Las variedades de la psicología de la religiónexplorando las diferentes formas de construir el objeto de estudio
ISSN: 0210-9395, 1579-3699
Year of publication: 2011
Issue Title: Psicología de la Religión: nuevas aproximaciones socio-culturales
Volume: 32
Issue: 1
Pages: 51-67
Type: Article
More publications in: Estudios de Psicología = Studies in Psychology
Abstract
The aim of the paper is to propose a general critical framework of the main psychological perspectives that have studied religious phenomena. First, bio-experimental and psychometric approaches focusing on the external description of the religious experience are reviewed. Next, another set of approaches centred on understanding the religious experience, i.e. psychoanalytical (Freudian), phenomenological and humanistic points of view, are considered. The discussion on the contributions of these schools of thought points out that the cultural dimension and the concept of meaning, as constituent core of psychological reality, are notably scarce. Thus, Cultural Psychology is proposed as a theoretical alternative to help establish a dialectic link with the rest of anthropo-social sciences; the objective being to produce, beyond reductionist views, a multidisciplinary work-space that fully accounts for complex religious phenomena.