A set of presumptions that we hold about the makeup of the world (or a comprehensive interpretation in which a picture of reality is combined with a sense of meaning or value.)

If one views God as being benevolent and just, this could make them perceive those who are not religious as being evil/unjust (biased against non-religious individuals)

Or: If one views God as being benevolent and just, but is diagnosed with a terminal illness they might view themselves as being unworthy/unjust/an evil doer

Durkheim:

• A religion helps set social and moral codes, allowing people to overcome anomie (isolation).
• Religion also provides meaning for life and solidarity
• Religion forms communities and social cohesion and purpose. 

Weber:

• people make religious attributions to their experiences.
• religion is used to maintain existing social order

• Individuals are always found in social contexts that have powerful effects on development and behavior. (Culture and societal levels)

• Common psychological processes in any religion can be used to understand individual behavior.

• Biological factors

• learning , reinforcement, modeling

• Humanistic approach  

• Empirical - people can vouch for it
• Public - everyone has the right to know
• Reproduceability - can we keep producing this study to test it
• Reliability - Do we keep getting the same results

• Humility (acknowledge biases in interpreting data and knowing the relativity of knowledge and contextual nature of truths we propose) 
• Skepticism  (caution about the assumptions of methods and meanings of data because scientists have often interpreted wrongly data and made wrong claims)

• Curiosity- want to learn more about the world

• The “Either/Or” philosophy which claims that either the religious explanation of some phenomena/event or the naturalistic explanation of that phenomena/event can be valid but not both - Starbuck 1899

• Competition for “Clients” 

  Led to division and misunderstanding as both are actively trying to help the “sick souls” ..At the time religious professionals had taken on/accepted role of “curing sick souls.” However rise of psychiatry and psychology seemed to shift that role over to the new mental health professionals

• An Academic Split

  Early on psychologists we within the philosophy department of their school/institution (along with Philosophers and Religious Studies people) so it was common to study philosophical or religious questions.

• However during 1920s and 1930s psychologists begin leaving Philosophy Department and create department of their own, and wanted to distance themselves from speculative fields like Philosophy (hence the lack of attention to Psychology and Religion) 

Why the field came back 

• Book unclear here but seems to suggest that in the late 1970s and 1980s some of the factors that lead to its return were:

News media began reporting that “extreme Islamic fundamentalists were killing people in the name of Allah, “cultic” and “new age” religious experimentation was on upsurge worldwide, and Western cultural dialgoe included talk of the meaning of the “post-Christian era”

What two factors have combined to make international efforts of psychological research within traditions and across traditions both pressing and possible? (Paloutzian article)

• Rooting the future of research in a meaning systems model and the multilevel interdisciplinary paradigm 

• Meaning Systems Model: process of taking a barrage of ambiguous information and turning it into something that can be perceived, appraised, and responded to

  Important bc religiousness is both an individual & cultural phenomenon which requires knowledge from various domains to fully understand

• Multilevel Interdisciplinary Paradigm:

  Should work towards having our knowledge of human religiousness as being free from any singular discipline (i.e. interdisciplinary)

Would allow us to learn things across cultures and religions worldwide with contributions form biology, psychology, anthropology and other related fields (i.e. expansive interdisciplinary knowledge)

• Public is more religious (twice more in america) than scientists 

To address, Scientists can become more theologically educated and encourage religionists to be more - scientifically literate and understand that both are share a common goal of improving the human conditi

Fowler viewed faith as the deep core and center of our values.

Primal faith- At birth, we interact with our environment and develop trust and nurture if there is safety, which will lead to a sense of trust and safety about the divine and universe. 

Intuitive projective faith- psyches unprotected exposure to  unconscious as  we learn about religion through experiences and interactions with the environment

Mythic-literal faith- believe in justice and reciprocity of universe- take metaphors and symbolism literally 

Synthetic conventional faith- conformity to authority. Here we develop the religious aspect of personal identity. Any conflict in beliefs are ignored. 

individuative/reflective- openness to new ideas and complexity of faith, and taking responsibility for beliefs and feelings and recognizing  conflicts in ones beliefs

Conjunctive faith- resolves previous conflicts and understands multidimensional aspects of conflicts

Universalizing faith- enlightenment, treat others as you want to be treated, universal principles

Think of these steps as increasing ability to think in complex ways about religion

Problems with it is development  is lifelong and children are much more advanced than what we thought them to be in these stages. Also far more is involved than just cognition. This includes learning, attachment processes, emotions, values.

Ethical decision making theories.

Problems: Too much emphasis on thought and not on behavior, moral behavior can be automatic, theory is culturally bias, decline of postconventional reasoning, not taking emotion into account

Care perspective- views people in terms of connectedness with others, including interpersonal relationships 

Justice perspective- individual rights and individual moral decisions

From Haidt (2001) article on ‘social intuitionist approach to moral judgment,’ define 1) ‘Moral judgement;’ ‘moral reasoning;’ and ‘moral intuition.’ Next, describe Haidt’s basic claim and contrast it with the presuppositions and conclusions/implications of James Fowler’s ‘stage’ model of moral/ethical reasoning.

Moral Judgement- evaluations (good/bad) of the actions or character of a person that are made with respect to a set of virtues held to be obligatory by a culture. 

Moral reasoning- conscious mental activity that consists of transforming given info about people to reach a moral judgement

Moral intuition- sudden appearance in consciousness of a moral judgement, including an affective valence, without any conscious awareness of having gone through steps of searching or weighing evidence, or inferring a conclusion. 

Haidt argues that moral reasoning does not cause moral judgement. Instead, moral reasoning is constructed after a judgement has been reached.  Haidt’s claims go against James Fowler’s stage model of moral/ethical reasoning because they support the idea of the Social Intuitionist Model (moral judgement is caused by quick moral intuitions).

Describe ‘attribution theory’ and how it might be used to explain an event that frequently includes a religious/spiritual component.

We attempt to explain things by giving attributes to their occurrences. It allows us to predict and control the environment. 

When something bad happens, if we give something a religious attribute, it is because God is punishing us. If we give a naturalistic attribute, it is because of the cause and effect scientific framework.

Briefly state the presupposition(s) of attachment theory and comment on how this theory might be applied to explain an aspect of a person’s religiousness/spirituality?

Intrinsic/extrinsic is not on continuum, but distinct categories. Intrinsic means we are motivated internally to do something, extrinsic means we are motivated by external factors. Intrinsic religiousness means we truly believe in the religion so we practice it, while extrinsic is we are motivated by the benefits of religion like social gatherings (means to an end).

Quest religious orientation views religion as a search for truth.