Religion And Morality Based On Psychology

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

The main question on the Psychology of Religion book is: "Does Religion dictate Morality?" (Spilka,Hood,Hunsberger &Gorsuch, 2003 p.416.) Religion can give tons of knowledge about morality, what is bad or good, what are supposed to be the religious rituals and teachings as parts of the moral behavior and attitudes. Also Jesus would teach morality through different parables and stories to his disciples and to people following him. His parables were an example, of what is good and what is bad, and what people had to follow in order to enter Kingdom of God. The Bible contains many stories of bad and good moral attitudes such as: "We must learn to discern good and Evil" (New Testament, Hebrews 5:14)

Religion and Morality based on Psychology

To understand and the describe more in-depth if religion dictates or not morality, it is very important to know first of all, what is the real meaning of morality, and what are the psychological effects based on the subject. First of all, it is very important to mention as well, that many religious groups have different ways of thinking about moral issues, and this because of their different religious practices, Holy Scriptures, and their traditions. Therefore, generally speaking, ethics are part of human conducts- what is right and what is wrong. That is also why religion is related to people’s attitudes, meaning on how they behave and direct their actions. But attitude itself is a psychological term that refers to "beliefs, and feelings that predispose our reactions to objects, people, and events" (Myers, 2005, p.602).

First psychological effect on religion and morality is change on the attitudes and what people would believe. We are aware of people who are religious, and tend to be more "open-minded towards their actions and according to Spilka (2005) "people who are religious are more conservative, and behave better than those not being religious" (Spilka, Hood,Hunsberger &Gorsuch, 2005, p.418). Nevertheless, our attitudes do guide our actions when other influences are minimal, when attitude is specific to the behavior and the influential part, and when we are keenly aware of what is going to happen. This is also where moral behavior takes part. As moral behavior we can for example focus on honest and cheating. We might of course believe that religious people are less likely to lie, because of the ethics they have. Ethics are the central part of moral psychology that tends to change lives of people by directing their actions and behaviors. It was Hartshorne and May (1928, 1929; Hartshorne, May, &Shuttleworth, 1930) "that investigated a possible link between religion and cheating in their massive studies involving some 11,000 school children in 1920". They found out that there was no "relation between religion and honesty or cheating". Other early studies as well, such as Hightower (1930), similarly found "no relationship between what is written in Bible and lying and cheating". (Hightower, 1930 p.72) But, psychoanalyst Miller (1990) would find a really interesting correlation between religion and morality as she would consider morality coming from three different sources in our lives. First of all she would say morality is within us, it exists on us, secondly other people say that it exists on us and thirdly "comes from religion and is rooted to us from religion" (Miller, 1990, p.60)

As we can see from previous paragraph there is a contradiction whether religion is related to morality and, in this case if there is no relation between them, then what is the relationship between psychology and religion? Why do people believe what they believe? How can we define, the effects on the psychological side, on the relation between religion and morality? From my observation with different people, I assume that there is a strong relationship between religion and morality and the positive effects this relation gives on the psychological side among people. For example, some body that always obeys to Bible or 10th commandments, doesn’t steal, is always honest, he always will be accepted into the society easily and he always will have the positive emotions (feeling good, not guilty for something…etc)

In more depth this paper will be focused not on religion but on morality and religion based on psychology. The main points in here are to describe what comes out of this relation on psychological terms. Morality and Religion refer to the cultural challenge in every society, and this means that we should be aware on the way we act and our behaviors. Every person teaches for respect towards other but how much are we willing to do that? This is what psychologists would call a ‘post modernist relativism’ or in simple words ‘the cultural exchange. According to Stephen Pope, post modern antirealism represents a critical challenge to natural law ethics where morality is part of it as well. Pope writes, "If there is no such thing as ‘human nature’ at all, then the notion of natural-law ethics is nonsense" (Pope, 2001, p.91). What we understand from these words is that morality exists within the human nature, and this behaves according to natural law ethics. The framework analysis in this case is that nobody tells you what to do, they can suggest you what is wrong and good, but you as a person have the choice to do that act. Moreover, natural law theory holds that all humans have same kind of behaviors that are appropriate to them as human. In this case, we can see a shift from religion to the natural law theory which accepts morality as a ‘natural" rule of the society. I mean, we should act according to some laws, but even though these laws exist, we still behave and act differently. That’s why also Larry Kohlberg came up with a cognitive model of individual moral development (The six theory stage), where he explains his findings based on cognition. For Kohlberg, there were many starting points for analyzing morality and first where he did refer to was the biological perspective, and taking into consideration some basic emotions such as "empathy, altruism, guilt, shame" or on the infant’s pro-social behavior. (Kohlberg, 1969 p.347-580) That is the point where we also should focus: pro-social behavior. As we learned in our class (Psychology of Religion) we are not born with a particular religion but as we grow up, then we decide what to believe, or to what religion, we shall accept. From this proposition, then I can assume that the same happens with morality. Our parents teach us how to behave, but is our choice, if we want to do what they teach us or to behave on our own. That’s why I suppose that some of the effects of the relation between morality and religion can be: acceptance, pleasure, demand of happiness, promise of analysis (using critical thinking), knowing the function of what is good/bad, and the function what is beautiful and ugly in life. All these effects are part of moral goals of psychoanalysis. According to Jacques Lacan (1959-1960) the moral ‘goals’ of psychoanalysis is called differently also "rationalizing moralization" (Lacan, 1959-1960 p. 371) Moreover, he would describe a drive and an object, that would set the standards for the right relation with reality, within a moral implication. As we can see we all strive for moral implications, whether it is related to religion or not, we still desire something, and this desire as a psychological drive is within our inner feelings. But, we must pay attention not to confuse morality with rights. They are totally different thing. Somebody would say: It is my right not to steal, and this is part of the rights (which can be whether you do it or not), while morality starts while thinking; is it good or bad to do it. That is why also rights can’t offer you for sure an acceptance in society; while morality offers you that, because somehow, you and the people around you share the same emotions, and feel the same if you do something that it was not worth doing it. Whether you decide to be righteousness or not, you still in a way or another are doing a moral implication, and we refer to being right, as moral. People that do what is right can distinguish what is good and bad, what is beautiful and ugly, what is moral and what is immoral. I think that all human beings are morally development to make such distinguish but it is on their behavior everything that counts.

Furthermore, some studies show that there is a linked relationship between religion and morality. This study shows the close relation between religion and the adolescent moral development. (Hart&Fagley, 1995; Nasir &Kirshner, 2003; Youniss, McLellan, & Yates 1999) Benson et al. (1989) characterized religion as an influential and pervasive resource in adolescence development. In the same time religion affiliations serve as protective factors against a delinquent behavior (Lerner&Galambos, 1998). Furtheremore, others would say or observe that adolescents that are affiliated to some particular religions will less likely be involved on the usage of Marijuana, or any other kind of drugs. These studies perfectly describe and explain in depth, that religion functions as competent body on ourselves, which means that we always try to distinguish between moral and immoral deeds. We are competent on what we do, and psychotherapists would explain that as we want to become happy, have a better life, and try to be as moral as possible, because in this way we can get a place in the society where we live and this if a framework that implies the theory of adaptation. We assume that religion helps us adapt and live by the rules of the society. Some people would assume that this is part of the culture, but religion itself is part of the culture, and we have to respect these norms within this culture. Religiousness in youth’s generation is associated with some specific moral behaviors and attitudes that categorize these generations. Donahue and Benson (1995) identified a positive association between adolescent religiosity and the presence of pro-social values and behavior. So, is more likely that adolescents related to religiosity, will be more willing to help elders or even to volunteer. We are aware of that situation in Lithuania as well, where adolescents take into consideration the need of other people, and try to satisfy these needs as much as possible. Religion itself, it’s a need, the need for meaning, what is beyond everything, what the point of living is and how to satisfy these needs and have more meaningful life. Taking into consideration all the studies and findings, then we can finalize that religion serves as both protective influence and catalyst of positive development. Hart and Fegley (1995) found religious commitment to be a distinguishing trait of urban youths nominated for their exemplary caring behavior. The man point of psychologists in this case is not to address the question of whether religion exists or not, but what are the hidden effects of religion into psychology and concretely into morality of the human beings.

It is important to mention that there is a strong relation between religion and culture, as people would respond more to the moral issues depending on their background. Tetlock, Kristel, Green,Elson, and Lerner (2000) have recently produced evidence that there are certain sacred values held within a culture, such that many people will respond with moral outrage to individuals who merely think about violating these values. We are aware of many countries that some immoral issues such as: marriage affair or discrimination is not accepted in society, and therefore there are many laws and legislations against them. An example of that are Muslim countries such as Afghanistan, where marriage affairs are against the Holy book "Quran" and they suppose that this is a sin and God will curse on them and their families. Sometimes, it is very difficult to understand such cultures, but religion and morality into these cultures is highly emphasized and you have to respect that. If you don’t do that then you are not one of them, and you don’t belong in that society, family will not accept you. From one culture to another the moral issues are different, but some of the moral issues are the same in every culture of the world. Thus, people would behave according to their traditions, norms, religion, and culture is a framework of moral conduct within the society. Family is part of the society, as it is part of the culture itself. Some people argue that it is within the family that young children develop a moral sense and show evidence of early pro social behavior directed towards others (Dunn, 2006). Further, parents play a formative role in installing to children the idea of what is good and what is bad. Our parents, at least my parents expect me to increase my good behavior and my intentions in order to help others, instead of harming them. This includes the needs for self-control and self-competence, which are part of the mental development of children. There are two components of the child’s growing conscience that have been underscored from different studies (Kochanska, 1993). The first consists of moral emotions such as the feeling of being guilty, anxiety, and secondly is behaviorally based and reflects the ability of the child to resist temptation and to exercise self-restraint from bad things and this way children would understand what they are doing.

There are many studies done finding the relationship between parents rearing of children and their morality. We know that parents educate their children, and they make sure they perform and behave according to the norms they learned through childhood. In Christian traditions, which dominate the religious landscapes of families in U.S (Smith, 2005), as well as in other monotheistic world religions, parent-child relationships ideally embody divine love and reflect a covenant with God. Two studies indicated that low-middle-income mothers (Dumas &Nissley-Tsiopinis, 2006; Murray-Swank, Mahoney, & Pargament, 2006) often view God as intimately involved in parenting. In some limits this is true, due to the fact that God tell us clearly in Bible, how to behave, what to do, and how to respect other people. Therefore, parenting a child, under God’s advices, it is very positive for a better development of the child personality & character. Thus, it is very important meanwhile to say that religious parents will try to implement to children the idea of God, meaning of life, and will try to make children’s lives better. Therefore, parents would put more effort into children and be more committed to using effective techniques to elicit moral behavior from their children (Mahoney et al.2003; Pargament & Mahoney 2005). Thus, that is also the reason why some religious might emphasize that parenting is an ability/skill given from God, and requires personal sacrifice and should be the central priority of parents towards their own children. This is more sacrifice for mothers, who really care about educating their children in the best possible way. This doesn’t mean that fathers do not care about that, but they actually work in order to provide good life to family and as Jesus said: "Man is the head of the family." Mothers do spend more time with children, and they know better what they need, and how to satisfy them. They add values to child moral development, and they make sure that child is willing to learn what they tell/advice, and in this case they will less likely make mistakes or bad deeds in life.

Morality is very important in society because involves standards of conduct developed to coordinate and facilitate group living (De Waal, 2006; Haidt, 2008; Haidt & Joseph, 2004; Hauser, 2006; Krebs, 2008). As it is already mentioned above it is very important that people create a self-regulation of morality which will help them direct their behaviors. In this case the modes of self-regulation can represent what we should do, and what we should not do. There is a "prescriptive morality that involves activating "good" behaviors to approach positive outcomes, and proscriptive morality which involves inhibiting "bad" behaviors to avoid negative outcomes" (Krebs, 2008). At same time is very important to distinguish between prescriptive and proscriptive morality because we want to be focused on the one that generates positive outcomes, and that are related to religion.

The Importance of Morality

After making an analysis of the religion and morality in the psychological terms, then it is important analyzing as well why morality has so many values in our life, and traditions accept morality as the most important factor in the personality of people. The social identity can provide a basis for positive evaluation (Oakes, Haslam, & Turner, 1994; Turner, Hogg, Oakes, Reicher, & Wetherell, 1987). Morality makes possible for people to be more competent and raises their sociability in life, which gives of course more positive outcomes in life, and people tend to be much happier. Morality itself it’s a theory that focuses on the intrapersonal and the intimate interpersonal and is more related to the character strength of the person. More specifically, personal morality is "concerned with people pursuing good lives by trying to realize private aspirations and establish enduring intimate relationships (Kekes, 1989, pg.7). That is also where the idea of a relation between morality and religion comes. People try to create a relationship with God, and this relationship is considered to be as well intimate interpersonal, which includes the person. While, as it is mentioned in different cultures, morality emphasizes the importance of self-regarding virtues, which best are expressed by the language of justice. Morality is expressed on the work of Piaget (1932) and Kohlberg (1938) where they did some studies based on the development of people. Of course, we tend to believe that morality includes ethical issues, which are strongly connected with the stages of development of person, and with character. Thus, morality approach is a perspective on Kant’s work (1964). He believed that "virtue of justice is considered to be the central virtue in a morally regulated life. While Kohlberg did some structured clinical interviews, he came up with some interesting findings on the development of justice reasoning (Kohlberg 1983). He expanded more the work of Piaget by saying that "we need to have an anonymous morality; by decreasing egocentrism at each person" (Kohlberg, 1969). Thus, morality remains the importance of the life ethics, and people cannot live without being ethical in their lives.

In conclusion I want to say that, morality and religion tend to form a positive person, through strengthening the character of the person, by self-regulation and offering the chance of competence and sociability within one culture. It is important also to understand why some people act the way they do and this is due to their traditions, and norms of that culture. We couldn’t understand religion without morality, and vice versa. Thus, more researches and studies need to be done into finding better explanations of this relation. Certainty, God wants us to be moral, and be more positive person, through our stages of faith and moral development as explained by Piaget &Kohlberg.