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Spiritual Beliefs (spiritual + belief)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Medical Sciences	40%
Psychology	20%
Humanities and Social Sciences	13%

Selected Abstracts

Complementary Spiritual Beliefs in the Latino Community: The Interface with Psychotherapy

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF ORTHOPSYCHIATRY, Issue 4 2001
Annecy Baez M.S.W., Ph.D.
A model involving a dynamic spectrum of belief by Latinos in the spiritual traditions of Santeria and Espiritismo is proposed as replacement for the more static prevalence model. The issue of clinical responsiveness to such material is examined and illustrated, and implications for research and practice are discussed. [source]

Correlations Between Spiritual Beliefs and Health-Related Quality of Life of Chronic Hemodialysis Patients in Taiwan

ARTIFICIAL ORGANS, Issue 7 2009
Tze-Wah Kao
Abstract This study evaluated the correlations between spiritual beliefs and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) of hemodialysis (HD) patients in Taiwan. Participants had to complete two questionnaires: the 36-item Short Form Health Survey Questionnaire and the Royal Free Interview for Spiritual and Religious Beliefs. They were then divided into three groups according to their strength of spiritual beliefs,having no, weak, or strong beliefs. Demographic, clinical, and laboratory data among groups were compared. Correlations between spiritual beliefs and HRQOL were then determined by the analysis of covariance and the post hoc Scheffe tests. Six hundred thirty-three patients completed the study. There were more women in the group of patients with strong beliefs (P = 0.005) and more less-educated patients in the group of patients with weak beliefs (P = 0.005). Patients with no or with strong spiritual beliefs had higher role physical (P = 0.01) and social functioning (SF) (P = 0.001) scores than patients with weak beliefs. After adjustment for gender, age, marital status, education, comorbidities, and time on dialysis, patients with no or with strong spiritual beliefs were found to have higher SF scores (P = 0.02) than patients with weak beliefs. HD patients with no or strong spiritual beliefs had higher SF HRQOL than those with weak spiritual beliefs. [source]

Religion, spirituality, and genetics: Mapping the terrain for research purposes,

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF MEDICAL GENETICS, Issue 1 2009
Larry R. Churchill
Abstract Genetic diseases often raise issues of profound importance for human self-understanding, such as one's identity, the family or community to which one belongs, and one's future or destiny. These deeper questions have commonly been seen as the purview of religion and spirituality. This essay explores how religion and spirituality are understood in the current US context and defined in the scholarly literature over the past 100 years. It is argued that a pragmatic, functional approach to religion and spirituality is important to understanding how patients respond to genetic diagnoses and participate in genetic therapies. A pragmatic, functional approach requires broadening the inquiry to include anything that provides a framework of transcendent meaning for the fundamental existential questions of human life. This approach also entails suspending questions about the truth claims of any particular religious/spiritual belief or practice. Three implications of adopting this broad working definition will be presented. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]

Spiritual But Not Religious?

JOURNAL OF PERSONALITY, Issue 5 2006
Evidence for Two Independent Dispositions
ABSTRACT Some psychologists treat religious/spiritual beliefs as a unitary aspect of individual differences. But a distinction between mysticism and orthodox religion has been recognized by scholars as well as laypersons, and empirical studies of "ism" variables and of "spirituality" measures have yielded factors reflecting this distinction. Using a large sample of American adults, analyses demonstrate that subjective spirituality and tradition-oriented religiousness are empirically highly independent and have distinctly different correlates in the personality domain, suggesting that individuals with different dispositions tend toward different styles of religious/spiritual beliefs. These dimensions have low correlations with the lexical Big Five but high correlations with scales (e.g., Absorption, Traditionalism) on some omnibus personality inventories, indicating their relevance for studies of personality. [source]

Psychopathology in the schools: Multicultural factors that impact assessment and intervention

PSYCHOLOGY IN THE SCHOOLS, Issue 4 2006
Lisa A. Suzuki
All cultures promote specific norms of behavior that can influence the assessment and intervention process with members of racially/ethnically diverse groups who are diagnosed with various forms of psychopathology. The purpose of this article is to highlight literature on the prevalence of psychological disorders with respect to children and adolescents from different racial/ethnic groups and present variables that may impact assessment and intervention within these diverse populations (e.g., contextual factors, racial and ethnic identity, religious/spiritual beliefs, parenting factors, student attitudes). In addition, cultural issues related to the assessment process and culturally sensitive recommendations for intervention are addressed. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 43: 429,438, 2006. [source]

The Impact of Spiritual Intelligence on the Health of the Elderly in Malaysia

ASIAN SOCIAL WORK AND POLICY REVIEW, Issue 2 2010
Zarina Mat Saad
In an attempt to study the impact of spiritual intelligence on the health of the elderly, research has been carried out on 378 elderly people in Perlis, Malaysia. The primary objectives of the study were: (i) to identify the levels of spiritual intelligence and general health of the elderly; (ii) to examine the relationships between spiritual intelligence and health of elderly; (iii) to examine the differences in the level of spiritual intelligence and health based on selected demographic factors; and (iv) to predict the most dominant dimension of spiritual intelligence that affects health. Sets of questionnaires were distributed to gather data. The findings showed that the majority of respondents were in good health, and had excellent spiritual intelligence. It also suggested that spiritual intelligence was positively associated with general health. Those who had higher levels of spiritual intelligence tended to have higher levels of health. The ability to conduct daily life with sanctification based on one's spiritual belief was the most dominant factor of good health. The study suggested that spirituality is related to health and has a positive effect on participants' overall health. Based on our findings, we recommend that health practitioners introduce the biopsychosocial-spiritual model when assessing the health of the elderly. [source]

Spirituality and mental health

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF APPLIED PSYCHOANALYTIC STUDIES, Issue 2 2010
Harold G. Koenig
Abstract Spirituality is increasingly being examined as a factor in mental health. Recent studies have found that spirituality may serve as a psychological and social resource for coping with stress. After defining the term spirituality, this paper examines some of the research on the relationship between spirituality and mental health, focusing on depression, anxiety, and substance abuse. While spiritual beliefs often represent powerful sources of comfort, hope and meaning, at times they can entangled with mental and emotional disorders making it difficult to determine whether they are a resource or a liability. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Spiritually oriented psychodynamic psychotherapy

JOURNAL OF CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 2 2009
Edward P. Shafranske
Abstract Spiritually oriented psychodynamic psychotherapy pays particular attention to the roles that religious and spiritual beliefs, practices, and experiences play in the psychological life of the client. Contemporary psychoanalytic theorists offer multiple approaches to understand the functions of religious experience. Spirituality provides a means to address existential issues and provide a context to form personal meaning. Religious narratives present schemas of relationship and models of experiences salient to mental health, such as hope. God images or other symbolic representations of the transcendent have the power to evoke emotions, which in turn, influence motivation and behavior. While employing theories and techniques derived from psychodynamic psychotherapy, this therapeutic approach encourages the analysis of the functions religion and spirituality serve, while respecting the client's act of believing in faith. Psychotherapists address a client's spirituality by exploring the psychological meaning of such personal commitments and experiences and refrain from entering into discussion of faith claims. ©2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Clin Psychol: In Session 65:1,11, 2009. [source]

Sharing experience, conveying hope: Egalitarian relations as the essential method of Alcoholics Anonymous

NONPROFIT MANAGEMENT & LEADERSHIP, Issue 2 2006
Thomasina Borkman
The predictions of Max Weber's "iron cage" of bureaucracy and Michels's "iron law of oligarchy" failed to materialize in Alcoholics Anonymous. AA has maintained an alternative form of collectivistic-democratic voluntary organization for more than seventy years. Its organizational form was developed within its first five years and articulated in its foundational text, Alcoholics Anonymous, published in 1939. Based on detailed histories of its early years, an analysis of AA's crucial ingredients suggests that six factors interacted to avoid the temptations of power, money, and professionalization that would have resulted in a bureaucratic form of organization or oligarchic leadership. In order to avoid death and to obtain or maintain abstinence, the desperate cofounders stumbled on the essential method: egalitarian peers share their lived experiences, conveying hope and strength to one another. In the context of the essential method, the two cofounders, from the Midwest and New York City, held similar spiritual beliefs and practiced a self-re?exive mode of social experiential learning gained from the Oxford Group, a nondenominational group that advocated healing through personal spiritual change; they downplayed their charismatic authority in favor of consulting with and abiding by the consensus of the group. [source]

Illness perspectives of Thais diagnosed with schizophrenia

NURSING & HEALTH SCIENCES, Issue 3 2009
Ladda Sanseeha rn
Abstract This study explored the perceptions of 18 people diagnosed with schizophrenia from 1,10 years to uncover how they perceived themselves and their illness. It also involved 12 family members who added their perceptions. The data were collected using in-depth interviews, reflective journaling, and observations. The data were analyzed through the lens of Heidegger's hermeneutic phenomenology. Four themes emerged: perceptions of mental illness, perceptions of the causes of illness, perceptions of discrimination, and attempting to live with schizophrenia. The findings included strong underlying cultural and spiritual beliefs, and attitudes unique to the Thai participants, including the causation of schizophrenia by supernatural powers, black magic, and bad karma stemming from past deeds. Understanding the perceptions of the participants might help health-care providers to be more sensitive to those living with schizophrenia in Thailand and elsewhere. In particular, the findings could be useful in informing psychiatric careproviders about developing better caring systems for clients diagnosed with schizophrenia. This should help the sufferers of schizophrenia to live their lives to their own satisfaction and as normally as possible. [source]

The role and impact of personal faith and religion among genetic service providers,

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF MEDICAL GENETICS, Issue 1 2009
Gail Geller
Abstract This paper describes the impact of genetic service providers' personal faith and religious values on their experiences interacting with colleagues and patients. We surveyed 480 clinical geneticists (MDs), genetic counselors (GCs), and genetic nurses randomly selected from their professional associations, and then interviewed a sample of survey respondents. Outcomes included religiosity, coping with distress through spiritual beliefs, and personal value conflicts (PVCs). Two hundred fourteen providers completed the survey out of an estimated 348 eligible (61% response rate). Importance attributed to regular attendance at religious services ranged from 39% (not at all important) to 27% (very important). Reliance on religion and spiritual beliefs as a source of comfort ranged from 48% (never) to 33% (sometimes or often). Religiosity varied by discipline with 58% of nurses thinking regular attendance at religious services was moderately or very important as compared to 47% of GCs and 30% of MDs (P,=,0.006). Ten percent of respondents had difficulty reconciling their own faith with being a genetics professional, 14% felt the need to hide their own faith from their colleagues or patients, 7% thought their professional stance was not consistent with their personal values, and 4% felt ostracized by the genetics community because of their personal beliefs. The experience of such PVCs was positively correlated with religiosity (r,=,0.35; P,<,0.0001). GCs were more likely to experience PVCs than MDs or nurses (P,=,0.013). Data from the interviews (N,=,54) support these findings. A significant minority of genetic service providers are religiously observant and rely on their religious values to cope with distress. These individuals often experience difficulty reconciling their religious beliefs with the expectations of their profession, and sharing their beliefs with their colleagues and patients. Efforts should be made to prevent or reduce the secrecy surrounding personal faith and religion among genetics professionals. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]

Making sense of genetic uncertainty: The role of religion and spirituality,

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF MEDICAL GENETICS, Issue 1 2009
Mary T. White
Abstract This article argues that to the extent that religious and spiritual beliefs can help people cope with genetic uncertainty, a limited spiritual assessment may be appropriate in genetic counseling. The article opens by establishing why genetic information is inherently uncertain and why this uncertainty can be medically, morally, and spiritually problematic. This is followed by a review of the range of factors that can contribute to risk assessments, including a few heuristics commonly used in responses to uncertainty. The next two sections summarize recent research on the diverse roles of religious and spiritual beliefs in genetic decisions and challenges to conducting spiritual assessments in genetic counseling. Based on these findings, religious and spiritual beliefs are posited as serving essentially as a heuristic that some people will utilize in responding to their genetic risks. In the interests of helping such clients make informed decisions, a limited spiritual assessment is recommended and described. Some of the challenges and risks associated with this limited assessment are discussed. Since some religious and spiritual beliefs can conflict with the values of medicine, some decisions will remain problematic. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]

Correlations Between Spiritual Beliefs and Health-Related Quality of Life of Chronic Hemodialysis Patients in Taiwan

Influence of religious and spiritual values on the willingness of Chinese,Americans to donate organs for transplantation

CLINICAL TRANSPLANTATION, Issue 5 2000
Wilbur Aaron Lam
The rate of organ donation among minority groups in the United States, including Chinese,Americans, is very low. There is currently very little data in the biomedical literature that builds on qualitative research to quantify the attitudes of Chinese,Americans toward organ donation. The present study quantitatively assesses the religious and cultural reasons that Chinese,Americans appear to be less willing to donate their organs than other populations. It also seeks to determine whether Confucian, Buddhist, or Daoist ideals are a significant factor in their overall reluctance to donate organs among respondents in this sample. A questionnaire distributed to Chinese,American adults asked about general feelings toward organ donation and Buddhist, Confucian, Christian, Daoist, and other spiritual objections. The results suggest that Chinese,Americans are indeed influenced by Confucian values, and to a lesser extent, Buddhist, Daoist, and other spiritual beliefs, that associate an intact body with respect for ancestors or nature. Another significant finding is that the subjects were most willing to donate their organs after their deaths, to close relatives, and then in descending order, distant relatives, people from their home country, and strangers. This ,negotiable' willingness has enormous implications for clinicians, who may be able to increase organ donation rates among Chinese,Americans by, first, recognizing their diverse spiritual beliefs, and, second, offering a variety of possibilities for the organ procurement and allocation. [source]