Religiosity, Spirituality, and the Subjective Quality of African American Men's Friendships: An Exploratory Study

The present study fills a crucial gap in literature surrounding the lives of African American men by exploring factors that shape the quality of these men's friendships. Drawing on data from a sample of 171 African American men, the study examines the relative utility of subjective religiosity, subjective spirituality, advice exchange, and affective sharing as predictors of the level of perceived support from male and female friends. Findings reveal age differences in subjective religiosity, subjective spirituality, and in level of advice and affective exchange in men's same-sex as well as cross-sex friendships. Age differences emerged in men's perceptions of the supportiveness of their friendships with women but not with men. Age was not a predictor of perceived supportiveness of same-sex or cross-sex friendships. Subjective religiosity did not predict support in same-sex or cross-sex friendships. Subjective spirituality positively predicted perceived support in men's same-sex friendships but not in cross-sex friendships. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

The Role of Spirituality in Counseling: Four Theoretical Orientations

Pastoral care and counseling is emerging as an effective and respected practice within the theological, psychological, and counseling professions. However, a survey of contemporary literature reveals a need to demonstrate the role of spirituality in the specific theoretical orientations of psychology and counseling. This article will provide a basic overview and discuss the role of spirituality in each of the four primary psychological theories: psychodynamic, existential/phenomenological, behavioral, and cognitive.     

Spirituality,Culture and Mental Health: Prospects and Risks for Contemporary Psychology of Religion

This paper asks whether: (1) psychology of religion is doing what it is supposed to do, (2) the contemporary psychological attention to religion and spirituality is perhaps of a transgressive nature, and (3) conceptualizations of spirituality in psychological publications are biased. It makes a plea for phenomenologically well-informed research on real forms of religion and spirituality, from a perspective that is as broad as psychology at present has become, with due regard for both the cultural make-up of the phenomena and the unavoidable limits of psychologists' professional competence.     

Mental Health and Spirituality in Later Life: Pastoral Approaches

SUMMARY

This chapter proposes a perspective on providing pastoral care for people at risk of, or who have mental health problems in later life. Two major areas of mental health, depression and dementia are explored, examining their impact on older people and strategies to identify risk in depression, and signs indicating need for pastoral intervention in depression and/or dementia. The work from two studies that examine issues for meaning of people, the first for older people living independently and the second in residential care, form the basis of the material presented in this chapter. It is maintained that pastoral interventions may greatly improve quality of life for these people, their families and carers.¹     

The Relationship Between Religion, Spirituality, Psychological Adjustment, and Quality of Life Among People with Multiple Sclerosis

The present research was comprised of two studies that aimed to explore the role of religious and spiritual variables in the psychological adjustment and quality of life of people with Multiple Sclerosis (MS). In study 1, religious behavior and objective levels of spirituality and religiosity were not significantly related to psychological adjustment or quality of life among people with MS. Positive religious coping was negatively related to psychological adjustment and quality of life. In study 2, Intrinsic religious orientation and Quest religious orientation were related to poor psychological adjustment. Implications of the present research for people with MS and other chronic illnesses are discussed.     

Spirituality in MFT Training: Development of the Spiritual Issues in Supervision Scale

As spirituality moves increasingly to the forefront of the body of marriage and family therapy (MFT) literature, many clinicians still find it uncomfortable or difficult to address spirituality in therapy. This study presents a new measure—the Spiritual Issues in Supervision Scale (SISS)—that examines supervisees' perceptions of the degree to which spirituality is addressed in supervision. Researchers distributed the SISS to mental health professionals around the United States who either were receiving supervision currently or had received supervision recently from professionals in their fields or programs. Results indicated that the new instrument has evidence of reliability and validity.     

An Intricate Dance: Life Experience,Multisystem Resiliency,and Rate of Telomere Decline Throughout the Lifespan

Accumulation of life stressors predicts accelerated development and progression of diseases of aging. Telomere length, the DNA‐based biomarker indicating cellular aging, is a mechanism of disease development, and is shortened in a dose response fashion by duration and severity of life stressor exposures. Telomere length captures the interplay between genetics, life experiences and psychosocial and behavioral factors. Over the past several years, psychological stress resilience, healthy lifestyle factors, and social connections have been associated with longer telomere length and it appears that these factors can protect individuals from stress‐induced telomere shortening. In the current review, we highlight these findings, and illustrate that combining these ‘multisystem resiliency’ factors may strengthen our understanding of aging, as these powerful factors are often neglected in studies of aging. In naturalistic studies, the effects of chronic stress exposure on biological pathways are rarely main effects, but rather a complex interplay between adversity and resiliency factors. We suggest that chronic stress effects can be best understood by directly testing if the deleterious effects of stress on biological aging processes, in this case the cell allostasis measure of telomere shortening, are mitigated in individuals with high levels of multisystem resiliency. Without attending to such interactions, stress effects are often masked and missed. Taking account of the cluster of positive buffering factors that operate across the lifespan will take us a step further in understanding healthy aging. While these ideas are applied to the telomere length literature for illustration, the concept of multisystem resiliency might apply to aging broadly, from cellular to systemic health.     

Poverty and Wealth in the Orthodox Spirituality (with special reference to St. John Chrysostom)

Abstract : This essay deals with the right relation we should have to material wealth in modern society, a society often marked by rank consumerism. Material goods are given to humans only to be managed for the benefit of all people, regardless of faith or race. This ethical stance does not attack or seek to abolish the right to private property, but restores it to its proper place. Specifically, patristic spirituality, such as that articulated by St. John Chrysostom, does not invalidate the principle of individual ownership, but corrects it, meaning that, while owners are owners in relation to the poor, they are only managers of wealth in relation to God.     

Religiosity and Spirituality: Influence on Quality of Life and Perceived Patient Self-Efficacy among Cardiac Patients and Their Spouses

The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of spirituality, religiosity, and religious coping on quality of life and self-efficacy among couples following a first time cardiac event. There was no significant association between measures for spirituality and religiosity and couples’ ratings for quality of life and self-efficacy. Negative forms of religious coping were associated with lower levels of quality of life and decreased confidence in the patient’s ability to perform physical tasks. Spouses’ measures for quality of life, self-efficacy, spirituality, religiosity, and religious coping were associated with patients’ measures for the same study variables. Joan F. Miller, RN, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor of Nursing, Bloomsburg University, Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania 17815 and Director of the Bloomsburg University Nursing Wellness Center. The author gives special thanks to Timothy R. McConnell, Ph.D., and Troy A. Klinger, M.S., for their research support and helpful feedback.     

A noble quest: cultivating Christian spirituality in Catholic adolescents and the usefulness of 12 pastoral practices

The essay considers the process of cultivating Christian spirituality in Catholic adolescents. It will integrate and document official Catholic Church teachings on the subject and also unofficial scholarly reflections. The exposé briefly defines adolescent spirituality and situates the process of cultivating adolescent spirituality in Catholic youth ministry. The concentration of the inquiry is predominantly single‐minded – addressing briefly – 12 Catholic spiritual virtues, traits, practices, and disciplines that cultivate adolescent spirituality in US Catholic young people.     

Personality and Spirituality: Christian Prayer and Eastern Meditation Are Not the Same

A random sample of 1,033 adults in an Australian community survey completed a form containing the abbreviated Revised Eysenck Personality Questionnaire together with questions about the practice of prayer and Eastern meditation. While prayer was associated with low psychoticism scores, Eastern meditation was associated with high psychoticism scores.     

Introduction: Special Issue on Spirituality and Adult Development, Part III

This paper reviews the purpose of the three-part Special Issue on Spirituality and Adult Development, described in the Introduction to Special Issue Parts I and II (J. D. Sinnott, 2001, in press). It also outlines the contents of Part III. Developing adults express their belief that spirituality plays a key role in their development, and humanistic psychology supports this view, yet developmental psychologists have given comparatively little attention to this factor. Also the concept of spirituality seldom has been considered separately from that of religion. The purpose of this Special Issue is to begin to remedy this neglect and to begin to examine the meanings spirituality has for the developing adult. How might spirituality be adaptive? How might it relate to our connections with others and our society? This introduction is a summary of the five empirical and theoretical papers that form Part III of the Special Issue on Spirituality and Adult Development.     

Muslim Experiential Religiousness in Pakistan: Meaning in Life,General Well-Being and gender differences

This study examined relationships of Muslim spirituality with positive psychology in Pakistan. In a sample of 200 university students and community members, the spirituality of Muslim Experiential Religiousness displayed direct linkages with Meaning in Life and General Well-Being subscales. Muslim Experiential Religiousness also correlated positively with single-item assessments of the Intrinsic, Extrinsic Personal, and Extrinsic Social Religious Orientations and explained the relationships of these religious motivations with General Life Satisfaction. Women scored higher than men on Muslim Experiential Religiousness, but at least some linkages of Muslim spirituality with positive psychology were more robust in men. As in other recent investigations, these data confirmed Muslim Experiential Religiousness as a valid index of Muslim spirituality beyond the Iranian cultural context in which it was developed.     

心理学研究工具与心理学的发展

本文在考察心理学发展与研究工具的关系基础上,总结了心理学研究工具的定义和分类,并重点探索了心理学研究工具在心理学发展过程中的作用。并指出在未来心理学研究中新的研究工具和方法将起到越来越重要的作用。     

Portraits of Life: Patterns of Events Over the Lifespan

This explorative content-analytic study completes earlier studies on the lifespan distributions of number and affect of past and future life-events, collected by means of the Life-line Interview Method (LIM), for three age groups of men and women (young, middle and late adulthood). LIM events were classified into 40 subcategories divided over 9 categories: Relations, School, Work, Health, Growth, Home, Birth, Death and Other. Compression of the full data set by age group, gender, affect, decade, and time perspective, disclosed various patterns of events underlying the human life-course, e.g., the 'bump,' 'rosy view' and 'gender phase contrast' patterns. The compressed data set provided detailed material for the composition of three written group portraits of life, reflecting the modal life story of young, middle-aged and older men and women. Patterns and portraits show a content shift of past memories and future expectations over the lifespan, supporting a more dynamic view on the human life-course.     

Spirituality and Trauma: The Role of Clergy in the Treatment of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

An increased awareness of the spiritual aspects of health and illness has recently led to changes in psychiatry residency training as well as hospital accreditation requirements. The spiritual impact of trauma has been an area of particular interest, as trauma evokes certain existential questions and crises. It is estimated that from 5–11% of trauma survivors will go on to develop posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Given the spiritual challenges of the experience of trauma, patients with PTSD could benefit from spiritual assessment and intervention as part of their overall treatment plan, and clergy can be utilized to perform this. The literature exploring the spiritual impact of trauma and the use of clergy in the treatment of trauma survivors is reviewed. The methods used by three chaplains in a residential treatment program for PTSD at one facility are described and discussed. Both the literature and the experiences of the clergy suggest that exploration of trauma-related existential conflicts in patients with PTSD is beneficial. However, there is a notable dearth of controlled scientific studies evaluating the effectiveness of spiritual interventions with this treatment population. The need for controlled studies to verify the usefulness of spiritual assessment and intervention in patients with PTSD is noted, and a more rigorous analysis of how clergy can best serve this treatment population is encouraged.     

Spiritual Development Across the Adult Life Course: Findings from a Longitudinal Study

Longitudinal data spanning early (30s) and older (late 60s/mid-70s) adulthood were used to study spiritual development across the adult life course in a sample of men and women belonging to a younger (born 1928/29) and an older (born 1920/21) age cohort. All participants, irrespective of gender and cohort, increased significantly in spirituality between late middle (mid-50s/early 60s) and older adulthood. Members of the younger cohort increased in spirituality throughout the adult life cycle. In the second half of adulthood, women increased more rapidly in spirituality than men. Spiritual involvement in older age was predicted by religious involvement and personality characteristics in early adulthood and subsequent experiences of negative life events.     

Spirituality and Healthy Lifestyle Behaviors: Stress Counter-balancing Effects on the Well-being of Older Adults

The goal of this study was to examine stress-ameliorating effects of religiosity, spirituality, and healthy lifestyle behaviors on the stressful relationship of chronic illness and the subjective physical well-being of 221 older adults. We also investigated whether the intervening variables functioned as coping behaviors and orientations or as adaptations in late life. Guided by the stress paradigm, path analysis was used to assess these relationships in a stress suppressor model and a distress deterrent model. No suppressor effects were found; however a number of distress deterrent relationships were detected. Spirituality, physical activities, and healthy diet all contributed to higher subjective physical well-being, as counter-balancing effects, in the distress deterrent model. The findings have implications for future research on the role of spirituality, religiosity and lifestyle behaviors on the well-being of chronically ill older adults. Findings also support the need for studying different dimensions of religiosity and spirituality in an effort to understand coping versus adaptation in behaviors and orientations. Gracie H. Boswell, Ph.D., M.Ed. (Case Western Reserve University) and (M. Ed.- Kent State University). She is a Carolina Program in Health and Aging Research Scientist at the Institute on Aging- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her research interests have been social gerontology and quality of life, emphasizing religiosity/spirituality. Eva Kahana, Ph.D. (University of Chicago) is Pierce T. and Elizabeth D. Robson Professor of Humanities and Director of the Elderly Care Research Center- Case Western Reserve University. Her research concentration has been the sociology of aging (coping & stress and institutionalization). Peggye Dilworth-Anderson, Ph.D. (Northwestern University) is Director- Center for Aging and Diversity, Institute on Aging, Professor- School of Public Health, Department of Health Policy and Administration at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her research interests have been caregiving and minority health disparities.