Consequential Dimension Research Articles

Invitation to the Psychology of Religion

Preface to the Second Edition. From the Preface to the First Edition. 1. Religion in Psychological Perspective. The Prevalence and Scope of Religion. Religion in Action. Psychological Questions about Religion. What is Religion? Religion as Reconnection. Personal and Social Religion. Religious Function and Religious Content. The Variety of Religious Behaviors. How do Psychologists Handle the Problem of Defining Religion? Dimensions of Religious Commitment: Logical and Descriptive. Religious Belief (The Ideological Dimension). Religious Practice (The Ritualistic Dimension). Religious Feeling (The Experiential Dimension). Religious Knowledge (The Intellectual Dimension). Religious Effects (The Consequential Dimension). The Dimensions in Combination. Status and Utility of the Multidimensional Schema. Psychological Approaches to Religion. Complementary Viewpoints within Psychology. Where do we Look for the Processes Underlying Religiousness? Relevance of the Possible Bases of Religion. Is the Psychology of Religion Valid? Is Religion Unique? Implications of the Various Positions. Approach and Plan of the Book. Orientations. Limitations. Organization. 2. Historical and Theoretical Developments. The Early Period: An Impressive Start. Starbuck and the Either-Or Philosophy. James. The Middle Period: Factors Contributing to the Decline. Theoretical Interlude. Classical Theories and Their Questions. Some Stimuli to Current Research. The Contemporary Period: The Reemergence of the Field. Indicators of the Trend. Is Psychology of Religion Influencing General Psychology? Reasons for the Trend. 3. Research in the Psychology of Religion. Philosophy of Science for Psychology of Religion. Tensions Between Psychology and Religion. The Nature of Psychological Science. Multiple Accounts of Religious Behavior. Influence of the Post-Modernism Movement. The Role Psychology Can Fulfill. Methods of Researching Religion. Strategies and Methods. Measuring Religion. 4. Religious Development in Children. Psychological Research on Religious Development. The Nature of Childhood Religion. Perception, Language, and the Meaning of Symbols: Cognitive Mechanisms. Family, Social Context, and Personal Needs: Social Learning and Attachment Processes. Cognitive Factors in Moral Development. Piaget's 2 Stages of Moral Reasoning. Piaget's 3 Stages of Cognitive Development. Kohlberg's 6 Stages of Moral Judgment. Stages of Religious Development. Elkind's Stage Theory. Research on Religious Stages. Religious Stages in Prayer. Research Possibilities and Questions. 5. Religious Development Through the Lifespan: Adolescence and Adulthood. Religion in Adolescence. How Religious are Adolescents? Global Measures of Religiousness. Doubt. Secret Doubt and Hidden Observers. Models of Lifespan Religious Development. Development of Religious Judgment: The Double Helix Model. Stages of Faith Development. Sequence of Motives: Religion as Used, Lived, and a Quest. Are Stage Models Valid?: An Assessment. Psychological Processes Prompting Adolescent Religious Development. Paradox. Cognitive, Social, and Personal Factors. Religion and Spirituality in Adulthood and Old Age. How Religious are Adults and the Aged? Baseline Data on Religion and Spirituality. Age-Trajectory Data. Spirituality and Functional Religious Development. Research Possibilities and Questions. 6. Religious Conversion and Persuasion. Prevalence and Definition of Conversion. Popular Opinion. The Prevalence of Conversion. The Definition Issue. Conversion Processes. Sudden and Gradual Conversion. Conversion Process Models. Lofland and Stark's Step Model of Conversion. Motives are Important: Glock's Expansion of Sect-Church Theory. The Relief Effect and Group Processes. The Conversion-as-Creativity Analogy. A Systemic Stage Model. Choice and the Cause of Conversion. Psychological Issues in Conversion. Religion as Crutch. Role of Emotions. The Convertible-Type Issue. The Ripe-Age Issue. Conversion as Attitude Change. Some Current Issues Pertaining to Cults. What is Cultic? Snapping and Brainwashing. Research Possibilities and Questions. 7. Religion and Experience. Relations between Religion and Experience. Experience: The Bottom Line. Ordinary and Extraordinary Experience. Experiential Responses to Religion. Phenomenological Descriptions of Becoming Religious. Conversion, Values, and Purpose in Life. Religious and Mystical Experience. The Common Core Thesis and the Problem of Language. Theories of Religious Experience. What Facilitates Religious Experience? Research Possibilities and Questions. 8. Religious Orientation, Attitudes, and Behavior. Religion and Morally Relevant Attitudes. Living One's Religion vs. Using It. Religious Orientation and Prejudice. Religious Orientation and Subjective Experience. Tentative Conclusions about the Intrinsic-Extrinsic Constructs. Religion and Social Behavior. The Good Samaritan Experiment: Evidence for Situational Factors in Helping. The Rescuers: Evidence for Personal factors in Helping. Religion and Negative Behavior. Does Religion Predict Significant Moral Behavior? Re-Evaluating the I-E Research: Quest and Fundamentalism. Religion-as-Quest. Has I-E Outlived Its Usefulness? Authoritarianism and Fundamentalism. Research Possibilities and Questions. 9. Religion, Health, and Well-Being. Impressions of Religion and Psychopathology. Religious Material in Psychic Disturbance. Relativity of Mental Health. Religion and Normal Personality. Early Childhood Factors. Authoritarianism and Dogmatism. Suggestibility and Hypnotizability. Intelligence and Achievement. Summary. Religion, Mental and Physical Health, Abnormality, and Well-Being. Religion and Mental Health. Physical Health. Fear of Death. Spiritual Well-Being. Counseling. What Conclusions Can be Drawn? Research Possibilities and Questions. 10. Evaluation and New Directions. General Evaluation. Areas and Issues. Cross-Topic Themes. Directions for Development. References. Name Index. Subject Index.

Spiritual Well-Being and the Consequential Dimension of Religiosity

Previous studies utilizing the consequential dimension of religiosity have had mixed results, with no clear conclusion about the worth of including this dimension in studies of religious behavior. We argue for a distinction between the correlates of religiosity and the consequences of religion. To study the consequential dimension, we mailed a questionnaire to a national sample of members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) and obtained 1384 usable returns. Factor analysis identified seven religiosity factors, including three factors frequently studied in the past (public and private devotion and belief) and four possibly new consequential factors which we called the Beatitudes, integrity, loving service, and spiritual well-being factors. The consequential factors, especially the Beatitudes factor, are as influential as other religiosity factors in determining marital satisfaction and global happiness. Interrelationships among factors were explored. Our findings suggest a weak relationship between several measures of intrinsic religiosity, especially between the prayer factor and the consequential factors. Spiritual well-being is more closely related to extrinsic than to intrinsic religiosit~.

On Conceptualizing Salience in Religious Commitment

Two alternative approaches to the conceptualization and analysis of salience in religious commitment are examined: specification and linear, additive models. Using data from a North Carolina sample of Episcopalians, little evidence is found in support of a specification effect. Considerably more support is obtained, however, for a linear, additive formulation in which salience is conceptualized as intervening between localistic world view and orthodoxy, as independent variables, and four consequential dimension measures. Salience is shown to have a counter effect to that of orthodoxy in the cases of church activism, political conservatism, antiblack prejudice, and racism. Issues pertinent to further research on religious salience are raised.

Dimensions of Religiosity among Catholics

Studies of the dimensions of religiosity have reached a point where they can be used not merely for the identification of dimensions but also for advancing research in many aspects of the sociology of religion. The results of a study with a sample of Catholics in a Midwest city indicate that: (1) consequential scales must be broken down into individual and social consequences; (2) the individual consequences dimension correlates positively with dimensions measuring orthodoxy, devotionalism, and comfort-seeking whereas the social consequences dimension correlates negatively with orthodoxy and comfort-seeking; (3) the relationship between devotionalism and social consequences is curvilinear with the most and least devotional scoring highest on social consequences; and (4) attitudes on birth control are independent of the other dimensions The primary interest of this study is to conceptualize and measure the consequential aspects of religion. There have been many attempts to measure the dimensions of religiosity, particularly as it has become more apparent that religion cannot be treated as a unidimensional phenomenon (Allport and Ross, 1967; Faulkner and DeJong, 1966; DeJong, Faulkner, and Warland, 1973; Glock, 1962; King, 1967; King and Hunt, 1972; Lenski, 1961; Monaghan, 1967; Stark and Glock, 1968). The five dimensions presented by Stark and Glock have proven to be the most widely cited and replicated group of dimensions. The first four of these dimensions are religious beliefs, practices, knowledge, and experience. In the fifth or "consequential" dimension, Stark and Glock group the effects of the first four dimensions in the day-to-day lives of persons. Faulkner and DeJong (1966) cite particular problems with the conceptualization and measurement of the consequential dimension and note that it has low correlations with the other dimensions. Many researchers simply give up on this dimension. At this point, it appears useful to

Doctrinal Orthodoxy, Salience, and the Consequential Dimension

Using symbolic interactionist theory to derive the basic proposition that an empirical relationship between the creedal and consequential dimensions of religiosity should appear only to the extent to which one's religious identity is salient, we examined a sample of Protestant church members in Indianapolis (N = 604). A relationship appeared only for those dependent variables in which the organized church was directly implicated, and even then only in the very highest salience category. With the proviso that a very high level of salience is required to produce a relationship, all of the other studies of the relationship of religious orthodoxy to political attitudes and behavior fall neatly into place. Evidence is also presented which indicates that the theory predicts behavior at the extremes of the creedal continuum, making separate theories of religious and political extremism unnecessary.

Image of God and Religious Ideology and Involvement: A Partial Test of Hill's Southern Culture-Religion Thesis

A trait of southern religion identified by Hill is its close relationship with southern secular culture. The religious factor in the South is filtered through cultural experience. Various observers have noted the conservative religious ideology found in the South; and researchers have linked the image of God (as punishing) with sectarianism. Using data collected from students attending a regional, state university in the Upper South, three hypotheses were given support: (1) that secrtarianism and the holding of an Old Testament view of God are related; (2) that the holding of such an image of God, which is part of southern culture, is unrelated to religious attendance; and (3) that holding a New Testament image of God as merciful is related to religious attendance because this conception is part of the specific religious culture. Hill's thesis concerning the closeness of the general southern culture and southern religion finds support. One problem area for the consequential dimension of southern culture-religion is suggested.

Secularization: A Cross-National Study of Catholic Male Adolescents

Secularization is the object of controversy and unclarity. By restricting the concept to traditional forms of religiosity, and by distinguishing it multidimensionally, similar to Glock This content downloaded from 207.46.13.103 on Thu, 20 Oct 2016 04:06:35 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms SECULARIZATION OF CATHOLIC ADOLESCENTS 29 and Stark's model of religious commitment, it can be fruitfully applied. A priori hypotheses predicting increases in secularization based on differences in urbanization and industrialization from samples of Catholic male adolescents in Merida, San Juan, St. Paul, and New York are partially confirmed, and the need for a multidimensional concept of secularization is underscored. A suggested expansion of the concept would include vocabularies of motives, e.g., Anglo respondents checked parental expectations as reasons for attending church considerably more than did the Latin respondents. Caution is in order, however, when applying data from a cross-sectional design to theories of change. A recurrent theme in contemporary sociological and theological writing is the increasing secularization of society (Berger, 1967a; Glock, 1965; O'Dea, 1966; Stark and Glock, 1968). Recently, however, Greeley (1969) argues that the secularization thesis is not proven. In fact he insists that the best current data do not support it. The present study addresses itself to this question. Part of the controversy revolves around problematic and occasionally ideological definitions of the term secularization. It is, unfortunately, used ambiguously to refer to the enervation of religious symbols, the weakening of religious motivations, the decline of religious institutions, or the emergence of a dominant a-religious or anti-religious scientific world view which renders religious rationalizations obsolete (Shiner, 1967). Martin (1965) finds the term so misleading that it ought to be dropped. With clear specification, however, secularization can be a fruitful and nonideological concept for research. THEORETICAL RATIONALE For the task of the present paper, the first specification is that the concept be used in a strict sense to refer to the decline of traditional forms of religiosity, and thus avoid the insoluble debate whether religiosity as such is declining. The second specification is that secularization be operationalized as a differentiated concept at the micro level of behavior, e.g., along Weberian dimensions (Pfautz, 1956:247; cf. O'Dea, 1966:81), viz., a decrease in affectual or emotional motivation and an increase in purposive-rational and social expectations or other-directed motivation in the area of religious behavior. In this sense, secularization implies changes within the structure of religious behavior itself. Thus we may speak of the secularization of religion as well as of society. This differentiated micro concept of secularization complements the multidimensional concept of religious commitment or religiosity, i.e., the constitutive dimensions of belief, experience, knowledge, and practice and the consequential dimension or effects of the preceding four dimensions (Demerath and Hammond, 1969; Glock and Stark, 1965). If secularization is used to refer to the decline in traditional forms of a multidimensional concept of religiosity, it is necessary to specify how each of the dimensions may be expected to change. Following the definition given above, it is posited a priori that secularization implies a shift in emphasis from religious belief and experience to knowledge and practice, as well as a decline in global traditional religiosity (a combination of belief, experience, knowledge and practice), and in the consequences of religiosity. The secularization of religiosity is conceived as resulting from the macro movement of modernization, which in turn is carried by the processes of urbanization and industrialization. These movements result in increasing differentiation (Bellah, 1964) and pluralization of symbolic worlds (Berger, 1967b) which eventually, though not necessarily immediately (Inkeles, 1968), weaken traditional forms of religious behavior. Secularization is therefore expected to be strongest in the industrialized cultures of the world and in large urban areas (cf. Lonski, 1963, for contrary indications). The macro processes of pluralization are assumed to have an impact on or affinity for secularized behavior at the micro level (Berger 1967a: 126, mentions subjective as well as structural secularization; cf. Luckmann, 1967; O'Dea, 1966). The present study, however, contains no intermediate or bridging concepts from the macro level * Gratitude is acknowledged for NSF grants 1806 and 2650, a Grant-in-Aid from Washington State University, and NIMH Fellowships. Professional support was receive.d from Murray Straus and Reuben Hill. We wish to thank Armand Mauss for a critical reading. This content downloaded from 207.46.13.103 on Thu, 20 Oct 2016 04:06:35 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms

Religiosity in 5-D: An Empirical Analysis

Based on a framework suggested by Charles Glock that religiosity should include ideological, ritualistic, experiential, intellectual, and consequential dimensions, data from 362 college students were analyzed for scalability. Five Guttman type scales were constructed-one for each dimension. Interrelationships among the five dimensions were tested by computing correlation coefficients. The ideological dimension was unmistakably of pervasive importance. At the other extreme in size of correlations was the consequential dimension, suggesting that this dimension may reflect a qualitatively different measure of religious involvement. The diversity in the degree of relationships examined lends empirical support to the view that religious involvement is characterized by several dimensions-some of which are more closely related than others.

The Consequential Dimension of Religiosity among Catholics

The Consequential Dimension of Religiosity among Catholics