religion

Cards (16)

  • Religion an overlooked dimension

    Religion is inextricable woven into culture, so how can we measure its influence in cross-cultural psychology?
  • In summary, let's explore the five-dimensional framework of religion explaining the ways through which religion (as part of culture) affects behaviors and attitudes
  • Ideological dimension

    Religious beliefs and their salience in a person's life including beliefs about the nature of the divine, the ultimate destination or purpose of life, and pathways people should follow to fulfill this divine purpose
  • Religious/spiritual beliefs

    • Can be an integral part of a culture's conceptualization of health
    • Have been linked to an active form of coping when faced with a life threatening illness, such as cancer
    • Play part in appraising situations as a punishment from God and questioning God's powers, that are tied to poorer mental and physical well-being
  • Ritualistic dimension

    Behaviors expected of a person who identifies with a certain religion
  • How ritualistic dimension affects everyday life
    • Rituals can form the foundation of an individual's everyday life (scheduling of the day)
    • Critical life transitions, such as adolescence, marriage, childbirth, and death can also serve as occasions that bear religious significance
    • Daily prayer is said to strengthen faith and make Islam a way of life for Muslim families
    • Religious rituals serve as a symbolic reminder of Jewish history, promote developmentally appropriate transitions for children, help children/adolescents in their identity development, and provide a context for bringing family members together for Jewish families
    • Religious pilgrimage served as a way to seek the support of their religion to counter external forces that were controlling their lives for Hindus
  • Experiential dimension

    Concerned with the inner mental and emotional world of the individual and includes the sense of physical, psychological and spiritual well-being an individual derives from religious beliefs and practices
  • How experiential dimension affects everyday life
    • Indian migrant women have been observed to rely on mystical or supernatural solutions, such as those contained in dreams to overcome their conflicts when faced with anxiety
    • The use of the transcendental meditation technique by government officials in Quebec resulted in significantly lower physician payments
    • Relaxation training, combining imagery with meditation, was reported to lower the stress level and improve the psychological health of nurses working in a hospital in Taiwan
  • Intellectual dimension

    Refers to an individual's knowledge about his or her faith
  • Intellectual dimension

    • Affects cultural/ethnic identity: many Hindus in the United States practice rituals but struggle with a lack of knowledge of the meaning of the religious rituals and hence encounter difficulties in passing their tradition and culture on to their children
    • Influences tolerance towards members of other religions (intergroup processes): studies reported an association between fundamentalism and prejudice which was largely mediated by right wing authoritarianism
  • Social dimension

    Religious beliefs and practices are held and observed in a social context
  • In sum, religious beliefs play a role in suggesting what is acceptable and renders practices found "weird" in one culture "acceptance" in the other on different dimensions of every day life
  • Along with personal religiosity, the level of industrialization within a nation may also shape tolerance for non-conventional groups and ideas
  • Survival vs self-expressive cultural orientation

    • Traditional vs secular/rational
    • Survival vs self-expression
  • Survival vs self-expressive cultural orientation

    • Can be used to explain cross-national attitudes about homosexuality
    • As people become increasingly interested in issues related to subjective well-being, quality of life and self-expressions, they become less threatened by things that were unfamiliar and can more easily afford to tolerate new ideas and non-normative behaviors
  • Bringing it all together, religion and cultural orientation shape attitudes about homosexuality