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Religion And Spirituality (religion + and_spirituality)
Selected AbstractsConceptualizing Religion and Spirituality: Points of Commonality, Points of DepartureJOURNAL FOR THE THEORY OF SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR, Issue 1 2000Peter C. Hill Psychologists' emerging interest in spirituality and religion as well as the relevance of each phenomenon to issues of psychological importance requires an understanding of the fundamental characteristics of each construct. On the basis of both historical considerations and a limited but growing empirical literature, we caution against viewing spirituality and religiousness as incompatible and suggest that the common tendency to polarize the terms simply as individual vs. institutional or ,good, vs. ,bad, is not fruitful for future research. Also cautioning against the use of restrictive, narrow definitions or overly broad definitions that can rob either construct of its distinctive characteristics, we propose a set of criteria that recognizes the constructs' conceptual similarities and dissimilarities. Rather than trying to force new and likely unsuccessful definitions, we offer these criteria as benchmarks for judging the value of existing definitions. [source] The Cost of Certainty by Jeremy Young and Handbook of the Psychology of Religion and Spirituality by Raymond Paloutzian and Crystal Park (eds)JOURNAL OF FAMILY THERAPY, Issue 1 2007Jeremy Woodcock No abstract is available for this article. [source] Religion and spirituality in psychotherapy: a practice-friendly review of researchJOURNAL OF CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 2 2009Brian C. Post Abstract The role of religion and spirituality in psychotherapy has received growing attention in the last two decades, with a focus on understanding the ways that religion and spirituality relate to therapists, clients, and treatment methods. The authors reviewed recent empirical research on religion and spirituality in psychotherapy to inform practitioners about effective ways to incorporate the sacred into their clinical work. Three main areas are covered: religion/spirituality and therapists, religion/spirituality and clients, and religious/spiritual interventions. Research indicates that therapists are open to religious/spiritual issues, that clients want to discuss these matters in therapy, and that the use of religious/spiritual interventions for some clients can be an effective adjunct to traditional therapy interventions. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Clin Psychol: In Session 65:131,146, 2009. [source] The Panel Study on American Religion and Ethnicity: Background, Methods, and Selected ResultsJOURNAL FOR THE SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF RELIGION, Issue 1 2010Michael O. Emerson Surveying 2,610 respondents, the Panel Study of American Religion and Ethnicity is a nationally representative in-home survey of the noninstitutionalized U.S. adult population. The survey is designed to (a) focus primarily on religion and spirituality (with over 200 questions on these topics), (b) include multiple other modules (such as health, family relationships, and social ties), (c) oversample African Americans, Asians, and Hispanics, and (d) follow the same respondents over time. We describe the main design features of the survey, present some characteristics of the sample, and provide basic findings. It is our hope that these data will foster more research and contribute to a better understanding of the role and meaning of religion in the contemporary United States. [source] Religion and the secularisation of health careJOURNAL OF CLINICAL NURSING, Issue 14 2009John Paley Aims and objectives., To assess the claim that conceptualisations of religion and spirituality should be grounded in theology, and acknowledge the global resurgence of religion. Background., Although there is widespread agreement in the nursing literature that ,spirituality' is a broader concept than ,religion,' and should be understood generically, this approximate consensus has occasionally been challenged. A recent paper by Barbara Pesut and colleagues argues that the generic view not only empties spirituality of powerful religious symbols and narratives, but underestimates the continuing social influence of religion, and its resurgence on a global scale. Accordingly, these authors suggest three principles for conceptualising spirituality and religion in health care, one of which is that conceptualisations should be grounded in philosophical and theological thinking, and should not ignore the global resurgence of religion. Method., Critical review. Conclusion., The Pesut principle privileges theology, disregarding other disciplines which theorise religion. Arguably, it privileges specifically Christian theology, the history of which suggests a politics of orthodoxy and an epistemology of authority and obedience. The global resurgence of religion is not, in fact, global, as the industrialised countries have experienced a marked shift towards secular-rational values; and the postindustrial phase of development is associated with self-expression values, which represent a challenge not merely to religious institutions (arguably an affirmation of ,spirituality') but to traditional elites and structures of all kinds. Finally, religion ,resurgent' is not an attractive model for health care, since many of its most obvious manifestations are incompatible with the ideology of health professionals. Relevance to clinical practice., In the secular societies of Europe, if not North America, there should be no expectation that nurses provide spiritual care. It is a requirement of the great separation between civil order and religion that the health services, as a public space, should remain thoroughly secular. [source] Religion and spirituality in psychotherapy: a practice-friendly review of researchJOURNAL OF CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 2 2009Brian C. Post Abstract The role of religion and spirituality in psychotherapy has received growing attention in the last two decades, with a focus on understanding the ways that religion and spirituality relate to therapists, clients, and treatment methods. The authors reviewed recent empirical research on religion and spirituality in psychotherapy to inform practitioners about effective ways to incorporate the sacred into their clinical work. Three main areas are covered: religion/spirituality and therapists, religion/spirituality and clients, and religious/spiritual interventions. Research indicates that therapists are open to religious/spiritual issues, that clients want to discuss these matters in therapy, and that the use of religious/spiritual interventions for some clients can be an effective adjunct to traditional therapy interventions. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Clin Psychol: In Session 65:131,146, 2009. [source] Spiritually oriented psychodynamic psychotherapyJOURNAL OF CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 2 2009Edward 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] Religiously oriented mindfulness-based cognitive therapyJOURNAL OF CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 2 2009William Hathaway Abstract The interface of religiously accommodative and oriented treatments and the cognitive,behavioral tradition is explored. In terms of Hayes' characterization of the evolution of the cognitive,behavioral tradition through three waves, considerable theoretical, clinical, and empirical work emerged to support a religiously accommodative cognitive,behavioral therapy (CBT) during the second-generation CBTs. Rather than including religion and spirituality, the third-wave CBT traditions have engaged in spiritual themes inspired heavily from Eastern religious traditions. The authors discuss the application of a religiously congruent third-wave cognitive therapy with a depressed conservatively Christian client. Some conceptual challenges and rationales for adopting such treatments with Christian or other theist clients are described. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Clin Psychol: In Session 65:158,171, 2009. [source] Resilience factors in families living with people with mental illnessesJOURNAL OF COMMUNITY PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 7 2009Liezl Jonker In South Africa, a substantial burden is placed on families living with people with mental illnesses. The aim of this study was to identify resilience factors in families living in an underprivileged area, caring for people with mental illnesses. Data was obtained from family representatives (N=34) using semistructured interviews and a set of seven self-report, quantitative questionnaires during the course of a once-off interview. The results of the qualitative analysis show that the most commonly cited resilience factors are religion and spirituality, and personal characteristics of individual family members. Both these factors were cited by 67.6% of the participants. The results of the Spearman correlations showed that the factor that displayed the strongest relationship with family adaptation was the quality of communication in the family unit. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source] A relational framework for the study of religiosity and spirituality in the lives of African AmericansJOURNAL OF COMMUNITY PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 5 2001Jacqueline S. Mattis Religiosity and spirituality are defining features of African American life. However, within psychology, research on African American religiosity and spirituality has proceeded without benefit of a conceptual framework. This paper labors toward a framework that examines the roles of religion and spirituality in the development and maintenance of social relationships. We review empirical research on the role of religion and spirituality in the lives of African Americans with an eye toward illuminating the affective, cognitive, and behavioral mechanisms through which religion and spirituality shape individual, family, and communal relationships across the developmental span. Future directions for quantitative and qualitative research on African American religious and spiritual life are suggested. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. [source] Maintaining Abstinence in a Northern Plains TribeMEDICAL ANTHROPOLOGY QUARTERLY, Issue 2 2006Marjorie Bezdek In this article, we examine how American Indian individuals with a history of alcohol dependence have been able to maintain their abstinence despite strong pressures to return to drinking. This work builds on close collaboration with individual tribal members who have resolved their problems with alcohol and community-based service providers to develop open-ended qualitative interviews. Using these, we explored how former drinkers respond to the twin challenges raised by their former drinking associates and strong feelings that emerge when alcohol is no longer an option for coping with life's difficulties. The resolution of these challenges is central to abstinence, given the strong ties between drinking and sociality in some American Indian communities (including the one where this study was conducted) and underscores the ways in which alternate relations to alcohol can be established even within a heavy drinking cultural context. Interviews were conducted with 133 individuals from a northern plains tribe who were identified in a previous epidemiological study as having a lifetime history of alcohol dependence. Inquiry into the processes involved in the meaningful constitution of abstinence for these men and women highlights the role of religion and spirituality for some, but by no means all of these individuals and, more broadly, the emergence of what Bea Medicine has characterized as "new ways of coping," which force us to expand on leading conceptualizations of coping in the literature on problems with alcohol. [source] Religious and spiritual issues in medical genetics,AMERICAN JOURNAL OF MEDICAL GENETICS, Issue 1 2009Joseph B. Fanning Ph.D. Abstract This article provides an overview of a special issue on the religious and spiritual concerns that arise in the provision of genetic services. It introduces some of the challenges in defining religion and spirituality and provides contexts and summaries for the empirical and normative research that appears in the issue. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Religion, spirituality, and genetics: Mapping the terrain for research purposes,AMERICAN JOURNAL OF MEDICAL GENETICS, Issue 1 2009Larry 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] Making sense of genetic uncertainty: The role of religion and spirituality,AMERICAN JOURNAL OF MEDICAL GENETICS, Issue 1 2009Mary 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] Religion, spirituality and cancer: Current status and methodological challengesPSYCHO-ONCOLOGY, Issue 6 2005Michael Stefanek The role of religion and spirituality in health has received increasing attention in the scientific and lay literature. While the scientific attention to this issue has expanded, there continue to be methodological and measurement concerns that often prevent firm conclusions about health and adjustment benefits. Limited attention has been provided to the role of spirituality and religion in cancer. This is true when both disease outcome and adjustment are considered. A recent ,levels of evidence' review examining the link between physical health and religion or spirituality found little overall support for the hypotheses that religion or spirituality impact cancer progression or mortality. Studies examining their impact on quality of life and adjustment are decidedly mixed. In sum, research specifically focusing on the role of religion or spirituality on cancer outcomes has been surprisingly sparse. Such research presents a number of methodological and measurement challenges. Due to these unmet challenges in the literature to date, it is premature to determine what role religion and spirituality play in disease, adjustment, or quality of life outcomes in cancer. A number of suggestions are made for continued research in this area. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Religion, Spirituality, and the Workplace: Challenges for Public AdministrationPUBLIC ADMINISTRATION REVIEW, Issue 1 2007Stephen M. King The relationship between religion and politics in the United States is a much-studied academic area, particularly evident in political institutional and behavioral venues such as interest groups, electoral behavior, and political culture. One academic area that has not received much attention is the influence of religion on public administration. Recently, however, public administration scholars have begun to mimic their counterparts in the business world by examining the role of religion and spirituality in the public workplace, especially with regard to organizational performance, ethical behavior patterns, decision making, and the personal spiritual health of employees. This article examines the role and impact of religion and spirituality in the workplace, reviews court cases and political measures regarding religious expression in the public sector, explores a private sector model to explain the interrelationship between religion and spirituality in the public workplace, and challenges public administrators to consider the positive role that religion and spirituality can play in the public workplace. [source] Liberation, Feminism, and Development CommunicationCOMMUNICATION THEORY, Issue 4 2001H. Leslie Steeves This essay notes the relative neglect of considerations of both liberation and gender in the scholarship and practice of development communication. Liberation perspectives on development, grounded in religion and spirituality, argue for individual and collective empowerment, and therefore appear to offer consistency with feminist thought. In practice, it is unclear to what extent women are included or empowered in applications of liberation theology to development communication. This paper argues that the theory and practice of development communication would be strengthened by drawing on insights from both feminism and liberation theology. [source] | ||||||||||||||||