The Faculty of Social Sciences is hosting researchers from Poland and abroad for a two-day-long celebration of the 10th anniversary of the Polish Society for the Psychology of Religion and Spirituality (PTPRiD). The theme of the anniversary conference is 'Psychology of Religion and Spirituality in the Face of Dynamic Personal and Society-wide Changes'. 'We meet at conferences every two years in different academic centres. This time, it is our University. Our meetings result in book publications with peer-reviewed articles,' says dr hab. Katarzyna Skrzypińska, prof. UG, president of PTPRiD.
Meditation and EEG research, mindfulness techniques, cultural and religious influences on the psychosocial well-being of people with chronic kidney disease and their close relatives, attachment to God and psychological stress, and motivations for using complementary and alternative medicine - these are just some of the issues around which discussions will take place at WNS UG – all thanks to the conference entitled. 'Psychology of Religion and Spirituality in the Face of Dynamic Personal and Society-wide Changes' taking place at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Gdańsk on September 21–22, 2023.
'Today, we are celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Polish Society for the Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, but I remember very well our beginnings. In 2012, together with the then-doctoral students of the Institute of Psychology – Janina Nowak (now Pawłowska) and Marta Boińska – I organised the 1st International Conference at the Faculty of Social Sciences of UG intending to establish PTPRiD. We were convinced that this step would revive and consolidate researchers in the psychology of religion and spirituality, which is what happened,' says dr hab. Katarzyna Skrzypińska, prof. UG, president of PTPRiD.
The Polish Society for the Psychology of Religion and Spirituality is an organisation that aims to provide a platform for discussing conclusions from research and analyses concerning the psychological aspect of the functioning of religion in the modern world. The idea of the organisation is to spread scientific knowledge of the psychological processes underlying the spiritual and religious spheres of human life.
Although the concept of spirituality has been challenging to pin down for centuries and taken up mainly by philosophy and theology, the members of PTPRiD have managed to change this.
'In 2012, it was only in the USA that the American Psychological Association had a unit called Division 36, which dealt specifically with the issue of spirituality. In Poland, the subject was only in its infancy, although in Europe, there had already been an International Association for the Psychology of Religion (IAPR) since 1914. We have managed to change this – we cooperate closely with the IAPR, Division 36 or the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion: we participate in conferences, conduct research, and visit within the framework of exchange or scholarship programmes,' adds dr hab. Katarzyna Skrzypińska, prof. UG.
The Society conducts its research in several centres: in Gdańsk at the UG (the concept of spirituality and human religiosity - conceptual work, the relation of spirituality to schema and sense of body, existential crisis, meaning of life and satisfaction), at the Ignatianum Academy in Krakow (migration context and beliefs in different cultures, clinical aspects of religiosity, ancient beliefs of the Slavs, etc.). ), in Lublin at the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin (sense of life and religiosity, cognitive schema of god, developmental aspects of religiosity, religiosity of children and youth, measurement of religiosity), in Warsaw at the University of Warsaw (religiosity and empathy, measurement of religiosity, etc.), as well as in Poznań, Opole and Szczecin.
