Here's a presentation I created in 2010 about Religion and Psychology, definitions, correlations and psychologists takes on religion.

1. Clearing things up
• Psychology is not concerned with
uniqueness of any one particular
religion, Nor with the validity of any
particular set of beliefs.
• Psychology is concerned with
the psychological motivations
and responses which are
common to all known forms of
religion.

2. What bonds Religion with Psychology?
Religion is an active element in human life
at all levels makes imperative that we
should attempt to estimate it’s nature and
activities in terms of contemporary
psychology.

3. The Soul
• Is not limited to the confines of the body.
• Is a result of his dreams with the phenomena
of death.
• Is connected between a body that breathes
and a body that ceased to breath.

4. Psychological definition of Religion
• The individual’s apprehension of some
supreme object, power or principle. Belief
and Practice are the main components of
religion.
• Is the serious and social attitude of
individuals or communities toward the power
or powers which they conceive as having
ultimate control over their interests and
destinations.
J.B Pratt

5. Measurements and indices
• Membership
• Frequency of church, mosque..etc attendance
• The saying of private prayers
• Attitudes towards religion
• Beliefs
• Religious experiences
• Multi-dimensional measures of religiosity
• Religious affiliations

6. Environmental and situational factors
• Parental attitudes
1. Relationship between parents and children
2. Living at home
3. Influence of mother vs. father
• Educational influences
1. Educational level
2. Year in college
3. Major
• Social influences
1. Fear of being rejected as a deviate
2. Belief that others are experts
3. Gradual cognitive changes

7. Environmental and situational factors
• Evangelistic meetings
(factors accounting for attitude change):
1. Emotional vs. Rational
2. Anxiety Arousal
3. Public commitment
4. Personal influence
5. Characteristics of speaker
6. Public meetings vs. other media

8. Environmental and situational factors
• The effects of drugs and meditation
1. Mescaline, used today by 500, 000 Indians in the native American
church
2. Psilocybin, used in Siberia, Mexico and by the Aztycs.
3. Yage, used in south America to increase dreams.
4. Alcohol and Hashish is used (rarely) by Sufis in India and Persia
• Marital Status
Those who are Unmarried and childless are more religious than those who are
married, still happily married people are more religious
• Life crisis and stress situations
Facts:
75% of the American army during WWII came back more religious. The
other 25% stopped going to church or doing anyother religious activity
Studies of old people have found that more religious ones, fear death
less

9. Theories of Religious Behavior
Why are some people more religious? And why
do they engage in certain practices?

10. Categories of religious behavior
theories
1. Theories of Origin
2. Theories of Maintenance
3. Theories of Consequence

11. Theories of Origin
• Cognitive need theories (Weber, Durkheim, Bellah)
Religion provides a socially shared set of cognitions which provide an
interpretation of reality, a definition of self, and a guide to life.
• The father projection theory (Freud, Errikson)
Similarity between parental images and deity images.
1. Attitudes toward god are similar to the attitudes toward the
opposite sex parent. 2. God is described and attitudes towards god are
similar to those towards preferred parent.
• The super-ego projection theory ( Flugel)
Super-ego is projected on to the universe as a god and the instinctive
desires similarly as the devil

12. Theories of Maintenance
• Social Learning
Religion is simply a part of the culture, and is regularly transmitted
from generation to generation. In the same way as any other custom.
• Relief of guilt
People with guilt feelings should be attracted towards religion and
religious behaviors.
• Fear of death
It explains why people get more religious when they are older,
also those who were exposed to danger.
• Sexual motivation
It was suggested that sex and religion were two alternatives,
mutually exclusive ways of self expression, satisfaction and
commitment.

13. Theories of consequence
• Individual integration
Integration and control of the personality are partly done by the
development of cognitive structures: ideas and beliefs about the
self and it’s place in the world, religion can provide meaning,
purpose and identity.
• Social integration
“Religion is the most general mechanism for integrating meaning
and motivation in action systems” Bellah
“The regulation of the balance of the motivational commitment
of the individual to the value of his society and his role in it”
Parsons

14. Beyond Psychology
William James (1902) “I think that religion is
something outside man, religious experiences
could not be explained by psychology”.
Nuttin (1962) “Religion is an absolute order of
existence and contact with a spiritual
environment”

15. Thank you,
Hala Dasouqi
haladsq@gmail.com
Amman - Jordan