Some psychologists believe that there is some correlation between gender or the choice of a university and religiousness of an individual, the intensity of the effects of a religious experience, coping with stress and a sense of security. It is also thought that many factors such, as the background of a person, their upbringing, their religious attitude, maturity and sense of security can have an influence on the intensity of religious experiences over life. Research was carried out in a group of 150 students. All of them described themselves as believers and did report religious experiences in their lives. 134 properly filled in questionnaires were used for the analysis. There were 33 men from the University of Economy, 37 men from the Forestry Faculty of the Academy of Agriculture, 32 women from Ignatianum University in Krakow and 32 women from Vocational High School in Nowy Sącz. The age of the subjects was within the range of 22 to 25 years. The author of the article, interested in the issues of the sense of security, coping with stress and religious experiences of the students of various universities has tried to answer the following questions: Does the independent variable, gender differentiate (influence) the level of the sense of security, the effects of religious experiences of God’s presence or absence, and coping with stress? Which of the independent variables identified in Ways of Coping Questionnaire (and to what extent) have an influence on the dependent variables; the sense of effects of the experience of God’s presence (OB) and the sense of effects of the experience of God’s absence (NOB)? The results show that gender has a definite influence on differentiation of the dependent variables. It should be emphasised that when the regression analysis is applied one can notice that essential independent variables of religious character have the most tangible influence on the dependent variables. However, mainly the former ones decide about the intensity of religious experiences of an individual.
In modern societies, unlike traditional ones, the religious interpretation of everyday life is no longer as obvious and common as it used to be. Sociologists of religion seem to agree that the spiritual identity of individuals and groups is no longer built on religious values, but more and more often on the content disseminated by modern media. It is new technologies and the digital world that transform societies, changing the optics of perception and assessment of both material and immaterial reality. Media-based content sometimes directly questions the transcendent Authority. In the context of these changes, it seems reasonable to ask about the essence and place of religious experience in the life of a contemporary individual, and about their relationship to the sacred. Hence, the key subject of this study is the dimension of religiosity – as proposed years ago by Glock and Stark – which eludes simplex, statistical analysis and description. Being strongly subjective, it pinpoints to deeper inner experiences. Religious experience – as one of the most intense human experiences, and the one known to be most difficult to research – is most often located in the area of psychological explorations. Nonetheless, it is subject to complex social conditioning as well, which makes it a legitimate object of sociological investigations. This is confirmed by the referenced theoretical and empirical orientations, which additionally prove the complexity and multidimensionality of the phenomenon under study.
PL
W społeczeństwach nowoczesnych, w odróżnieniu od tradycyjnych, religijna interpretacja życia codziennego nie jest już tak oczywista i powszechna, jak to było kiedyś. Socjologowie religii zgodnie zdają się twierdzić, iż tożsamość duchowa jednostek i grup przestaje być budowana na gruncie wartości religijnych, a coraz częściej w oparciu o treści, które lansują nowoczesne media. To nowe technologie, świat cyfrowy przeobrażają społeczeństwa i zmieniają optykę postrzegania oraz ocenę zarówno rzeczywistości materialnej, jak i niematerialnej, by niekiedy wprost zakwestionować transcendentny Autorytet. W kontekście tychże zmian zasadne wydaje się dziś pytanie o istotę i miejsce doświadczenia religijnego w życiu jednostki i o jej stosunek do sacrum. Stąd też kluczowym przedmiotem niniejszego opracowania jest owa dymensja religijności – zaproponowana przed laty przez Glocka i Starka – która najbardziej wymyka się prostym, statystycznym analizom i opisom, a będąc silnie spersonalizowana, jednocześnie wskazuje na głębokie przeżycia wewnętrzne. Jednak mimo tego, iż doświadczenie religijne – pozostając jednym z najintensywniejszych doznań, a te, jak wiadomo, są trudne badawczo do uchwycenia – najczęściej lokuje się w obszarze eksploracji psychologii, to przecież posiada również uwarunkowania społeczne, stając się także przedmiotem zainteresowania socjologii. Potwierdzają to przywołane orientacje teoretyczne i empiryczne, które dodatkowo dowodzą złożoności oraz wielowymiarowości tegoż zjawiska.
JavaScript is turned off in your web browser. Turn it on to take full advantage of this site, then refresh the page.