TOWARD AN EMPIRICALLY GROUNDED SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION

The present case-study of the effects of Mormonism upon the family and community in Utah follows what Glaser and Strauss and Glaser described as "grounded theory," a methodological approach whose primary purpose is that of theory-construction. The central tenet of grounded theory is that the research process itself is capable of generating new theory which is emergent from data-analysis. Grounded theory is theory generated from research rather than an attempt to test or verify a deductive causal theory using random sampling and statistical manipulations. However, the researcher cannot approach reality tabula rasa--although generating theory involves a process of research, the source of certain insights, ideas, and concepts may originate outside of the data. The present study involves a symbolic interactionist approach to religion which combines several sensitizing concepts: religious "definitions of the situation," religious "vocabularies of motive," and "abstract vs. applied values" in religion, as well as concepts often employed in the sociology of religion area (functions and dysfunctions of religion).;Grounded theory-construction is viewed by Glaser and Strauss as a creative, emergent process--there is no requirement to formulate specific hypotheses in advance of research--hypotheses may emerge and be accepted, rejected, or modified in the course of the research process itself. The present approach has followed the above procedures, and research findings suggest that for the empirical indicators discussed, institutionalized religious definitions of the situation found in Mormonism have numerous latent, unintended consequences/effects for religious affiliates which are both functional and dysfunctional in character. A theoretical explanation of the nature of this trade-off between latent functional and dysfunctional effects in Mormonism is provided by an emergent theoretical construct: the "Latent-Effects Differential" of a religious organization for individual affiliates. The Latent-Effects Differential as the core construct of the grounded theory developed here may also have broader theoretical utility in studying nonreligious groups and organizations as well.;This study assumes that religious effects upon the family and community may be observed empirically at the cognitive (individual), interactional (group), and structural (institutional) levels of analysis or stages. In order to observe possible effects of Mormon religious affiliation upon the family and community in Utah a set of empirical indicators were examined as the most crucial and likely to provide emerging evidence of such religious effects. Because a diversity of data-sources and types is considered desirable in grounded theory, both quantitative and qualitative data have been utilized in the present study, including historical and biographical accounts, local, regional, and national statistics, content-analysis of speeches and sermons, participant-observation, archival research, tape recordings and related forms of unobtrusive data-collection techniques.