Religia a funkcjonowanie osobowości człowieka. Studium psychologiczne

Abstract

The aim of the article is to present relationships between religion and personality traits. Religion is a relation, which is responsive but non-symmetrical, between man and Transcendence. As a vital phenomenon religion is rooted in authoritative spiritual traditions that transcend the person and point to larger realities which the person is embedded. Personality can be regarded as the unique combination of psychological and behavioural characteristics by which each individual can be compared and contrasted with everyone else. Individuals possess particular personality traits to either greater or less extent. As is generally stated, religion has mutual links with personality on the basis of five dimensions: (1) mental needs, (2) values system, (3) emotion and feelings, (4) fear and anxiety, (5) defence mechanisms. There are many associations between functioning of personality and religion. Recent conceptual and empirical developments in psychology of religion point out that spirituality may be viewed as a common ground for analyzing religiosity and personality. Although, religiosity is similar to spirituality the latter concept do not always have a transcendence reference point which allows us to distinguish between them. Evidence is accruing that spirituality may represent an unacknowledged sixth major dimension of personality in addition to the Five Factor Model (FFM). Moreover, correlations between the model traits and religiousness were found that confirms earlier presumptions about mutual relationships in the fields of religion and personality.