RLB246 Personal Religion and Its Place: A Psychological Interpretation

Faculty of Arts
Spring 2008
Extent and Intensity
0/0. 5 credit(s). Type of Completion: k (colloquium).
Teacher(s)
Dr Pawel M. Socha (lecturer), Mgr. Jana Valtrová, Ph.D. (deputy)
Guaranteed by
prof. PhDr. Dušan Lužný, Dr.
Department for the Study of Religions – Faculty of Arts
Contact Person: Lucie Čelková
Timetable
Mon 15:00–18:15 J31, Tue 16:40–19:55 J22, Wed 16:40–19:55 zruseno D51, Thu 16:40–19:55 J21, Fri 15:00–18:15 C11
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is only offered to the students of the study fields the course is directly associated with.

The capacity limit for the course is 30 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 0/30, only registered: 0/30
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
Main issues of the concept of individual religion and its empirical application. Measurement of religiousness and its aspects. Research findings concerning reciprocal relationships between religiousness and its aspects with personality. Research findings concerning the relevance of religiousness and its aspects for social behaviors – both preferred and not preferred. Religious coping with stressful events & human condition – the role of spirituality, from the traditional to modern forms of it.
Syllabus
  • 1. Introduction: subject matter of the psychology of religion. Psychology of religion in the world and in Poland – the brief overview of history and the present status of the discipline. 2. The notion of religiousness in psychology. Functional and substantial definitions of the individual religion. Religiousness as a unidimensional variable. Multidimensional concepts of religiousness, types of individual religion, religious orientations, the issue of “good” or “bad” religiousness. 3. The mature or immature religiousness: concepts and their operationalization. The mature religious sentiment (Allport), and other mature-immature religious dimensions (Verbit, Lenski, Allen & Spilka, Allport & Ross, Batson and others). 4. The philosophical and psychological background of the concept of Quest religious orientation. Review and discussion concerning the research findings with the use of the Allport-Ross and Batson scales of religious orientations. 5. Alternative concepts of religious beliefs structures: religiousness in terms of the understanding of religious language (R. Hunt, J. van der Lans), “circumplex” universe of religious beliefs (S. Krauss), post-critical religious beliefs (D. Hutsebaut), and personal religiousness (R. Jaworski). Personal religion and mysticism – understanding and measurement issues (Hood and the M scale, Thalbourne and transliminality). 6. Religiousness and personality – review of the research on relationships between religiousness as the unidimensional variable and the standard personality tests as well as the criteria of mental health. Review of the research on relationships between religiousness in terms of religious orientations and personality as well as the criteria of mental health. 7. Religiousness and the positive social attitudes. Extrinsic, Intrinsic, and Quest religious orientations and the prosocial attitude (altruism), the feeling of freedom and human relations. Religiousness and the negative social attitudes. Religious fundamentalism, dogmatism, intolerance, stereotyping, prejudice, authoritarianism, nationalism, etc., and the shape of religiousness. 8. Religiousness and coping. The notion of coping in the psychology of religion. Religion as the source of meaning in the coping process. Model of the relationship between religiousness and psychological coping with life problems. Styles and elements of religious coping. Participation in new religious movements as the way of coping (search for meaning, significance, identity, and emotional ties). 9. Spirituality as the rising research category. Classical theories (Helminiak, Hay, Frankl, etc.) and concepts (terror management theory, positive disintegration, flow, spiritual intelligence, etc.). 10. Spirituality as the way of coping with existential situation. Measurement of spirituality. Spirituality and its outcomes. Literature: Allport G. W. (1950). The individual and his religion. A psychological interpretation. New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc., Chapter three: The religion of maturity (pp. 59-83). Altemeyer B., Hunsberger B. (1992). Authoritarianism, religious fundamentalism, quest, and prejudice. The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 2(2), 113-133. Batson C. D., Schoenrade P., Ventis W. L. (1993). Religion and the Individual: A Social-Psychological Perspective. London, New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 8-12, 155-190, 230-257, 293-330, 331-364. Duriez B. & Hutsebaut D. (2004). A slow and easy introduction to the Post-Critical Belief Scale: Internal structure and external relationships (unpublished manuscript). Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. Grzymała-Moszczyńska H. (1991). The psychology of religion in Poland. The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 1, 243-247. Hay D. & Socha P. M. (2005). Spirituality as a natural phenomenon. Bringing biological and psychological perspectives together. Zygon. Journal of Religion and Science, 40(3), pp. 589-612. Hill P. C., Pargament K. I., Hood R.W. Jr., McCullough M. E., Swyers J. P., Larson D. B. & Zinnbauer B. J. (2000). Conceptualizing religion and spirituality: Points of commonality, points of departure. Journal for the Theory of Social Behavior, 30(1), pp. 51-77. Hood R. W. Jr., Spilka B., Hunsberger B., Gorsuch R. L. (1996). The psychology of religion: An empirical approach. New York: The Guilford Press, pp. 8-12, 229-243, 286-292, 308-330, 338-372, 385-391. Krauss S. (2002). An introduction to the commitment-reflectivity circumplex model of religious orientation and its relationships to existing Allportian models (unpublished manuscript). Pargament K. I. (1997). The psychology of religion and coping. Theory, research, practice. New York: The Guilford Press, pp. 34-68. Pargament K. I. (1997). The psychology of religion and coping. Theory, research, practice. New York: The Guilford Press, pp. 275-314. Socha P. (1995). Religion and emotional dependence. The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 5(3), 48-52. Socha P. (1999). Ways religious orientations work: The Polish replication, The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 9(3), 209-228. Socha P. M. (2007). Assessing the cognitive construction of the sacred. The Feeling of Sacredness Test. (pp. 261-270). (In:) M. Aletti, D. Fagnani & G. Rossi (Eds.), Religione: cultura, mente e cervello. Nuove prospettive in Psicologia della religione. Torino: Centro Scientifico Editore. Thalbourne M. A. & Delin P. S. (1999). Transliminality: Its relation to dream life, religiosity and mystical experience. The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 9(1), pp. 45-61. Wulff D. M. (1997). Psychology of religion. Classic and contemporary. Second edition. New York etc.: John Wiley & Sons, Inc, pp. 1-13. 21-48, 208-243, 634-671.
Language of instruction
English
Further Comments
Study Materials
The course is taught only once.
  • Enrolment Statistics (recent)
  • Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/phil/spring2008/RLB246