The relevance of ideas and beliefs to immigration as it is seen from a theory of personality point of view.

Abstract

In the realm of human culture, ideas and beliefs are studied in the disciplines of sociology, philosophy, not psychology. Although human spiritual abilities, that is, the ability to speak, think, yield thoughts, ideas, beliefs are maybe that which best characterize the human being as such, they are not considered part of the study of human personality. The levels-of-organization model of personality, which is presented here, considers human spiritual powers as part and parcel of human personality, and ascribes to it a very important specialized role. According to it, the highest stage of human growth are his spiritual abilities. Consequently, whatever a person does depends a great deal on what he thinks and believes. The importance of human spiritual powers is best manifested in crisis situations. This presentation will consider immigration as an example to stress, and examine the contribution of human ideas and beliefs to human ability to overcome this kind of stress.