Social Behaviour and Religion

1
Social Behaviour and Religion
2
Religion as social

• Religion can be defined as an inherently social
  phenomenon.
• In the Christian tradition, the social nature of
  the teachings is quite striking, e.g., Jesus
  promises his presence when two or three have
  gathered (Mathew 1820).
• Prominent theories in personality-social
  psychology have been employed in the analysis of
  religious behaviours, including dissonance theory
  (Brock, 1962), attribution theory (Bulman
  Wortman, 1977), and theories of altruism (Batson
  et al., 2001).

3
Different ways of being religious intrinsic and
extrinsic

• The extrinsically motivated person uses his/her
  religion while the intrinsically motivated person
  lives his/her religion (Allport Ross, 1967).
• Intrinsic (I) and extrinsic (E) religiosity have
  been conceptualized as two independent variables.

4
Quest

• The quest (Q) scale was intended to focus on
  growth or seekership quality in religious
  development (Batson et al., 1993).
• Many researchers have opted to use all three
  scales (I, E, and Q).

5
Prejudice

• Research suggested that religion and prejudice
  had a curvilinear relationship the marginal
  church member manifested more prejudice than
  either the non-active or the most active members
  (Gorsuch Aleshire, 1974).
• Fulton et al. (1999) found that attitudes towards
  gay men, of those scoring high on I, were no more
  negative than attitudes to others who violated
  their moral code.
• In general, a religion of social convention (as
  measured by E) is more likely to be related to
  prejudice against members of an outgroup.

6
Prosocial behaviour and helping

• The nobel peace prize frequently goes to
  individuals motivated by strong religious
  beliefs.
• Those who were spirituality highly committed were
  more than twice as likely to be currently working
  in giving service to the needy as those who were
  highly uncommitted (Gallup, 1984).
• The help religious people extend to the needy has
  its limits, particularly when the needy exhibit
  behaviour that violates a religious standard
  (Thurston, 2000).
• Americans donate about 1 of their incomes to
  religious charities and about 1 to other causes
  (Myers, 1992).
• Time donated to religious organisations is
  estimated to be equivalent to 40 of the value of
  monetary contributions (Hoge et al., 1998).
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

7
Honesty

• Very few studies assessing the impact of
  religiosity on lying.
• Religiosity appears to be the best predictor of
  attitudes about honesty (Katz et al., 1994).
• Religious respondents are sometimes, but not
  consistently, less likely to cheat than their
  non-religious peers.

8
Sexuality

• Many beliefs about Christianitys vicious and
  violent hostility to sex are modern day
  stereotypes (Gardella, 1985).
• Cochran and Begley (1981) reported a strong
  correlation between religious commitment and
  belief that extramarital sex is wrong.
• Religious people less likely to report have
  extramarital affairs (Janus Janus, 1993).
• It is generally found that religious orthodoxy or
  conservatism is associated with greater prejudice
  toward homosexuals (Morrison Morrison, 2002).

9
Key Paper

• Lewis, C.A., Maltby, J.(2000). Conservatism and
  attitude towards Christianity.   Personality and
  Individual Differences, 29, 793-798.

10
Sexuality

• One small scale study suggests that spiritual
  conflicts affects two-thirds of all gays and
  lesbians (Schuck Liddle, 2001).
• Such studies have not adequately addressed the
  extent to which cognitive dissonance, social
  identity theory, or other frameworks might best
  account for peoples sexual orientation.

11
Religion related abuse

• Recent headlines have focused on sexual abuse of
  children by Catholic priests.
• One of the most striking findings of the National
  Review Board for the Protection of Children and
  Young People (2004), established to examine the
  scandal, was the lack of research into relevant
  questions.

12
Religion related abuse

• In terms of physical abuse fundamentalist
  religious beliefs are associated with a greater
  likelihood of violence among Jewish (Shor, 1998)
  and Christian (Ellison et al., 1996) families.
• Compared to victims whose abuse did not involve
  religion, victims of religious related physical
  abuse showed greater levels of depression,
  anxiety, hostility, psychoticism and other
  psychological problems years later (Bottoms et
  al., 2004).

13
Crime and punishment

• Religious behaviour and beliefs exert a
  significant, moderate deterrent effect on
  individuals criminal behaviour (Baier Wright,
  2001).
• 75 of Americans in general favour the death
  penalty, but among those who say religion is
  important to them the figure increases to 84
  (Gallup Lindsay, 1999).

14
Crime and punishment

• Many different theoretical viewpoints are
  available for application to these issues (e.g.,
  cognitive dissonance theory, social identity
  theory, rational choice theory).
• These approaches could be examined jointly to
  gain an understanding of the way individual-level
  and social-level influences combine to account
  for behaviour .

15
Religion and politics

• Psychological theories can be helpful in
  understanding the interconnections between
  religion and politics.
• Political leaders use religion to garner and
  maintain power (Eposito, 1987 Rozell, 2003).
• Religious belief expresses itself as engagement
  with society and with political structures
  (Smith, 2004 Green, 2004).
• However, this effect is moderated by the degree
  to which an individuals religion is accepted by
  society (Wuthnow Hackett, 2004).

16
Religion and politics

• By integrating broad macro analyses, such as
  political science and sociology, with more
  micro psychological theories we will better
  understand the ways in which religion and other
  social institutions affect people.

17
Religion, peace, conflict, and war

• Direct violence entails actions that are
  intentional, dramatic and can kill people
  outright (Christie et al., 2001).
• Structural violence is more indirect and chronic
  and results in long-term adverse effects that
  decrease ones lifespan (Christie et al., 2001).
• Recent history offers examples of religious
  bodies and individuals advocating direct violence
  for religious reasons (Juergensmeyer, 2003).
• To the extent that societys resources are being
  allocated inequitably, structural violence is
  being done (Christie et al., 2001).

18
Key Books

• Lewis, C.A., Rogers, M.B., Loewenthal, K.M.,
  Amlot, R., Cinnirella, M., Ansari H. (Eds.)
  (In prep). Aspects of terrorism and martyrdom
  Volume 3. Wales, UK Edwin Mellen Press.
• Lewis, C.A., Rogers, M.B., Loewenthal, K.M.,
  Amlot, R., Cinnirella, M., Ansari H. (Eds.)
  (In prep). Aspects of terrorism and martyrdom
  Volume 2. Wales, UK Edwin Mellen Press.
• Lewis, C.A., Rogers, M.B., Loewenthal, K.M.,
  Amlot, R., Cinnirella, M., Ansari H. (Eds.)
  (In prep). Aspects of terrorism and martyrdom
  Volume 1. Wales, UK Edwin Mellen Press

19
Religion, peace, conflict, and war

• Efforts to reduce direct violence are known as
  peacemaking.
• Religion can play an important role in
  understanding the peaceful resolution of conflict
  e.g., issue statement, hold vigils.
• Actions to address structural violence are known
  as peace building.
• Examples of peace building include pastoral
  letters calling for the fair distribution of
  resources, equal access to political power,
  social justice (Pennock, 2000).

20
Religion, peace, conflict, and war

• On an individual level, religious peace building
  is exemplified by Gandhis promotion of peace
  drawing on ecumenism.
• Potentially useful theoretical perspectives for
  research include, moral judgement, social
  exchange theory, conflict resolution.
• For example, stereotyping research could examine
  the effect on peoples beliefs of learning that
  Palestinian suicide bombers are often educated,
  middle-class, and without deep religious
  commitment (Pettigrew, 2003).

21
Key Paper

• Lewis, C.A., Mullan, M. Quigley, C.F. (2002).
  Martyrdom, terrorism and September 11th Beliefs
  in Northern Ireland. Aspects of Terrorism and
  Martyrdom Seminar 1 - What roles are played by
  religious beliefs and identity in supporting
  views of violent activists as terrorists or
  martyrs? Royal Holloway College, University of
  London, London, England, 1st May 2002.

22
Possible theoretical frameworks

• Some of the classic studies relevant to the
  psychology of religion, such as When Prophecy
  Fails (Festinger et al., 1956) have been based
  on relevant theories, such as cognitive
  dissonance theory.
• Social identity theory is adopted by many
  involved in peace psychology (e.g., Christie et
  al., 2001).
• Sociology of religion has devoted a great deal of
  attention to the theory of secularization that
  religious adherence declines as societies become
  more technologically advanced.

23
Implications

• One the one hand, religion can promote prejudice,
  intolerance and war.
• On the other hand, religion can promote
  understanding, tolerance, and peace.
• Because religion represents an intersection of
  many interests, examining its social implications
  necessarily requires a willingness to consider
  divergent theoretical and disciplinary
  perspectives.