Department of Psychological Sciences, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, USA; email:
Annu Rev Clin Psychol. 2023 May 9;19:461-487. doi: 10.1146/annurev-clinpsy-080921-081114. Epub 2022 Dec 8.
For many people worldwide, supernatural beliefs and attributions-those focused on God, the devil, demons, spirits, an afterlife, karma, or fate-are part of everyday life. Although not widely studied in clinical psychology, these beliefs and attributions are a key part of human diversity. This article provides a broad overview of research on supernatural beliefs and attributions with special attention to their psychological relevance: They can serve as coping resources, sources of distress, psychopathology signals, moral guides, and decision-making tools. Although supernatural attributions sometimes involve dramatic experiences seen to violate natural laws, people more commonly think of supernatural entities working indirectly through natural events. A whole host of factors can lead people to make supernatural attributions, including contextual factors, specific beliefs, psychopathology, cognitive styles and personality, and social and cultural influences. Our aim is to provide clinical psychologists with an entry point into this rich, fascinating, and often overlooked literature.
对于全世界许多人来说，超自然信仰和归因——那些专注于上帝、魔鬼、恶魔、灵魂、来世、因果报应或命运的信仰和归因——是日常生活的一部分。尽管在临床心理学中没有得到广泛研究，但这些信仰和归因是人类多样性的关键部分。本文对超自然信仰和归因进行了广泛的概述，特别关注它们的心理相关性：它们可以作为应对资源、痛苦的来源、精神病理学信号、道德指南和决策工具。尽管超自然归因有时涉及被视为违反自然规律的戏剧性体验，但人们更常认为超自然实体通过自然事件间接发挥作用。许多因素会导致人们做出超自然的归因，包括情境因素、特定信仰、精神病理学、认知风格和个性以及社会和文化影响。我们的目的是为临床心理学家提供一个切入点，进入这个丰富、迷人且常常被忽视的文献。
