Towards a cultural psychology of religion| Differences between American and Chinese expressions on religiosity

• Main Author: Cortez, Neil Andrew C.
• Language: EN
• Published: Fuller Theological Seminary, School of Psychology 2015
• Subjects: Religion|Cultural anthropology|Clinical psychology|Spirituality
• Online Access: http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=3721026

<p> Current psychological research into religiosity can be located into two paradigms: the cross-cultural psychology interpretive tradition and the cultural psychology interpretive tradition. To generate support for the latter paradigm, American and Mainland Chinese respondents were asked to describe a religious or spiritual other as a way of exploring the impact of individualism-collectivism cultural values on expressions of religiosity. Statements from Chinese respondents were expected to have more socially related content compared to American respondents. Responses were analyzed using a linguistic analysis computer program with attention given to social process, family, friends, and humans content. Raters were also instructed to generate categories based on the content of the responses. No significant differences were found between American and Mainland Chinese respondents on all four content categories. Religious self-rating was found to significantly predict family content, while religious and spiritual self-ratings significantly predicted humans content. Raters also generated 11 categories from American responses, and 10 categories from Mainland Chinese responses. Methodological and theoretical implications are also discussed.</p>