Introduction to the Special Edition on Psychology of Religion at Rice University

This brief paper introduces the special edition of Pastoral Psychology on the psychology of religion at Rice University.     

The Impact of Impairment Criteria on Rates of ADHD Diagnoses in Preschoolers

Behaviors characteristic of ADHD are common among preschool children, and as such, their clinical significance is oftentimes difficult to ascertain. Thus a focus on impairment is essential in determining the clinical significance of these behaviors. In order to explore the impact of impairment criteria on rates of diagnoses in inattentive/hyperactive children aged 36 through 60-months-old, we first developed, and psychometrically evaluated, the Children's Problem Checklist (CPC) which was designed to assess psychosocial impairment associated with ADHD in a community sample of preschoolers (n = 394), and found its reliability and validity to be acceptable. We then examined the impact of the inclusion of various CPC-determined impairment criteria, over and above symptom criteria measured by the ADHD-RS-IV, using various cut points ranging from the 75th to 90th percentile of our community sample. This reduced the number of children meeting criteria for ADHD by 46-77%. These findings are discussed in terms of the importance of using impairment criteria, rather than just severity of inattention, impulsivity and hyperactivity, when diagnosing ADHD in preschool children.     

Sublimation and Symbolization: The Case of Dental Anxiety and the Symbolic Meaning of Teeth

In a previous article (Capps and Carlin 2009) we discussed Freud’s visit to the United States in 1909 and the occasion it afforded for James Putnam to meet him and become an advocate of psychoanalysis. We focused on their subsequent correspondence on the concept of sublimation and argued that this correspondence reflected the fact that friendship may be a form of sublimation. In this article we focus on Isador H. Coriat, an advocate of psychoanalysis from the same time period (1910s). We show that his early psychoanalytic writings (Coriat 1917, 1920) not only support our earlier argument but also make a strong case for the role of symbolization in the process of sublimation. We also note his emphasis on the potential role of living religion in the sublimation process. We then discuss his later article on dental anxiety (Coriat 1946) and writings by other psychoanalytic authors to make the case that the patient’s conscious understanding of the meaning of the symbols—in this case, teeth-related symbols—is essential, for otherwise the energies invested in maintaining the repression will be unavailable to the sublimation process. This leads to a consideration of the role that living religion may play in the sublimation of teeth-related anxieties. We conclude that humor may also serve as a proxy for religion in this regard.     

Review of Robert Dykstra’s Finding Ourselves Lost: Ministry in the Age of Overwhelm

Pastoral Psychology -     

Age and understanding speakers with Spanish or Taiwanese accents

This pilot study concerned the intelligibility of accented speech for listeners of different ages. 72 native speakers of English, representing three age groups (20-39, 40-59, 60 and older) listened to words and sentences produced by native speakers of English, Taiwanese, and Spanish. Listeners transcribed words and sentences. Listeners also rated speakers' comprehensibility, i.e., listeners' perceptions of difficulty in understanding utterances, and accentedness, i.e., how strong a speaker's foreign accent is perceived to be. On intelligibility measures, older adults had significantly greater difficulty in understanding individuals with accented speech than the other two age groups. Listeners, regardless of age, were more likely to provide correct responses if they perceived the speaker easier to understand. Ratings of comprehensibility were highly correlated with ratings of accentedness.     

Reflections for Clinical Pastoral Education Students in Psychiatric Settings

This article focuses on Donald Capps’s books on mental illness. In doing so I highlight three key insights from Capps that I have applied in my own ministry with persons with mental illness in various psychiatric hospitals. These insights, together with my own experience as a chaplain, lead to three practical lessons for clinical pastoral education students in psychiatric settings. I provide some context for my interest in mental illness and my friendship with Capps, as well as some background regarding how Capps’s writings on mental illness fit with certain broader themes in his own work as a pastoral theologian. This essay is personal throughout.