Measuring religious constructs: A hierarchical approach to construct organization and scale selection.

Abstract

Although religion deals with humankind’s ultimate concerns, such as universal compassion or the quest for divine peace and perfection, to some people the psychological study of religion and spirituality may seem only marginally relevant to positive psychology. In part, this could be because of the negative stances that many theorists have taken toward religion. For instance, Freud (1927/1953) compared religion to an infantile stage of development, calling it the “universal obsessional neurosis of humanity” (pp. 77–78). He believed that religion restricts people’s impulses, filling their need for an omnipotent father who will protect them from the powerfulness of nature and rectifying the shortcomings and sufferings they experience in this life. Although Freud thought that religion effectively helped individuals allay anxiety, he also posited that reliance on religion prevented humankind from facing reality and growing past their fears and that it was a societal barrier to the progress of science and reason. Other theorists and scholars have associated religiousness with mental weakness and deficiency (e.g., Dittes, 1969; Ellis, 1960). A number of empirical studies have shown that religious involvement is negatively related to personal competence and control, self-acceptance and self-actualization, and openmindedness and flexibility (see Batson, Schoenrade, & Ventis, 1993, for a review). In addition, several studies in the mid-20th century linked religious involvement with prejudice and negative social attitudes (e.g., Adorno, FrenkelBrunswik, Levinson, & Sanford, 1950). In light of these theories and findings, it is easy to justify ambivalence about the place of religion in a psychology of “strength” and “virtue.” Yet other psychologists have concluded that religion promotes growth and mental health. For example, Allport (1937, 1950) believed that mature religion unifies an individual’s personality. Although he thought that religion was not the only possible unifying philosophy of life that could develop and maintain a mature personality, Allport believed it to be superior to other philosophies in that “religion is the search for value underlying all things” (1937, p. 226).