An important intellectual shift has taken place in the sociology of religion as many of its longest held theoretical positions, passed down from the founders of the field, have been overturned. These changes have been so dramatic and far-reaching that Warner (1993, p. 1044) identified them “as a paradigm shift in progress,” an assessment that
Risky shift occurs when people change their decisions or opinions to become more extreme and risky when acting as part of a group, compared with acting individually; this is one form of the phenomenon known as group polarization. The result is that group decisions are bolder and more adventurous than those made by individuals alone
When you explain to your 5-year-old nephew that his mother is your sister, he stares at you in disbelief. His 7-year-old sister, however, immediately understands that her mother could also be someone’s sister. The difference between your nephew’s and niece’s understanding illustrates the dramatic changes in children’s cognitive functioning that occur between the ages of