A systematic review of religion/spirituality and sport: A psychological perspective

ObjectiveThe study aimed to review the existing literature on religion/spirituality (R/S) in sport from the psychological perspective.DesignA systematic review using the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) guidelines was employed.MethodThe literature search was completed in December 2018 using five different databases and Google Scholar. The titles and abstracts of the articles were reviewed for the selection process. The selected articles were classified into nine categories: the role of religion/spirituality, consultants, confidence, religious/spiritual faith, flow or being in the zone, identity, anxiety and depression, coping with adversity, and well-being and healing.ResultsA total of 56 studies met the criteria. The selected articles comprised various types of study design that were quantitative, qualitative, mixed-methods, as well as conceptual, review, theoretical, commentary, and perspective articles. The findings show that R/S can play a significant role among athletes in several ways (e.g., coping with uncertainties, building team cohesion, and alleviating anxiety). This study has also uncovered a few issues that should be emphasized for future research such as developing quantitative tools for R/S and sport-performance measurement and designing a religious/spiritual coping strategy that can be used among athletes from various cultures/religions.ConclusionAlthough R/S is often overlooked in sport psychology, the existing literature shows that it can have positive effects on mental health and contribute to achieving better sporting performance.     

Enhanced Verbal Statistical Learning in Glossolalia

Glossolalia (“speaking in tongues”) is a rhythmic utterance of word-like strings of sounds, regularly occurring in religious mass gatherings or various forms of private religious practices (e.g., prayer and meditation). Although specific verbal learning capacities may characterize glossolalists, empirical evidence is lacking. We administered three statistical learning tasks (artificial grammar, phoneme sequence, and visual-response sequence) to 30 glossolalists and 30 matched control volunteers. In artificial grammar, participants decide whether pseudowords and sentences follow previously acquired implicit rules or not. In sequence learning, they gradually draw out rules from repeating regularities in sequences of speech sounds or motor responses. Results revealed enhanced artificial grammar and phoneme sequence learning performances in glossolalists compared to control volunteers. There were significant positive correlations between daily glossolalia activity and artificial grammar learning. These results indicate that glossolalists exhibit enhanced abilities to extract the statistical regularities of verbal information, which may be related to their unusual language abilities.     

Creating a Space for Spiritual Practice: Pastoral Possibilities with Sexual Minorities

Is a religious gay person an oxymoron? It appears possible, given that the research on religion and spirituality among sexual minority individuals is so limited. While books written on the intersection of religion and psychotherapy may include a chapter addressing the religious and spiritual lives of lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals, there are no critical texts focusing solely on this issue. In this paper, we review some of the most recent research on homosexuality, religion, and spirituality, and discuss how LGB individuals may integrate these two identities. A case presentation is offered and implications for pastoral counselors and methods of supporting the integration of the spiritual/religious identity in tandem with a LGB identity are also discussed.     

Psychological Health and Attitude Toward Christianity Among Protestant and Catholic Sixth-Form Pupils in Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland remains both one of the more religiously active and also one of the most religiously divided countries in Europe. In this context 1,093 sixth-form pupils attending Protestant schools and 1,266 sixth-form pupils attending Catholic schools (aged between 16 and 19 years) completed the abbreviated Eysenck Personality Questionnaire Revised (EPQR-A), as a measure of psychological health, alongside the Francis Scale of Attitude toward Christainity (FSAC). The findings demonstrated that a positive attitude toward Christianity was associated with neither higher nor lower neuroticism scores, but was associated in both religious communities with lower psychoticism scores. There is no evidence, therefore, to associate a positive view of Christianity with poorer levels of psychological health among adolescents in Northern Ireland, and some evidence to associate a positive view of Christianity with better levels of psychological health.     

Clinical Efficacy of Ritual Healing and Pastoral Ministry

This article seeks to explain the relationship between religion and healing with special reference to the phenomenon of ritual healing. Relying on diverse research findings that articulate the relationship between ritual and healing, this article contends that the clinical efficacy of ritual is sustainable by invoking the concepts of self-healing and placebo effect, and that its efficacy lies in its performance, not in its meaning being either decodable by the ritual performers or theologically encodable by professional thinkers. This, I contend, has practical implications for pastoral care and counseling ministry.

Religious Doubt and Mental Health Across the Lifespan

The current study examined the connections among religious doubt, mental health, and aging in a nationwide sample of individuals 18 years and older (N = 1629). Findings indicate that that religious doubt emerging from the recognition of suffering and evil in the world has a deleterious impact on mental health. Results also show that as people grow older, religious doubts continue to be associated with psychopathology, but the magnitude of this association becomes weaker across age categories. In other words, the impact of doubt on mental distress declines as one ages. These effects were found across various measures of mental distress, including depression, general anxiety, interpersonal sensitivity, paranoia, hostility, and obsessive-compulsive symptoms. Findings are explored within the context of psychosocial development and the experiential trajectory of religious maturity.     

Religion and pseudo-religion: an elusive boundary

This paper examines the possibility of setting a boundary between religion and “pseudo-religion” (or superstition). Philosophers of religion inspired by Ludwig Wittgenstein’s ideas, in particular, insist that religious language-use can be neither legitimated nor criticized from the perspective of non-religious language-games. Thus, for example, the “theodicist” requirement that the existence of evil should be theoretically reconciled with theism can be argued to be pseudo-religious (superstitious). Another example discussed in the paper is the relation between religion and morality. The paper concludes by reflecting on the issue of relativism arising from the Wittgensteinian contention that the religion vs. pseudo-religion division can only be drawn within a religious framework, and on Wittgenstein’s own suggestion that the religious person “uses a picture”.     

Factor Structure,Validity, and Reliability of the Japanese Version of the Balanced Index of Psychological Mindedness (BIPM)

This study examined the measurement properties of the Balanced Index of Psychological Mindedness (BIPM) among the Japanese population. Exploratory factor analysis was conducted to examine the factor structure of the BIPM (Study 1) among 464 university students, and confirmatory factor analysis examined the validity and reliability of the BIPM (Study 2) among 321 university students. Additionally, the mitigation effect of psychological mindedness (PM) for depressive symptoms was examined. The results showed a two-factor structure (Interest and Insight) similar to the original BIPM. The BIPM was negatively correlated with the alexithymia score and positively correlated with the Psychological Mindedness Scale and Openness. It was also significantly correlated with future depressive symptoms. The BIPM is useful for measuring PM in the Japanese population. Additionally, this study suggests clinical applications of PM in psychotherapy and the treatment effect mechanism of cognitive behavioral therapy.     

Remembering events related to close relationships,self-growth,and helping others: Intrinsic autobiographical memories,need satisfaction,and well-being

The present research examined the relationships between memories with intrinsic versus non-intrinsic themes, need satisfaction, and well-being. In Study 1, participants (n = 244) who included intrinsic themes when asked to describe an autobiographical memory reported greater well-being than participants who did not. The degree of need satisfaction characterizing these memories mediated the relationship between intrinsic memories and well-being. In Study 2, participants (n = 126) were assigned to describe a memory characterized by intrinsic (e.g., helping others) or extrinsic (e.g., popularity) values. Need satisfaction characterizing the intrinsic, but not extrinsic, memories, was associated with well-being. Describing an intrinsic (but not an extrinsic) memory positively increased situational well-being. Need satisfaction in the intrinsic memories predicted the subsequent increase in well-being.