EXPLORATIONS IN PSYCHOLOGY: The Exemplary Religious Life and Advanced
Religious Thought of Mother Teresa
Occasionally someone progresses to a stage of religious thought that serves as a superior example for others. One such example of highly developed religiousness is Mother Teresa (1910–1997) of Calcutta, India.
Mother Teresa was born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, in Albania. She became a Roman Catholic nun and founded the Missionaries of Charity after having entered the order of the Sisters of our Lady of Loreto at the age of 18 while in Ireland. After taking her vows in 1937, she served in Calcutta in a Roman Catholic high school. While in Calcutta, she became grieved by the extensive sickness and dying of people on the city’s streets. She began to minister to these impoverished people and opened a home for them in 1952. Though Mother Teresa died in 1997, her home and ministry continue today, on five continents. In 1979, Mother Teresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Why is Mother Teresa’s religious thinking considered to be at such an advanced level?
Religion and Spirituality in Older Adults
In many societies around the world, the elderly are the spiritual leaders in their churches and communities. For example, in the Catholic church, more popes have been elected in their eighties than in any other 10-year period of the human life span.
The religious patterns of older adults have been increasingly studied (Kimble & others, 1995; Levin, 1994). In one analysis, both older African Americans and older Whites showed reasonably high levels of religiousness, attended religious services several times a month, said religion was important in their lives, read religious materials, listened to religious programs, and prayed frequently (Levin, Taylor, & Chatters, 1994). Also, in this analysis, older women had stronger interest in religion than did older men.
When the significance of religion in people’s lives has been assessed, individuals over 65 years of age are more likely than younger people to say that religious faith is the most significant influence in their lives, that they try to put religious faith into practice, and that they go to church (Gallup, 1988). In this survey, adults in old age were more likely than younger adults to have a strong interest in spirituality and to pray.
Is religion related to a sense of well-being and life satisfaction in old age? In one study of 836 elderly persons, it was. Religious practices - such as prayer and Bible reading - and religious feelings were associated with a sense of well-being, especially for women and individuals over 75 years of age (Koenig, Kvale, & Ferrell, 1988).
Religion can fulfill some important psychological needs in older adults, helping them face impending death, find and maintain a sense of meaningfulness and significance in life, and accept the inevitable losses of old age. Socially, the church can provide a number of functions for older adults, such as social activities, social support, and the opportunity to assume teaching and leadership roles. Older adults can become deacons, elders, or Sunday school teachers, assuming leadership roles that they might not have been able to take on before their retirement (Cox & Hammonds, 1988). In sum, religion can play an important role in the lives of elderly adults.
Religious Conversion
Religious conversion is one of the most profound and perplexing phenomena that can happen in a person’s life. The individual might never be the same because of it. If so, in what ways is the person different and in what ways is the personnot
changed due to religious conversion? How can such events be explained psychologically?
Defining Conversion and Types of Conversion
Conversion means change. Religious conversion refers to the change from having no religious belief to accepting a religious belief system as one’s own, or to the process of changing from one religious belief system to another.
Two types of conversion are usually distinguished - sudden conversion and gradual conversion. Sudden conversion is a religious change that occurs all at once with no prior warning. When asked if they remember how their conversion experience occurred, sudden converts can point to a specific place and set of life circumstances involved in the conversion. By contrast, gradual conversion is a religious change that takes place over a period of time, ranging from several weeks or months to years. In gradual conversion, people think through and evaluate issues and options before arriving at a religious choice. There might be a decision point similar to that in sudden conversion, but the slower evaluative process is what distinguishes the two types. Both types of conversion contrast with religious socialization, a lifelong process in which individuals cannot remember not having a religious faith. In lifelong religious socialization, the individual is brought up with a religion and never deviates from it.
Conversion Processes
Psychological efforts at explaining conversion have evolved from fairly simplistic accounts to more complex models (Paloutzian, Richardson, & Rambo, 1999; Zinnbauer & Pargament, 1998). Religious conversion used to be explained as something that happened to someone more or less against the person’s will. In this view, conversion is due to either (a) a psychological need of which the person is unaware (such as a need for safety or security or to reduce guilt) - that is, the person is unconsciously driven to accept God and forgiveness, even though at the conscious level the person might be fighting it (Richardson, 1985, 1989); or (b) social pressures operating on the person that are so strong that the person cannot say no to the recruiting efforts of a religious group. In other words, in the old model, whether due to unconscious or social pressures, the person was viewed as a passive responder to forces in the conversion process.
More recently, individuals who become converted are perceived as active and religion-seeking rather than as being buffeted by forces beyond their control (Kilbourne & Richardson, 1984; Richardson, 1985, 1989). Whether traditional or nontraditional religious beliefs are adopted, they are viewed as more consciously chosen. Individuals might have motives that lead them to seek out different kinds of religious teachings or groups to satisfy their different needs (Glock & Stark, 1965). For example, someone who is suffering from a physical or mental illness might be attracted to a religious healing group. Someone who perceives or personally suffers from ethical deprivation (such as differences between ideal values and actual performance) might gravitate toward social reform movements. Someone suffering from a psychological deprivation or a lack of meaning in life might adopt a religion that teaches a new value system.
More cognitively oriented explanations of conversion have also been offered. One such view links conversion with the mental processes involved in creative thinking, in which the person reorganizes information and sees it in a new way (Batson, Schoenrade, & Ventis, 1993). Similarly, conversion has been described as a cognitive restructuring in which the individual’s portrayal of self and the world undergoes a major shift (Brown & Caetano, 1992).
Conversion and Personality Change
We know that something about a person is different (sometimes radically different) following a religious conversion, but exactly what is it? That is, is it he person’s basic personality traits, the person’s motivations and goals, or the persons self-definition that has changed?
The answer to these questions becomes clear when seen in light of what constitutes the structure and levels of human personality. Level 1
of personality is made up of basic traits. Five traits are said to comprise the basic dimensions of personality according to one important line of research – these are Openness to experience, Conscientiousness, Extroversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism (these are call the Big Five traits, OCEAN; McCrae, 1992). A person can be high or low in varying degrees on any combination of these traits. Level 2
of personality refers to goals and motivations for which the person strives, such as receiving a B. A. Degree in Psychology, being a good person, other pursuits of a global or specific nature. Level 3
of personality is a matter of self-definition, purpose in life, and world view. The whole person includes at least these levels in an interactive blend that guides how the person thinks, feels, and acts.
Research on religious conversion shows that there is little noticeable affect of conversion on basic traits. A person who is open and extroverted before religious conversion is likely to be the same afterwards. But levels 2 and 3 of the person’s personality can change a great deal. A new convert may adopt radically different goals, have different motives that he or she had before, and can adopt a new purpose in life and hold a new definition of who he or she is in the world (Paloutzian, Richardson, & Rambo, 1999).
Religious Experience, Attitudes, Behavior, and Health
How can we evaluate people’s religious experiences? What is the nature of people’s religious attitudes and behavior? How is religion involved in health?
Religious Experience
We can consider religious experience from the inside and from the outside. You, and only you, can see your religious life from the inside; your experiences are conscious only to you. If you say, “I see the Virgin Mary standing on a hill,” you are the only one privileged to this view. Technically speaking, even if others say that they see the same vision, it is only an assumption that the images in your minds are identical.
The other way of evaluating religious experiences is from the outside - whether a person’s behavior is in accord with the person’s beliefs (“Do you practice what you preach?”). As is well known, if someone claims to have certain religious beliefs but behaves inconsistently with those beliefs, others are critical of the person. A person’s religion cannot escape being evaluated in public arenas. This is partly what William James (1902) meant when he said that religion should be judged by its “fruits,” not by its “roots.”
The phenomenon of religious experience is an intriguing area of inquiry in psychology of religion. People who have such experiences say they are timeless and profound. In one survey, 43 percent of individuals reported that they have “been aware of, or influenced by, a presence or a power - whether you call it God or not - which is different from your everyday self” (Gallup & Jones, 1989).
What factors increase the likelihood that individuals will have such religious experiences? Two general classes of factors can be identified that facilitate such experiences:dispositional factors
(the personal style of one’s religiousness) andsituational factors
(environmental or momentary states that seem to trigger the experiences).
Religious orientation is an example of a dispositional factor. Earlier in this chapter we introduced the concept of religious orientation and discussed intrinsic and extrinsic religious orientations. Researchers have found that intrinsically motivated individuals are more likely to report having various religious experiences than are extrinsically motivated individuals (Hood, 1970). Individuals with a high intrinsic religious orientation often endorse such statements as “The prayers I say when I am alone carry as much meaning and personal emotion as those said by me during services.” One type of religious experience associated with an intrinsic religious motivation can be expressed like this: “The highest experiences I have had of God’s presence have been rare and brief flashes of consciousness that have compelled me to exclaim with surprise - God is here!”
Situational factors that have been studied as possible facilitators or triggers of religious experience include floating slightly submerged in a tank of water, experiencing nature, becoming immersed in a religious group, developing a preparatory mental set, and being in an appropriate setting such as a religious service or ritual (Fredrickson & Anderson, 1999; Hood, 1995).
Let’s explore one of these situations - floating underwater - to see how it might facilitate religious experiences.
In one study, individuals were floating underwater to attain maximum sensory deprivation (Hood & Morris, 1981). Half of the individuals were told to imagine cartoon characters while they were submerged; the other half were told to imagine religious figures during their submersion. The experimenters’ rationale was that the preparatory mental set and expectations of imagining religious figures would facilitate religious experience or increase the probability that whatever was experienced would be attributed to religious meaning. The results supported the hypothesis: Individuals instructed to imagine religious figures while submerged reported more religious experiences than did those who were told to imagine cartoon characters. Interestingly, the effect of preparatory mental set was greatest for individuals with an intrinsic religious orientation. Possibly the kind of experience attained by the intrinsic subjects while they were underwater was similar to what they experienced while in prayer in their daily life.
Religious Attitudes and Behavior
Whether we feel comfortable with it or not, other people evaluate our religion by our attitudes and behavior. Perhaps the most common question the layperson asks about a person’s religion is “Do you practice what you preach?” In social psychological terms, this question focuses on whether people’s actions are consistent with their attitudes. Although there is no simple answer to whether religious individuals’ behavior matches their attitudes, we can explore this issue further by examining attitudes toward ethnic groups.
The Religion-Prejudice Paradox
Gordon Allport (Allport & Ross, 1967) discovered the grand paradox - that individuals who attend church tend to be more prejudiced in ethnic matters than nonchurchgoing individuals. This is a paradox because it does not fit with common sense, which would dictate the opposite: that people who go to church and presumably are taught about love and human community should be more tolerant toward ethnic minorities than nonchurchgoers are. Furthermore, the great religious leaders of the world, such as Jesus, were themselves examples of being nonprejudiced. Thus, Allport wondered how it was that those who purported to be religious were so prejudiced. Allport probed further and developed the concept of intrinsic and extrinsic religious orientation that we discussed earlier. Recall that an intrinsic religious orientation involves internalized religious motives, whereas an extrinsic religious orientation involves motives that lie outside the religion itself.
Allport reasoned that not all churchgoers are the same. Some individuals attend church regularly, others sporadically. He found that prejudice was lowest for consistent churchgoers, highest for sporadic churchgoers. Allport also found that the consistent churchgoers were more likely to have an intrinsic religious orientation, the sporadic churchgoers an extrinsic religious orientation. Other researchers have found that individuals with an intrinsic religious orientation have a higher sense of meaning in life (Bolt, 1975) and greater spiritual well-being (Paloutzian & Ellison, 1982).
Quest, and Means and Ends
Two lines of research that followed from Allport’s work have focused on the concepts of quest and means and ends.
Quest
Daniel Batson and his colleagues (Batson, Schoenrade, & Ventis, 1993) define quest as searching and exploring religious issues while being satisfied in not finding answers and being aware of one’s limitations in the face of existential questions. Questing individuals are satisfied with incompleteness although they would like to have answers to basic religious questions. Batson calls these existential questions. Examples of existential questions include these:
•“What is the meaning of my life?”
•“How do I handle the fact that I am going to die?”
Individual quest is assessed by agreement with statements like these:
•“It might be said that I value my religious doubts and uncertainties.”
•“As I grow and change, I expect my religion to grow and change.”
Batson and his colleagues found that high-quest individuals are less likely to be prejudiced and less likely to discriminate against ethnic minority individuals than are low-quest individuals. They also revealed that individuals with an intrinsic religious orientation were similarly likely to be low in prejudice, but, dissimilarly, were likely to discriminate against ethnic minority individuals. His conclusion: Intrinsics tend to answer questions in a way that makes them look good, but they do not necessarily enact those attitudes in their everyday behaviors.
Means and Ends
The traditional conceptualization of intrinsic and extrinsic religious orientation has been challenged by Kenneth Pargament (1997). Remember that Allport said that intrinsics live their religion while extrinsics use it. In that conceptualization, extrinsic religious motivation has blatantly negative connotations, conjuring up such images as the insurance salesperson who attends church services and goes through the motions of appearing to be a religious person just to make business contacts. Pargament argued that such blatant utilitarian religion might be the exception rather than the rule. More often, he said, it might be a sign of maturity when individuals both live and use their religion, because all of life is a matter of combining means and ends. According to Pargament, all religion involves the simultaneous interaction of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, pathways and destinations, means and ends. Intrinsic motivation involves what a person believes and where one is going; extrinsic motivation involves the pathway, how one is trying to get there. Neither can exist without the other, and a mature religious life involves blending the two, in Pargament’s perspective.
This recent conceptualization rejects the earlier, simplistic compartmentalization of religious orientation into intrinsic and extrinsic categories and raises the possibility that the most mature religious orientation is a fusion of the two orientations. For example, a mature intrinsic-extrinsic religiously oriented individual might use religious means (such as church resources) to accomplish a goal defined by his or her own spiritual values (such as feeding the poor).
Religion and Physical Health
What might be some of the negative effects of religion on physical health? One example is cults or religious sects that encourage behaviors that are damaging to health (Stotland, 1999). For example, some religious sects ignore sound medical advice or refuse pain-relieving medication (Koenig, 1992). For individuals in the religious mainstream, there is generally either no link between religion and physical health or a positive effect. For example, in one review, five studies documented that religious commitment had a protective influence on blood pressure or hypertension rates (Levin & Vanderpool, 1989). Also, a number of studies have confirmed a positive association of religious participation and longevity (Gartner, Larson, & Allen, 1991).
Why might religion promote physical health? There are several possible answers (Hill & Butter, 1995):
•Lifestyle issues. For example, religious individuals have lower drug use than their nonreligious counterparts (Gartner, Larson, & Allen, 1991).
•Social networks. The degree to which individuals are connected to others affects their health. Well-connected individuals have fewer health problems. Religious groups, meetings, and activities provide social connectedness for individuals (Collins & others, 1993).
•Coping with stress. Religion offers a source of comfort and support when individuals are confronted with stressful events (Pargament, 1990). Although research has not clearly demonstrated prayer’s positive effect on physical health, some investigators argue that prayer might be associated with such positive health-related changes as a decrease in the perception of pain and reduced muscle tension (McCullough, 1995).
It also has been stressed that religious organizations might have a stronger influence on physical health by providing more health-related services. For example, they could sponsor community-based health education and health-testing programs.
Religion and Mental Health
A common stereotype is that religion is a crutch for weak people and that unconscious feelings of guilt are the reasons that people become religious. Just because some religious individuals show signs of a mental disorder does not mean that their religious beliefs caused the disorder or that they adopted their beliefs as an escape. Similarly, just because individuals with a severe mental disorder, such as schizophrenia, use the word God or have a vision that they are Jesus or another charismatic religious leader does not mean that religion caused their severe mental disorder or that they became religious to try to cure themselves. All that such illustrations do is inform us that aspects of religion and mental disorder co-occur in a small number of individuals. They tell us nothing about religion causing mental disorders or mental disorders causing religiousness.
Coping
What is the relation between religion and the ability to cope with stress? Some psychologists have categorized prayer and religious commitment as defensive coping strategies, arguing that they are less effective in helping individuals cope than are life-skill, problem-solving strategies. However, recently researchers have found that some styles of religious coping are associated with high levels of personal initiative and competence, and that even when defensive religious strategies are initially adopted, they sometimes set the stage for the later appearance of more-active religious coping (Pargament & Park, 1995). In one recent study, depression decreased during times of high stress when there was an increase in collaborative coping (in which people see themselves as active partners with God in solving problems) (Brickel & others, 1998). Also, in general, an intrinsic religious orientation tends to be associated with a sense of competence and control, freedom from worry and guilt, and an absence of illness, whereas an extrinsic orientation tends to be associated with the opposite characteristics (Ventis, 1995).
Instead of disintegrating during times of high stress, religious coping behaviors appear to function quite well in these periods (Koenig, 1998). In one study, individuals were divided into those who were experiencing high stress and those with low stress (Manton, 1989). In the high-stress group, spiritual support was significantly related to personal adjustment (indicated by low depression and high self-esteem). No such links were found in the low-stress group. In a study of 850 medically ill patients admitted to an acute-care hospital, religious coping was related to low depression (Koenig & others, 1992). In John Clausen’s (1993) analysis of individuals in the Berkeley Longitudinal Studies, the more-competent women and men in middle age were more likely than their less-competent counterparts to have a religious affiliation and involvement.
In sum, various dimensions of religiousness can help some individuals cope more effectively with their lives (Miller & Thorensen, 1999). Religious beliefs can shape a person’s psychological perception of pain or disability. Religious cognitions can play an important role in maintaining hope and stimulating motivation toward recovery. Because of its effectiveness in reducing distress, religious coping can help prevent denial of the problem and thus facilitate early recognition and more appropriate health-seeking behavior. Religion also can forestall the development of anxiety and depression disorders by promoting communal or social interaction. Houses of religious worship are a readily available, acceptable, and inexpensive source of support for many individuals, especially the elderly. The socialization provided by religious organizations can help prevent isolation and loneliness (Koenig & Larson, 1998).
Happiness
Are people who have a meaningful faith happier than those who do not? Reviews of the happiness literature suggest that happy people do tend to have a meaningful religious faith (Myers & Diener, 1995). Remember, though, that knowing that two factors correlate does not mean that one causes the other (just as in the case of religion and mental disorder co-occurring in a few individuals). A number of researches have found that religiously active individuals report greater happiness than do those who are religiously inactive, but does this connection mean that faith enhances happiness? Or does it mean that happiness is conducive to faith? Psychology of religion research helps us answer such questions.
Some people who are not happy with their lives seek fulfillment outside of the mainstream of religion. Next, we will explore the nature of individuals who seek to find a more meaningful life by joining a cult.
Religion and Cults
Cults have been defined in various ways, ranging from “dangerous institutions that cause severe emotional harm” to “marginal and deviant groups” to “fringe, often new, religious movements.” Cults have been described as being controlled by a charismatic leader, as fostering the idea that there is only one correct set of beliefs and practices, as demanding unquestionable loyalty and obedience, as using mind-control techniques, as using deception and deceit in recruiting and interacting with the outside world, and as exploiting members’ labor and finances.
What is the difference between a cult and a church, a service club, or groups like Alcoholics Anonymous? There are many differences, but one major one involves the ultimate goal of the group (Cialdini & Rhoad, 1999). Established religions and altruistic movements focus outward, attempting to better the lives of members as well as nonmembers. Cults serve the purposes of the cult’s leader. Their energies are directed inward rather than outward. Also, religions and altruistic movements usually do not involve overbearing authoritarian control by a leader, the use of deception in recruiting members, coercive influence techniques, and the replacement of one identity with a new identity that would not have been freely chosen by the individual before joining the group.
Who joins cults? For the most part, normal, average people. Approximately two-thirds of cult members are psychologically healthy individuals who come from normal families (Cialdini & Rhoad, 1999). The remaining one-third often have depressive symptoms, in many cases linked with personal loss such as a death in the family, a failed romantic relationship, or career problems. Only about 5 percent of cult members have major psychological problems before joining the cult. Cults prefer intelligent, productive individuals who can contribute money and talent to “the cause,” whatever that might be.
Many individuals who become cult members are in a transitional phase of life. They have moved to a new city, lost a job, dropped out of school, or given up traditional religion as personally irrelevant. Potential cult members might find their work boring or stressful, their education meaningless, their social life not going well, their family remote or dysfunctional, their friends too busy to spend time with them, or their trust in government lost. Cults promise to fulfill most of a person’s individual needs and to make their life safe, healthy, caring, and predictable. Cult leaders offer followers simple paths to happiness.
Some cult leaders have total authority over their disciples in both spiritual and material matters (Saliba, 1996). These leaders might portray themselves as inspired by, and receiving special revelations from, God. Some cults are based on a book by the cult leader that is believed to be revealed or inspired. The writings of L. Ron Hubbard, founder of the Church of Scientology, are an example.
One all-powerful cult leader was Marshall Herff Applewhite, who recruited followers to the Heaven’s Gate cult, a blend of New Age occultism and science-fiction fantasy. In 1997, 39 cult members died when they swallowed pudding laced with barbiturates and washed it down with vodka. After swallowing the lethal concoction, they reclined on their beds so their spirits could ascend to the “Level Above Human,” as Applewhite called it. He had convinced the followers that a UFO was in the Hale-Bopp comet’s slipstream and that the comet’s appearance was a sign that it was time to go home. Applewhite wasn’t the first charismatic leader to have such powerful control over his followers. In the text chapter on “Social Psychology,” we discussed the social forces and group processes that lead to such things as the mass suicide of more than 900 followers of the Reverend James Jones, the leader of the People’s Temple cult. To read about another such cult leader, see Explorations in Psychology.
What makes cults dangerous? Philip Zimbardo (1997) believes it depends to some degree on the kind of cult, since they come in so many sizes, purposes, and disguises (at last count there were more than 2,500 cults in the United States). Some cults are in the business of power and money, needing members to give money, work for free, or beg and to recruit new members. Some cults require members to turn over exorbitant amounts of money or property, some require exhausting labor, most demand that members sever ties with former friends and family (which creates total dependence on the cult for one’s identity), and many cults destroy the individual’s freedom of thought. The potential for abuse is highest in cults that are physically and socially isolated from the outside community.
At this point, we have discussed a number of ideas about religious development and conversion, religious experience, attitudes, behavior, and health, and religion and cults. A review of these ideas is presented in the second half of the summary table at the end of the chapter.
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Author: Raymond F. Paloutzian
