-conscious discipline in the late 19th century. The paper will highlight various concepts that are related to the psychology of religion.
Discussion
Religion has been found to be an important dimension of people’s lives globally. A global poll conducted in 2012 found out that an approximated 59 percent of the world’s population is religious, while 36 percent are not religious. Of this, 13 percent are atheists (Loewenthal, 2013). Silberman (2009) suggested that most of the religious traditions have common features of belief including existence of non-material reality and the source of existence such as God is also the source of moral directive. Of the world’s 11 billion people, an estimated two-thirds are either involved in religion or have been influenced by religion in crucial ways. However, females have portrayed a consistent interest in religion as compared to males. This is because they are engaged in both personal and organised forms of religion (Bolt, 2012). They are also more likely to believe in a higher presence. Besides, women also feel religion is a vital dimension of their lives.
Psychology of religion is the study of religious thought, feeling and behaviour. The challenge for the psychologists of religion includes the provision of thoroughgoing description of the objects, accounting for the rise of such phenomena in psychological terms, and finally, clarifying the outcome of such phenomena for individuals and the community at large (Fitzgerald, 2012). Following these further, spiritual and religious variables are increasingly being incorporated in the epidemiological and experimental studies (Emmons & Paloutzian, 2013).
Various psychologists of religion consider American philosopher and psychologist William James as the founder of the field (Loewenthal, 2013). William differentiated between personal religion and institutional religion. Personal religion involves a person having mystical experience that can be experienced regardless of culture. On the contrary, institutional religion is termed as a religious organization, in addition to playing a crucial role in the culture of a society.
Piedmont (2014) notes that psychology of religion commenced to develop and flourish in the 1970s and 80s. Of the early philosophers, Hegel argued that all systems of philosophy, religion and social science as expressions of the urge to learn about itself along with its surroundings, and record its hypotheses and findings. Therefore, according to Hegel, religion is a form of searched knowledge within which humans record different reflections and experiences. Carl Jung, on the other hand, was more concerned with the positive appreciation of religious symbolism. Following this further, Sigmund Freud gave explanations of the beginning of religion. The modern theorists such as Allen Bergin emphasised the importance of religion and values in therapy.
Studies have indicated that science has been trying to explain the origin, details and uses of religious behaviours and beliefs. Even though many scientists’ conclusions may be in conflict with religious beliefs, they view scientific views as compatible to religious teaching. For instance, contemporary research on cognition and brain reported that human consciousness is compatible with spiritual conceptualizations (Emmons & Paloutzian, 2013).
The familiar methods that are used in the social scientific research on religion are the extrinsic and intrinsic religiosity. Intrinsic religious motives are referred to as motives within someone. On the contrary, extrinsic religious motives refer to the utilisation of religion for non-religious ends (Paloutzian, 2009). Even though intrinsically religious persons live their religion, and the extrinsically religious individuals use religions, there exists a concept that religion is the major motive in the lives of those people who are motivated intrinsically. However, in reality, religious orientation is more complex as compared to a simple dichotomy between extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. Intrinsically motivated persons are more probable to agree with statements such as “I try harder to carry my religion over into all my other dealings in life.” Contrarily, extrinsically motivated people have a higher chances of agreeing with a statements such as “Even though I believe in my religion, I have feeling that there are many more crucial things in life.”
Starbuck (2005) asserts that concepts such as love, hope, forgiveness, self-control, gratitude, and wisdom are highly priced human dispositions in Muslim, Christian, Jewish, and Hindu thought. These virtues are affirmed universal principles in the global philosophies together with ethical systems. Gratitude is the emotional response to reward. Since most religious people view life as a reward or gift, believers are urged to worship God with gratitude. Gratitude acts as a moral barometer, moral reinforcer and motivator (Piedmont, 2014). Research on forgiveness has indicated that most religions account the ability to seek and grant forgiveness as the core elements of good human personality. On the other hand, humility is considered as a remedy for pride. Most psychologists argue that pride is the major cause of all evil. Humility is viewing oneself not better or worse compared to the others, as well being open to new ideas and information.
Psychological models and religion
Emmons and Paloutzian (2013) argue that religion is the most powerful of all the social forces. Consequently, psychology of religion depends on various psychological models to describe religious behaviour and thought. The models include the psychoanalytic/psychodynamic model, the socio-cultural model, the behavioural model, and the humanistic model. A study conducted in 2012 reported that psychiatric conditions linked to psychotic symptoms can be the possible explanations for the revelatory driven activities and experiences like those of Jesus, Abraham, Elijah, and Saint Paul (Allport & Ross, 2012).
First, the behavioural model stipulates the importance of analysing an individual’s learning history to establish the degree to which that person’s religious behaviour is being rewarded, imitated and punished. By carrying out an evaluation of the learning history of a person, the patterns of punishments and rewards the person has faced for a variety of ...