religion

• 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