Abstract
After a brief introduction, this paper tries to establish what type of psychology the psychology of religion is. Having introduced cultural psychology in general, some theories applicable in research on religion are presented, and some examples of cultural psychological research of religious phenomena are discussed.
Notes
Notes
1. Cultural psychologists usually define meaningful action or conduct as the object of psychology. Obviously, there are also forms of human behaviour that are not intentional or not regulated by meaning (like drawing back one's hand from a hot object; although even in the way this is done, there exists cultural variation).
2. Recently, authors from both traditions are trying to open a dialogue and to look for commonalities instead of stressing differences (cf. e.g. Kitayama & Cohen, Citation2007; Matsumoto, Citation1994a, Citation1994b, Citation1996; Ratner, Citation2008; Valsiner & Rosa, Citation2007).