Psychology & Religion: The Spirtual Side to Counseling Essay -- essays

Abstract In instantlys society the field of psychological science and the study of religion pick out hardly ever set will with one another. New data is being composed about the two fields working together, this theme is a brief description of those ideas and thoughts.The psychological study of religion in the United States illustrates tensions and opportunities that exist between psychology and religion. It also demonstrates the multifaceted views interpreted by psychologists as they address areas of living that scram personal implications. adjacent the early period, American psychologys push toward behaviorism resulted in the neglect of spiritual matters. The reductionism methods of behaviorism left over(p) little room for matters of faith, or for any other theoretical constructs that were not measured directly. Consequently, psychology left religion for other topic that were considered to be more than scientific and several(prenominal) decades of neglect ensued. Psycholog ist interest in religion resumed in the 1950s. Gordon Allports (1950) essay to describe the role of religion in peoples consume began his indelible mark on the field, and to this day his Intrinsic-Extrinsic distinction in apparitional motivation remains the most influential approach in psychological studies of religion in the United States. In the years since then, several developments learn combined to suggest, according to the traditional view of psychology of religion, that the fields is experiencing a resurgence of interest. These include the establishment of professional journals giving an outlet to psychological study of religion, and the apparently increasing availability of college classes focusing on psychology of religion.Psychologists who study religion, however, address an object whose reality can be real only in the state of faith (p.32). the act of belief is critical to spectral knowledge and experience. In psychology, skepticism is an enduring value, but in re ligion it is an intermediate step on the pathway to belief. This sets up a tension between psychology and religion, which results in psychologists having low rates of religious activity, when compared to other scientific and academic groups (Richards & Bergin, 1997). The methods and assumptions favored by psychology have appeared to be incompatible wi... ...terest to psychologists. It also challenges the psychologists ingenuity to conduct enquiry on constructs that cannot easily be studied experimentally. At a more abstract level, the link between psychology and religion helps psychology observe its historical connection with philosophy. As psychologist seek to employ the techniques of the natural sciences, the psychology of religion reminds us that our roots are in philosophy, and that the assumption we put one over regarding our subject matter have important implication for our science.BibliographyBaston, C.D. (1996) You take the senior high road. The International Journal for the Pyschology of Religion, 6, 159-164.Bergin, A.E. (1980). Psychotherapy and religious values. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 48, 75-105.Hood, R. W. jr. (1999, November). American Psychology of Religion and the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion.Wulff, D. W. (1998) Rethinking the overture and fall of the psychology of religion. In A.L. Molendijk and P. Pel (Eds.), Religion in the reservation The emergence of the sciences of religion, (pp.181-202)..