QUANTITATIVE
RESEARCH
IN
PSYCHOLOGY
OF
RELIGION
IN
BRAZIL
Dra. ESPERANDIO, Mary Rute Gomes1 Ms. AUGUST, Hartmut2
As a starting point, it is important to mention that Psychology of Religion (PR) does not examine the nature or existence of God. The focus of Psychology of Religion is on how perceptions of what the subject considers sacred impact the texture, the content, the direction and quality of inner life of individuals and groups. Such experiences and perceptions of what is sacred constitute an essential component to the way people organize and give meaning to their existential territory and build their sense of identity. People’s religious/spiritual experiences affect human functioning, especially in the psychological expression, i.e. in the system of meaning construction. It is important to remember that the system of meaning construction of a subject is not something merely intrapsychic or even disconnected from a broader context. The meaning construction in the individual dimension also depends on the social setting, the culture where the subject is historically "subjectivized" (produced).
In an analysis of the Psychology of Religion in Brazil, based on the production of periodicals and books between the years 1956-2005, Paiva, Zangari and colleagues (2009, p. 442) observed that qualitative studies in this field were predominant until then, although a tendency to quantitative studies was beginning to appear at the end of the 90s and the beginning of the new century.
In Brazil, studies on religious behavior under a psychological perspective can be found mainly in Psychology, Science of Religion and Theology Programs (ESPERANDIO &
1 Programa de Mestrado em Teologia da PUC-PR, Curitiba, Paraná, Brasil - mresperandio@gmail.com 2 Economista. Mestre em Teologia pela PUC-PR. Doutorando em Teologia - PUC-PR, Curitiba, Paraná, Brasil -
English
MARQUES, 2014, p. 259). However, other areas of expertise also develop these studies in their programs, such as in Health, for example. The Psychology of Religion field in Brazil is very diffuse, and researchers come from several areas, including not only psychologists, but also psychiatrists, nurses and other health professionals.
A survey conducted by Esperandio & Marques in 2013 (published in 2014) on PR Research in the Graduate Programs in Brazil, pointed out that six out of 72 Psychology Programs develop research in PR. Eight out of 19 Theology/Science of Religion programs (three in Theology and five Science of Religion) develop studies in PR. Furthermore, several researchers of the Medicine field were developing projects in that interface, in three different Programs.
Given these characteristics of Psychology of Religion in Brazil, a survey of quantitative research becomes a problematic task: where to look and how to identify such quantitative research in this field?
Methodology
The strategy used for the data collection was the choice of some search terms to find studies that could be characterized as quantitative in Psychology of Religion, regardless the area of expertise. The search terms were "psychology and religion", "psychology and quantitative research", "religion and validation", "religion and scale", "religiosity and scale", "spirituality and scale", "spiritual/religious well-being scale", "spiritual/religious coping scale", "psychiatry and religion", "psychiatry and quantitative research", "psychology and validation", "psychiatry and validation" and "meaning of life and scale". We used two consultation bases: the CAPES Bank of Theses and Dissertations (Coordination of Higher Education Personnel) and the ScieLO Journal Portal (Scientific Electronic Library Online).
For the data collection at the CAPES Database, we searched for publications containing the search terms in their abstracts. Each study from the list of identified publications in this search was individually analyzed to assess whether it used the quantitative research as a method and whether that study was related to Psychology of Religion. A total of 25 quantitative studies were identified as belonging to the Psychology of Religion field.
An analogous procedure was done to collect data at the ScieLO Journal Portal. After an initial search with the same terms used at the CAPES Database, all studies were individually analyzed, duplications were discarded and quantitative studies related to Psychology of Religion
were selected. We found 45 quantitative studies, which added to the 25 theses and dissertations totaled 70 studies.
Results
Productions by year
The search showed the following development of studies: - 2003 = 1study - 2005 = 3 studies - 2006 = 3 studies - 2008 = 4 studies - 2009 = 1study - 2010 = 1study - 2011 = 14 studies - 2012 = 29 studies - 2013 = 5 studies - 2014 = 7 studies - 2015 = 2 studies
The data indicate that quantitative research in Psychology of Religion has shown a gradual increase over time with a peak of 29 studies in 2012 (including theses, dissertations and articles).
Productions by Region and Area of Expertise
The theses and dissertations cataloged in this article were produced in 13 educational institutions, representing almost all regions of the country. The extent of the penetration of Psychology of Religion themes is also evidenced by the variety of master's and doctoral programs by which the dissertations and theses were defended. The programs were grouped as follows:
a. Health Sciences: Health Sciences, Medical Sciences, Human Development and Health Processes, Nursing, Fundamental Nursing, Nursing in Adult Health, Neuroscience, Oncology, Biomedical Gerontology; b. Psychology: Psychology, Social Psychology;
Studies in Psychology of Religion come from different areas, especially from health sciences, where 12 theses or dissertations were found. In psychology, seven publications and in theology/science of religions, six studies were found.
Articles dealing with quantitative research in Psychology of Religion have been published in 24 magazines of different areas. We observed that quantitative studies are predominantly found in the area of health, and two thirds of the articles were published in journals of this area, followed by publications in psychology areas.
Scale Use
The studies were classified according to the type of performed research. Most studies (85%) used already validated scales. From 2003 to 2015, we found:
• 60 quantitative studies that used validated scales;
• 6 studies with validation of new scales: Spiritual/Religious Coping Scale (PANZINI &
BANDEIRA, 2005), WHOQOL scale - Spirituality, Religiousness, and Personal Beliefs module (PANZINI et al., 2011); Daily Spiritual Experience Scale (Kimura et al., 2011.); Duke University Religion Index - DUREL (TAUNAY et al., 2012.); The Resilience Scale (Carvalho et al., 2012.); Meaning in Life Questionnaire (AQUINO et al., 2015.);
• 3 studies used questionnaires;
• 2 studies presented the creation/validation of two new scales: Index of Intrinsic Religiosity
(Taunay et al., 2012b); Religious Commitment Index - ICR (Santos et al., 2012.).
Among the most frequently used scales are: the Spiritual/Religious Coping Scale (PANZINI & BANDEIRA, 2005), the WHOQOL scale (PANZINI et al., 2011), the Duke University Religion Index - DUREL (TAUNAY et al., 2012.) and the Spiritual Well-Being Scale (Marques et al., 2009), accounting together for more than half of the studies. In 2011, 12 studies on validation scales were found while in 2012, 22 studies of validation of scales were found.
Discussion
Studies show that research in Psychology of Religion in Brazil is not restricted to the area of Psychology or a single area of research. Data also shows that the quantitative research has grown especially in the area of Health Sciences, mainly in research focusing on the relationship between
spirituality and health. Such interest can be related to the fact that the importance of integrating the spiritual dimension in the context of health care practices has been confirmed by researches that present statistical data. Therefore, there are more studies using scales for data collection, explaining the growth of the variety of scales available in Portuguese, for research in Psychology of Religion and spirituality, as the recent validations of Aquino (2015), "Meaning of Life Questionnaire" and "Religious Attitudes Scale, Expanded version (RAS-20)" an updated and revised version of the previous scales created by the same author (AQUINO et al., 2013). Gradually there are emerging scales specially designed for the application for the Brazilian population, such as the Intrinsic Religiosity Index (Taunay et al., 2012b.); and the Religious Commitment Index - RCI (Santos et al., 2012.).
The data collected for this study indicate the importance of research in Psychology of Religion, regardless of the area where such studies are conducted.
Keywords: Psychology of Religion, quantitative studies, scales, religion/spirituality, validation.
References
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