Coralie Buxant

• Catholic University of Louvain

People attending various spirituality and self-development conferences outside the framework of organised religious groups (N = 204) were compared to norms from the general population and to members of New Religious Movements (NRMs) on the following measures: attachment to parents in childhood, adult attachment, need for closure, need for cognition...

The wearing of the Islamic veil by Muslim women has become a source of tensions in Western European countries. In order to investigate majority members’ attitudes towards the veil, the present two studies (Ns = 166 and 147), carried out in Belgium, integrated three lines of research that have focused on (a) the role of subtle prejudice/racism on th...

How explain, from a psychological perspective, why some people turn to religion today? What are the motives? This question is particularly important in the current context of secularized societies and religious market. There is substantial evidence in previous literature on psychology of religion to support the idea that attraction to religion occu...

Do people convert to mainstream religions to compensate for defi ciency needs or to satisfy self-growth motives? This question is important in the context of secularized societies. In the present study, 180 converts to a variety of mainstream religions completed questionnaires measuring attachment with parents in childhood, adult romantic attachmen...

A great deal of research has shown that a variety of negative events and emotions can increase religion and spirituality. We argue that positive events and emotions (that imply some self-transcendence) can increase religion and spirituality. In two experiments, participants (N  = 91 and N  = 87) were exposed to a neutral video or one of three video...

According to previous research, New Religious Movements (NRMs) seem to have a positive effect on the mental health of members who join NRMs with some previous affective, cognitive or other vulnerabilities. The present study investigates the other, less positive, side of the psychology of NRMs, i.e. elements that may be an obstacle to optimal develo...

The impact of membership in new, often socially contested, religious movements (NRMs) on mental health of members and ex-members is still a controversial question in the psychological literature. In the present study, we interviewed 20 ex-members of various NRMs who also completed questionnaires measuring several cognitive (need for closure, world...

The common assumption that members of so-called “cults” and New Religious Movements (NRMs) have mental health problems is usually countered by empirical research suggesting a normal personality profile. Going further than the normality–pathology distinction, we investigated affective-relational (parental and adult attachment) and cognitive (need fo...