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The Interaction of Religion and Health
Abstract
In this chapter, we review what is currently known about the clinical effects of religious and spiritual practices. We also discuss some of the challenges that researchers and healthcare practitioners may face in designing appropriate studies and translating results to clinical practice. Finally, we outline some future directions for research regarding the roles that religion and spirituality play in healthcare.
... There are very few well-designed large-scale studies. Many publications are purely anecdotes or editorials, which can stimulate discussion but cannot establish causality or scientifically justify the use of specific interventions [157]. The majority of existing studies are correlational, which may be plagued by spurious findings. ...
... Meditation, essentially, is a physiological state of reduced metabolic activity that elicits physical and mental relaxation, and is reported to enhance psychological balance and emotional stability [152][153][154][155][156][157][158][159]. Meditation produces the sense of calm, limited thought and attention. ...
Interest in spirituality and aging has increased recently, owing to overwhelming evidence of positive health outcomes linked to spirituality and religious participation. Increasing longevity in modern society puts spiritual needs of older adults at the forefront of societal priorities. Understanding individual spiritual perspectives becomes increasingly important, given the issues of loss, physical illness and mortality that are confronted in old age. There are multiple barriers to the proper assessment of spirituality in clinical practice and research (e.g., the lack of professional training for healthcare professionals, shortage of time and comfort for healthcare providers when discussing spiritual issues and needs). Integrating an individuals spiritual practice into their healthcare can help shape personalized medical care for older adults and improve health outcomes. This article reviews literature and research on spirituality, as well as spiritual interventions and their putative neurobiological mechanisms in relation to aging, mental and physical health, and coping with death and dying.
... BDNF is a key component in the brain responsible for synaptic plasticity, dendritic and neuronal fiber growth, and neuronal survival [98]. Most significantly, religious and/or spiritual activity is associated with better cognitive function in old age [99][100][101]. Thus, there are multiple medical, psychological, and behavioral mechanisms by which spiritual fitness might impact AD risk. ...
Background:
Religious and spiritual interventions may have an effect on Alzheimer's disease prevention. Kirtan Kriya meditation has been shown to mitigate the deleterious effects of chronic stress on cognition, reverse memory loss, and create psychological and spiritual wellbeing, which may reduce multiple drivers of Alzheimer's disease risk.
Objective:
To detail a new concept in medicine called Spiritual Fitness, a merging of stress reduction, basic wellbeing, and psycho/spiritual wellbeing to prevent Alzheimer's disease.
Methods:
The literature on the topics mentioned above is described, including an in-depth discussion on why and how each are critical to advancing the future of Alzheimer's disease prevention. The many negative effects of chronic stress, and the benefits of Kirtan Kriya, are reviewed. The four pillars of basic wellbeing, six practical aspects of psychological wellbeing, and the four new non-sectarian features of spiritual fitness are then disclosed. Moreover, instructions on practicing Kirtan Kriya are offered in the Supplementary Material.
Conclusion:
Religious and spiritual practices, including Kirtan Kriya, are crucial components in the development of enhanced cognition and well-being, which may help prevent and, in some cases, reverse cognitive decline. The key point of this review is that making a commitment to live a brain longevity lifestyle including spiritual fitness is critically important way for aging Alzheimer's disease free. We hope that this article will inspire scientists, clinicians, and patients to embrace this new concept of spiritual fitness and make it part of every multidomain program for the prevention of cognitive disability.
Postmaterial spiritual psychology posits that consciousness can contribute to the unfolding of material events and that the human brain can detect broad, non-material communications. In this regard, this emerging field of postmaterial psychology marks a stark departure from psychology's traditional quantum measurements and tenets. The Oxford Handbook of Psychology and Spirituality codifies the leading empirical evidence in the support and application of postmaterial psychological science. Sections in this volume include: personality and social psychology factors and implications; spiritual development and culture; spiritual dialogue, prayer, and intention in Western mental health; Eastern traditions and psychology; physical health and spirituality; positive psychology; and scientific advances and applications related to spiritual psychology. With articles from leading scholars in psychology, medicine, physics, and biology, this text is an interdisciplinary reference for a rapidly emerging approach to contemporary science.
Background: Many individuals participate in spiritual retreats to enhance their sense of spirituality or to improve their overall mental and spiritual well-being. We are not aware of any studies specifically evaluating changes in functional connectivity using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in individuals undergoing an intense spiritual retreat program. The goal of this study was to determine whether such changes occur as a result of participating in the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. Methods: We conducted psychological and spiritual measures in conjunction with functional connectivity analysis of fMRI in 14 individuals prior to and following shortly after their participation in a one-week spiritual retreat. Results: Significant changes in functional connectivity were observed after the retreat program, compared to baseline evaluation, particularly in the posterior cingulate cortex, pallidum, superior frontal lobe, superior parietal lobe, superior and inferior temporal lobe, and the cerebellum. Significant changes in a variety of psychological and spiritual measures were identified as result of participation in the retreat. Conclusion: Overall, these preliminary findings suggest that this intensive spiritual retreat resulted in significant changes in brain functional connectivity, and warrants further investigation to evaluate the physiological, psychological, and spiritual impact of these changes.
Patients with congestive heart failure (CHF) often report high levels of religiousness, which may mitigate the stressfulness of their condition. However, religious struggle, reflecting negative attitudes toward God and a strained meaning system, may be detrimental to well-being. Little is known about religious struggle in those with CHF, particularly in relation to physical health and well-being over time. We examined associations of religious struggle and subsequent mental and physical well-being in 101 endstage CHF patients who completed questionnaires twice over 3 months. Religious struggle predicted higher number of nights subsequently hospitalized, higher depression, and marginally lower life satisfaction. When controlling for baseline levels of well-being, effectively assessing change in those outcomes, religious struggle remained a significant predictor of hospitalization and also emerged as a marginally significant predictor of lower physical functioning. Struggle was unrelated to health-related quality of life. Post-hoc analyses suggest that these effects were particularly strong for those endorsing greater religious identification. Religious struggle appears to have a potentially negative impact on well-being in advanced CHF; therefore, helping patients to address issues of struggle may meaningfully lessen the personal and societal costs of CHF.
Although few studies have examined the extent to which religiousness is related to better well-being following acute myocardial infarction (AMI), studies from the broader literature suggest that positive religious coping may be helpful while more negative forms of religious coping may be related to poorer well-being. To assess the relationship between positive and negative religious coping and depressive symptoms in patients with AMI, we collected data twice over a 1-month period from 56 patients hospitalized with a first AMI. Controlling for demographic variables and social support, both positive and negative religious coping were independently related to higher levels of depressive symptoms both in hospital and at a one-month follow-up. Further, even when controlling for baseline depressive symptoms, religious coping predicted higher subsequent depressive symptoms. These results suggest that religious coping appears to be maladaptive in dealing with acute MI, perhaps because this type of recovery requires more active forms of coping.
Previous research has shown that, compared with a rumination induction, a brief distraction procedure reduces overgeneral autobiographical memory in depression. The authors investigated whether this effect depends on reductions in analytic thinking or reductions in self-focus. Focus of attention (high vs. low self-focus) and thinking style (high vs. low analytical thinking) were independently manipulated in depressed patients in a 2 × 2 design. Autobiographical recall was measured pre- and postmanipulation. Thinking style significantly affected overgeneral memory, whereas focus of attention significantly affected despondent mood. Reducing analytical self-focus reduced overgeneral memory, suggesting that high levels of naturally occurring ruminative analytic thinking may be important in the maintenance of overgeneral memory. Overgeneral memory in depression may be associated with chronic ruminative attempts to make sense of current or past difficulties.
The motivation, planning, production, comprehension, coordination, and evaluation of human social life may be based largely on combinations of 4 psychological models. In communal sharing, people treat all members of a category as equivalent. In authority ranking, people attend to their positions in a linear ordering. In equality matching, people keep track of the imbalances among them. In market pricing, people orient to ratio values. Cultures use different rules to implement the 4 models. In addition to an array of inductive evidence from many cultures and approaches, the theory has been supported by ethnographic field work and 19 experimental studies using 7 different methods testing 6 different cognitive predictions on a wide range of subjects from 5 cultures.
Extrapolating from B. L. Fredrickson's (1998, 2001) broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions, the authors hypothesized that positive emotions are active ingredients within trait resilience. U.S. college students (18 men and 28 women) were tested in early 2001 and again in the weeks following the September 11th terrorist attacks. Mediational analyses showed that positive emotions experienced in the wake of the attacks - gratitude, interest, love, and so forth - fully accounted for the relations between (a) precrisis resilience and later development of depressive symptoms and (b) precrisis resilience and postcrisis growth in psychological resources. Findings suggest that positive emotions in the aftermath of crises buffer resilient people against depression and fuel thriving, consistent with the broaden-and-build theory. Discussion touches on implications for coping.
A perennial bestseller since 1997, this updated tenth edition of Understanding Research Methods provides a detailed overview of all the important concepts traditionally covered in a research methods class. It covers the principles of both qualitative and quantitative research, and how to interpret statistics without computations, so is suitable for all students regardless of their math background. The book is organized so that each concept is treated independently and can be used in any order without resulting in gaps in knowledge- allowing it to be easily and precisely adapted to any course. It uses lively examples on contemporary topics to stimulate students’ interest, and engages them by showing the relevance of research methods to their everyday lives. Numerous case studies and end-of-section exercises help students master the material and encourage classroom discussion. The text is divided into short, independent topic sections, making it easy for you to adapt the material to your own teaching needs and customize assignments to the aspect of qualitative or quantitative methods under study-helping to improve students’ comprehension and retention of difficult concepts. Additional online PowerPoint slides and test bank questions make this a complete resource for introducing students to research methods. New to this edition: • New topic section on design decisions in research • Additional material on production of knowledge and research methods • Significant development of material on ethical considerations in research • Fresh and contemporary examples from a wide variety of real, published research • Topic-specific exercises at the end of each section now include suggestions for further steps researchers can take as they build their research project.
The psychological mechanisms of action involved in psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy are not yet well understood. Despite a resurgence of quantitative research regarding psilocybin, the current study is the first qualitative study of participant experiences in psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy. Semistructured interviews were carried out with 13 adult participants aged 22 to 69 years (M = 50 years) with clinically elevated anxiety associated with a cancer diagnosis. Participants received a moderate dose of psilocybin and adjunctive psychotherapy with an emphasis on the process of meaning-making. Verbatim transcribed interviews were analyzed by a five-member research team using interpretative phenomenological analysis. General themes found in all or nearly all transcripts included relational embeddedness, emotional range, the role of music as conveyor of experience, meaningful visual phenomena, wisdom lessons, revised life priorities, and a desire to repeat the psilocybin experience. Typical themes found in the majority of transcripts included the following: exalted feelings of joy, bliss, and love; embodiment; ineffability; alterations to identity; a movement from feelings of separateness to interconnectedness; experiences of transient psychological distress; the appearance of loved ones as guiding spirits; and sharing the experience with loved ones posttreatment. Variant themes found in a minority of participant transcripts include lasting changes to sense of identity, synesthesia experiences, catharsis of powerful emotion, improved relationships after treatment, surrender or “letting go,” forgiveness, and a continued struggle to integrate experience. The findings support the conclusion that psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy may provide an effective treatment for psychological distress in cancer patients. Implications for theory and treatment are discussed.
This book is started with the main question, how come some people in the USA believe in an invisible being, that is God. How has belief in God come to influence people’s lives? How has God come to be really present in human life? Almost 100 percent people in the US, believe in God according to a Gallup Poll (Luhrmann, 2012: xi). In addition, religious enthusiasm for American has grown increasingly rapidly. Throughout the 20th century, American churches and congregations have developed remarkably (Luhrmann, 14). Even Luhrmann gives an example about the paradoxical things. Many people thought that the hippie vision would bring radical revolutionaries movement that threated the right wing. As a contrary, Christian Hippies play significant roles in making religion to be able publicly accepted (even though there were on drugs) (Luhrmann 16-17)
Sociologists of religion have long debated the definition of religion. In this article, I survey the debate and find a partially hidden consensus. This debate, in conjunction with recent criticisms of the concept "religion" in religious studies, and by drawing on Ludwig Wittgenstein's notion oflanguage games, provides helpful pointers for developing a non-essentialist conception of religion. I argue that "religion" (as a phenomenon and as a concept) is a historical and social construction, but that this does not require us to dispense with the concept altogether.
Religious, spiritual, and mystical experiences (RSMEs) are often described as having a noetic quality, or the compelling sense that the experience feels “real.” In this exploratory, multimethod study, 701 participants completed questions about the subjective qualities of their RMSEs, reported the impact of their RSMEs on various life domains, and provided written descriptions of their experiences for quantitative linguistic analysis. The majority of participants (69%) reported that their RSMEs felt “more real than their usual sense of reality.” This quality of realness was associated with positive self-reported impacts on family life (r = .16), health (r = .22), sense of purpose (r = .29), spirituality (r = .30), and reduced fear of death (r = .24). Participants who reported experiences as feeling more real used more language referring to connection, a greater whole, and certainty (“love,” “all,” “and,” “everything”) and fewer first-person pronouns, cognitive processes, and tentativeness (“I,” “me,” “think,” “probably”). These findings provide insight into the noetic quality, as well as the psychological characteristics that may underlie the noetic quality of RSMEs.
The emotion of awe is characterized by the perception of vastness and a need for accommodation, which can include a positive and/or negative valence. While a number of studies have successfully manipulated this emotion, the issue of how to elicit particularly intense awe experiences in laboratory settings remains. We suggest that virtual reality (VR) is a particularly effective mood induction tool for eliciting awe. VR provides three key assets for improving awe. First, VR provides users with immersive and ecological yet controlled environments that can elicit a sense of " presence, " the subjective experience of " being there " in a simulated reality. Further, VR can be used to generate complex, vast stimuli, which can target specific theoretical facets of awe. Finally, VR allows for convenient tracking of participants' behavior and physiological responses, allowing for more integrated assessment of emotional experience. We discussed the potential and challenges of the proposed approach with an emphasis on VR's capacity to raise the signal of reactions to emotions such as awe in laboratory settings.
Experiences of profound existential or spiritual significance can be triggered reliably through psychopharmacological means using psychedelic substances. However, little is known about the benefits of religious, spiritual, or mystical experiences (RSMEs) prompted by psychedelic substances, as compared with those that occur through other means. In this study, 739 self-selected participants reported the psychological impact of their RSMEs and indicated whether they were induced by a psychedelic substance. Experiences induced by psychedelic substances were rated as more intensely mystical (d = .75, p < .001), resulted in a reduced fear of death (d = .21, p < .01), increased sense of purpose (d = .18, p < .05), and increased spirituality (d = .28, p < .001) as compared with nonpsychedelically triggered RSMEs. These results remained significant in an expanded model controlling for gender, education, socioeconomic status, and religious affiliation. These findings lend support to the growing consensus that RSMEs induced with psychedelic substances are genuinely mystical and generally positive in outcome.
Viewing the Earth from space has often prompted astronauts to report overwhelming emotion and feelings of identification with humankind and the planet as a whole. In this article, we explore this experience, known as the “overview effect.” We examine astronaut accounts of the overview effect and suggest existing psychological constructs, such as awe and self-transcendent experience, that might contribute to a psychological understanding of this experience. We argue that the overview effect suggests directions for future research on altered states of consciousness in new contexts, with potential implications for better understanding well-being in isolated, confined, extreme (ICE) environments such as space flight.
It is unclear whether positive emotionality in general, or some specific positive emotions (e.g. other-oriented ones), but not others (e.g. self-oriented and, possibly, stimulus-oriented ones), enhance prosocial thoughts, dispositions, and behavior. We focus here on awe and argue that, although being primarily stimulus-oriented and not necessarily social in its very nature, awe should enhance prosociality for several theoretical reasons. In replicating and extending previous initial research, we found in two online experiments that the induction of awe (video clip or recall), compared to the induction of amusement or a neutral condition, leads to increased prosocial behavioral intentions of generosity (spontaneous sharing of hypothetical gains) and help of a person in need – in hypothetical everyday life situations. Awe’s effect on prosociality was independent from participants’ religiosity (in both experiments) but seemed to be clearer for those in need of such affective stimulation, i.e. less agreeable participants (Experiment 2).
According to Gallup polls, more than 40 percent of Americans report having had a profound religious experience or awakening that changed the direction of their lives. What are the potential mental, spiritual, and even physical benefits of following the call to take a particular path in life? This standout book addresses the full range of calling experiences, from work that is interpreted as particularly meaningful, to “A-ha!” moments of special insight, to pondering what one is meant to do in life, to intense spiritual experiences like Saint Paul on the road to Damascus. Drawing upon the collective knowledge and insight of expert authors from Australia, China, Italy, the UK, and the United States, the work provides a comprehensive examination of the topic of callings suitable for collegiate students, professors, and professional scholars interested in topics at the interface of science and religion. It will also benefit general readers seeking the expertise of psychologists, neuroscientists, theologians, and philosophers from various backgrounds and worldviews who examine the phenomenon of feeling called.
Mystical experiences are often described as “ineffable,” or beyond language. However, people readily speak about their mystical experiences if asked about them. How do people describe what is supposedly indescribable? In this study, we used quantitative linguistic analyses to interpret the writings of 777 participants (45.5% female, 51.0% male) who recounted their most significant spiritual or religious experience as part of an online survey. High and low scorers on a measure of mystical experiences differed in the language they used to describe their experiences. Participants who have had mystical experiences used language that was more socially and spatially inclusive (e.g., “close,” “we,” “with”) and used fewer overtly religious words (e.g., “prayed,” “Christ,” “church”) than participants without such experiences. Results indicated that people can meaningfully communicate their mystical experiences, and that quantitative language analyses provide a means for understanding aspects of such experiences.
This book examines what people mean when they say they are "spiritual". It looks at the semantics of "spirituality", the visibility of reasons for "spiritual" preference in biographies, in psychological dispositions, in cultural differences between Germany and the US, and in gender differences. It also examines the kind of biographical consequences that are associated with "spirituality". The book reports the results of an online-questionnaire filled out by 773 respondents in Germany and 1113 in the US, personal interviews with a selected group of more than 100 persons, and an experiment. Based on the data collected, it reports results that are relevant for a number of scientific and practical disciplines. It makes a contribution to the semantics of everyday religious language and to the cross-cultural study of religion and to many related fields as well, because "spirituality" is evaluated in relation to personality, mysticism, well-being, religious styles, generativity, attachment, biography and atheism. The book draws attention to the – new and ever changing – ways in which people give names to their ultimate concern and symbolize their experiences of transcendence.
Awe is an emotional response to perceptually vast stimuli that transcend current frames of reference. Guided by conceptual analyses of awe as a collective emotion, across 5 studies (N = 2,078) we tested the hypothesis that awe can result in a diminishment of the individual self and its concerns, and increase prosocial behavior. In a representative national sample (Study 1), dispositional tendencies to experience awe predicted greater generosity in an economic game above and beyond other prosocial emotions (e.g., compassion). In follow-up experiments, inductions of awe (relative to various control states) increased ethical decision-making (Study 2), generosity (Study 3), and prosocial values (Study 4). Finally, a naturalistic induction of awe in which participants stood in a grove of towering trees enhanced prosocial helping behavior and decreased entitlement compared to participants in a control condition (Study 5). Mediational data demonstrate that the effects of awe on prosociality are explained, in part, by feelings of a small self. These findings indicate that awe may help situate individuals within broader social contexts and enhance collective concern. (PsycINFO Database Record
(c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).
In this article, the author describes a new theoretical perspective on positive emotions and situates this new perspective within the emerging field of positive psychology. The broaden-and-build theory posits that experiences of positive emotions broaden people's momentary thought-action repertoires, which in turn serves to build their enduring personal resources, ranging from physical and intellectual resources to social and psychological resources. Preliminary empirical evidence supporting the broaden-and-build theory is reviewed, and open empirical questions that remain to be tested are identified. The theory and findings suggest that the capacity to experience positive emotions may be a fundamental human strength central to the study of human flourishing.
The term self-transcendence has been used to refer both to a process of movement beyond one's immediate self-boundaries, and to a quality which emerges as a result of this process, culminating in a broadened worldview. Self-transcendence has appeared as a key theme in several disciplines including transpersonal psychology, personality theory, and nursing theory. The scarcity of widely accepted methods of quantifying this construct with valid, reliable measures has caused some difficulty in the research arena. Scientific literature to date is presented here surrounding self-transcendence as quantified by the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI). The author's purpose is to expound a coherent account of TCI self-transcendence research, and to establish self-transcendence as a measurable transpersonal construct with observable features and correlates. Data regarding molecular and quantitative genetics, neuroanatomy, aging, spirituality, religion, culture, and psychopathology are discussed. In light of this evidence, self-transcendence is presented as a complex but quantifiable construct of the utmost relevance to psychology.
This study reports on the development of the Spiritual Transcendence Scale, a measure designed to capture aspects of the individual that are independent of the qualities contained in the Five-Factor Model of Personality (FFM). Using 2 separate samples of undergraduate students including both self-report (
Ns = 379 and 356) and observer data (
N = 279), it was shown that Spiritual Transcendence: (a) was independent of measures of the FFM; (b) evidenced good cross-observer convergence; and (c) predicted a wide range of psychologically salient outcomes, even after controlling for the predictive effects of personality. Given the long theoretical pedigree of Transcendence in the psychological literature, it was argued that Spiritual Transcendence represents a broad-based motivational domain of comparable breadth to those constructs contained in the FFM and ought to be considered a potential sixth major dimension of personality. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Author suggests that the survival of the human race depends on the exploration and settlement of other worlds.
Mind wandering and mindfulness are often described as divergent mental states with opposing effects on cognitive performance and mental health. Spontaneous mind wandering is typically associated with self-reflective states that contribute to negative processing of the past, worrying/fantasizing about the future, and disruption of primary task performance. On the other hand, mindful awareness is frequently described as a focus on present sensory input without cognitive elaboration or emotional reactivity, and is associated with improved task performance and decreased stress-related symptomology. Unfortunately, such distinctions fail to acknowledge similarities and interactions between the two states. Instead of an inverse relationship between mindfulness and mind wandering, a more nuanced characterization of mindfulness may involve skillful toggling back and forth between conceptual and nonconceptual processes and networks supporting each state, to meet the contextually specified demands of the situation. In this article, we present a theoretical analysis and plausible neurocognitive framework of the restful mind, in which we attempt to clarify potentially adaptive contributions of both mind wandering and mindful awareness through the lens of the extant neurocognitive literature on intrinsic network activity, meditation, and emerging descriptions of stillness and nonduality. A neurophenomenological approach to probing modality-specific forms of concentration and nonconceptual awareness is presented that may improve our understanding of the resting state. Implications for future research are discussed.
The Dynamic Individualism of William James analyzes James's rich and complex thought through an examination of his individualism. A central theme of James's writings, individualism underlies his basic views on freedom, society, government, psychology, education, religion, pragmatism, and metaphysics'yet, until now, no one has undertaken a careful study of this important aspect of James's thought. With close readings of texts that include The Principles of Psychology, The Varieties of Religious Experience, and A Pluralistic Universe, James O. Pawelski engages the range of contexts in which James discusses individualism, offers a refreshingly new reading of his work, and, in seeking to resolve James's own psychology, presents an original and convincing case for his dynamic individualism.
As we look back to the philosophy of the period from 1914 to 1945, we tend to think of this as a time when ‘analytic philosophy’ flourished, though of course many other types of philosophy also flourished at this time (idealism, phenomenology, pragmatism, etc.). But what was this ‘analytic philosophy’ of which John Wisdom wrote when he opened his book Problems of Mind and Matter (1934) by saying ‘It is to analytic philosophy that this book is intended to be introduction’ (1934: 1)? Wisdom makes a start at answering this question by contrasting analytic philosophy with ‘speculative’ philosophy: the contrast is that speculative philosophy aims to provide new information (for example, by proving the existence of God), whereas analytic philosophy aims only to provide clearer knowledge of facts already known. Much the same contrast is to be found in the ‘statement of policy’ which opens the first issue of the journal Analysis in 1933: papers to be published will be concerned ‘with the elucidation or explanation of facts…the general nature of which is, by common consent, already known; rather than with attempts to establish new kinds of fact about the world’ (Vol. I: 1). As we shall see, the thesis that philosophy does not aim to provide new knowledge is indeed a central theme of many ‘analytic’ philosophers of this period. But first we need to investigate the relevant conception of analysis – ‘philosophical’ analysis. © Cambridge University Press 2003 and Cambridge University Press, 2008.
This chapter discusses neurochemical foundations (and specifically the physiological roles of oxytocin and vasopressin) of spiritual and religious behavior. I argue that the conceptual network prompted by the words "affiliation" and "affiliative behavior" should also include concepts of spirituality and religiosity. By focusing on the tradition of investigating affiliation and affiliative behavior in both the animal and human literatures, I focus on the concepts of personality and psychopathology. I argue that the use of the concepts of affiliation and affiliative behavior-and the knowledge of their neurochemical foundations-might be helpful in understanding how such human characteristics may be related to religiosity and spirituality.
Many phenomena of interest to positive psychology share a common feature that involves a particular pattern of self-relevant cognitive activity. This hypo-egoic state is responsible both for the sense of well-being that tends to accompany many positive psychological experiences (such as flow, meditation, and transcendence) and for prosocial beliefs and actions in which people behave in ways that benefit other people, sometimes at cost to themselves. The chapter describes the hypo-egoic state and then discusses the role of self-process in five phenomena: humility, positive emotions, other-oriented states (such as compassion, altruism, and love), wisdom, and transcendence.
Psychoactive stimulation and psychoactive substances have both similar and different potential research and clinical applications. They differ in their historical contexts, socio-cultural connotations, and neurobiological delivery systems – not to mention the common sense phenomenological dissimilarities between taking a pill and having an apparatus around one’s head. At the same time, in principle, they raise many of the same ethical and epistemological concerns. Our discussion is framed within the possibility that psychoactive stimulation may come to provide a complimentary research and application technique to using psychoactive substances.
Human beings are unique in their ability to think consciously about themselves. Because they have a capacity for self-awareness not shared by other animals, people can imagine themselves in the future, anticipate consequences, plan ahead, improve themselves, and perform many other behaviors that are uniquely characteristic of human beings. Yet, despite the obvious advantages of self-reflection, the capacity for self-thought comes at a high price as people's lives are adversely affected and their inner chatter interferes with their success, pollutes their relationships, and undermines their happiness. Indeed, self-relevant thought is responsible for most of the personal and social difficulties that human beings face as individuals and as a species. Among other things, the capacity for self-reflection distorts people's perceptions, leading them to make bad decisions based on faulty information. The self conjures up a great deal of personal suffering in the form of depression, anxiety, anger, envy, and other negative emotions by allowing people to ruminate about the past or imagine the future. Egocentrism and egotism blind people to their own shortcomings, promote self-serving biases, and undermine their relationships with others. The ability to self-reflect also underlies social conflict by leading people to separate themselves into ingroups and outgroups. Ironically, many sources of personal unhappiness - such as addictions, overeating, unsafe sex, infidelity, and domestic violence - are due to people's inability to exert self-control. For those inclined toward religion and spirituality, visionaries throughout history have proclaimed that the egoic self stymies the quest for spiritual fulfillment and leads to immoral behavior.
This article describes the concept of posttraumatic growth, its conceptual foundations, and supporting empirical evidence. Posttraumatic growth is the experience of positive change that occurs as a result of the struggle with highly challenging life crises. It is manifested in a variety of ways, including an increased appreciation for life in general, more meaningful interpersonal relationships, an increased sense of personal strength, changed priorities, and a richer existential and spiritual life. Although the term is new, the idea that great good can come from great suffering is ancient. We propose a model for understanding the process of posttraumatic growth in which individual characteristics, support and disclosure, and more centrally, significant cognitive processing involving cognitive structures threatened or nullified by the traumatic events, play an important role. It is also suggested that posttraumatic growth mutually interacts with life wisdom and the development of the life narrative, and that it is an on-going process, not a static outcome.
Previous research has identified nonobvious, cognitive indexes of including other in the self (self-other overlap) that differentiate close from nonclose relationships. These indexes include a reaction time measure and a measure focusing on attributional perspective. This study demonstrated for the first time that these cognitive indices differentiated among romantic relationships of varying degrees of closeness, suggesting that self-other overlap is not an either-or phenomenon. Further, the degree of self-other overlap was associated with subjective feelings of closeness, but little if at all with amount and diversity of interaction, suggesting that cognitive self-other overlap is not a direct product of behavioral interaction. Finally, these indexes predicted relationship maintenance and other variables over 3 months and correlated with self-reports of love, suggesting a broad linkage of cognitive self-other overlap to other aspects of relational experience.
Clinical observations suggesting a relationship between spiritual experiences, life purpose and satisfaction, and improvements in physical health led to the development of an Index of Core Spiritual Experience (INSPIRIT). Data from 83 medical outpatients showed the INSPIRIT to have a strong degree of internal reliability and concurrent validity. Multiple regression analyses showed the INSPIRIT to be associated with: (1) increased life purpose and satisfaction, a health-promoting attitude; and (2) decreased frequency of medical symptoms.
A measure of reported mystical experience is presented. This "Mysticism Scale, Research Form D (M scale)," has 32 items, four for each of 8 categories of mysticism initially conceptualized by Stace (1960). Items on this scale are both positively and negatively expressed to avoid problems of response set. A factor analysis of the M Scale indicated two major factors, a general mystical experience factor (20 items) and a religious interpretation factor (12 items). Preliminary evidence indicates that those high on the M Scale have more intrinsic religious motivation as defined by Hoge's (1972) scale, are more open to experience as defined by Taft's (1970) ego permissiveness scale, have more intense religious experience as defined by Hood's (1970) scale, and have moderately higher scores on the L, Hs, and Hy scales of the MMPI.
While past research suggests that people experience positive psychological changes after adverse events, little is known about psychological changes that happen after positive events. Adult participants (N = 605) went online to complete a new self-report instrument measuring positive psychological changes linked to positive events, changes that I provisionally call post-ecstatic growth. Factor analysis indicated that this growth happens in four domains: deeper spirituality, increased meaning and purpose in life, improved relationships, and greater self-esteem. Participants were particularly likely to report growth after events that evoked feelings of inspiration and meaning, and events that led them to see new opportunities.
The present study attempts to measure how individuals define the terms religiousness and spirituality, to measure how individuals define their own religiousness and spirituality, and to examine whether these definitions are associated with different demographic, religio/spiritual, and psychosocial variables. The complete sample of 346 individuals was composed of 11 groups of participants drawn from a wide range of religious backgrounds. Analyses were conducted to compare participants' self-rated religiousness and spirituality, to correlate self-rated religiousness and spirituality with the predictor variables, and to use the predictor variables to distinguish between participants who described themselves as "spiritual and religious" from those who identified themselves as "spiritual but not religious." A content analysis of participants' definitions of religiousness and spirituality was also performed. The results suggest several points of convergence and divergence between the constructs religiousness and spirituality. The theoretical, empirical, and practical implications of these results for the scientific study of religion are discussed.
"Construct validation was introduced in order to specify types of research required in developing tests for which the conventional views on validation are inappropriate. Personality tests, and some tests of ability, are interpreted in terms of attributes for which there is no adequate criterion. This paper indicates what sorts of evidence can substantiate such an interpretation, and how such evidence is to be interpreted." 60 references. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved).