<p>This study aims at using discourse analysis to analyze SFI students attitudes to religion and religiosity in an SFI-context. The questions are: How is the discourse constructed and maintained by religion and religiosity of SFI students in an SFI context? How do SFI participants experience that their religion has affected their time at SFI?</p><p>Using a case study approach, interviews were conducted with a group of SFI students. The results show that the religious discourse in SFI is influenced by the SFI-context and affected based on the current education discourse that exists there. Furthermore, the discourse is designed and maintained by the participants private religious beliefs and the religion of the majority of the group, One canhere speak of a strong social unit forming a plausibility structure The power structure that emerges is that the majority has the power to define the significance of religion and place within the SFI context. </p><p>In the SFI-context the participants view is that religion is something private that should not be expressed in the school environment. They express that they do not want to talk about religion among a collection of people from other cultures since one would not want to risk creating conflict.</p>

This study aims at using discourse analysis to analyze SFI students attitudes to religion and religiosity in an SFI-context. The questions are: How is the discourse constructed and maintained by religion and religiosity of SFI students in an SFI context? How do SFI participants experience that their religion has affected their time at SFI? Using a case study approach, interviews were conducted with a group of SFI students. The results show that the religious discourse in SFI is influenced by the SFI-context and affected based on the current education discourse that exists there. Furthermore, the discourse is designed and maintained by the participants private religious beliefs and the religion of the majority of the group, One canhere speak of a strong social unit forming a plausibility structure The power structure that emerges is that the majority has the power to define the significance of religion and place within the SFI context.  In the SFI-context the participants view is that religion is something private that should not be expressed in the school environment. They express that they do not want to talk about religion among a collection of people from other cultures since one would not want to risk creating conflict.

The focus of this dissertation is a group of individuals applying for psychotherapy. They have attended an office that offers psychodynamic psychotherapy, based on a Christian outlook on mankind. My research questions dealt with why they did apply for psychotherapy and what their goals were. I had planned the study and selected my data collection methods considering three domains of hypothetical reasons for their decisions to apply for psychotherapy. These grounds were their object relations, existential/religious orientations, and psychological problems and goals for the treatment. The first part of the dissertation is a survey of concepts, theories and former studies in the mentioned domains. Concerning the object-relations I make use of psychoanalytical thinking on the importance of early experiences in relation to parents and other persons but also its application to a “religious relation”, namely to the relation of the individual to her/his socalled God-representation. Concerning the existential/religious orientations I make use of existential-analytical thinking on satisfaction and meaning of life and death as an existential problem. I also make use of research from the psychology of religion on different dimensions of religiosity and its correlations to mental health. In the second part of the dissertation there is an account of my development of methods to be used in data collection. In this part of the book one can also find data from a reference group of people not applying for psychotherapy. The main part of the dissertation is the third part, describing the data of eight persons applying for psychotherapy. The information, from interviews, projective methods and scales, from each of the study subjects is put together, analysed and interpreted as intensive case studies. Questions in the interview covered religious and existential matters, relations to important persons during childhood and later, the persons’ descriptions of themselves, and the reasons for applying for psychotherapy and their goals for the treatment. Their answers were analysed using a hermeneutic method. The projective methods covered a picture and unfinished sentences. The psychological scales covered religious beliefs and satisfaction and meaning of life and a semantic differential the symbolic meaning of the words Mother, Father and GOD. According to the results the influence of the object-relations on the decision to apply for psychotherapy was sometimes direct. But on the whole the most obvious reason was the persons’ experiences and descriptions of themselves as filled with conflicting feelings and lack of or difficulties in controlling them. The influence of existential themes was not so obvious and the effects of the religious orientations were sometimes direct and sometimes only indirect. Peoples’ mental problems and goals of the psychotherapy influenced directly their decisions to apply. Most individuals had been in therapy before. There was some difference in the description of goals between those individuals who finished recently and those applying for the first time or long time after an earlier therapy. The latter having more well-defined goals. Theoretically it is possible to classify goals into treatment and life goals, but in real life they often stick together. One important conclusion was that, when the persons experience themselves as filled with contradictory feelings or conflicting strivings and having lack of feelings or difficulties in controlling them, they also experience themselves as responsible to this and as a consequence they also apply for psychotherapy.

Teleological reasoning reflects the general tendency to view objects, behaviors and events in terms of their “purpose.” Although healthy educated adults tend to refrain from committing errors in teleological reasoning about objects, our knowledge regarding how adults reason about events is limited. It has been suggested that teleological reasoning biases our interpretations of emotionally significant and unexpected life events of which a physical or social cause is absent or unsatisfactory. The current investigation seeks to better understand the types of events that evoke a teleological perspective and the conditions and individual difference factors that facilitate it. The results revealed that participants high in religiosity and low in ACT science reasoning are more likely to commit teleological errors (i.e., imbuing purpose upon events with non-intentional causal forces). Additionally, participants of low religiosity were more likely to commit teleological errors when placed under cognitive load. It appears that two routes to teleological reasoning exist: one that represents an explicit belief system such as religion, and one that reflects implicit intuitions about how the world works. These findings shed light on how, when confronted with certain life events, both our belief systems and situational pressures lead us to rely on intuitive assumptions rather than engage in careful consideration of more scientifically sound alternatives.

The current coginitive models of the Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) symptoms focuses on the different cognitive factors. Like other nonspecific and noncognitive variables, these factors may also function as vulnerability factors. However, they have been mostly studied separately and majority of the findings in the literature come from the Western samples. Accordingly, the studies examining these factors together and the impact of the culture in these studies are sparse in number. The present study suggested a comprehensive cognitive model for OCD symptoms, including several distal and proximal vulnerability factors. It was aimed to adapt three instruments to examine the interrelationships among the vulnerability factors and OCD symptoms in different cultures. Relevant ten instruments were administered to the university students from Turkey and Canada. The analyses showed that Turkish versions of three instruments had satisfactory psychometric properties for Turkish students. These analyses also revealed some cross-cultural similarities and differences in these factors and OCD symptoms. Neuroticism, age, introversion, OCD beliefs on responsibility/threat estimation, perfectionism/certainty and thought-action fusion in likelihood dimension were found to be associated with the OCD symptoms in both Turkish and Canadian samples. The relational paths between non-specific, appraisal and control factors, and OCD symptoms were also significant in both samples. However, religiousness was only significant factor in OCD symptoms and contributed to several belief and control factors toward these symptoms, only for Turkish subjects. The analyses of the religiousness differences indicated that psychological fusion in general and in morality was more related to the religiosity for Canadian Christians. Besides, Turkish students seemed to utilize worry more for OCD symptoms / whereas, Canadian participants used self-punishment. These common and unique patterns of the relationships were discussed within relevant findings about characteristics of the religion and culture.

Relationships or connections with caring pro-social others (e.g., parents, teachers, school, friends, neighborhood, religion) serve as pro-resilience assets that may enhance children's abilities to cope with bullying. The purpose of this research study was to explore the roles of connectedness and religiosity as potential factors that could enhance resiliency against bullying among preadolescents in Puerto Rico (PR). This doctoral dissertation also addressed several gaps in the children's bullying, resilience and religiosity research literature. A sample of 426 community-based afterschool program preadolescents (ages 10-12 years old) participated in this exploratory, cross-sectional study, by completing a quantitative questionnaire in paper and pencil format. Data was analyzed overall, by location (i.e., San Juan Metropolitan Area (SJ Metro), Other Municipalities within PR), gender, age, and church attendance. Twenty percent of all participants were victimized by bullying at least 2-3 times per month. On the other hand, 5% of participants said they had been a bully 2-3 times per month. The most frequent type of bullying perpetration and victimization reported was verbal. Participants reported the highest levels of connectedness to school and the community, followed by connectedness to parents, teachers, mothers, religion, fathers, and friends. Most participants (71%) said they attended church regularly, but only 35% did so every week. Statistically significant differences were found by location, gender, age and church attendance. Connectedness and religiosity were correlated significantly to the participants' involvement in bullying at different roles. Surprisingly, having strong prosocial connections do not appear to have a reduction impact on participants' bullying victimization. Connectedness overall, to mothers, teachers and school was positively and significantly correlated to victimization, whereas connectedness to school was negatively correlated to perpetration. Bully-victimization was negatively correlated to connectedness overall, to parents, mothers, friends, teachers, and school. Multiple linear regression analyses found that higher levels in connectedness to mother and connectedness to the community accounted for a 60% decrease and a 45% increase, respectively, in bullying perpetration among non-church attending participants. In terms of religiosity, analyses distinguished between participants' engagement in private and public religiosity practices. Private religiosity was negatively correlated to being a bullying perpetrator, and positively correlated to being a bystander. Public religiosity was positively correlated to bullying victimization. The self-report of religiosity did not affect the odds of being a perpetrator, victim or bully-victim. Specifically among SJ Metro participants, the self-report of private religiosity or the combination of both private and public religiosity reduced the odds of being a bystander. Multiple linear regression analyses found that among non-church attending participants, a 1-unit change in public religiosity acccounted for a 62% increase in bullying perpetration. While the religiosity-related findings from this study's correlation analyses were consistent with the literature, regression analyses' findings were unexpected and warrant additional research. This study goes beyond solely school-based approaches to bullying research and prevention, by utilizing a non-school sample of low-income preadolescents who attend afterschool programs at local community-based organizations. Furthermore, its focus on a younger age group (i.e., preadolescents) is consistent with the resiliency literature and the need to enhance resilience factors earlier in childhood. Findings also consider the multiplicity of actors involved in bullying (i.e., perpetrators, victims, bully/victims, or bystanders), and distinguishes between direct and indirect types of bullying. Consistent with recommendations from previous research, a socio-ecological approach was followed to explore the role of connectedness to others at the individual, family, school, peer, religious and community levels, as well as the role of religiosity as an external asset to enhance resilience in preadolescents. This exploratory study contributes to our understanding of bullying among PR preadolescents, and serve to inform the development of prevention programs, strategies and policies at the school and community level. Research on bullying in PR is limited, making it increasingly challenging for PR schools, community- and faith-based organizations to collaborate in multilevel interventions that specifically address the needs of PR's children.

<p>Religious observance has been reliably shown to improve a wide variety of health outcomes across the lifespan. Significant work has already been done to find mediating processes that explain this relationship, but as yet no studies have been published that attempt to integrate these mediators into a single model to see if they all work together. The current study presents three possible mediators of the religiosity-health link: social support, self-control, and reliance on others. Participants were recruited from Amazon.com’s Mechanical Turk worker system (N = 112) for a 14-day diary study in which all relevant constructs were measured on a daily basis, with daily health behaviors being the outcome. Social support, self-control, and reliance on others were all found to be simultaneous partial mediators of the religiosity-health link, though some questions remain as to the causal flow between religiosity and each of these mediators. It is concluded that each of these mechanisms is related to religiosity and in turn aid in the pursuit of superior health.</p> / Dissertation

Mirtis yra vienas iš paslaptingiausių ir labiausiai bauginančių potyrių mūsų gyvenimuose. Nors tai yra toks pat natūralus dalykas kaip ir gimimas, mirtis sukelia visiškai priešingus jausmus. Dažniausiai tai yra baimė, nesaugumas, panika, kaltė ir kiti neigiami jausmai. Per amžius žmogaus santykis su mirtimi kito. Tai vyko iš lėto. Anksčiau mirtis buvo sutinkama su didele pagarba, be didelės baimės, panikos, netgi su trupučiu susižavėjimo ir smalsumo. Šiomis dienomis mirtis yra suvokiama kaip blogiausias dalykas, kuris tik gali ištikti žmogų. Dažnai ji priimama už bausmę, dėl nuodėmių ar neteisingai nugyvento gyvenimo. Kiekvieno žmogaus santykis su mirtimi priklauso nuo skirtingų dalykų. Mirties suvokimui įtakos gali turėti žmogaus amžius, lytis, išsilavinimas, ankstesnė patirtis, susijusi su mirtimi, žmogaus tikėjimas ir jo išpažįstama religija. Darbo tikslas – ištirti paauglių bei studentų religingumo ir mirties baimės sąsajas. Buvo apklausti 224 tiriamieji ( 122 studentai, iš kurių 70 merginų ir 52 vaikinai, bei 102 14 – 16 metų amžiaus moksleiviai, iš kurių 60 merginų ir 42 vaikinai ). Tiriamiesiems buvo sukurta anketa, kurioje buvo atskiros religingumo bei mirties baimės skalės bei bendri klausimai apie amžių, lytį, išsilavinimą ir šeimyninę padėtį. Nustatyta, kad vyresnio amžiaus tiriamieji labiau propaguoja religinį elgesį, o jaunesniems svarbiau pats tikėjimas, religiniai įsitikinimai. Kalbant apie tiriamųjų amžiaus ir mirties baimės sąsajas, mirties baimės... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Death is one of the most mysteries and terrifying experiences in our life. Even if it is as natural thing as birth, death gives us completely different feelings. Most often it is fear, insecurity, panic and other negative feelings. During the ages man‘s relations with death changed. It was slow process. In the past death was met with respect, without bigger fear, panic, even with a little bit of admiration and curiosity. In our days death is considered as one of the worst things that could happen to human, taken as a punishment for all sins and the life spent in a bad way. Relationship with death depends on many different factors for each person. Age, gender, education, earlier experience with death, belief and religion could be the main criteria why people understand death one way or another. The object of this work – to investigate the connection between religiousness and understanding death, students and teenagers being as a case in this study. 224 participants were investigated (120 students – 70 girls and 52 boys, and also 102 teenagers aged 14-16, that contained 60 girls and 42 boys). Questionnaire with the separate scales for religion and understanding death and general questions about age, gender, education and marital status was presented to the participants. It was found that older participants propagate religious attitude more, while for the younger participants belief and religion creed is more important. Also it was found that intensity of the fear of death... [to full text]

Disertacijos tyrimo objektas – religinio ir pilietinio ugdymo ryšys suderinamumo ir papildomumo aspektais. Tyrimu siekta atskleisti religinio ir pilietinio ugdymo ryšio, šių dviejų sričių suderinamumo ir papildomumo teorines ir praktines galimybes. Pilietinio ir religinio ugdymo suderinamumo ir papildomumo analizė remiasi ugdymo turinio bendrojo lavinimo mokykloje prieštaravimų ir studentų pilietinės ir religinės socializacijos ypatumų identifikavimu bei pilietiškumo ugdymo religinėse aplinkose, taikant kooperuotų studijų metodą, realizavimu. Tyrimu siekta atsakyti į šiuos klausimus: Kaip siejasi teoriniai pilietiškumo ir religingumo konceptai? Kaip siejasi religingumo ir pilietiškumo formos? Kaip teoriniu požiūriu gali būti pasiekiama religinio ir pilietinio ugdymo vienovė, suderinamumas ir tarpusavio papildomumas? Kokiais ugdymo tikslų ir ugdymo turinio prieštaravimais pasižymi religinis ir pilietinis ugdymas Lietuvoje? Kokias ir kaip pilietiškumo kompetencijas ugdo religijos (tikybos) vadovėliai? Kaip pasireiškia ir siejasi asmens pilietiškumas ir religingumas? Kaip pilietiškumas ir religingumas gali būti traktuojami kaip asmens socializacijos ir ugdymo rezultatas? Kokios yra pilietinio ugdymo religinio pažinimo kontekste teorinės ir praktinės sąlygos? Kokie ugdymo metodai gali būti taikomi derinant pilietinį ir religinį ugdymą? Kiek veiksmingas, ugdant pilietiškumą, gali būti kooperuotų studijų metodas, realizuojamas religinėse aplinkose? Kokia dinamika pasižymi studentų... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / The relationship between religious and civic education, on the aspects of the compatibility and complementability is analyzed in the doctoral research. The analysis is based on the identification of the contradictions of the education content in secondary schools; on the identification of the peculiarities of students’ civic and religious socialization, and on the implementation of civic education (with the help of service learning) in religious surroundings. The following questions are developed in the dissertational research: How are theoretical concepts of citizenship and religiosity related? How are the forms of religiosity and citizenship related? How can the compatibility and complementability of religious and civic education be achieved? What are the contradictions between the goals of civic education and the content of religious education in Lithuania? What and how are civic competences developed by religious education textbooks? How are personal religiosity and citizenship related and expressed? How can citizenship and religiosity be approached as the result of socialization and education? What are the theoretical and practical conditions of civic education in the context of religious knowledge? What educational methods can be applied in harmonizing civic and religious education? How effective for the education of civic attitudes and skills can service learning performed in religious environments be? How are students’ civic attitudes and skills changing while... [to full text]

Disertacijos tyrimo objektas – religinio ir pilietinio ugdymo ryšys suderinamumo ir papildomumo aspektais. Tyrimu siekta atskleisti religinio ir pilietinio ugdymo ryšio, šių dviejų sričių suderinamumo ir papildomumo teorines ir praktines galimybes. Pilietinio ir religinio ugdymo suderinamumo ir papildomumo analizė remiasi ugdymo turinio bendrojo lavinimo mokykloje prieštaravimų ir studentų pilietinės ir religinės socializacijos ypatumų identifikavimu bei pilietiškumo ugdymo religinėse aplinkose, taikant kooperuotų studijų metodą, realizavimu. Tyrimu siekta atsakyti į šiuos klausimus: Kaip siejasi teoriniai pilietiškumo ir religingumo konceptai? Kaip siejasi religingumo ir pilietiškumo formos? Kaip teoriniu požiūriu gali būti pasiekiama religinio ir pilietinio ugdymo vienovė, suderinamumas ir tarpusavio papildomumas? Kokiais ugdymo tikslų ir ugdymo turinio prieštaravimais pasižymi religinis ir pilietinis ugdymas Lietuvoje? Kokias ir kaip pilietiškumo kompetencijas ugdo religijos (tikybos) vadovėliai? Kaip pasireiškia ir siejasi asmens pilietiškumas ir religingumas? Kaip pilietiškumas ir religingumas gali būti traktuojami kaip asmens socializacijos ir ugdymo rezultatas? Kokios yra pilietinio ugdymo religinio pažinimo kontekste teorinės ir praktinės sąlygos? Kokie ugdymo metodai gali būti taikomi derinant pilietinį ir religinį ugdymą? Kiek veiksmingas, ugdant pilietiškumą, gali būti kooperuotų studijų metodas, realizuojamas religinėse aplinkose? Kokia dinamika pasižymi studentų... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / The relationship between religious and civic education, on the aspects of the compatibility and complementability is analyzed in the doctoral research. The analysis is based on the identification of the contradictions of the education content in secondary schools; on the identification of the peculiarities of students’ civic and religious socialization, and on the implementation of civic education (with the help of service learning) in religious surroundings. The following questions are developed in the dissertational research: How are theoretical concepts of citizenship and religiosity related? How are the forms of religiosity and citizenship related? How can the compatibility and complementability of religious and civic education be achieved? What are the contradictions between the goals of civic education and the content of religious education in Lithuania? What and how are civic competences developed by religious education textbooks? How are personal religiosity and citizenship related and expressed? How can citizenship and religiosity be approached as the result of socialization and education? What are the theoretical and practical conditions of civic education in the context of religious knowledge? What educational methods can be applied in harmonizing civic and religious education? How effective for the education of civic attitudes and skills can service learning performed in religious environments be? How are students’ civic attitudes and skills changing while... [to full text]