ARDA LEARNING RESOURCES
Title of Paper Goes Here
Religious Socialization, Conversion, and Switching
Objective:
1) Examine how individuals become religious, stay religious, or change their religion
2) Familiarize students with online research tools
Activity:
As a class, investigate how sociologists measure the processes of religious socialization,
conversion, and switching (conversion experience, childhood religious identity,
parent’s religious affiliation, friends at church, friends who are religious, religious
intermarriage)
Assessment:
Drawing upon what they now know, direct students to write a response paper to one of the
Ahead of the Trend articles that utilizes the concepts of socialization, conversion, and
switching. At the archive page for Ahead of the Trend students can search the archive
using the terms socialization, conversion, and switching.
Suggested reading:
“Attachment Theory” in “Theories, Concepts, Measures” in the Religion Research Hub on
The ARDA
Barker, Eileen. 1984. The Making of a Moonie: Choice or Brainwashing? Oxford, UK:
Blackwell Publishers.
Bartkowski, John P. 2007. “Religious Socialization among American Youth.” In The SAGE
Handbook of the Sociology of Religion, J.A. Beckford and N.J. Demerath (eds.), pp.
511-525. London.
“Conversion” in “Theories, Concepts, Measures” in the Religion Research Hub on The
ARDA
“Conversion Theory” in “Theories, Concepts, Measures” in the Religion Research Hub on
The ARDA
Davidman, Lynn. 1991. Tradition in a Rootless World: Women Turn to Orthodox Judaism.
California.
“Disaffiliation” in “Theories, Concepts, Measures” in the Religion Research Hub on The
ARDA
Kirkpatrick, Lee A. and Phillip R. Shaver. 1990. “Attachment Theory and Religion:
Childhood Attachments, Religious Beliefs, and Conversion” Journal for the Scientific
Study of Religion 29(3):315-334.
Lofland, John, and Rodney Stark. 1965. “Becoming a World-Saver: A Theory of Conversion
to a Deviant Perspective.” American Sociological Review 30: 862-875.
“Religious Preferences” in “Theories, Concepts, Measures” in the Religion Research Hub on
The ARDA
“Religious Social Networks” in “Theories, Concepts, Measures” in the Religion Research
Hub on The ARDA
“Religious Switching” in “Theories, Concepts, Measures” in the Religion Research Hub on
The ARDA
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ARDA LEARNING RESOURCES
Title of Paper Goes Here
Roberts, Keith and David Yamane. 2011. Religion in the Sociological Perspective, 5th edition.
Sage. Ch. 5-6.
Sherkat, Darren E. 1997. “Embedding Religious Choices: Integrating Preferences and Social
Constraints into Rational Choice Theories of Religious Behavior.” In Rational Choice
Theory and Religion: Summary and Assessment, ed. LA Young, pp. 65-86. New York:
Routledge.
Sherkat, Darren E. 2001. “Tracking the Restructuring of American Religion: Religious
Affiliation and Religious Mobility, 1973-1998.” Social Forces 79(4):1459-1493.
Sherkat, Darren E. 2003. “Religious Socialization: Sources of Influence and Influences of
Agency.” In The Handbook of the Sociology of Religion, M. Dillon (ed.), pp. 151-163.
Cambridge.
Sherkat, Darren E. and John Wilson. 1995. ”Preferences, Constraints, and Choices in
Religious Markets: An Examination of Religious Switching and Apostasy.” Social
Forces 73:993-1026.
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