Cognitive ps (section)
Farias and Granqvist (2007) have each conducted several surveyes with people with new age orientation. They have both assumed the hypothesis that these individuals would exhibit a psychological profile that deviated from individuals with a traditional religious orientation, as has been confirmed. Although they have not carried out any longitudinal research, which has been able to confirm this, the authors assume that it is partly certain biological factors and partly early childhood experiences, which form the basis for the individual being attracted by the "New age".
Leakage (Farias &granqvist, 2007). If this can be relativized (as is also done with fondness within NA) but one must then consider that relativization can also fulfill several functions: a kind of laziness, a gimmick (Flax, XX), all the way to a kind of self-induced dissociation (ref dissocation, Granqvist?)
"New Age participants gave far more global abstract self-descriptions than did the other two groups[ Catholics and non-believers]. Furthermore, many of these were highly abstract descriptions in which the individual tended to see him-/herself as a process, a metaphor or part of a universal force" (Farias &Granqvist, 2007, p. 126).
A meta-analysis conducted by Saroglou, Delpierre and Dernelle (2004, referenced in Farias & Lalljee, 2008), compiled studies from 15 countries, which together included more than 8,000 test subjects from different religious backgrounds. The results showed that traditional religiosity correlated positively with different measures of collectivism. On the other hand, there was no connection between traditional religiosity and "universalism", which may seem strange given that this may seem close to religious ideals. Farias and Lalljee (2008) propose that collectivist orientation is mainly limited to the well-being of their own ingroup.
Dissociation/absorption.
Dissociation can be described as "a break-down in the individual's normal attentional processing, which result in anomalous shifts in consciousness". Examples of dissociation are depersonalization, derealization and selective amnesia (Farias &granqvist, 2007).