Attachment, Evolution, and the Psychology of Religion
In this provocative and engaging book, Lee Kirkpatrick establishes a broad, comprehensive framework for approaching the psychology of religion from an evolutionary perspective. Within this framework, attachment theory provides a powerful lens through which to reconceptualize diverse aspects of religious belief and behavior. Rejecting the notion that humans possess religion-specific instincts or adaptations, Kirkpatrick argues that religion instead emerges from numerous psychological...
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In this provocative and engaging book, Lee Kirkpatrick establishes a broad, comprehensive framework for approaching the psychology of religion from an evolutionary perspective. Within this framework, attachment theory provides a powerful lens through which to reconceptualize diverse aspects of religious belief and behavior. Rejecting the notion that humans possess religion-specific instincts or adaptations, Kirkpatrick argues that religion instead emerges from numerous psychological mechanisms and systems that evolved for other functions. This integrative work will spark discussion, debate, and future research among anyone interested in the psychology of religion, attachment theory, and evolutionary psychology, as well as religious studies. It will also serve as a text in advanced undergraduate- and graduate-level courses. Biography Lee A. Kirkpatrick, PhD, is Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in Psychology at the College of William and Mary in Virginia. He has published numerous research articles and book chapters on topics related to adult attachment, the psychology of religion, and evolutionary psychology.
Contents1. Introduction An Ambitious Agenda Scientific Comprehensive Explanatory Psychology of ... Religion A New Direction Attachment Theory Evolutionary Psychology The Plan of This Book2. Introduction to Attachment Theory Backdrop The Attachment System Other Related Systems The Phenomenology of Attachment Individual Differences in Attachment in Childhood Multiple Attachment Figures Internal Working Models and the Stability of Attachment Patterns Attachment in Adulthood Attachment and Adult Romantic Relationships Individual Differences in Adult Romantic Attachment Factorial and Dimensional Models The Formation and Development of Adult Love Bonds An Alternative Approach to Adult Attachment Attachment and Evolutionary Psychology Summary and Conclusions3. God as an Attachment Figure Religion as Relationship But Is It Really an Attachment Relationship? Seeking and Maintaining Proximity to God Proximity in Belief and Myth Facilitating Psychological Proximity Prayer Other Religious Behaviors God as a Haven of Safety Crisis and Distress Illness and Injury Death and Grieving God as a Secure Base Phenomenology Psychological Outcomes Responses to Separation and Loss Summary and Conclusions4. More on Religion as an Attachment Process: Some Extensions and Limitations Religion and Love What Kind of Love?: Romantic Attachment versus Attachment to God God as a Parental Figure Individual Differences in Images of God God as a Benevolent Caregiver God as Controlling and Demanding Children's Beliefs about God Beyond God: Extensions and Limitations To Generalize, or Not to Generalize? The Problem with Parsimony Other Forms of Attachment (or Not) in Religion Relationships with Other Supernatural Beings Relationships with Religious Leaders Relationships with Fellow Worshipers and Other Peers Relationships with Groups Nontheistic Religions Summary and Conclusions5. Individual Differences in Attachment and Religion: The Correspondence Hypothesis Mental Models and the Correspondence Hypothesis Correspondence in Childhood and Adolescence Correspondence in Adulthood Correspondence Across Cultures Internal Working Models of Self and Others Continuity from Childhood to Adulthood The Socialized-Correspondence Hypothesis The Two-Level Correspondence Hypothesis "Socialization" as an Alternative Explanation The Inadequacy of "Socialization" as Explanation The Epidemiology of Beliefs Individual Differences Revisited Summary and Conclusions6. God as a Substitute Attachment Figure: The Compensation Hypothesis Individual Differences and Religious Conversion Individual Differences in Childhood Attachment and Conversion Sudden Religious Conversion Other Evidence for a Compensation Model A Two-Process Model Individual Differences in Adult Attachment Contextual Factors in Religious Change Separation and Loss Bereavement Relationship Dissolution Unavailability of Attachment Figures Perceived Inadequacy of Human Attachment Figures Cultural Factors Summary and Conclusions7. Attachment in Context: Introduction to Evolutionary Psychology Evolutionary Psychology as a Paradigm or Metatheory Adaptation and Natural Selection Adaptations "Selfish Genes" and Inclusive Fitness Domain-Specificity and the Mental-Organs Model Nature "versus" Nurture Stone Age Minds in Modern Environments Individual Differences in Evolutionary Context Stable Environmental Differences Direct Genetic Effects Frequency-Dependent Adaptive Strategies Early Environmental Calibration An Example of Facultative Strategies: Human Mating Are Evolutionary Explanations Unfalsifiable? Some Illustrative Examples: Politics, Music, and Sports Summary and Conclusions8. Attachment Theory in Modern Evolutionary Perspective Childhood Attachment in Modern Evolutionary Perspective Parental Caregiving and Parent-Offspring Conflict Individual Differences in Childhood Attachment Attachment and Reproductive Strategies The Belsky, Steinberg, and Draper Model Individual Differences in Adult Attachment Love Revisited Love or Attachment? Love as a Commitment Device Implications for the Theory of Attachment and Religion Correspondence and the RS Hypothesis Compensation, Sudden Conversion, and the LM Hypothesis Summary and Conclusions9. Religion: Adaptation or Evolutionary By-product? Is There a Unique Religious Instinct? Universality Genetics Neurology Ethology Problems with the Religion-as-Instinct View The Problem of Identifying the Adaptive Function Psychological vs. Reproductive Benefits Group Selection vs. Selfish Genes Costs vs. Benefits Begging Questions The Problem of Identifying the Design The Problem of Establishing Special Design Theoretical Conservatism and the Onus of Proof Religion as an Evolutionary By-product, Not an Adaptation Adaptations vs. Evolutionary By-products Religion as an Evolutionary By-product An Analogy: Games and Sports Summary and Conclusions10. Beyond Attachment: Religion and Other Evolved Psychological Mechanisms Power, Status, and Intrasexual Competition Supernatural Beings as Power Figures Human Religious Leaders as Power Figures Kinship Supernatural Beings and Religious Leaders as Kin Ingroup Members as Kin Reciprocal Altruism and Social Exchange Supernatural Beings as Social-Exchange Partners Mutual Helping and Social Support Morality and Ethics Coalitional Psychology In-Group Cooperation and Morality Out-Group Discrimination and Conflict Supernatural Beings as Coalitional Partners Summary and Conclusions11. The Cognitive Origins of Religious Belief Evolved Mechanisms for Thinking about the Natural World Naive Physics and Psychological Animism Naive Biology and Natural Kinds Naive Psychology and Theory of Mind The Psychology of Complex Thinking: How the Mind Works The Cognitive Building Blocks of Religious Belief Animism Psychological Essentialism Anthropomorphism W
\ From the Publisher"In this highly engaging, wide-ranging, and gracefully written book, Kirkpatrick moves from his own innovative work on attachment processes and religious phenomena to a much broader, multidimensional analysis of religion as an outcome of evolution. The book stands out from other writings on evolution and religion, which tend to have a narrow focus (on cognition or ritual or mystical experience, for example) and to see religion as a unitary adaptation. In contrast, Kirkpatrick argues persuasively that religion is best explained by a confluence of several different evolved mechanisms, each with its own primary, nonreligious function."--Phillip R. Shaver, PhD, Department of Psychology, University of California, Davis\ "Kirkpatrick has provided a dazzling and insightful analysis of the psychology of religion. Groundbreaking and gripping from start to finish, the book takes readers on a tour of religious phenomena, from the origins of belief to the nature of religious leaders and their followers. The result is the most incisive and scientifically sound analysis of religion I have seen, using principles drawn from modern evolutionary psychology. It’s a landmark publication, and sure to form the center of lively debate for years to come."--David M. Buss, PhD, Department of Psychology, University of Texas at Austin\ "In this brilliant work, Lee Kirkpatrick embeds the study of religion within an integrative evolutionary framework that draws extensively on attachment theory. In elaborating his comprehensive explanatory theory, Kirkpatrick boldly proposes a route for advancing the science of the psychology of religion. This book is essential reading for students and scholars of the psychology of religion and evolutionary psychology, particularly those interested in the psychological origins of religion."--Crystal L. Park, PhD, Department of Psychology, University of Connecticut\ "This is a masterful example of scholarship aimed at integrating an attachment and evolutionary theoretical approach to the wide and far-reaching domain of the psychology of religion. Kirkpatrick is the world’s leading expert on attachment theory and religion, and in this book he has expanded the argument to encompass a broader perspective, one that places the psychology of religion squarely in the emerging field of evolutionary psychology and thus links it with the larger orbit of sciences. The writing is rich with research whose data argue in a compelling way that religious phenomena match the predictions of an attachment-evolutionary framework. Other approaches are acknowledged but are challenged with the question of why they work, if they do. Written with a high level of sophistication, the book is nonetheless extremely accessible. Kirkpatrick clearly loves his material. His logic is keen, his writing beautiful, his topic and message timeless."--Raymond F. Paloutzian, PhD, Department of Psychology, Westmont College\ \ \ \
