Stacey McElroy-Heltzel

• Doctor of Philosophy
• Professor (Assistant) at University of Iowa

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between mindfulness, perfectionism, and humility. In particular, we examined whether mindfulness explains variance in humility above and beyond perfectionism, and whether mindfulness can attenuate the relationship between perfectionism and humility. We conducted two cross-sectional studies (...

Recent political events across the globe have illustrated a resurgence in people’s intolerance to ideas different from their own. We mobilize the idea of intellectual humility to assess how extant psychological theories account for individual differences in people’s tolerance for conflicting ideas. Then, we introduce concepts from the Learning Scie...

Spiritual first aid (SFA) trains disaster spiritual and emotional care providers to choose appropriate ways of responding to those who have experienced traumatic losses. The purpose of this study was to pilot a vignette-based strategy as a proof of concept for evaluating the effectiveness of SFA’s curriculum. Participants were 61 disaster spiritual...

Previous research has demonstrated that interfaith couples often face challenges related to religious disagreements, which is associated with a decrease in relationship quality. Research also indicates that religious orientation and spiritual fortitude might be useful personal resources for individuals navigating stressful life events, particularly...

Objective Leader humility has been linked to many positive outcomes but not examined in humanitarian aid work. Three studies examined the multilevel correlates, contributions, and consequences of leader humility in Medair—a large, multinational, faith-based aid organization. Study 1 examined correlates of leader humility in a sample of 308 workers...

Humility is thought to be helpful for dealing with religious disagreement and conflict. Prior work on humility in actual relationships has focused on general humility or intellectual humility, but how is spiritual humility (i.e., humility before God or one’s higher power) related to relational outcomes during religious disagreements? In these analy...

Although community violence exposure is associated with trauma symptoms, the research on the demographic factors that might amplify this risk in university students is still emerging. Additional data focused on identifying populations most at-risk for trauma secondary to community violence can support the development of outreach and intervention ef...

Research on intellectual humility has accumulated rapidly. In this content analysis, we review existing published empirical work. We conducted searches using Google Scholar, ProQuest, and PsycInfo and found 59 articles with 134 samples. Most studies have focused on convenience samples and used similar measurement approaches – self-reports of intell...

We present three studies to examine intellectual humility (IH) contextualized to existential challenges across cultures. With samples (N = 1714) drawn from three regions (United States, Hong Kong, Netherlands), we explore the benefits and drawbacks of various configurations of IH and commitment to beliefs. In two studies, we created a measure of IH...

In this paper, we briefly respond to several points Ballantyne raises in ‘Recent Work on Intellectual Humility’ (this issue). First, we contend with the suggestion that IH is ‘hypoegoic’ which risks overlooking problematic vices of excesses, such as intellectual servility. Second, we add additional points to the discussion about whether IH is inter...

Recent studies have suggested that intellectual humility (IH) might facilitate (a) better learning outcomes, (b) more scientific mindedness, and (c) better peer and professional relationships. However, recent philosophical work has raised concerns that too much IH might lead to intellectual servility (IS), and thus might be vicious (albeit not blam...

In this paper I remark on Tanesini’s (2021) account of intellectual humility and servility as attitudes, with a focus on how this proposal intersects with the psychology literature on intellectual humility. I begin by discussing the implications this may have for empirical measures of intellectual humility, including concerns that some current meas...

In Ghana, collectivism holds people together in marital relationships, even if partners are religiously different. Married partners still hurt, betray, or offend each other and might develop avoidance or vengeful (i.e., unforgiving) motives. We investigated whether religious homogamy moderated connections of personality and marriage variables to un...

Across the globe, COVID‐19 has disproportionately affected the physical and mental health of several vulnerable groups. In a series of two cross‐sectional studies conducted April to July 2020, we examined its acute mental health effects on two vulnerable U.S. community samples—home‐bound older adults who were at or below the poverty line (Study 1,...

Traumatic events, such as natural disasters, often lead to significant resource loss for survivors, which can negatively affect emotional well-being. In these situations, it is common for people to draw on their religious or spiritual faith to cope with their pain and struggle. One construct that has received increased attention within the field of...

Objective: This prospective longitudinal study examined whether coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has led to changes in psychological and spiritual outcomes among adults with chronic disease. Method: Participants (N = 302) were a stratified, nonrandom sample of adults (Mage = 64.46, SD = 10.86, 45.7% female). The sample was representative of the...

Natural disasters can disrupt and challenge survivors’ core belief systems, leading to negative health consequences. People often rely on religion/spirituality to help them cope and make meaning, but to date very few studies have specifically focused on exploring spiritually oriented expressive writing interventions with natural disaster survivors....

In the face of traumatic events, people often draw on their religious or spiritual resources to cope with their struggles. Spiritual fortitude (SF) refers to one’s ability to draw consistently on spiritual resources to transcend and endure negative emotions in the face of stressors (Van Tongeren et al., 2019). In this article, we present data from...

Objectives: The current study examines how general racial discrimination, discrimination from family, and racial identity invalidation impact Multiracial¹ people’s mental health. Methods: Multiracial participants (n = 464) completed online surveys that assessed their mental health and experiences of various dimensions of discrimination. Results: At...

In recent years, an upsurge of polarization has been a salient feature of political discourse in America. A small but growing body of research has examined the potential relevance of intellectual humility (IH) to political polarization. In the present investigation, we extend this work to political myside bias, testing the hypothesis that IH is ass...

In recent years, an upsurge of polarization has been a salient feature of political discourse in America. A small but growing body of research has examined the potential relevance of intellectual humility (IH) to political polarization. In the present investigation, we extend this work to political myside bias, testing the hypothesis that IH is ass...

Purpose/objective: Little is known about romantic relationship adjustment or perceptions of relationship quality (e.g., commitment and trust) among sexual minority persons with disabilities. The purpose of this study was to explore if collective self-esteem, disability adjustment, attachment styles, and cultural humility served as unique correlate...

As the current political environment in the United States and around the world becomes more polarized, it is important to better understand the intrapersonal and interpersonal effects of engaging political discourse with political humility. Across two studies, we explored the predictors of political humility (Study 1), and how political humility mi...

Objective: Religious/spiritual (R/S) growth is a core domain of posttraumatic growth (PTG). However, research on R/S growth following disasters has over-relied on retrospective self-reports of growth. We therefore examined longitudinal change in religiousness/spirituality following two disasters. Method: Religious survivors of Hurricanes Harvey...

This article examines the social buffering hypothesis of cultural humility in the context of religious offenses. In this study, participants (N = 244) rated their cultural humility in terms of differing religious values and beliefs as well as their moral foundations in determining what is right or wrong. They then recalled an offense or hurt attrib...

Regardless of political/religious affiliation, people tend to hold prejudice towards those with whom they disagree. Cultural humility may be a factor that could mitigate the negative effects of disagreements stemming from religious differences. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore whether cultural humility was related to changes in v...

Objective: In this article, we develop and validate a measure of spiritual fortitude (SF). SF is defined as a character trait enabling people to endure and make redemptive meaning from adversity through their sacred connections with God, others, and themselves. Method: First, we summarize its conceptual distinctions from related constructs such...

Natural disasters, including floods, affect entire communities and often lead survivors to report symptoms of posttraumatic stress (PTS). Although the vast majority of disaster research focuses on negative emotional outcomes, individuals may simultaneously experience positive outcomes such as posttraumatic growth (PTG). This study examined the infl...

Objective. This study explored the trauma symptoms of those who have endured a multi-year drought in Botswana, an arid, pastoral, and primarily Christian Southern African nation. Particularly, this study utilized conservation of resources theory to consider the effects of disaster-related resource loss (DRL) and the psychology of religion literatur...

The current study introduces cultural humility as a racial socialization strategy for Multiracial children. Specifically, the relationship between perceived primary caregiver cultural humility and mental health was examined for Multiracial people. The indirect and the moderating role of children’s racial identity (i.e., Multiracial pride, challenge...

Some religious or spiritual (R/S) clients seek psychotherapy that integrates R/S values, while others may be reticent to disclose R/S‐related aspects of struggles in a presumably secular setting. We meta‐analyzed 97 outcome studies (N = 7,181) examining the efficacy of tailoring treatment to patients’ R/S beliefs and values. We compared the effecti...

The trauma centrality model posits that people’s global beliefs, intrinsic goals, and extrinsic goals are significantly violated after encountering a traumatic event, increasing their risk for psychological problems. Very little work, to date, has examined how exposure to catastrophic flooding is related to one’s global beliefs, intrinsic goals, an...

Much of the literature on interpersonal trust is quantitative in nature, using scales developed primarily with White middle-class and upper-class adults. To understand how another racial group of a different socioeconomic background and age views interpersonal trust, we considered the experiences of 22 low-income Black adolescents. The adolescents...

The purpose of this study was to explore factors associated with relationship quality in interethnic couples. Specifically, we tested the social bond hypotheses of humility in a sample of 155 individual participants currently in an interethnic relationship. Using a cross-sectional design, participants completed an online survey that included measur...

Less than ten years ago, humility science seemed stuck with intractable measurement problems. Due to theoretical innovations, measures have proliferated in recent years. Humility science now faces a critical task of reconciling definitions and measures. We reviewed 22 measures of humility, including (a) survey measures of general humility, (b) surv...

We develop the Trait Sources of Spirituality Scale (TSSS), which assesses experiences of closeness to the sacred, within and outside a religious tradition. After using factor analysis to finalize the scale, we examine evidence of construct validity, including latent profile analysis that reveals 5 patterns of how spirituality is experienced.

Intimate partner violence (IPV) among African Americans is a serious public health concern. Research suggest that African Americans adolescents, particularly those from economically disadvantaged communities, are at heightened risk for experiencing and perpetrating dating violence compared to youth from other racial and ethnic groups. In the presen...

In three studies, we developed the Experiences of Humility Scale (EHS). In Study 1, we used exploratory factor analysis to determine the factor structure and to reduce items in a sample of undergraduates (N = 200). The EHS had four subscales: Other-orientation, Transcendence, Awareness of Selfishness, and Awareness of Egotism. Study 2 involved an e...

Many religious individuals use forgiveness to cope with interpersonal offenses. There has been much work on religion/spirituality and interpersonal forgiveness, but little theory or research has focused on religion/spirituality and intergroup forgiveness. The current study extends a model of relational spirituality to the context of intergroup forg...

Moral foundations theory (Graham & Haidt, 2010) has been the dominant theory of morality within social psychology for the last decade, and the Moral Foundations Questionnaire (MFQ; Graham, Nosek, Haidt, Iyer, Koleva, & Ditto, 2011) is currently the only multi-item measure to study moral foundations theory. Although previous studies have suggested t...

Few studies have examined adolescents’ understanding of romantic relationship commitment, particularly among African American youth. Using three waves of semistructured interviews, the present descriptive study addresses this topic by exploring the ways in which 20 African American adolescents (age range 13-19 years) from low-income backgrounds con...

Although many scholars have sharply distinguished humility from modesty, several research teams recently conceptualized modesty as a subdomain of humility. In the present study, we compare these competing conceptualizations using confirmatory factor analyses. In Study 1, a model with general humility (i.e. second-order factor) predicting the subsca...

An important aspect of the stress-and-coping model of forgiveness is the injustice gap, which is the degree to which victims perceive the aftermath of an offense as not meeting expectations of ideal justice. The magnitude of the injustice gap has been hypothesized to be proportional to the difficulty of forgiving an offense. In Study 1, we created...

Two studies provide evidence for distinguishing intellectual humility (IH) from general humility (GH). Humility involves (a) an Accurate View of Self and (b) the ability to regulate egotism and cultivate an other-oriented stance; IH is a subdomain of humility that involves (a) having an accurate view of one’s intellectual strengths and limitations...

In the present article, we extend a model of relational spirituality and forgiveness to the context of major offenses by clergy. In Study 1, undergraduate students (N = 208) described a major offense that they had experienced by a religious leader and then completed several questionnaires in relation to the offense and the religious leader. Apprais...

This study examined the relationships between religious coping, coping resources, and depressive symptoms. The authors tested whether coping resources explained the link between religious coping and depressive symptoms in a sample of 349 college students. Results indicated that coping resources partially mediated the relationship between negative r...

In this chapter, we explore the construct of humility, specifically focusing on its connections with religion, spirituality, and well-being. First, we review how the major world religions conceptualize and teach about the role of humility in living a virtuous life. Second, we review definitions of humility in psychological literature and summarize...

This article focused on how perceptions of intellectual humility (IH)-humility regarding one's knowledge or influence over ideas affect relationships with religious leaders. We developed an informant report measure of IH perceptions using exploratory (Study 1; N = 213) and confirmatory (Study 2; N = 213) factor analyses, as well as a basic manipula...

This study's purpose was to explore the reasons Black women are disproportionately single according to the unique viewpoint of married Black men. The sample comprises 52 married Black men who resided in northeast Georgia (mean age = 43). Qualitative interviews were conducted in 2010 as part of the Pathways to Marriage study. The authors analyzed th...