Dissertations / Theses on the topic '170111 Psychology of Religion'

Given the current amount of cheating in our society and more specifically in our schools, the focus of this dissertation was to examine the impact of religiosity on cheating behavior in an academic arena. Additionally social norms and the individual difference variable of self-monitoring were also investigated to determine their impact on cheating behavior. Furthermore, self-regulation was examined to determine if non-cheating high self-monitors deplete more self-regulatory resources than those non-cheating low self-monitors in a cheating situation.

Participants completed a religiosity and self-monitoring measure prior to coming into the laboratory. At a date of their choosing, participants completed the laboratory portion of the study. In the laboratory, participants were given a job-competency measure to complete, at which time they were given an opportunity to cheat. The participants completed the job-competency measure alone or in the presence of a confederate. Four different conditions were formed: a control condition, a cheating condition, a passive condition, and an active noncheating condition. It was also in the laboratory that their grip strength was measured.

Contrary to expectations, religiosity was not a significant predictor of cheating behavior. However, norms did impact cheating behavior; there was more cheating when the confederate cheated and less cheating when the confederate discouraged cheating behavior. Additionally, there was an impact of self-monitoring in response to the created norms, such that high self-monitors tended to follow the behaviors of the confederates more so than low self-monitors. Contrary to expectations, self-regulatory resources were not significantly impacted for noncheating high self-monitors in a confederate-induced cheating condition.

Very little research has analyzed the conjunction of religion and self-disclosure. Following the previous research conducted by Gregory II, Pomerantz, Pettibone, and Segrist (2008), in which results showed that participants were more willing to seek treatment from a psychologist who identified with one of three major religions (Christianity, Islam, and Judaism), as opposed to a psychologist who identified as an atheist, this study also aimed to focus on the impact of a therapist’s religion on prospective clients. While remaining true to the previous study, this experiment not only looked to expose the client’s preference towards therapists’ religion, it equally accounted for the degree of devotion to said religion influencing the client’s choice of therapy. Results concluded that different from that of the Gregory et al., (2008) study, participants were just as willing to seek treatment from a psychologist who identified as atheist as they were from a psychologist who identified with one of the three major religions, regardless of participant religiosity or the religiosity of the therapist. Implications of these findings suggest that regardless of psychologists’ religion or religiosity, self-disclosure of such is of no significance.

The alchemical hermeneutic methodology utilizes a depth psychological understanding of alchemical operations as an interpretive lens. These processes, viewed from a depth psychological perspective, become the hermeneutical foci through which to interpret select spiritual texts. Following Jung and Romanyshyn, this dissertation further develops an alchemical hermeneutic, and utilizes this textual approach in the interpretation of four texts/traditions in order to create new horizons of meaning, expand the reader’s relationship to text and self at personal and transpersonal levels, as well as broaden, deepen, and define a more psychologically sophisticated approach to certain spiritual texts. This multipaper theoretical dissertation discusses this hermeneutic process and uses the alchemical approach in the interpretation of the following texts and traditions: The Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali, The Dark Night by John of the Cross, and select passages on the heart from the Upanis&dotbelow;ads and Eastern Christian spirituality.

The purpose of this quantitative correlational study was to determine if and to what extent a relationship existed between orientations toward religion and academic motivation in a sample of 338 students enrolled in a Christian University in the Southwest United States. Self-determination theory provided the theoretical framework. Religiosity was measured using the Revised Intrinsic/Extrinsic Religious Orientation Scale with three factors. Academic motivation was measured using the Academic Motivation Scale, college version, with seven factors. Results of the Spearman’s rank correlations identified multiple significant relationships supporting the alternative hypotheses. There were significant and consistently inverse correlations of intrinsic orientation towards religion with academic intrinsic motivation towards accomplishment, academic intrinsic motivation to experience stimulation, academic extrinsic motivation introjected regulation, academic extrinsic motivation external regulation, and academic amotivation (ρ = –.351, p < .001 to ρ = –.136, p = .012). There were significant and consistently direct correlations of extrinsic social orientation towards religion and academic extrinsic motivation introjected regulation (ρ = .141, p = .009), and academic extrinsic motivation external regulation (ρ = .130, p = .017). Lastly, there were significant and consistently direct correlations of extrinsic personal orientation towards religion and academic intrinsic motivation to know, academic intrinsic motivation toward accomplishment, academic intrinsic motivation to experience stimulation, academic extrinsic motivation identified regulation, academic extrinsic motivation introjected regulation, and academic extrinsic motivation external regulation (ρ = .177, p = .001 to ρ = .329, p < .001). The results indicated that religious orientation does relate to one’s motivation for behavior in an academic setting.

Practices that cultivate healthy relationships with self and others are always needed and valuable, especially during this modern time of ever-increasing fragmentation through technology. Cultivating empathy individually and communally promotes increased levels of connection among individuals and can create greater harmony among communities. Centering prayer offers an intervention that respects Christian practices of contemplation and can address care needs. This study investigated the impact of centering prayer on levels of empathy. This study was conducted through a single group pilot study using a mixed methods design. Given that centering prayer is primarily a Christian practice of contemplation, the population for this study was a Christian church community. Both qualitative and quantitative data were gathered to create a greater understanding of possible applications for centering prayer. The initial findings from this study support centering prayer as a positive intervention to help build psychological and emotional tools of empathy that can be added to church community offerings or Christian organizations.

The research question in this thesis asks: Can the archetype of the crone be deliberately utilized as a means to individuation in a woman’s life after leaving Mormonism (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints)? Employing both a hermeneutical and heuristic methodology, the investigation encompasses the archetype of the crone, her history, and her appearance in myth, metaphor, and stories as well as the crone’s reemergence in modern culture. Patriarchy within the Church, gender roles defined by Mormon leadership, and gender inequality within the Church structure are reported. The use of fear, guilt, and shame by Mormon leadership to gain control over members of the Church is scrutinized. The author’s personal story as a child of Mormonism, her life within the religion, her marriage and motherhood, her eventual exit from the Mormon Church, and her use of the crone to empower herself to develop an identity post-Mormonism are presented.

The purpose of this study was to examine whether intrinsic, extrinsic, and quest religious motivations mediate the relationship between the religious philosophy and perceived well-being of believers. The intrinsic-extrinsic-quest paradigm has been the dominant measure of religious motivation for more than 3 decades. However, the different effects of intrinsic, extrinsic, and quest motivation on the well-being of believers has not been tested on a stratified, purposeful sample of the major world religions. A quantitative, quasi-experimental research design was used with an online, self-report questionnaire and mediation analysis to examine the effects of religious motivation on the relationship between religious philosophy and well-being. A stratified, purposeful sample of 763 members of the major world religions completed assessments of religion and well-being. Linear regressions revealed that intrinsic, extrinsic, and quest religious motivations were three distinct constructs, that they do exist across the world religions, and that they mediated the relationship between different religions and well-being, depending on which predictor and outcome variables were being examined in the mediation triangle. Positive social change is possible for counselors, therapists, psychologists of religion, religious leaders, and laypersons at the individual and societal level through knowing which religious beliefs, motivations, and practices are associated with positive affect, satisfaction with life, the fulfilment of basic human needs, eudaimonic well-being, and better physical health. Individuals come to religion mainly during times of personal crises as a way of coping, expecting urgent results, and these findings illuminate the effectiveness of their chosen coping strategy.

According to C. G. Jung, the individuation process requires a reflective turn inward toward the voice of psyche, or said differently, the inner voice. The inner voice can only be heard by the individual, but that does not mean the individual must discover it alone. A Quaker practice termed the clearness committee brings a small group of people together to help an individual access her inner voice in order to find clearness regarding a life issue. This phenomenological study explores the experiences of eight people who sought the assistance of clearness committees. The focus of this research is the exploration of these people’s essential lived experiences of being the focus person in a clearness committee. Participant narratives reveal themes from their clearness committee experiences, illuminate characteristics helpful for hearing one’s inner voice, and uncover insights they received while exploring the nature of their issue. A phenomenological psychological method guided the analysis toward a description of the essential experience of the clearness committee. This research concludes that the interaction of the clearness committee with the individual can lead to a tension of opposites in psyche that stirs movement of the individuation process. When combined with the perspective of transformational alchemy, this study suggests that repetitive stirring of psyche is required for the individuation process.

Substance use and abuse are detriments to both the individual and society as a whole. Religiosity and spirituality are complex, multi-layered concepts that are important to explore as protective factors against substance use and important factors that curtail individuals from drug use, motivating them to enter into substance abuse treatment. The data on religious/spiritual attitudes and preferences and on the use of different classes of substances were collected from a national sample. Spearman correlations indicated that drug use recency, lifetime use, and seeking substance abuse treatment correlated with religiosity/spirituality factors. All correlations were relatively weak but significant; thus, the null hypotheses were rejected. Other factors may play an important role in individuals’ use of substances or their decision to undergo treatment. This study has implications for future practice, as the findings imply that the treatment for substance use should consider a holistic view of individuals. Incorporating holistic perspective into the treatment and programs to prevent lifetime use of substances and promote successful drug treatment could be more effective compared to non-holistic approaches.

The purpose of writing “The Relationship Between Religious Coping and Resilience Among Senior Leaders at the United States Army War College” was to determine the relationship of resilience and religious coping among senior Army officers. It measured religious coping, resilience, religious orientation, and explored service-related stresses as experienced by a representative sample of officers.

Chapter One develops the purpose out of a context with senior Army officers who carry a significant burden of responsibility as they are entrusted with the war-fighting effectiveness of soldiers in combat and serve in a culture which places enormous pressures on its senior leaders. The ministry problem is that the stressors faced and methods of religious coping with these stresses have not been fully studied and are not clearly understood by religious leaders, churches, and the military enterprise.

Chapter Two provides a review of the literature pertaining to a working definition and discussion of religion, coping in general, the role of religion in coping, religious orienting systems and how they impact one’s coping patterns, religion’s role in well-being, resilience and coping, spiritual fitness, and military culture.

Chapter Three describes the research design, procedures for data collection, and methodology utilized to measure and understand the relationship between religious coping and resilience.

Chapter Four presents the results and interpretative analysis. The findings indicated a moderate positive correlation between religious coping and resilience. There were several significant correlations between the demographic and religious variables which offer insight into the relationship between religious coping and resilience.

Chapter Five offers observations, implications, and recommendations based on the findings of the research. The results are applied to the ministry of military chaplains, churches, religious organizations serving the military, and the defense enterprise in terms of improved solutions to better support senior military leaders.

One of the fundamental expectations in the New Testament is that every Christian will become more and more like Jesus Christ. This transformation is characterized by a growing capacity to love as the believer takes on the character of Christ. This change process is life-long, is referred to as progressive sanctification, and is the essence of discipleship. However, research indicates that many believers living in North America are not experiencing a high degree of personal transformation into the image of Christ. Despite trying harder and utilizing the plethora of good discipleship material that is available, change for many believers is largely unrealized. This is a problem that some refer to as the “sanctification gap.”

This project addresses the sanctification gap by identifying unresolved emotional pain as a barrier to Christ-like transformation. Specific to this project is a six-week curriculum for discipleship that addresses both the spiritual and emotional aspects essential for spiritual growth. Emotion is powerful and influences thought and behavior. Unresolved emotional pain often promotes distorted thoughts and feelings of shame and fear that in turn influence sinful behavior as a means to cope with or numb the pain. Sadly, this sinful behavior hinders the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit and consequently creates the sanctification gap. Therefore, to understand how emotion and thought work together to influence behavior will assist the believer in his or her discipleship to Jesus.

The curriculum for this project was pilot-tested with a group of male and female adult participants living in Orange County, California. The Emotionally Healthy Spirituality Personal Assessment by Peter Scazzero and Warren Bird was administered before and after this six-week program and revealed that participants experienced discernible growth in the areas of spiritual and emotional maturity that helped them bridge the sanctification gap.

This qualitative research study aims to explore and provide a comprehensive descriptive record of the significant experiences of Pranahuti Aided Meditation (PAM) practice and transformation by eight practitioners from the San Francisco Bay Area. It investigates the linkage between their meditation experiences and transformations to better understand this new phenomenon.

PAM, also known as Sri Ramchandra’s Raja Yoga or Natural Path, is a new spiritual practice invented by Sri Ramchandra of Shajahanpur, U.P., India in the 1940’s. It utilizes the technique of Pranahuti ( Yogic Transmission or Transmission of Life Force i.e. Prana ) to aid individual’s meditation practice and facilitate the process of consciousness transformation. Academic research on PAM has been scant so far. This is the first study using interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA) to systematically explore the experiences of PAM practitioners with 1 to 10 years of practice experience.

The first major finding of this study was that this group of participants experienced a large number of positive non-ordinary states, of which more than 95% occurred during Pranahuti. Some altered states were somatic in nature, and some psychological, noetic, and mystical; still some were particularly exquisite and profound. The first major conclusion that can be drawn from this is Pranahuti resulted in positive non-ordinary states experienced by the participants during meditation.

The second major finding was that participants experienced many positive changes such as acquisition of positive qualities, values and principles, psychological balance, and sense of wellbeing. They had progressed into what in PAM is known as the realm of upper, or altruistic, consciousness to a significant extent, and most had further development in the realm of divine consciousness. The study found a very close correlation between participants’ meditation experiences and the transformations unfolding in daily lives. The second conclusion to be drawn from this is that PAM practice had enabled all participants move from the lower to the upper plane of consciousness to a significant extent. It also enabled many to move further into the realm of divine consciousness, resulting in various significant transformations including shifting of perspectives, and gaining positive qualities and attitudes in life.

The present study examined the relationship between religiosity and competition anxiety in college athletes and whether there were differences in competitive anxiety for intrinsically religious, extrinsically religious, and non-religious individuals. College athletes (N= 110) from football, softball, and basketball from the NCAA division I and III completed a questionnaire that included the Age-Universal I/E scale, the Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 Revised, open-ended questions on habits related to religion, and demographic items. The questionnaire was completed one week prior to an upcoming competition for all athletes. Results revealed no significant relationship between intrinsic religiosity and extrinsic religiosity and competitive anxiety. There was also no significant difference between intrinsic, extrinsic, and non-religious participants on competitive anxiety. Results showed that 70% of participants reported praying before games to feel comfort, confident, protection, drive and passion, and to show gratitude.

This hermeneutic phenomenological study explores the role of the sacred in engendering the courage to be embodied in adult survivors of severe sexual abuse. It adopts an interdisciplinary approach to depth psychology and mystical theology that utilizes the theories of D. W. Winnicott, C. G. Jung, and T. Merton to illuminate the dynamics of embodiment in clinical practice, focusing primarily on the clinical dyad. Through exploring the similarities and differences between potential space and creativity (Winnicott), the Self and Psyche (Jung), and the Trinity and the Holy Spirit (Merton), this study establishes that the spirit and the body is a false dichotomy; therefore, the sacred should enhance the courage to connect more deeply with the body, not less. This study further demonstrates that the body is critical to the development of healthy subjectivity, and that the sacred should never be used as a means to dissociate from the body. This study concludes that hope, faith, and love fuel the capacity for courage in both patient and clinician, and in the third area that is co-created between them. The sacred participates through nurturing hope, faith, and love by appearing as images, affects, and synchronicities, which thereby presents the clinician with a delicate task: How best to bring such manifestations to the patient’s awareness in order to nurture healthy embodied subjectivity in the survivor of severe sexual abuse.

Cartesian dualism is analyzed as a psychological image, instead of as a philosophical proposition. This is done by first arguing that elements of existing commentary are indicative of a psychological complex, acting unconsciously, in contemporary academic communities. As a hermeneutic study, these elements are then further interpreted through a Jungian lens, specifically cultural complex theory. Myth is used to highlight and identify the deep psychological structures that are active in what I am calling the Cartesian Split complex. In this new context, possible origins are explored in cultural history, as well as its purpose, with potential lessons offered for a wide range of academic fields, including depth psychology. Specifically, there is a call to refine terminology used for consciousness, as well as for the overall mind-body dichotomy. Also, a new approach is offered for the history of consciousness. Most importantly, a diagnosis is given concerning the present nature of consciousness, and a potential remedy is offered, in the form of a new reading of the original texts. Such a new reading, however, depends on a new perspective, that which is constructed by the present study.

This thesis examines the hypothesis that among other, possibly coincident, archetypal or developmental meanings, the traditional story of Adam and Eve strongly reflects multiple and conflicting major conceptions of infant psychological development, including prominent ones arising from depth psychological approaches that do not include a strong role for myth. A core element of this examination is a single in-depth illustration: The story of Adam and Eve closely tracks not only the central conceptions of Melanie Klein’s narrative of infancy but also many of the details. Several examples in the literature are described in which other infancy narratives are linked to the story, some of which relate to the Klein parallel, and the concluding section lists and briefly discusses possible major examples not yet developed in the literature as avenues for future research. The last two chapters discuss some implications of the hypothesis, if true, for therapy, culture, and religion.

Research investigating the impact of religion and religiosity on aggression and prosocial behavior is mixed. The reason for these inconsistent results may be due to the multifaceted nature of religion. This study was the first to investigate both the impact of different aspects of religion (e.g., spirituality, institutional religion, good and evil supernatural agents, etc.) as well as views of God as punitive on subsequent aggressive behavior. Results indicated that more punitive perceptions of God were correlated with lower levels of aggression. Furthermore, there was a marginal interaction between religious orientation and type of religious priming. Although simple effects and subsequent post-hoc tests did not reach standard levels of statistical significance, the direction of the effect for Christian participants was that priming with evil supernatural agents reduced aggressive behavior but this trend was in the opposite direction for non-Christians.