This thesis reports research which examined acculturation in British adolescents by investigating their identifications and cultural practices. In particular, it aimed to draw attention to the limitations of the currently dominant model of acculturation, and to present an alternative approach for informing research into the acculturation of adolescents. Study 1 used qualitative interview techni...

Widespread religious disbelief represents a key testing ground for theories of religion. We evaluated the predictions three prominent theoretical approaches—secularization, cognitive byproduct, and dual inheritance—in nationally representative (United States, N = 1,417) data set with preregistered analyses found considerable support inheritance perspective. Of predictors disbelief, witnessing f...

Mythical and religious belief systems in a social context can be regarded as a conglomeration of sacrosanct rites which revolve around substantive values that involve an element of faith. Moreover, we can conclude that ideologies, myths and beliefs can all be analyzed in terms of systems within a cultural context. The significance of being able to define ideologies, myths and beliefs as systems...

Spring/Summer 2008 • volume xiv, issue 2 Contemporary India is a multicultural society that is pluralistic with regards to religious law. Different groups in India have separate religious personal laws (RPLs), which India’s secular state is reluctant to reform. However, these laws have generated debate about the meaning of gender equality in India, since all RPLs to various extents give women f...

The Challenge of Political Correctness in the Translation of "Sensitive" Texts: Translations must fully render the meaning of words and expressions from the source language, without losing any of their cultural connotations. In the case of “politically correct” terms in English, difficulties spring from deep cultural differences in the understanding of race, religious or genre problems. This pa...

The transmission of religious affiliation is analyzed in a sample of 3810 Australian twin pairs and their parents. Twins were classified by sex, zygosity, and whether they were living together or apart. Analysis of twin, spousal, and parent-offspring resemblance shows that several different forms of cultural inheritance operate jointly in the transmission of religious affiliation. Model-fitting...

Religion is often conceived as a conservative social force that sustains traditional cultural beliefs and behaviors. Religion, however, also exhibits predictable socioecological variation and facilitates adaptive response patterns in the diverse environments that humans inhabit. Here we examine how the religious system, which is comprised of a number of interacting components, generates adaptiv...

Scrupulosity involves obsessive religious doubts and fears, unwanted blasphemous thoughts and images, as well as compulsive religious rituals, reassurance seeking, and avoidance. This article provides a comprehensive review of the nature of scrupulosity, including (a) a detailed clinical description, (b) information about how to differentiate scrupulosity from normal religious practice, (c) cro...

Religion is often conceived as a conservative social force that sustains traditional cultural beliefs and behaviors. Religion, however, also exhibits predictable socioecological variation and facilitates adaptive response patterns in the diverse environments that humans inhabit. Here we examine how the religious system, which is composed of a number of interacting components, generates adaptive...

Does Buddhism really promote tolerance? Based on cross-cultural and cross-religious evidence, we hypothesized that Buddhist concepts, possibly differing from Christian concepts, activate not only prosociality but also tolerance. Subliminally priming Buddhist concepts, compared with neutral or Christian concepts, decreased explicit prejudice against ethnic, ideological, and moral outgroups among...