Osobowościowe i społeczne uwarunkowania dojrzałości religijnej

Abstract

The interest in religion and religiousness among psychologists tends to be unswerving over time. It results from numerous interactions between religiousness and various dimensions of personality and social life. However, despite these interactions, there exists more and less mature forms of religious life. Distinguishing their core components seems to be very important for both developing further research in psychology of religion and revealing internal associations between religion and human life. Therefore, the article intends to analyze and explain personality and social factors which contribute to development and functioning of mature religiousness. It is divided into three major parts. The first part describes general relations between religiousness and personality and social life. Consistent research has shown that religious constructs represent cognitive and affective qualities that have behavioural implications across life span. The following fields reflect interactions between religion and personality: mental needs, values system, emotions and feelings, fear and anxiety, defence mechanisms. Such overlap in form and function makes it logical for one to view religiousness constructs within the interpretative framework of broader personality theories. Religiousness can be also perceived as an inherently social phenomenon, because it is related to a wide range of social behaviours e.g. interpersonal attitudes, prejudice, altruism and prosocial behaviour, and family relations. The second part comprises features of mature religiousness: autonomy of religious motivation, non-anthropomorphical image of God, ability to differentiate between central and peripheral religious elements, capacity for solving religious crises, authenticity of religious convictions, religious cognition. Their analyses confirm mutual links between religion and personality and social factors. The third part depicts psychosocial criteria of a similar construct i.e. maturity of religion: centrality of religious values, religious involvement, cohesion of religious convictions, integral character of religious attitude, personal dimension of religiousness, community dimension of religiousness, dynamic character of religiousness. Findings concerning relations between the above factors indicate that religion is an inseparable element of global human functioning embedded in personality and social dimensions.