Applicabilities of a scientific method in the research of religiosity

Abstract

The expansion of psychologists’ interests, for religious aspects of human existence, appeared a few decades ago, which is quite surprising, considering presumed importance of a religious domain in human life. However, despite a great interest for the phenomenon of religiosity this expansion in scientific study of religiosity did not bring any important results for understanding the phenomenon. Mostly, the reasons for such a failure should be looked for in the domain of inadequate applicability of scientific methods used for the research in this field of interest. Quantitative paradigm is, unfortunately, most common approach to the study of the issue of religiosity. Main disadvantages of this approach are its failing to observe the cognitive aspects and aiming at ad hoc explanations without any relevant insight into the phenomenon. This phenomenon inevitably involves an expert into the very process of research, taking main hypothesis of a qualitative approach into account. In this paper we struggle to point out crucial problems in the process of study of religiosity and to suggest possible solutions to the problems, or, at least their starting points. Key-words: religiosity, science, methods (qualitative, quantitative), triangulation.

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