An Empirical Investigation of the Psychoanalytic Theory of Religious Behavior

• Published in: Journal for the scientific study of religion 1961-10, Vol.1 (1), p.74-78
• Main Author: Siegman, Aron Wolfe
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Behavior/Behavioral; Castration; Concept/Concepts/Conception/Conceptual/ Conceptualization; Correlations; Empiricism; Father/Fathers/Fatherhood/ Fathering; Feeling/Feelings; Freud, Sigmund/Freudian/Freudianism; Frustration; God/Gods; Personality psychology; Philosophical psychology; Projection/Projections/ Projecting/ Projective; Psychoanalysis/Psychoanalytic/ Psychoanalyst/ Psychoanalysts; Psychology; Psychology of religion; Religion/Religions/Religious; Religiosity; Religious behavior
• ISSN: 0021-8294; 1468-5906
• DOI: 10.2307/1385177

Based on the psychol'al aspect of Freud's theory of religious behavior, 3 hyp's were tested: (1) 'The more religious in belief & observance have a greater tendency to project;' (2) a positive r exists 'between S's' feelings & concepts concerning God & their feelings & concepts concerning their fathers;' (3) M's, more than F's, 'perceive God as a punishing figure,' & (4) resemblance between father & God concepts & feelings are 'most pronounced among S's who believe in God.' Hyp's (1) & (3) tested 60 F & 25 M Israelite US's of Jewish faith, hypothesis (2) tested the same Israeli S's + 79 M US U S's of roughly equally divided Protestant, Catholic, & Jewish faiths, & hypothesis (4) tested those US S's used in hypothesis (2) who had the highest & lowest (N= 32 & 32 respectively) 'religiosity selfratings.' Statistical measures used for hyp (1) included the Thurstone Attitude Toward God Scale, Foa Sabbath Observance Scale, Paranoia & Schizophrenia scales of the MMPI, Welsh's R-Scale, Rosenzweig Picture Frustration Test, Fould Extrapunitiveness scales, & a 10-point religiosity scale. The Osgood Semantic diff.ial & scales of cruel-kind, angrygood natured, punishing-forgiving were used for hyp's (2), (3) & (4). None of the 4 hyp's were confirmed: all is for hypothesis (1) were not signif (.10 level or higher); only 1 positive r on US S's 'activity ratings' were noted in hypothesis (2); hypothesis (3) scaled in the opposite direction & were signif at the .05 level, ie, more F's than M's perceive God as a punishing figure; & in hyp (4) no is were signif at .10 level or better, which is in the opposite direction from the projection hyp. These findings coincide with principles of the perceptual & learning process - the least 'generalization or transfer' (projection) occurs in the most religious, & the most 'generalization' where God is an ambiguous factor, eg, the 'activity' factor. P. D. Montagna.