| Delusion is a central characteristic of psychosis. Yet, problems with the definition of delusion make distinguishing normal beliefs from pathognomonic ones difficult, especially when religious content is involved. This study, which involved 131 undergraduate psychology students, had two aims: (1) to determine if untrained participants would base their assessment of religious beliefs on social norms, as did trained clinicians in a previous study, and (2) to determine whether participants' degree of Religious Fundamentalism influenced these ratings. Three sets of religious beliefs, with varying levels of conventionality, were chosen for assessment, and were either labeled or not labeled as religious. Results indicate that untrained participants based their distinctions between delusion and faith on social norms, in much the same way as did clinicians in a previous study using similar methodology. It was also found that participants high in Religious Fundamentalism rated beliefs similar to their own as less pathological than did participants low in this construct. |
