Exemplary Approach to Operationalizing Psychoanalytic Theory and Religion: Commentary on “The Relationship of God Image to Level of Object Relations Development”

Thurston, Nancy S

doi:10.1177/009164719402200421

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…As Rizzuto (1979) and Watts and Williams (1988) have acknowledged, an individual's God concepts at these two levels can be in conflict, yet empirical researchers so far seem to have ignored this possibility. Finally, the assumption that the same God concept is used at all times and in all situations is also problematic: it is far more likely that people employ a dynamic concept of God that depends on spiritual development and situational constraints (Thurston, 1994;Hill & Hall, 2002 (Freud, 1887(Freud, -1902. I entertain the same hope" (p. 181); further she states that in pilot work she studied five members of staff at her hospital and that she "found no differences of any significance between the members of the staff and the patients in their way of relating to God" (p. 181), though she does not provide any further detail.…”

Section: Survey-based Measures Of God Concepts Suffer Serious Limitatmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Experimental Investigation of Religious Cognition

Gibson¹

2018

Preprint

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Religious cognition may be defined as the cognitive processes and representational states involved in religion-related knowledge, beliefs and attitudes, behaviours, and experience. Religious content and information processing occurs both at an intellectual, propositional level and also at an affect-laden, implicational level. Many questions are unanswered in our understanding of religious cognition, but fundamental to them all is the question of how religious cognition can be measured. Psychology of religion has primarily used questionnaires to measure religious belief, but many limitations suggest the need for new methods that can tap into implicational religious cognition, such as God schemas, as well as propositional religious cognition, such as God concepts. The purpose of this investigation was to explore which experimental paradigms most successfully tap into implicational religious cognition, and thereby add a new set of measurement tools to those available to the psychologist of religion. A consideration of research into the schematic representation of self and other persons suggested multiple hypotheses that could be tested using experimental paradigms adapted from the social cognition and cognition and emotion literatures. I present findings from a series of five experiments that measured cognitive biases in attention, memory, and judgement speed that were hypothesized to result from implicational religious cognition.Two experiments adapted the emotional Stroop paradigm to explore the possibility of a religious Stroop effect. While evangelical Christians, non-evangelical Christians, and atheists did not differ in interference when colour-naming emotionally valent religious material, in a subsequent unexpected recall test evangelicals showed enhanced recall for religious but not control material. Three experiments adapted the self-reference effect paradigm to investigate the accessibility and centrality of God schemas relative to self-schemas. Though evangelical and non-evangelical Christians had relatively similar propositional beliefs about the character of God, the pattern of evangelicals’ speed in making God-referent judgements and subsequent recall of God-referent material suggested that their God schemas were better-elaborated, more efficient, and more affect-laden than those of non-evangelicals. Atheists were able to draw consistently on two different concepts of God, but did so slowly and with poor subsequent recall, indicating that their God schemas were poorly elaborated, inefficient, and affect-free.Though much research exploring these biases is still to be done, the findings of the current investigation suggest that incidental memory and judgement speed paradigms are successful in tapping into implicational religious cognition and can reveal differences not otherwise observable through more direct measurement.

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Section: Survey-based Measures Of God Concepts Suffer Serious Limitatmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Experimental Investigation of Religious Cognition

Gibson¹

2018

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Markus and Kunda (1986) note that only a portion of one's self-knowledge is accessible or salient at any given moment, and changes in mood or situation can trigger shifts in this working self-concept. Similarly, it seems likely that the way in which people think about God will change dynamically according to the constraints of mood and situation (Hill & Hall, 2002;Thurston, 1994). A charismatic worship service, a Bible study, and sitting in a foxhole while under fire are each likely to activate different God schemas.…”

Section: God Schemas Are Dynamicmentioning

confidence: 99%