Showing papers in "Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion in 1985"

A General Attribution Theory for the Psychology of Religion

Abstract: A formal theory demonstrating the applicability of attribution concepts and research findings to the psychology of religion is developed and discussed. First, an overview of attribution theory is presented, wherein it is argued that three basic needs or desires of people - viz., for a sense of meaning, for control over outcomes, and for self-esteem - are evident throughout the attribution process; this trichotomy of motives provides a basic framework upon which the structure of the theory is based. It is maintained that religious and naturalistic meaning-belief systems often -exist concurrently within a person's world view, and that specific factors can be identified which predict whether a religious or a non-religious explanation of an event will be made in a particular case. These factors are discussed in terms of four broad categories: characteristics of the attributor, the attributor's context, characteristics of the event, and the event's context. Specific examples developed within each of these categories provide links to the existing research literature of the psychology of religion, as well as a wide range of testable empirical hypotheses for future research. Causal explanation is a hallmark of religion. Around the world, in all periods of recorded history, scripture and theologies have told how the universe was created, why humans occupy a special place in the scheme of things, why seasonal changes and natural disasters occur, why some people triumph while others fail, and why everyone must occasionally suffer and eventually die. One obvious task for the psychology of religion is to characterize the ways in which ordinary people use such religious explanations. Informal observation suggests that not everyone relies on them to the same extent, and that not even the most religious people (at least in our culture) explain every occurrence in religious terms. There must be, then, a set of factors which determines when religious explanations are deemed appropriate. Moreover, there is a host of interpretive options within every religious framework - God's mercy, God's justice, saints, guardian angels, the devil, correctly or incorrectly executed rituals, effective or ineffective prayers, right or wrong conduct - to name a few from the Judeo-Christian tradition. What determines which, if any, of these causes will be called upon when a person attempts to account for a particular

The Active vs. Passive Convert: Paradigm Conflict in Conversion/Recruitment Research

Abstract: Conversion/recruitment research has been guided for years by a traditional paradigm assuming a passive subject being converted by external powers over which no control is possible. The traditional model is also quite psychological and deterministic. A new or alternative paradigm has been developing, derived mainly from studies of recruitment to new religions. It posits a more active, meaning-seeking subject who exercises volition in deciding to convert to a new religion. The conflict between the new and the old paradigms is discussed including characterizing the so-called brainwashing model as a modern variant of the traditional paradigm. Also, the idea of an alternative conversion paradigm is contrasted to other theoretical perspectives from recent papers by Lofland and Skonovd and by Long and Hadden.

Intrinsic and Extrinsic Religiousness: The Empirical Research

Abstract: In the fifteen years since the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion devoted an entire issue to intrinsic (I) and extrinsic (E) religiousness, more than seventy published research studies have used these measures to address the relations between religion, personality, and behavior. I and E have been used both as individual, unipolar measures, and jointly in the fourfold typology originally proposed by Allport and Ross (1967) and refined by Hood (1970). Recently, Donahue (1985) published a review of this body of literature. The purpose of this article is to summarize the major findings of that review and to raise some previously unaddressed empirical issues. It will be presumed that the reader has read Kahoe's preceding article, or is otherwise familiar with the conceptual underpinnings of the scales. In the present article, I and E refer to Allport's version of the scales, except as otherwise noted.

Premarital Sexual Behavior and Religious Adolescents

Abstract: Freshmen attending 8 colleges affiliated with the churches of Christ responded to questions about their religious behaviors, religious motivations, and premarital sexual behaviors. It is argued that a religious sample may be able to give us information about the relationship between religiosity and sexuality that more general samples could not. The religious and sexual characteristics of this conservative Christian sample are described, and are found to differ markedly from most samples studied in this area. In addition, a number of relationships are tested and discussed. The wellsubstantiated relationship between religious and sexual behavior is replicated, with some interesting points raised by the fact that this sample is more religiously active than any others reported to date. The relationship between religious orientation and premarital sexual activity is documented for the first time, and is found to be as strong a correlate as is religious behavior. Religious orientation and behavior are so highly related in this sample as to prove no more predictive of sexual activity when considered together than they do when taken separately. Finally, it is shown that, whereas the religious variables function to identify virginal adolescents with great accuracy (virgins are homogeneous in regard to religiosity), they do very poorly in identifying non-virginal adolescents (non-virgins are heterogeneous in regard to religiosity). It is suggested that there are third factor influences at work on non-virginal adolescents that have not (as yet) impacted virgins. The adolescent of today is faced with many behavioral choices, not the least of which involves whether and when the transition into premarital sexual activity will take place. Few topics are more controversial or more discussed than this; yet equally few topics are more important to the study of adolescence, the family, and society itself. A great deal of research effort has been expended in an attempt to understand that transition and the variables which influence the adolescent's decision about the matter.

Gender Differences in Images of God

Abstract: Images of God data from the General Social Survey (1983) are subjected to factor analysis. Three images of God factors are identified: God as king, as healer, and as relational. Women score higher only on the God as healer image. The three images are positively interrelated and have substantial, positive relationships with church attendance. The finding that women score higher on God as healer, or a supportive factor, is viewed in part as related to succor women have traditionally received in church participation; the differences by gender in regard to holding this image of God are diminished when church attendance is controlled. The findings are compared with conclusions drawn by Vergote et at and Roof and Roof. The claim that Americans are more likely to emphasize instrumental (God as king) rather than supportive (God as healer) images is challenged.

The Buddhist saints of the forest and the cult of amulets : a study in charisma, hagiography, sectarianism, and millennial Buddhism

Abstract: 1. Introduction Part I. The arahant and the Path of Meditation: 2. The Buddhist conception of the arahant 3. The Path of Purification: the ascetic practices 4. The stages and rewards of Buddhist meditation 5. The forest-monk tradition in Southeast Asia: a historical backdrop Part II. The hagiography of a Buddhist saint: text and context the politics of sectarianism: 6. The biography of a modern saint 7. The Buddha's life as paradigm 8. The ordering principles behind Buddhist saintly biography 9. The disciples of the Master 10. The biographer as exemplary forest-monk, meditator, and teacher 11. Sectarianism and the sponsorship of meditation 12. The Mandnikdi sect's propagation of lay meditation 13. The center-periphery dialectic: the Mahathat and Bovonniwet sponsorship of meditation compared Part III. The cult of amulets: the objectification and transmission of charisma: 14. The cult of images and amulets 15. An enumeration of historic and popular amulets 16. The 'likeness' of the image to the original Buddha: the case of the Shillala Buddha 17. The process of sacralizing images and amulets: the transfer of power by monks 18. Amulets blessed by contemporary forest saints 19. Saints on cosmic mountains Part IV. Conceptual and theoretical clarifications: 20. A commentary on millennial Buddhism in Thailand and Burma 21. The sources of charismatic leadership: Max Weber revisited 22. The objectification of charisma and the fetishism of objects

Religion, Values and Attitudes toward Abortion

Abstract: Examen du lien entre la conviction religieuse et le systeme des valeurs qui incluent la question de l'avortement. Etats-Unis.

The war against proslavery religion : abolitionism and the northern churches, 1830-1865

Abstract: Reflecting a prodigious amount of research in primary and secondary sources, this book examines the efforts of American abolitionists to bring northern religious institutions to the forefront of the antislavery movement. John R. McKivigan employs both conventional and quantitative historical techniques to assess the positions adopted by various churches in the North during the growing conflict over slavery, and to analyze the stratagems adopted by American abolitionists during the 1840s and 1850s to persuade northern churches to condemn slavery and to endorse emancipation. Working for three decades to gain church support for their crusade, the abolitionists were the first to use many of the tactics of later generations of radicals and reformers who were also attempting to enlist conservative institutions in the struggle for social change. To correct what he regards to be significant misperceptions concerning church-oriented abolitionism, McKivigan concentrates on the effects of the abolitionists' frequent failures, the division of their movement, and the changes in their attitudes and tactics in dealing with the churches. By examining the pre-Civil War schisms in the Presbyterian, Baptist, and Methodist denominations, he shows why northern religious bodies refused to embrace abolitionism even after the defection of most southern members. He concludes that despite significant antislavery action by a few small denominations, most American churches resisted committing themselves to abolitionist principles and programs before the Civil War. In a period when attention is again being focused on the role of religious bodies in influencing efforts to solve America's social problems, this book is especially timely.

Parent-University Student Agreement on Religious and Nonreligious Issues

Abstract: Some controversy has evolved with respect to the supposed existence of a "generation gap," a kind of organized rebellion against parents by their teenagers, one component of which supposedly involves considerable discrepancy between teenagers' attitudes and those of their parents. Some researchers have concluded that there is in fact a generation gap (Friedenberg, 1969; Thomas, 1974); others that parents and children tend to agree at least moderately on a variety of attitudinal issues (Boshier, 1973; Coleman, 1978); others that attitudinal differences which do appear are relatively minor and reflect contrasts in intensity rather than attitude direction (Lerner & Spanier, 1980); and still others have quite emphatically rejected the notion of a substantial generation gap (Coopersmith, Regan & Dick, 1975). Part of the discrepancy may arise from the fact that parent-child agreement may vary from one issue to another. For example, Bengtson and Troll (1978) suggested that agreement should be highest on religious attitudes with decreasing agreement on issues relating to politics, work-achievement orientation, and sex roles and sexual behavior. In addition, Caplovitz and Sherrow (1977) concluded that parent-child disagreement on religious attitudes goes hand-in-hand with disagreement on nonreligious issues, a claim that has been disputed by Hunsberger (1980). Thus, the present study examined parentoffspring attitudinal agreement in the context of different issues, but particularly regarding religious orientation. Also, previous research (Bengtson & Troll, 1978) has indicated that late adolescent children tend to exaggerate differences between themselves and their parents, while parents tend to minimize these differences. If this is true, one might expect that parents of children who have had major shifts from the parental orientation would be poorer predictors of their children's attitudes within that realm. This possibility was also examined in the present project by comparing trends for apostates and nonapostates.

The Development of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Religious Orientations

Abstract: Previous reviews of the origins and development of Gordon Allport's concepts of intrinsic and extrinsic religious orientations (Hunt & King, 1971; Meadow & Kahoe, 1984; Donahue, 1985) tend to be atomistic. By contrast this brief overview focuses on more general issues and suggests some new understandings of the orientations. We first trace Allport's inherent, but usually overlooked, hypotheses about the development of intrinsic and extrinsic religiousness. Then a review of the major bipolar descriptive terms and their sources leads to a history of the operationalization of the two concepts. Our conclusion adds to the continuing debate about the relationship between intrinsic and extrinsic dimensions.

Construct Validation for the Religious Involvement Inventory: Replication

Abstract: In a continued effort to develop an instrument to measure religious involvement, the internal consistency approach to test development was used to analyze three data sets. Sample one consisted of members of the United Methodist Church who answered the 1968 Questionnaire (1968Q) developed by King and Hunt (1972b). The second and third samples were the subjects reported in two of the King and Hunt investigations (1972a, 1975). The findings of the factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis of the King and Hunt items provide strong support for the seven factors reported by Hilty, Morgan and Burns (1984). The results of the coefficient of congruence across samples found very acceptable estimates for the factors and items in the data sets. The meaning of the results and their implications for research are discussed.

Salience as a Condition for Various Social Consequences of Religious Commitment

Abstract: Past researchers showed that Christian religion has consequences in the realm of church social action and social issues only for persons with high religious salience. Using nationwide survey data on American Christians we replicated these analyses using 33 different measures of possible consequences. The results varied from value area to value area. Religious beliefs have direct impact on values in only a limited realm mostly the domains of family life, sexuality, and personal honesty; they have no direct impact on most political and economic attitudes. The specification model found in the past with regard to church social action was found only with regard to three political values, and only among better-educated persons. An opposite pattern was found on three consequences in the areas of ratings of church adequacy, traditional sexuality, and respect for authority. The consequences of religion vary greatly from value area to value area. Future research must be articulate about the specific values it is studying.

Viewing "the Other Side" in Northern Ireland: Openness and Attitudes to Religion among Catholic and Protestant Adolescents

Abstract: Though Northern Ireland is one of the most deeply divided countries in the world, little research has been carried out on cross-cultural perceptions. In this study, an investigation was carried out into the way young people aged 12-16 years perceived those who belonged to "the other side." In 1981, a six-item Likert-type openness scale was devised and administered with Francis' Attitude to Religion scale to 2133 pupils. It was found that openness scores increased significantly with increasing age, while attitude to religion scores decreased significantly with increasing age. Roman Catholic pupils were more open than Protestants, and girls were more open than boys. When sex, age and religious affiliation were controlled for, there was found to be a positive relationship between attitude to religion and openness, young people most favorably disposed to religion being most open to the other religious tradition.

Max Weber and the Dispute over Reason and Value: A Study of Philosophy, Ethics, and Politics

Abstract: Introduction 1. Problems of context and interpretation 2. Reason and decision: Weber's core doctrine and value choices i. The nature of value choice ii. Weber's 'scholarly' value choice iii. Weber's 'political' value choice 3. Weber's political design 4. The Weimar era dispute 5. Words into action: Jaspers and Heidegger 6. Nazism, Fascism and the later dispute 7. The ermergence of the dispute in England i. The English crisis of culture ii. The American context 8. The issue reframed: positivism and value-free social science i. Logical positivism and the dispute 9. the later form of the critique

Anomia and Sin in Durkheim's Thought

Abstract: In 1887, Guyau published a work on religion in which he advocated "anomie" as a rational alternative to dogmatism. Lalande ([1926] 1976: 61) believes that Guyau coined the term to designate "le nom d'anomie pour l'opposer a l'autonomie des Kantiens" (Kant's "autonomy," with its heavy sense of duty was indeed repressive). Durkheim reviewed Guyau's book that same year (in Pickering, 1975: 24-38) and expressed no problem with Guyau's definition of anomie, only with his treatment of individualism as a correlate of anomie. Orru (1983) thinks that Durkheim actually learned of the concept of anomie from Guyau, which would be difficult to prove, given Durkheim's rabbinical background, but is correct that Durkheim knew of it long before his Division of Labor (1893). A superficial glance at the word "anomie" and its derivatives (anomia, anomy) has been sufficient to convince a generation of scholars that it is derived from "a-nomos," lack of law. But Lyonnet and Sabourin (1970: 42-43), in their analysis of the Biblical use of anomy as sin, challenge the belief that "anomia really means what etymology, a-nomos, would suggest: 'lawlessness,' disobedience to, disrespect for the law." They note that "nowhere in the New Testament is anomia related to nomos, 'law'." Guyau and Durkheim were aware of this, and referred to "rule," not law, in their discussions of anomy. Thus Guyau ([1887] 1962: 374) claimed that "what we have called moral anomy" is "the absence of any fixed moral rule." Durkheim used this classical notion of anomy as "lack of rule" in Division of Labor ([1893] 1933: 431), Suicide ([1897] 1951: 257), Socialism and SaintSimon ([1896] 1958: 240) and elsewhere. Lalande ([1926] 1976: 906-907) warns that Durkheim's use of "regle" should not be confounded with the "vulgar" meanings of "law" or "norm" sometimes attached to it. "Regle" was used in the 19th century in the classical Greek sense of a formula which prescribes the existence of a phenomenon. Indeed, Robert Hertz (1922), one of Durkheim's most brilliant disciples, treated "sin" as "anomia," that is, as an attack on a moral order that does not necessarily imply the accomplishment of an act, and that is radically different from crime. Nielsen (1983) has explored the anomia-sin connection with regard to the

An exploration of adults’ religious orientations and the their philosophies of human nature

Abstract: Do individuals of differing religious orientations also differ in their philosophies of human nature? This question was examined by interviewing a representative sample of the adult population of Memphis, Tennessee. Altogether, 359 adults were questioned about their religious beliefs and practices, their answers yielding scores on four religious dimensions: Christian Orthodoxy, Church Involvement, Devotionalism and Theocracy. Respondents were also administered a revised version of Wrightsman's Philosophies of Human Nature Scale which produced scores on five dimensions: Cynicism, Internal Locus of Control, Goodness, Complexity and Variability. These two sets of measures were submitted to canonical correlation analysis. Two significant correlations were revealed, providing empirical support for the contention that people's religious outlook and their views of human nature are linked. The first canonical correlation of .35 (p < .001) suggested that people who adhere to orthodox Christian tenets, who make a habit of private devotions, and who are active in their churches see others as basically altruistic and truthful, hard to understand, and externally controlled. The second canonical correlation of .21 (p < .01) suggested that high levels of religious activism (in terms of participation in both church activities and private devotions) are associated with a belief in the uniformity of human nature. The demographic background of people exhibiting these patterns of belief was explored in an effort to interpret the correlations.

Do Converts Always Make the Most Committed Christians

Abstract: This paper presents an attempt to clarify the distinction between religious commitment and the identity change process through which an individual becomes religiously committed. It is argued that conversion and commitment have often been incorrectly equated in the social science literature. The question is asked whether those who have converted to a particular religious perspective are more committed than those who have been brought up in that tradition. The latter are referred to as alternators. Using a sample drawn from among born-again Christians, it is demonstrated here that religious commitment can be seen to vary within, but not between groups of converts and alternators. Religious commitment, it is argued, is sustained by interaction with other believers after recruitment to the religious group has taken place.

Status Inconsistency and Moral Issues

Abstract: The emergence of the New Christian Right (NCR) as a force in the contemporary American political arena has raised once again the question of how to explain the origin of moral reform movements, and the role that religion plays in underwriting and sustaining them. The dean of American political sociologists, Seymour Martin Lipset, in keeping with his established views on right-wing politics, has argued that the Moral Majority phenomenon is a manifestation attributable to the threat that modernity poses for the values and folkways of sectarian Protestants. Attendant resentments, the theory goes, are transmuted into a politics of moral outrage (Lipset & Raab, 1981; see also Gannon, 1981, and Shupe & Stacey, 1982; cf. Harper & Leicht, 1984). As Wood and Hughes (1984) point out, Lipset's perspective traces the urge for moral reform to the status discontent accruing to groups that are in transit from the center to the periphery of a society. That view, however, is not unrelated to status inconsistency arguments which predict various individual reactive behaviors (including political activism) from status discrepancy. Using data from seven General Social Surveys, Wood and Hughes (1984) find no evidence to sustain a status inconsistency interpretation of attitudes in the general population toward the distribution of pornography. They conclude that "no special theories concerned with status frustration or status deprivation are required to account for the social base of moral-reform movements" (96).1 Regarding the general reform movement exemplified by the Moral Majority phenomenon, it has been argued that by 1980 the Fundamentalists spearheading the movement were not experiencing a rapid loss of respect, prestige, or deference to their ways. On the contrary, they comprise a culturally disvalued group that was pushed to the edge of the American public arena over fifty years ago and is now taking advantage of fissures in the liberal establishment to regain some of the ground lost in the twenties and thirties. Thus, a sense of cultural and political empowerment and not resentment

What Was That Sermon about? Predicting Memory for Religious Messages from Cognitive Psychology Theory

Abstract: Drawing from cognitive psychology theory, it was predicted that memory for religious messages would increase as a function of several variables: verbal ability, interest in the message, religiosity, and the consistency of the message with the religious beliefs of the subject. Three hundred fiftythree college students listened to one of three religious messages structurally similar, but thematically different: High God Control-Low Personal Control, High God Control-High Personal Control, and Low God Control-High Personal Control. They then completed several memory measures and other scales. Only modest amounts of information were retained from the messages. The predictions of the study were generally confirmed for the messages more familiar and acceptable to the subjects. Subjects also distorted the content of the message to fit more closely with their religious beliefs. These results support the study of religious material from a cognitive psychology perspective.

Religion and regional culture: the changing pattern of religious affiliation in the Cajun region of southwest Louisisana

Abstract: The hypothesis that large-scale economic development and population redistribution has led to the demise of regional culture is examined for the traditional Catholic Cajun community in southwest Louisiana. Using census type data, comparisons of religious affiliation patterns between the Cajun region, Louisiana, the South, and the nation demonstrate a small shift towards regional convergence over the 1950-80 period. An analysis of the twenty-two parishes in the Cajun region provides some limited support for the convergence argument. The results are discussed in light of earlier work by Newman and Halvorson (1984) reported in this journal.

The Impact of Theological Orientation and of Breadth of Perspective on Church Members' Attitudes and Behaviors: Roof, Mol and Kaill Revisited

Abstract: After reviewing research by Roof, Mol and Kaill, this paper examines relationships among the following explanatory variables: theological conservatism, localism, authoritarianism/dogmatism, and civil liberalism. Using data drawn from members of three Protestant denominations in Australia, it is found that, of these four variables, theological conservatism is the best predictor of frequency of church attendance, degree of involvement in other church activities, views about ecumenism, attitudes to change in church structures and practices, and moral conservatism. But the other three explanatory variables are each more useful than theological conservatism in predicting degree of concern for social justice and degree of approval for church activism on social, political and economic issues. The four explanatory variables are all fairly weak predictors of political-economic conservatism. It is argued that the affects attributed to localism, authoritarianism/dogmatism or lack of civil liberalism can be explained by a more general concept, breadth of perspective. Modifications to Roof's theory are suggested: it is hypothesized that at least among Protestant church members, the impact of breadth of perspective decreases, and the salience of theological orientation increases, as the proportion of the total population which regularly participates in church-oriented religion decreases.

A Structural Equation Modeling Analysis of the Means, End and Quest Dimensions

Abstract: Allport's distinction between intrinsic and extrinsic religious orientations is well known. The first two studies designed to empirically examine this paradigm were implemented by Feagin (1964) and Allport and Ross (1967). The investigators proposed intrinsic and extrinsic scales representing opposite ends of a unidimensional continuum. This paradigm has been the subject of considerable empirical research since that time (see Donahue [1985] for a comprehensive review). Batson's (1976) assessment of the I-E literature resulted in a recommendation to improve the original theory. His recommendation was based on recognition of a change in tone from Allport's earlier description of mature religion (1950) to his operational definition of intrinsic religion (Allport & Ross, 1967), which replaced "mature" religion in this typology (even as "extrinsic" religion replaced "immature" religion). Batson and Ventis point out: "In contrast to the concept of mature religion, there seems to be less emphasis in the notion of intrinsic religion on flexibility, skepticism, and resistance as a master motive that is internalized and followed fully" (Batson & Ventis, 1982: 144). Therefore, Batson and Ventis recommend a third orientation named Quest, which they describe as