Aims

- to become initiated into a reflective and critical look on religion, faith and spirituality, as an individual and social complex phenomenon, with the help of concepts, theories and methods of various fields of psychology.

Main themes

- introduction to the diversity and constancy of the theoretical classical and recent approaches, supplying a psychological interpretation of the emergence, the function and the place of religion in the persons' life, their individual experience and their membership to social groups .
- Introduction to the (intercultural and interreligious) diversity and to the psychological universals qualifying the links of interdependency and of beneficial or detrimental impact of the religion with the fields of personality, health and well-being, collective identities, cognition and ethical action.

Content and teaching methods

Introduction to the classical theories in psychology of religion (James, Freud, humanist psychology) and to more recent theories (role theory, attribution, socio-biology and evolutionary psychology).
Clarification of the psychological specificity and of the links between religion and close fields (ex. spirituality).
Introduction to specific methodological questions in psychology of religion (types-dimensions of religiosity, measures, methodologies)

From the theoretical approaches and the empirical studies, examination of the links religion maintains with :
a) the personality (Big Five, Eysenk model)
b) ethics (cognition and moral acts, prosocial behaviour, sexuality, guilt, values hierarchy)
c) well-being and (mental) health, psychopathology, psychotherapy
d) cognition (dogmatism, stereotypes, prejudices, orthodoxy, fundamentalism)
e) group psychology (cults, charismatic leader, NMR)

Other information (prerequisite, evaluation (assessment methods), course materials recommended readings, ...)

Course outline and references : www.psp.ucl.ac.be/psyreli/planducours.htm

Other credits in programs