Psychological Models and Religion

Presented by:
Abdul Muchith
13410073
Faculty of Psychology

State Islamic University of Maulana Malik Ibrahim Malang

Prologue
Some scholars have suggested that defining religion is either
impossible, or that it is such a major enterprise. Wulff (1997)
suggests that a satisfactory definition (of religion) has eluded
scholars to this day. Brown (1987) spent many pages over 100 on
the problems of defining, analyzing and measuring religion and its
many parameters. Capps (1997) has argued that the definitions of
religion offered by eminent scholars reflect the personal
biographies of those scholars. Defining religion is too difficult, so
we cannot say what the psychology of religion is about, if we
follow the subtle under- standings of Wulff, or Brown, or Capps.
We will have to be more grounded. Down to earth, English and
English (1958) suggested that religion is a system of attitudes,
practices, rites, ceremonies and beliefs by means of which
individuals or a community put themselves in relation to God or to
a supernatural world, and often to each other, and derive a set of
values by which to judge events in the natural world.

Defining Religion
Religion is what a person does to
answer the basic existential questions
of life (questions having to do with the
nature of human beings existence).
Such questions include these:
Why am I here?
What does life mean in general?
What does my particular life amount
to?
What happens when I die?

Defining Religion
According
to
Finnish
researcher
Kalevi
Tamminen (1991), religiousness also involves a
conscious dependency on a deity or God.
Tamminen argues that this dependency or
commitment is reflected by:
Individuals experiences
Beliefs
Personality
Motivating the individual to engage in a variety
of behaviors, such as devotional behavior
Moral behavior.

This
definition
encompasses
individuals
thoughts and feelings about their beliefs, as well
as the beliefs themselves.

The Difference Between Religion and

Spirituality
Religion is defined as the institutional, the
organizational, the ritual, and the ideological,
whereas spirituality is defined as the personal,
the affective, the experiential, and the
thoughtful. This contrast includes the idea that
an individual can be spiritual without being
religious or religious without being spiritual. A
second
contrast
between
religion
and
spirituality
involves
reserving
the
term
spiritual for the loftier side of life with
spiritualitythe search for meaning, for unity,
or connectedness, for transcendence, and for
the highest level of human potential (Emmons,
1999). Despite such trends, there is still a
great deal of controversy about how to define
religion and spirituality. Many psychologists of
religion still believe that religion can be

Major Religius
Tradition
There exists a non-material (i.e. spiritual)
reality
The purpose of life is to increase harmony
in the world by doing good and avoiding
evil
(in monotheistic religions) the source of
existence (i.e. God) is also the source of
moral directives.
In addition, all religions involve and
depend
on
social
organization
for

Operational Defining of Religion

Religious derived from the word "religion", while
the religious sense as a term that we understand
the day-to-day, may actually be viewed from two
aspects, namely:
1) Aspects of subjective (human person). Religion
implies about human behavior, which is imbued with
religious values, such as the inner vibration, which
can regulate and direct the behavior, the pattern of
relations with the community, as well as the
surrounding nature.
2) Objective aspect (doctrinaire). Religion in this
sense contains the values of God's human nature
leads to the goal in accordance with the will of the
teaching. religion in this sense has not been

Literature & References

Jalaluddin, 2012. Psikologi Agama. Jakarta: Rajawali Press
The Psychology of Religion A SHORT INTRODUCTION Kate M.
Loewenthal. PDF
The Varieties of Religious Experience A Study in Human Nature by
William James. PDF
Psychology of Religion Module by John, W. Santrock. PDF
Http://www.psywww.com/psyrelig/welcome.htm