Religious attribution

Religious attribution in social psychology refers to how individuals use religious explanations in order to explain or understand a particular experience or event that otherwise could not be understood by natural causes.  

The term religious Attribution is derived from the more general attribution theory of social psychology, which seeks to explain human interpretations and understandings of events and circumstances. The Attribution process is motivated by a desire to perceive events in the world as meaningful, and the desire to predict or control events.[1]

There are several examples of religious interpretation being used to explain events. These include: The mercy and justice of God, the devil, religious rituals, and effective or ineffective prayers.[2] A miracle is an example of an event that is often attributed to supernatural causality due to the lack of natural or scientific explanation.

  1. ^ Spilka, Bernard; Shaver, Phillip R.; Kirkpatrick, Lee A. (2019-05-20), "A General Attribution Theory for the Psychology of Religion", in Spilka, Bernard; McIntosh, Daniel N. (eds.), The Psychology of Religion (1 ed.), Routledge, pp. 153–170, doi:10.4324/9780429495915-12, ISBN 978-0-429-49591-5, S2CID 222281064
  2. ^ Spilka, Bernard; Shaver, Phillip; Kirkpatrick, Lee A. (1985). "A General Attribution Theory for the Psychology of Religion". Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. 24 (1): 1–20. doi:10.2307/1386272. ISSN 0021-8294. JSTOR 1386272.