The Psychology Of The New Age

This chapter focuses on social-psychological, personality, and developmental research which the authors have independently carried out in Britain and Sweden using participants drawn from New Age settings and other groups of religious and non-religious people. It starts out by briefly mentioning some motivational aspects associated with the New Age, such as individualist/collectivist orientations and values, which have been a matter of considerable sociological debate. The chapter describes the conceptual framework and evidence on the cognitive and personality dispositions associated with magical thinking and proceeds to report a study which tested the association between New Age endorsement and such dispositions. Attachment theory, as formulated by Bowlby.J and extended by others, is a well-established framework for the study of child-parent relations and their implications for development. Keywords: attachment theory; New Age; non-religious people; Sweden