Paauglių atsakomybės sąsaja su jų Dievo įvaizdžiu
CORRELATION BETWEEN ADOLESCENT RESPONSIBILITY AND THEIR IMAGE OF GOD

Summary/Abstract: Modern democratic society protects freedom. It proclaims freedom of thought, speech and conscience. Freedom of choice and act is acknowledged although nobody says who and why needs this freedom and what its purpose is. Young people are widely encouraged to act and possess a lot of freedom. A young person is promised independence and freedom of self-expression. However, today there is a lack of consciousness and responsibility and not that of freedom. And when there is no authentic perception of duty, obligation and responsibility become a loathsome burden which is sooner or later shed away. Therefore, duty and responsibility gain strength only in the rebirth of religious dimension. Psychology acknowledges that the image of God influences the becoming of adolescents, the scale of their values, their relationship with parents and peers, self-assessment, religious practice and relations with the environment. Religion has a great impact on upbringing, maturity and world-view of children and adolescents and, therefore, this article deals with the correlation between adolescent responsibility and the image of God they possess. The object of the work is adolescent images of God in the context of responsibility and duty. The aim of the research is to determine if the image of God that adolescents possess influences their responsibility and obligation and to reveal adolescent images of God and their correlations with responsibility and obligation. The tasks are 1) to state the influence of positive images of God on adolescent responsibility and obligation; 2) to discuss the influence of negative images of God on formation and perception of adolescent values; 3) to present the results of empirical studies; 4) to determine if adolescents relate their responsibility to their belief in God. The chosen issues are discussed with the reference to the works of A. Biesinger (1999), P. Closkey (2004), K. Frielingsdorf (2003), A. Kepalaitė (2003), E. Martišauskienė (2001), K. Trimakas (1998, 2000). These authors researched the images of God. Direct links between the image of God and responsibility were found in the researches by R. Oželis (2006, 2007) whose material was introduced in the seminars, and V. Tunaitienė (2008) whose research was presented in the BA thesis at the department of Catechesis at Klaipėda University. This work produces the summed results of the research performed by R. Oželis in 2005-2008 and the research accomplished by V. Tunaitienė in 2008. While researching the expression of adolescent religiousness, one part of the target students (60 %) first drew pictures and wrote essays about their perception of God and how this perception influences their lifestyle. After that, the students answered the questions on the questionnaire. The analysis of the research results showed that all adolescents perceive themselves as responsible and dutiful although 12 % of them imagine that God is indifferent whereas most psychologists think that the image of

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