Nonsexual Relationships Between Psychotherapists and Their Former Clients: Obligations of Psychologists

This article examines the issue of nonsexual relationships between psychologists and their former therapy clients. What little research is available concerning nonsexual relationships with former clients suggests that psychologists have clear reservations about some of these relationships, especially personal ones and intentional social interactions. Relationships immediately following termination are seen as particularly suspect. Drawing on the literature dealing with multiple relationships in general, and sexual relationships with former clients in particular, a number of arguments are made outlining why psychologists should avoid significant nonsexual relationships with former clients for at least some period of time following termination.     

Rational-Emotive Assessment with Religious Clients

Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT), when practiced effectively and flexibly, can be an excellent treatment modality for religious clients. Most of the American population acknowledges some religious belief and/or practice and religious clients sometimes present with unique disturbances and concerns about psychotherapy. In this article we discuss the rapidly changing literature relative to religiousness and mental health and highlight the ethical-professional risks of failing to carefully assess and responsibly manage client religiousness when it is personally and clinically salient. We conclude by outlining a model for focused assessment of religiousness early in REBT and recommend that REBT practitioners consider different components of religiousness and the manner in which they may impact response to treatment.     

Secular and Liminal: Discovering Heterogeneity Among Religious Nones

This study examines the stability of religious preference among people who claim no religious preference in national surveys (i.e., religious nones). Using data from the Faith Matters Study, General Social Survey, and American National Election Study, we show that about 30 percent of religious nones in the first wave of the survey claim an affiliation with a religious group a year later. The percentage of religious nones remained stable in the two waves because a similar number of respondents moved in the opposite direction. Using various measures of religiosity, we show that most of these unstable nones report no significant change in religious belief or practice. We call them liminal nones as they stand halfway in and halfway out of a religious identity. We conclude by discussing the implications of our findings on the controversies surrounding the rise of religious nones in recent years.     

How Psychotherapists Address Hypothetical Multiple Relationships Dilemmas with Asian American Clients: A National Survey

This study examined how psychotherapists address hypothetical nonsexual multiple relationships dilemmas with Asian American clients and identified predictors of conservative decisions and the use of culture-based rationales. This survey of 787 Asian American and non-Asian American psychotherapists revealed that clinicians rely on mostly their personal policies and seldom focus on the clients' cultural backgrounds. Psychotherapists who consider their clients' Asian culture have more cultural knowledge and awareness, have been mental health providers longer, and are Asian American and female. Clinicians who avoid multiple relationships tend to cite formal policies as justification and are less likely to consider clients' cultural worldviews, the therapeutic relationship, or their own values. The results are discussed in terms of specific revisions needed in the American Psychological Association Ethics Code, the benefits of more frequent consultation with colleagues and supervisors about ethical dilemmas, and recommendations for psychotherapists.     

Practicing Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy and Religious Clients

REBT is a process of: (1) identifying dysfunctional emotions and behaviors which inhibit more effective pursuit of what clients experience as their deepest and most abiding desires; (2) relating these dysfunctions to irrational beliefs; (3) inducing clients to reduce the controlling role played by these beliefs in their lives and (4) adopting more self-helping beliefs and practices related to their goals thus reducing their dysfunctional emotions and behaviors and increasing their joyful living. This article discusses how this can be done from within an individual's supernatural belief system, whether that system is theistic or nontheistic.     

Religious Perspectives on Abortion and a Secular Response

This paper concerns the medical, religious, and social discourse around abortion. The primary goal of this paper is to better understand how seven of the world’s major religious traditions (Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Jewish, Islamic, Buddhist, Confucian, and Hindu) address abortion ‘in the clinic’. We do not aim to critique these commentaries but to draw out some of the themes that resonate through the commentaries and place these within complex social contexts. We consider the intersection of ontology and morality; the construction of women’s selfhood; the integration of religious beliefs and practices in a secular world. We suggest that for many women, religious doctrine may be balanced with secular logic as both are important and inextricably linked determinants of decision making about the termination of pregnancy.     

When Expertise and Ethics Diverge: Lay and Professional Evaluation of Psychotherapists in Israel

This study investigated school psychology doctoral students' beliefs concerning their preparation for, and concern about, dealing with 12 ethical issues based on year in graduate school and whether they had taken an ethics course. Two hundred thirty-three doctoral students from 18 of the 44 American Psychological Association accredited programs in school psychology listed in the December 1996 issue of the American Psychologist completed ethical issues surveys. Results showed that students who had taken an ethics course and those with more years of graduate education said they felt more prepared to deal with ethical issues than students who had not taken an ethics course and who had fewer years of graduate education. Participants believed they were least prepared to deal with ethical issues involving child custody cases, possible ethical violations by colleagues, and potentially violent clients. Participants' concern about dealing with ethical issues was negatively related to their number of internship hours.     

Religiousness and Religious Coping in a Secular Society: The Gender Perspective

Women are found to be more religious than men and more likely to use religious coping. Only few studies have explored religious gender differences in more secular societies. This population-based study comprised 3,000 Danish men and women (response rate 45 %) between 20 and 40 years of age. Information about demographics, religiousness and religious coping was obtained through a web-based questionnaire. We organized religiousness in the three dimensions: Cognition, Practice and Importance, and we assessed religious coping using the brief RCOPE questionnaire. We found substantial gender differences in both religiousness and religious coping. Nearly, 60 % of the women believed in some sort of spirit or in God compared to 40 % of the men. Generally, both men and women scored low on the RCOPE scale. However, for respondents reporting high levels of religiousness, the proportion of men who scored high in the RCOPE exceeded the proportion of women in using positive and especially negative coping strategies. Also, in a secular society, women are found to be more religious than men, but in a subset of the most religious respondents, men were more inclined to use religious coping. Further studies on religious coping in secular societies are required.     

The Politics of Judicial Public Reason: Secular Interests and Religious Rights

This paper seeks a better understanding of the role of public reason in alimenting or defusing religious conflicts by looking at how courts apply it in deciding cases arising out of them. Recent scholarship and judicial decisions suggest, paradoxically, that courts can be biased towards either the secular or the religious. This risks alienating both religious majorities and religious and secular minorities. Judicial public reason is uniquely equipped to protect minorities, and its costs to religious majorities may be mitigated by accepting religious morality and identity claims in the political and legislative realm. Despite the political fragilities of judicial public reason, it is not intrinsically hostile to religious claims. It ought in fact to be fully equipped to recognize the equality and religious freedom rights that religious groups and individuals might assert in pursuing exemptions from general secular laws. Judicial public reason does have the potential to defuse religious conflicts, however much it falls short in practice.     

Individuation and Attachment in Israel and Thailand: Secular Versus Religious Jews and Buddhists

Two of the most important constructs in social, developmental, and clinical psychology are attachment and individuation. This study examined the impact of degree and type of religion on them by comparing the results of religious-national type (Israeli Jewish vs. Thai Buddhist) and degree of religiosity (religious vs. secular) on four subscales of the Individuation-Attachment Questionnaire: Need for Individuation, Fear of Individuation, Need for Attachment, and Fear of Attachment. Four groups of participants were compared: 61 religious Israeli Jews, 71 secular Israeli Jews, 17 religious Thai Buddhists, and 20 secular Thai Buddhists. Significant differences were found on all subscales, with religious Thai Buddhists lowest on all four of them. The secular Thais were highest in Fear of Individuation and Attachment and Need for Individuation. The religious Israeli Jews were highest in Need for Attachment. Because these concepts are sometimes difficult to distinguish, correlations were calculated to determine whether and which concepts were confabulated by each group, shedding further light on their views of interpersonal distance. These results were analyzed through examination of the differing worldviews and observances of Judaism and Buddhism with regard to individuation and attachment. Striking differences were found in the comparative narratives, leading to differential schemata for individuation and attachment, for both religious and secular subsamples within each religious-national community. These religious-national milieus were found to influence attitudes and behaviors toward one's ideal concept of interpersonal distance, specifically with regard to the constructs of individuation and attachment. Attachment is highly valued in Judaism, whereas detached compassion is the goal of Buddhistic teaching.     

Preparing to Counsel Clients of Different Religious Backgrounds: A Phenomenological Approach

With a clientele reflecting the profound demographic changes taking place in the United States, counselors in the 1990s need to acquire a practical understanding of religious beliefs that may be new and different to them. In their religious research and study, counselors must avoid the pitfalls of bias and stereotyping. The phenomenological method is proposed as a means of studying religion with minimum distortion from personal prejudices and presuppositions.     

Women and Ideology: Representations of Women in Religious and Secular Turkish Media1

The present research examined representations of women in Turkish religious and secular daily newspapers. Based on social identity theory, it was predicted that religious and secular newspapers would differ with respect to evaluative references to mother/homemaker, career woman, and vamp subtypes. Secular and religious newspapers were examined every other day for a month. Analyses reveal that secular newspapers included higher proportions of positive references to the career woman and vamp subtypes than did religious newspapers. The 2 types of newspapers also differed with respect to the proportion of women mentioned as agents and targets, and with respect to actions performed by women agents and items related to victimization of women.     

Spiritual Transcendence and Mental Health of Psychotherapists and Religious Professionals in a Hungarian Adult Sample

In this study we examine whether components of spiritual transcendence can explain individual differences in mental health in a Hungarian adult sample (N = 583), with a special focus on the associations in two subsamples, religious professionals and psychotherapists. Using the Spiritual Transcendence Scale (STS), we found that religious professionals presented higher Prayer Fulfillment and Universality than psychotherapists; however, members of both professional groups scored higher than other professionals on these dimensions. By contrast, psychotherapists were superior to religious professionals in Connectedness. Moreover, higher Universality predicted better mental health, even after controlling for gender, age, profession, and basic personality traits. No interaction effects were found between profession and the subscales of the STS. Results suggest that the potential mental health benefits of spirituality, especially in form of a universal view of existence, are equally present in both specific professions and in the general sample, whereas the professions themselves still reflect differences both in spirituality and in well-being.     

Disturbing Politics: Neo‐Paulinism and the Scrambling of Religious and Secular Identities

Abstract : One of the most remarkable characteristics of recent cultural theory is its obsession with the early Christian apostle Paul. With this interest in Paul as contemporary cultural theory, a panoply of modern identities find themselves obsolesced, scrambled, or otherwise useless. This essay attempts to find new points of orientation within those scrambled identities that have appeared with this new Paul, and the essay does so by exploring the idea that we are now repeating a Pauline moment of kairos, that apocalyptic moment in which meaningful transformation of the world may occur.     

论宗教个人主义的世俗意义--分析16世纪宗教改革的起源和影响的一个视角

本文认为发生于 16世纪欧洲西北部的宗教改革 ,首先发端于对罗马教廷的专制和腐败的批判 ,随着宗教改革的深入和原罗马天主教统一局面及宗教权威的打破 ,形成了众多教派和教派之间的纷争。宗教改革的年代是欧洲资产阶级力量上升时期 ,是社会资源在封建贵族、教会势力和新兴资产阶级之间重新分配时期。世俗势力与宗教纷争的汇合 ,使得宗教改革最终带着血腥味从宗教冲突走向宗教宽容。宗教改革之后的宽容观是这场宗教改革留给历史的最宝贵财富 ,因为这种宽容观使信仰自由和宗教个人主义增加了世俗的意义。信仰自由和宗教个人主义 ,在随后的基督教世界的历史进程中 ,对早期世俗自由和个人主义的政治哲学观形成有着深刻的影响。     

Perceptions of Dual Identity and Separate Groups Among Secular and Religious Israeli Jews

Abstract

The authors examined the effects of perceptions of dual identity and separate groups on tendencies to handle intergroup conflict through problem solving and contention. Among secular Israeli Jews, regression analyses revealed a significant interaction between perceptions of dual identity and perceptions of separate groups: Only under high perception of dual identity was the perception of separate groups associated with contention. Among religious Israeli Jews, problem solving and contention were unrelated to either dual identity or to perceptions of separate groups. The results are discussed in terms of the common ingroup identity model (S. L. Gaertner, M. C. Rust, J. F. Dovidio, B. A. Bachman, & R A. Anastasio, 1994) and in the context of the conflict between religious and secular Jews in Israel.     

Burnout and Depression Among Roman Catholic Secular,Religious, and Monastic Clergy

Burnout and depression among Roman Catholic secular, religious order, and monastic (Cistercian) priests was investigated using the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) and the Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression (CESD) scale. Additionally, a Self-Report-Inventory (SRI) was included requesting information on demographics as well as four categories of predictor variables (vocational satisfaction, social support, spiritual activities, and physical environment) associated with burnout and depression. All participants were randomly selected. The survey yielded a return rate of 90.67%. Secular clergy reported significantly greater emotional exhaustion than did monastic clergy. Secular priests also had significantly greater depression (72%), when compared to religious (40.8%) and monastic (39.5) clergy. Overall group comparisons revealed that secular clergy experienced the highest degree of burnout and depression, monastics the least, and religious priests falling in between. The lack of social support and sense of isolation, for secular clergy, were key elements associated with their experience of both burnout and depression. Candidate in Psychology atand a Psychology Intern at the Ohio State University