Religious and Spiritual Conflicts: A Psychological Perspective.

The authors present a brief history of research on religious and spiritual struggles and of the development of the typology and measurement of such struggles by means of the Religious and Spiritual Struggles Scale (Exline et al. 2014). Following a terminological clarification of the terms "religiousness" and "spirituality," which are often used interchangeably, an overview of the current state of research in the field of religious and spiritual conflicts is given based on fundamental contributions, especially by one of the main pioneers in this field, the American psychologist Julie Juola Exline. Research so far has most extensively focused on American samples, but scholars have recently begun to explore various other cultural and social backgrounds as it cannot be assumed that results from one society can be readily transferred to others, such as more secular societies. The article concludes with a discussion of the findings and a description of future research needs, especially for the European context where a lack of data is still evident. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]