"A worldview (or “world view”) is a set of assumptions about physical and social reality that may have powerful effects on cognition and behavior." Koltko-Rivera, 2004, p. 3)
There are other names for the concept worldview such as philosophy of life, outlook, cultural themes and more. See Koltko-Rivera, 2004) for a review of worldview models and possible categories or dimensions that are components of a worldview..
Koltco-Rivera (2004) notes that there are a variety of worldview models, which generally fall into two types: (1) categorical approaches and (b) dimensional approaches.
Worldview is a metaconstruct consisting of several subordinate constructs.
As noted above, the subordinate constructs can include categories like belief in a deity or belief about the origins of the universe or dimensions that allow for a range of of values. In general, psychology, like other sciences, relies on the assumption that behavior may be understood by observation and that causes of behavior may be discovered by carrying out controlled experiments or careful analyses of the correlated of behavior and simultaneously excluding consideration of supernatural causes. Mainstream psychological science has been considered as relying on naturalism and materialism by Christian scholars (e.g., Knabb et al., 2022; Slife & Reber, 2009).
Some writers consider a religion to be a worldview (e.g., Juergensmeyer, 2010); however, there are so many religions and within each one there are variations of belief (e.g., different Christian views on the role of women in society, the church, and the home).
Thinkers have offered different possibilities for what categories or dimensions should be considered when studying worldviews.
Koltco-Rivera (2004) offered a collated model of possible worldview dimensions as a starting point to modify based on the results of empirical studies. he organized these dimensions in a Table (2), by group and suggested options for those dimensions. For example, the group of dimensions labeled Human Nature has three dimensions of Moral Orientation, Mutability, and Complexity. The Moral Orientation dimension has two options of good and evil.
Christian Worldview
Many psychologists in the West who identify as Christian have suggested what might be included in a Christian worldview that includes the three main branches of contemporary Christian traditions (Eastern Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant). For example, Knabb et al. (2022) provided a definition of a Christian worldview in their article describing the Christian Worldview Scale. Following is their definition.
A comprehensive view of life, mindset, or narrative among Christians, revealed through the Bible as divine revelation and creation as general revelation, based on foundational beliefs and untestable assumptions about an infinitely powerful, knowing, and loving Triune God, who is at the center of a physical and spiritual reality, the creator and sustainer of all that exists, including humanity, and the ultimate source of all human knowledge, morals/values, and meaning/purpose. (Knabb et al., 2022, p. 3.)
Nonreligious Worldviews
Taves and her colleagues (2018) addressed the problem of examining the beliefs of people who identify as atheists or agnostics, which are concepts presented as negating the concept theism. Rather than conceptualizing the perspectives of atheists and agnostics as nonreligious, Taves et al. (2018) suggest the concept worldview would be a better term for the larger construct, which includes the study of meaning-making. Worldview is an alternative term to conceptualizing meaningful beliefs systems as theism, atheism, and agnosticism.
Measuring Worldviews
Knabb et al. (2022) found no measures of the major world religions in the literature review preceding the Christian Worldview Scale. The measure includes six dimensions.
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Reference
Juergensmeyer, M. (2010). 2009 Presidential Address: Beyond war and words: The global future of religion. Journal
of the American Academy of Religion, 78,
882–895. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jaarel/lfq048
Knabb, J. J., Wang, K. T., Hall, M. E. L., & Vazquez, V.
E. (2022). The Christian Worldview Scale: An emic measure for assessing a
comprehensive view of life within the Christian tradition. Spirituality
in Clinical Practice. https://doi.org/10.1037/scp0000306
Slife, B. D., & Reber, J. S. (2009). Is there a
pervasive implicit bias against theism in psychology? Journal of Theoretical
and Philosophical Psychology, 29(2), 63–79. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0016985
Taves, A., Asprem, E., & Ihm, E. (2018). Psychology,
meaning making, and the study of worldviews: Beyond religion and
non-religion. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, 10(3),
207–217. https://doi.org/10.1037/rel0000201
Geoffrey W. Sutton, PhD is Emeritus Professor of Psychology. He retired from a clinical practice and was credentialed in clinical neuropsychology and psychopharmacology. His website is www.suttong.com
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