The centrality of religiosity scale (CRS) is a measure of the importance of religious constructs in personality. The Polish CRS has been applied in more than 40 published studies on the psychology of religion, with over 18,000 total participants. However, no comprehensive overview on the Polish CRS is available. This paper shows how using the CRS sheds light on different patterns in which religion integrates with other psychological variables. It consists of three parts: first, we introduce the Polish adaptation of the CRS; second, we present the review of the research using the Polish CRS; and finally, we provide research results that suggest a curvilinear mechanism for explaining the categories of the centrality of religiosity. Three measures were applied to the research: the CRS, emotions toward God scale, and content of prayer scale-revised. The results indicated that there is a curvilinear relationship between centrality of religiosity and emotions toward God, prayer types, and styles of request prayer (excluding passive request prayer). We determined the changepoints at which the relationship between the centrality of religiosity and the religious contents changes. This finding allowed us to provide empirical confirmation of Huber’s thesis (2003) that there is a different way of operating low, medium, and high scores in centrality, namely marginal, subordinated, and central religiosity. The study also broadens our understanding of each of these types of religiosity.

The aim of the research was to analyze the relationships of religious comfort and struggle with state anxiety and satisfaction with life in homosexual and heterosexual samples of men. A hundred and eight men aged between 18 and 43 participated in the research in total, 54 declared themselves as homosexual and 54 as heterosexual. The Religious Comfort and Strain Scale, the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory and the Satisfaction with Life Scale were applied to the research. The results of hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed that sexual orientation moderated the relationships of religious comfort and struggle with state anxiety and satisfaction with life. The highest state anxiety was observed in homosexual participants with high negative social interactions surrounding religion scores. Negative religious social interactions with fellow congregants and religious leaders, including disapproval and criticism, create anxiety among homosexual people. It seems that homosexual participants are engaged in a trade-off between valued and necessary religious engagement and the harassment and persecution they may be forced to endure in order to access that engagement.

Early adulthood, between 18 and 25, is viewed as a decisive period of life for the prevention and treatment of anxiety and depression. Although the topic of their mutual relationship is well-known, little has been uncovered about the mechanism underlying this connection. To understand the indirect pathways between anxiety and depression, we chose the sense of meaning of life as a mediator because people’s beliefs that their lives are or can be purposeful may protect against depression. The sample was composed of 277 Polish young adults. A small majority of the participants were women (58.8%). The mean age was M = 22.11 (SD = 1.72). We used in the research the Direct Behavior Rating-Scale Items Scale, the Meaning in Life Questionnaire, and the Brief Screen for Depression. Correlational analysis showed that, consistent with past findings, anxiety correlated positively with depression and searching for meaning. It was also negatively associated with presence of meaning. Moreover, depression was negatively linked to presence of meaning and positively with searching for meaning. Regression-based mediation analyses (PROCESS macro 3.4) proved that the relationship between anxiety and depression was mediated by presence of meaning in life, suggesting that having a sense of meaning may be a pathway by which feelings of tension relative to adverse events protect against depression.