Posters (Asynchronous Session)
Greek People, Orthodox Religion, and Resilience in a Time of Crisis View Digital Media
Poster Session Maria-Irini Avgoulas, Rebecca Fanany
This poster examines the role of religion in supporting health and the significance this has on emotional wellbeing in time of crisis for individuals of Greek Australian background. Melbourne, Australia has a large Greek community whose oldest members were born in Greece and emigrated to Australia 50-60 years ago. The children and grandchildren of these immigrants were born in Australia but often see themselves as members of a cultural community distinct from the English-speaking mainstream. In addition to language, one of the most significant cultural factors handed down by the immigrant generation is a belief in the importance of religion and religious rituals in maintaining health. These rituals and beliefs are also a powerful tool for coping in times of crisis, illness, and other challenges. Findings are based on several qualitative studies undertaken in Melbourne between 2011-2016. The individuals that participated in these studies relied on religious faith and traditional practices to support them in times of crisis. Their specific beliefs reflect orthodox theology but also folk practices specific to this community and can be applied to wellbeing and resilience shown by this population in times of crisis. They have a strong belief in destiny and generally accept that God provides the means for addressing negative conditions. This poster describes the nature of their beliefs and outlines the ways in which religion serves as the basis for their resilience and ability to cope with adversity.
Promoting a Healthy Lifestyle through Mindfulness in University Students: A Randomized Controlled Trial
Poster Session Silvia da Costa, Olaia Cusi, Alberto Amutio
The present study explored the effects of a second-generation mindfulness-based intervention known as flow meditation (Meditación-Fluir) in the improvement of healthy life behaviors. A sample of university students (n = 51) in Spain were randomly assigned to a seven-week mindfulness treatment or a waiting list control group. Results showed that compared to the control group, individuals in the mindfulness group demonstrated significant improvements across all outcome measures including healthy eating habits (balanced diet, intake rate, snacking between meals, decrease in consumption by negative emotional states, increased consumption by negative emotional states, amount of consumption, meal times, consumption of low-fat products), tobacco, alcohol, and cannabis consumption, and resting habits. There were differences between males and females in some of these variables and a better effect of the treatment was evident in the females of the experimental group when compared to the males. The flow meditation program shows promise for fostering a healthy lifestyle, thus decreasing behaviors related to maladaptive eating, tobacco, alcohol, and cannabis consumption as well as negative rest habits in university students. This mindfulness program could significantly contribute to the treatment of eating disorders and addictions, wherein negative emotional states and impulsivity are central features of the condition.
The Emergence of Engaged Buddhism in Vietnam in the Context of Postcolonialism View Digital Media
Poster Session Dušan Lužný
The subject of this study is politically engaged Buddhism in Southeast Asia, especially in Vietnam. The review shows the tradition of world-oriented Buddhism (from Taixu humanist Buddhism to Thich Tri Quang Buddhist Struggle Movement and engaged Thich Nhat Hanha Buddhism), the modernization of Vietnamese Buddhism (the emergence of new supra-local, national and supranational organizations and networks), specific actors ( Thich Tri Quang, Thich Nhat Hanh) and the connection of their versions of Buddhism to the context of their home pagodas (Tu Dam, Tu Hieu). It considers Buddhism as a religion with its own potential for the political action of lay people and monks. The review makes concrete suggestions on how the sociology of religion can get rid of its colonial grounding.
Interactions with the Administration and the Churches among the Nungon, Papua New Guinea View Digital Media
Poster Session Martin Soukup
The objective of this study is an analysis of selected historical events, which took place in Uruwa Valley among members of the ethnic group Nungon. The events – relocation of a village and religious conflict – still affect life of the community. The author partially reconstructed the events using archive materials (especially patrol reports) and printed documents. The course of reconstructed events differs from the natives’ recollections of the same past. The paper confronts different versions of the past, but the author does not search for the truth of the Nungon past events. The aim of the paper is to demonstrate the plurality of voices – both of natives and of Australian patrol officers – and to present the importance of the past events for the life of the community.
Prejudice and Religious Orientations: The Governing Role of Fundamentalism View Digital Media
Poster Session Spee Kosloff
Substantial research has demonstrated that variation in religious orientation covaries with prejudice toward outgroups. For instance, prejudice bears positive associations with Intrinsic Religiosity (IR): the extent to which individuals maintain a deeply internalized sense of their relationship with God that carries into their dealings in life. By contrast, prejudice is negatively associated with Quest Orientation (QO): the extent to which individuals derive meaning from encounters with religious doubt and questioning. The present research examined whether these associations stem from variability in Fundamentalism: belief in literal and absolute authority of sacred texts and tenets. Fundamentalism is strongly positively associated with prejudice, and correlates positively with IR and negatively with QO. Accordingly, Fundamentalism may explain IR’s positive association with prejudice, as well as QO’s negative association with prejudice. Heterosexual Christians and Catholics (N = 166) completed the Revised Religious Fundamentalism Scale, and IR and QO were measured with the Revised Religious Life Inventory; subsequently, participants completed assessments of Homonegativity, Islamophobia, Anti-Atheism, Ethnocentrism, and a set of group-specific feeling thermometers. Results replicated prior work, with IR positively correlating with prejudice and QO negatively correlating with prejudice. Most notably, partial correlations controlling for Fundamentalism eliminated the positive associations between IR and prejudice indices, and also eliminated the negative associations between QO and prejudice. These results indicate the need to statistically and theoretically distinguish religious orientations from Fundamentalism, and intriguingly suggest that QO’s negative association with prejudice stems from resistance to Fundamentalism.
This Is not an iPhone: Digital Habits as Liturgy of the Fingers View Digital Media
Poster Session Nima Moinpour
Based on the original of The Treachery of Images–1928–29, a painting by the Belgian surrealist painter René Magritte. The statement written above is French and is taken to mean that the painting itself is not a pipe; it is merely an image of a pipe. Hence, the description, "this is not a pipe." The painting is sometimes given as an example of meta message conveyed by paralanguage. Compare with Korzybski's "The word is not the thing" and "The map is not the territory". In the same way neither the phone, nor the rosary beads are strictly tied to their image. They might be another thing.
