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Longitudinal associations for right-wing authoritarianism, social justice, and compassion among seminary students
Abstract
Religious/spiritual communities in the United States hold significant differences in the relative valuing of social order and progress toward social justice, and religious/spiritual leaders play an influential role in fostering those values. This recognition has prompted calls for theological education to revise the process of student formation, equipping them to address an increasingly diverse social world and the social disparities within their larger communities. Right-wing authoritarianism tends to be associated with a preference for social order and various forms of prejudice, and negatively associated with prosocial attitudes and behaviors. However, there is a limited amount of research examining associations between right-wing authoritarianism and the prosocial constructs of social justice commitment and compassion. The present study explored the longitudinal associations between right-wing authoritarianism, social justice commitment, and compassion in a sample of graduate students from 18 Christian seminaries across North America over two and a half years of their education ( N = 580; M age = 31.50; 47.3% female; 62.9% White). Longitudinal data analysis indicated that right-wing authoritarianism exerted a negative influence on social justice commitment and compassion, during the initial time interval which then faded over time. Results also indicated a reciprocal process among right-wing authoritarianism and social justice commitment. Practical implications centered on the potential for interventions targeting the reduction of right-wing authoritarianism to increase social justice commitment and compassion, and interventions targeting greater social justice commitment to lower right-wing authoritarianism.
... Last, we examined these associations in a sample of emerging religious/spiritual (R/S) leaders for whom virtue development is part of their professional training and vocationally salient because of R/S leaders' susceptibility to lower well-being (Jankowski et al., 2019(Jankowski et al., , 2023. In addition, theological education reforms emphasize civic engagement competencies for emerging R/S leaders so they can better navigate the growing diversity and increased polarization in the congregations and the communities in which they are situated (Jankowski et al., 2022c). ...
... As part of a larger study on the personal and professional development of emerging R/S leaders (e.g., Jankowski et al., 2022cJankowski et al., ,e,f, 2023, that utilized an "open cohort" design (Mahmud, 2010, para. 7), survey data were collected from graduate students at 18 seminaries across North America. ...
... They found evidence that the intervention promoted gains in direct contact intentions, perspectivetaking, place attachment, and civic engagement intentions. Jankowski et al. (2022c) offered a summary of social justice interventions around themes of emotional engagement and regulation. They noted that for many individuals from dominant groups, changes to the social order can be perceived as threatening to their identity constructions with accompanying fear, anxiety, and/or anger. ...
Introduction
Existing research shows positive associations between humility and well-being, and between civic engagement and well-being. Rarely have humility, civic engagement, and well-being been examined together. We build off of previous cross-sectional findings and a prior longitudinal study that used three waves of data and found significant positive bivariate correlations between humility and the presence of life purpose across time points.
Methods
Extending these previous findings, we used six waves of data obtained from graduate students at 18 seminaries across North America (N = 574; Mage = 31.54; 46.7% female; 65.3% White) to explore the dynamic associations among humility and life purpose, along with horizontal transcendence (an indicator of the attitudinal dimension of civic engagement) and social justice activism (an indicator for the behavioral dimension). We explored reciprocal short-run processes and dynamic long-run effects using a general cross-lagged panel model.
Results and discussion
We found robust evidence for a reciprocal influence between the presence of life purpose and horizontal transcendence, and long-run effects for initial levels of life purpose to influence later levels of horizontal transcendence. We also found long-run effects for the influence of initial levels of life purpose on later levels of humility, and initial levels of social justice activism on later levels of horizontal transcendence. Implications center on the use of the findings for planning future one-time life purpose and social justice interventions to affect changes in humility and horizontal transcendence.
... Commitments to the mature alterity of social justice and/or ICC have been positively associated with numerous indicators of healthy spiritual formation among seminary students. These indicators include faith maturity, dispositional hope, dispositional forgiveness, compassion, general humility, intellectual humility, positive religious coping, and moral concerns about fairness and harm to others (Bell et al., 2017;Jankowski et al., 2013Jankowski et al., , 2022Paine et al., 2022;Sandage & Morgan, 2014;. Differentiation of self, a construct that involves healthy self-identity and emotional and relational functioning, has also been associated with SJC (Paine et al., 2016;Sandage & Harden, 2011; and developmental capacities for ICC among seminary students (Paine et al., 2016;Sandage & Harden, 2011;. ...
... His definition links compassion and social justice as effective social justice advocates must care about the needs of people beyond those in their immediate social circles to influence systemic change (Doehring, 2018). For this study, we defined compassion as caring about and wanting to address people's suffering and social justice as caring about people's rights with a desire to effect change in social systems that oppress members of society (Jankowski et al., 2022). ...
... Although few empirical studies exist on compassion in educational contexts, Callister and Plante (2017) conducted a cross-sectional study among senior undergraduate students at a U.S. Catholic university and found compassion positively correlated with interest in a service-oriented career and with participation in diversity competency development. A longitudinal study of seminary students in the United States (Jankowski et al., 2022) investigated the relationship between "caring virtues," such as compassion and social justice (Gulliford & Roberts, 2018), and strongly held right-wing authoritarianism beliefs that tend to promote a preference for social hierarchy and social stability. These researchers found that right-wing authoritarianism had an initial negative influence on compassion and SJC, although that effect faded over time. ...
In 2017, the Association of Theological Schools sponsored the Preparing for 2040 Initiative to help theological schools and seminaries respond to the growing diversity in faith communities. Seminary faculty play a crucial role in shaping and training future religious and spiritual leaders, who in turn act as pastoral helping professionals in their communities. Therefore, it is germane to understand the diversity and justice commitments and goals of the educators that shape and influence pastoral leaders in local communities. Little has been studied, however, about the diversity and justice commitments of these pastoral leaders’ instructors. To address this gap, we tested a model of relational spirituality and mature alterity previously used in prior studies with seminary students. Faculty and staff (N = 303) from seminaries accredited by the Association of Theological Schools across the United States and Canada were invited to participate. Participants completed measures of dispositional humility and compassion, social justice commitment, commitment to intercultural competence, respect for religious diversity, purpose beyond the self, and spiritual impression management. Results based on a series of hierarchical regression models showed both humility and compassion were significantly positively related to (a) social justice commitment, (b) commitment to intercultural competence, and (c) purpose beyond the self over and above the effect of spiritual impression management. Compassion was also positively related to respect for religious diversity. Implications are discussed for future research, faculty development, and theological education in these areas.
... We might anticipate that if we asked a group of Christians whether they valued ending racism and increasing racial DEI, most would say yes and affirm that this is an important goal. However, a series of empirical studies have explored these issues with seminary students and ministry leaders in Christian contexts and have found significant individual differences in attitudes toward social justice commitments, including working toward racial equality (for a review, see Jankowski et al., 2022). In fact, self-reports of social justice commitment have been uncorrelated (e.g., Bell et al., 2017;Choi et al., 2019) or only modestly correlated (Sandage & Morgan, 2014) with social desirability effects among these predominantly Christian samples, probably due to the wide range of attitudes about anti-racism and other social justice efforts within Christian communities. ...
... A series of studies with graduate students in an Evangelical context found that cultural competence was (a) positively associated with numerous indicators of healthy spiritual formation, including spiritual well-being, spiritual seeking, gratitude, humility, meditative prayer practices, and relational maturity, and (b) negatively associated with spiritual grandiosity and spiritual instability (Paine et al., 2016;Sandage & Harden, 2011;Sandage et al., 2015). The virtue of compassion has also emerged as a key predictor of cultural competence and social justice in both cross-sectional, as well as longitudinal, studies involving semi-nary students and faculty (Hydinger et al., in press;Jankowski et al., 2022). Together, these findings suggest cultural competence can be integrated with Christian spiritual formation and cultural competence and spiritual formation might both emerge from constructive processes of relational development (Sandage & Brown, 2018). ...
Racial division has been a long-standing problem throughout the history of the United States, and these problems persist among Christians and the church today. There is often hope that Christians can offer help and healing to the problem of racial division, but many Christians and Christian institutions have maintained racial systems of inequality, oppression, and White supremacy through lack of action, endorsing colorblind racial ideology, and even overt opposition to movements and viewpoints supporting racial justice, claiming that such movements are antithetical to the Christian faith. In the current article, we first discuss the problem of racial division within the context of American Christianity, focusing on the following themes: (a) lack of motivation to engage, (b) low levels of cultural competence, and (c) comfort, familiarity and the reinforcement of self-interest by historical structures that have favored the majority culture. Then we present a three-part model for supporting Christians who want to work toward racial diversity/equity/inclusion (DEI), focusing on (a) increasing motivation, (b) increasing cultural competence, and (c) implementing contextual and structural changes. Finally, we offer some ideas about what a program based on our model might look like and briefly review existing research that supports our model and program.
This article traces my journey into the field of psychology, which came after a few decades of wandering in the wilderness of career and vocational ambiguity, experimenting with roles as a social worker, clergy member, seminary student, software engineer, product manager, and consultant along the way. Seeds planted in my early faith and human development continue to anchor my professional work as a psychologist—in particular, in the area of the emotional well-being and resilience of religious leaders and in the pursuit of a global, ecumenical, and culturally decentered vision of spiritual formation and human flourishing. Speaking from my standpoint as a Chinese-American, I also share about my historical and ongoing struggles with my Evangelical identity, the deconstruction and decoupling of just world beliefs from my religious worldview, and how these processes helped shape my engagement in social justice and advocacy within the context of the manifold financial, social, political, and racial challenges that have gripped communities throughout the United States and the world in recent history.
Existing humility intervention studies have yielded inconsistent findings, despite prior findings that suggest a salutary influence for general humility, including on religious leaders’ religiousness/spirituality (R/S). We tested a relational spirituality model (RSM) proposition that change in humility would correspond to change in self- and coregulation, as measured by differentiation and God attachment. We did so by conducting a mixed-method study with a diverse sample of emerging religious leaders attending a graduate theological school in the northeastern United States (N = 136; Mage = 39.50; SD = 11.14, range = 20—67; 43.4% female; 41.2% Black/African American). Results of a multiple simultaneous latent change score model were consistent with the RSM, as we found evidence of concurrent and conditional changes among humility, differentiation, and God attachment over the course of a humility intervention. Qualitative analyses revealed five categories of humility cultivation practices, (a) relationships with others, (b) prayer/study/worship, (c) self-reflection, (d) self-care/rest, and (e) service, and yielded evidence of intervention fidelity. Multigroup comparisons indicated that intention toward prayer/study/worship and self-care/rest practices, and following through on completing a cultivation plan moderated the associations between humility, differentiation, and God attachment. Findings suggested that an RSM theoretical framing of change in virtuousness could inform the design of humility interventions and future studies evaluating the effectiveness of those interventions.
In this study we analyze distinct socio-political predictors, namely, system justification, moral foundations, political ideology,
social dominance orientation and authoritarianism, of two distinct but interrelated postcolonial ideologies, namely symbolic
exclusion and historical negation in regards to the Mapuche people, in a sample of the general Chilean population (n = 1.242).
According to the results, symbolic exclusion is explained by the political ideology of the participants, their social dominance
orientation, right-wing authoritarianism, system justification and one specific moral foundations’ dimension: harm/care.
On the other hand, right-wing authoritarianism, system justification, political ideology, and two specific moral foundations
(loyalty/betrayal and authority/subversion) play an important role in predicting the historical negation of negative events
affecting the Mapuche Indigenous people in Chile. Our results are discussed in terms of their implications for present-day
intergroup relations between the Mapuche and non-Indigenous Chileans.
Justice should increase inclusion because just treatment conveys acceptance and enables social exchanges that build cohesion. Inclusion should increase justice because people can use inclusion as a convenient fairness cue. Prior research touches on these causal associations but relies on a thin conception of inclusion and neglects within-person effects. We analyze whether justice causes inclusion at the within-person level. Five waves of data were gathered from 235 college students in 38 entrepreneurial teams. Teams were similar in size, work experience, deadlines, and goals. General cross-lagged panel models indicated that justice and inclusion had a reciprocal influence on each other. A robustness check with random-intercept cross-lagged models supported the results. In the long run, reversion to the mean occurred after an effect decayed, suggesting that virtuous or vicious cycles are unlikely. The results imply that maintaining overall justice at the peer-to-peer level may lead to inclusion.
This article articulates how compassion can be integrated into counseling psychology practice to augment the commitment to social justice. Drawing on a humanistic–existential paradigm that asserts the primacy of ethics, a multilayered understanding of compassion is explored in its implication for practitioners. First, as acknowledgment of the other’s suffering, compassion means being aware of the relational dynamics that extends from the therapist–client dyad to include the wider communities to which they belong. Second, as appreciation for suffering as an existential given, compassion expresses connectedness through the shared experience of otherness while revealing the inherent potential toward growth in clients. Third, as access to the suffering other, compassion exposes the societal power dynamics that threaten the therapeutic relationship. Fourth, as acceptance of the response to the suffering other, compassion requires to embrace the intrapersonal and interpersonal experience evoked in meeting clients. Fifth, as alleviation of the other’s suffering, compassion becomes the expression of a value-based practice that can drive the shift that sees psychotherapy as an interpersonal process based on connectedness to foster healing. Therefore, compassion is put forward as the foundation of counseling psychology ethics of social justice.
Right-wing terrorism (RWT) poses an increasing threat to Western societies, with perpetrators targeting diverse members of society. We investigated the affective and attitudinal outcomes of exposure to news about RWT, depending on the victims’ religious affiliation (Christian vs. Muslim). Results of a quota-based experiment in [Austria; predominantly non-Muslim] (N = 315) revealed no direct effects of the victims’ religious affiliation on affective and attitudinal outcomes. However, mediation analyses suggest that, compared to Muslim victims, Christian victims elicit higher perceived similarity, which in turn, impacts compassion. Similarity and compassion then significantly predict affective and attitudinal outcomes. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
In the wake of a global pandemic, social, political, and racial unrest, and unprecedented human suffering, both nationally and abroad, our communities are in urgent need of renewal—biological renewal, social renewal, political renewal, and spiritual renewal. Prilleltensky (1997) argued that knowledge should be a tool of social action. If this is indeed the case, should not the wealth of knowledge created by, and available to, Christian mental health professionals be leveraged to benefit society and directly facilitate community renewal? Unfortunately, many of the issues facing society cannot be adequately addressed through counseling and psychotherapy alone (Bulhan, 1985); because of this, Christian mental health professionals must
also consider expanding the scope of our work and professional responsibility beyond individual interventions (Vera & Speight, 2003). Accordingly, this paper explores how recent advancements in research
on positive psychology and the psychology of religion and spirituality provide a fertile context for faith communities and scientific communities to collaborate together towards the shared vision of community renewal—a vision of community renewal that is grounded in Christian character and formation as well as empirical science.
Paloutzian and Park assert that the psychology of religion must restrict its methods to certain rules and boundaries, but they do not address the acknowledged problems with such a methodological confinement in the philosophy of science. We focus here on the restrictions that stem from the authors’ implicit commitment to the context-specific ontological assumption of naturalism. Unidentified ontological assumptions can precipitate a slippery slope from justifiably employing a method for natural events only (e.g., methodological naturalism) to unjustifiably restricting interpretations of data to naturalistic explanations only (e.g., metaphysical naturalism). The chief implication of this slip for Paloutzian and Park’s naturalistic assumptions is that psychology of religion researchers will consider only naturalistic interpretations of data when nonnaturalistic interpretations are plausible and/or would better fit the experience of many study participants. Although theism is only one of many nonnaturalistic alternatives to naturalism, we outline 6 reasons why a theistic ontology (as opposed to a theistic religious position) could give researchers more freedom to follow the data in their interpretation of findings.
We present a model of ambivalent classism in which hostile (overtly negative and insulting) and benevolent (subjectively positive but condescending) attitudes about poor people co-exist and independently predict endorsement of restrictive and poverty-perpetuating welfare policies. Whereas existing classism scales predominantly measure antipathy toward poor people, we developed and validated the Ambivalent Classism Inventory (ACI), a 20-item scale that captures both hostile and benevolent attitudes toward poor people. The ACI has one hostile factor (hostile classism) and two benevolent factors (protective paternalism and complementary class differentiation). Data from four samples (total n = 1,543) indicate that the ACI has good reliability and validity. Findings underscore the role of benevolent beliefs in classist attitudes. Item generation, analytical methods, and implications are discussed.
Previous studies suggest that narrative fiction promotes social justice by increasing empathy, but critics have argued that the partiality of empathy severely limits its effectiveness as an engine of social justice, and that what needs to be developed is universal compassion rather than empathy. We cre- ated Compassion-Cultivating Pedagogy (CCP) to target the development of two social-cognition capabilities that entail compassion: (1) recognition of self-other overlap and (2) cognizance of the situational, uncontrollable causes of bad character, bad behavior, and bad life-outcomes. Employing a pre/post within- and between-subjects design, we found that students in the CCP classes, but not students in conventionally taught classes, improved in these two areas of social cognition and also exhibited increased preference for compassionate social policies for stigmatized groups. This finding sug- gests that pedagogy can play a significant role in literature’s contribution to social justice, and that further efforts to develop and test pedagogies for improving social cognition are warranted.
Against the backdrop of an increase in reported hate crimes, we present the development of a U.K.-focussed instrument designed to evaluate the nature of public beliefs about hate crime, legislation, offenders and victims. In Study 1, 438 participants completed an Anglicized version of the Hate Crime Beliefs Scale (HCBS). Factor analyses revealed three subfactors: Denial (high scores represent a denial of hate crime severity and need for legislation), Compassion (high score reflect compassion toward victims and affected communities) and Sentencing (higher scores reflect more punitive attitudes). In Study 2 (N = 134) we show that scores on Denial are positively associated with those on Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) and Social Dominance Orientation (SDO), ideologies known to be associated with prejudice. Compassion was negatively associated with these ideologies. Mediation analyses showed that Big Five personality traits Openness to Experience and Conscientiousness predicted Denial and Compassion via RWA, whereas Agreeableness and Openness predicted scores via SDO, consistent with a dual-process motivation model of hate crime beliefs. Results are discussed in terms of the nature of hate crime beliefs and the importance of understanding public attitudes which may support undesirable social norms and influence jury decision making in trials of hate related offenses.
Researchers have increasingly called for the examination of both mental health symptoms and well-being when providing and evaluating psychotherapy, and although symptoms and well-being are typically inversely related, these appear to be distinct constructs that may require distinct intervention strategies. Positive psychology interventions, virtue-based treatments, and psychotherapies explicitly focused on promoting well-being have emerged in response to, or perhaps in concert with, the calls for attention to symptoms and well-being. Our review of the relevant and vast research pockets revealed that these treatments demonstrated relative efficacy in promoting well-being, whereas evidence for relative efficacy when reducing symptoms was largely inconclusive, particularly in psychotherapy contexts. We organized our review around the virtue-ethics notion that growth in virtuousness fosters flourishing, with flourishing consisting of more than the absence of symptoms, and specifically, that flourishing also involves increased well-being. The lack of evidence for relative efficacy among active alternative treatment conditions in promoting flourishing may suggest equal effectiveness, and yet, this also suggests that there are yet-to-be-identified moderators and mechanisms of change and/or insufficient use of research designs and/or statistical procedures that could more clearly test this major tenet of the virtue-ethics tradition. Nevertheless, we know that evidence-based problem-focused psychotherapies are effective at reducing symptoms, and our review showed that positive psychology interventions, virtue-based treatments, and psychotherapies explicitly focused on well-being promote well-being and/or virtue development. We encourage researchers and psychotherapists to continue to integrate symptom reduction and well-being promotion into psychotherapy approaches aimed at fostering client flourishing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).
In this essay, we contend that there is much unfinished business ahead for Christian higher education. Our argument is grounded in the cumulative impact of long-standing frameworks and an expanding knowledge base on diversity and social justice in higher education. In 2013, we edited a special volume of this journal calling for focused work on faith, diversity, and social justice within Christian higher education. Since then, we feel heavily influenced by racialized events in the United States and our concern as educators regarding the role and responsibility of Christian higher education in educating its students. The purpose of the article is to challenge and extend the conversation on diversity and social justice in Christian higher education. To that end, we suggest questions that Christian higher education leaders should be asking of themselves. We emphasize how Christian higher education can take the lead in advancing social justice as part of its mission. We explore definitions and old paradigms and discuss the significance of current events and cultural thinking. We then outline actionable institutional frameworks and initiatives that can move Christian higher education forward.
Immigration is a worldwide subject of interest, and studies about attitudes towards immigrants have been frequent due to immigration crises in different locations across the globe. We aimed at understanding individual-level effects of human values and ideological beliefs (Right-Wing Authoritarianism – RWA, and Social Dominance Orientation – SDO) on attitudes towards immigrants, and whether country-level variables (perception of Islamic Fundamentalism as a threat, perception of immigrants as a threat, and international migrant stock) moderate these relations. With representative samples from 20 countries (N = 21,362) (the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Oceania), and using Multilevel Bayesian regressions, results showed the negative effect of RWA, SDO, and existence values on attitudes towards immigrants, and the positive effects of suprapersonal and interactive values. Cross-level interactions indicated that the effects of RWA, SDO and suprapersonal and existence values were intensified in countries with societally high levels of perceiving Islamic fundamentalism as a threat. International migrant stock served as a country-level moderator for the effects of SDO and RWA only. When country-level moderators were included simultaneously, Islamic fundamentalism as a threat was the most consistent moderator. Framing theory is offered as a plausible explanation of these results.
After a long period of inattention, began to attract greater scrutiny as a key driver of human behavior in the mid-1980s. One approach that has achieved significant influence in political science is affective intelligence theory (AIT). We deploy AIT here to begin to understand the recent rise in support for right-wing populist leaders around the globe. In particular, we focus on specific emotional appraisals on elections held at periods of heightened threat, including the two 2015 terror attacks in France, as influences on support for the far-right Front National among conservatives. Contrary to much conventional wisdom, we speculate that threats can generate both anger and fear, and with very different political consequences. We expect fear to inhibit reliance on extant political dispositions such as ideological identification and authoritarianism, while anger will strengthen the influence of these same dispositions. Our core findings, across repeated tests, show that fear and anger indeed differentially condition the way habits of thought and action influence support for the far right in the current historical moment. Contrary to conventional wisdom, it is anger that mobilizes the far right and authoritarians. Fear, on the other hand, diminishes the impact of these same dispositions.
Christian communities in the United States increasingly are debating sociopolitical issues and the relevance of social justice and cultural diversity to Christian spirituality. The present study investigated connections between spiritual maturity, mature alterity, spiritual service, and spiritual leadership in a predominantly female and ethnically diverse sample of Christian ministry leaders (N = 115) in the United States. Spiritual maturity was operationalized based on a relational spirituality model using measures representing dwelling- and seeking-oriented dimensions. Spiritual service was assessed through (a) sanctification of service and (b) a differentiated posture of listening to the struggles of others. Results showed both measures of spiritual maturity were significantly and positively related to social justice commitment, differentiated listing, and intercultural competence (the latter among female but not male ministry leaders) over and above effects for age and spiritual impression management. A dwelling-oriented measure of spiritual maturity was positively associated with the sanctification of leadership service, whereas a seeking-oriented measure of spiritual maturity showed a modest positive association with spiritual leadership. Spiritual leadership was unrelated to measures of mature alterity. Findings are discussed with respect to limitations, future psychological research, and theological implications for postcolonial pastoral leadership and spirituality.
Training in multiculturalism and social justice is pivotal to the growth and development of future counselors. Nonetheless, counselor educators tasked with teaching courses on multiculturalism and social justice must contend with several challenges due to the emotionally charged nature of the course content. In recent years, contemplative pedagogy, which entails the use of mindfulness-based practices in higher education, has emerged as a potential tool for promoting emotional balance and multicultural competence in students. This article reviews the extant literature on contemplative pedagogy and provides suggestions for utilizing mindfulness to promote the development of multicultural counseling competence amongst counseling students.
Religiousness has a long-standing presence in the research literature on intolerance. However, religiousness is minimally represented in the interpersonal violence myth (IPVM) literature. IPVMs comprise an aspect of the broader construct of intolerance. We heeded the call to address research on tradition-specific religious beliefs and IPVMs. As such, we examined select Christian beliefs about Divine–human relating, hierarchical relational expectations, complementarian gender ideology, and existential defensiveness as predictors of Domestic violence myth acceptance (DVMA) using a sample of 238 students from a Protestant evangelical seminary (Mage = 34.06, SD = 9.33; range 22 – 62 years; 41.6% female; 80.7% White). We observed positive associations among Calvinist tradition-specific religious beliefs and the 3 indicators of the latent construct of hierarchical relationality (i.e., hierarchical relational expectations, gender complementarianism, and existential defensiveness). We also observed (a) a positive indirect association between Calvinist beliefs and DVMA through the latent construct of hierarchical relationality, and (b) a negative indirect association between Calvinist beliefs and social justice advocacy through hierarchical relationality. Last, we observed evidence of suppression as the significant positive bivariate association between Calvinist beliefs and DVMA became significant and negative. Findings supported the conceptualization of domestic violence myths as comprised by nonacceptance of out-group members, hierarchical relationships, and gender inequality, and that an aspect of Calvinist ideology is similarly defined. Implications included designing training programs for religious leaders and constructing prevention and intervention strategies that foster self-reflection on religious beliefs associated with DVMA.
The seven articles in this Special Section of the Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment underscore the point that, at least in the psychopathy domain, parsimony is frequently an inaccurate scientific heuristic. These articles highlight the multidimensionality of youth psychopathy, suggesting that (a) the full constellation of psychopathy tends to outperform callous-unemotional traits alone in statistically predicting external criteria, (b) psychopathy subdimensions often interact statistically in predicting such criteria, and (c) psychopathy subdimensions often bear markedly different external correlates, including criminal offending, trait anxiety, and emotion processing. I offer five recommendations for future research on psychopathy and argue that that a full comprehension of this condition will require a better understanding of its subdimensions, and their interrelations, placement within the general personality domain, physiological correlates, and genetic and environmental underpinnings.
Although much research has been conducted on the predictors and outcomes of both subjective well-being (SWB) and psychological well-being (PWB), the magnitude and direction of the causal relationship between these constructs remain unclear. The studies reported in this article were designed to assess the temporal relationship between SWB and PWB during a period of 20 years. The studies used 3 waves of survey data, with intervals of 10 years, from the Midlife in the United States project, a representative longitudinal panel study of American adults (N = 2,731). Cross-lagged panel analyses were conducted to examine directionality of the relationships. Results showed that the autoregressive effects were large, suggesting a high degree of stability in SWB and PWB over time. Yet the levels of stability were generally higher for PWB than SWB. Whereas PWB unequivocally predicted increases in SWB over time, the prospective effects of SWB on PWB were inconsistent (i.e., positive, negative, or nonsignificant) across various points in time. The study findings suggest that PWB represents a more robust and consistent antecedent of future well-being than SWB.
Psychology advances knowledge by testing statistical hypotheses using empirical observations and data. The expectation is that most statistically significant findings can be replicated in new data and in new laboratories, but in practice many findings have replicated less often than expected, leading to claims of a replication crisis. We review recent methodological literature on questionable research practices, meta-analysis, and power analysis to explain the apparently high rates of failure to replicate. Psychologists can improve research practices to advance knowledge in ways that improve replicability. We recommend that researchers adopt open science conventions of preregi-stration and full disclosure and that replication efforts be based on multiple studies rather than on a single replication attempt. We call for more sophisticated power analyses, careful consideration of the various influences on effect sizes, and more complete disclosure of nonsignificant as well as statistically significant findings.
This article reviews the American Psychological Association’s (APA) efforts in promoting human rights and social justice. Beginning with a historical review of the conceptualizations of human rights and social justice, the social challenges that have faced the United States over time are discussed in relation to the APA’s evolving mission and strategic initiatives enacted through its boards, committees, and directorates. From early efforts on the Board for Social and Ethical Responsibility in Psychology and the Board of Ethnic Minority Affairs to the establishment of the Public Interest Directorate, the APA’s efforts to address these human rights and social justice challenges through its task force reports, guidelines, and policies are described. Specifically, issues related to diversity and underrepresentation of minority group members and perspective within the APA, as well as women’s issues (prochoice, violence against women, sexualization of young girls, human trafficking) were central to these efforts. These minority groups included racial and ethnic minority groups; immigrants and refugees; lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, and queer individuals; and those with disabilities. Later attention shifted to broader social justice challenges within a public health perspective, such as AIDS, obesity, and violence. Also included is a brief discussion of the Hoffman Report. The article ends with a discussion of future directions for the APA’s efforts related to human rights and social justice related to health disparities, violent extremism, social inequality, migration, cultural and racial diversity, and an evidence-based approach to programming.
This study addressed the lack of research simultaneously examining multiple dimensions of religiousness when predicting rape myth acceptance, and extended prior findings of a mediating role for right-wing authoritarianism (i.e., uncritical submission to authority and aggressive attitude toward those who do not conform to social norms) in the association between religiousness and prejudice. The sample consisted of 99 undergraduate and graduate students (M age = 31.87 years, 66.7% female, 80.82% White, and 93% Christian affiliated) from a religiously affiliated university in the Midwest United States. As hypothesized, dimensions of religiousness exhibited differential associations with rape myth acceptance. Religious motivation characterized by openness and exploration (i.e., quest religiousness) was a significant negative predictor of rape myth acceptance, directly, and indirectly through right-wing authoritarianism. In contrast, rigid adherence to religious beliefs, assumed to be “right” and absolutely true (i.e., religious fundamentalism), and extrinsically motivated religiousness each exhibited a positive association with rape myth acceptance through right-wing authoritarianism. In addition, internally motivated religiousness and religious fundamentalism each moderated the nonlinear effect for quest predicting rape myth acceptance. Findings suggest that uncritical religious and secular submission to external authorities or uncommitted and nonexploring religiousness may have increased the extent to which persons adhered to rape myths, whereas religious exploration was protective. Practical implications center on the need for socioculturally relevant prevention and intervention efforts with religious identifying college students.
Participants were grouped on the basis of theological beliefs about divine-human and female-male dynamics using cluster analysis. We then explored whether these subgroups might differ on (a) hierarchical social expectations, (b) commitments to social justice and intercultural competence, (c) religious exploration, (d) existential defensiveness, (e) views of psychology - theology integration, and (f) perspectives on women’s leadership. The sample consisted of graduate students (N = 227) at an Evangelical seminary in the Midwestern United States. Results yielded a four-cluster solution. Individuals scoring high on both Calvinist theological beliefs and complementarian gender role beliefs scored significantly higher on hierarchical relationship expectations and existential defensiveness, and preferred a Christian psychology view of integration and a male headship perspective of leadership, compared to those scoring low on Calvinism and complementarianism.
In contrast, individuals scoring low on both theological dimensions scored higher on Arminianism, gender egalitarianism, social justice commitment, intercultural competence commitment, religious exploration, and they preferred an integration view of psychology and theology and a “no restrictions” perspective on women’s roles. Findings highlight implications for theological training and spiritual formation.
The current research examined the capability of Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA), Social Dominance Orientations (SDO-D and SDO-E), the five Moral Foundations Orientation (MFO), and Religious Fundamentalism (RF) to predict economic conservatism, social conservatism, and foreign policy conservatism. Based on data gathered from a sample of students attending a public university located in the northeast U.S., multiple regression analyses indicated: 1) RWA and SDO-D were predictors of economic conservatism; 2) only RWA predicted social conservatism; and 3) RWA and RF predicted foreign policy conservatism. In all cases, RWA was the strongest predictor of economic, social, and foreign policy conservatism. We discuss the reasons RWAs endorse conservative economic, social and foreign policies.
The Cambridge Handbook of the Psychology of Prejudice aims to answer the questions: why is prejudice so persistent? How does it affect people exposed to it? And what can we do about it? Providing a comprehensive examination of prejudice from its evolutionary beginnings and environmental influences through to its manifestations and consequences, this handbook is an essential resource for scholars and students who are passionate about understanding prejudice, social change, collective action, and prejudice reduction. Featuring cutting-edge research from top scholars in the field, the chapters provide an overview of psychological models of prejudice; investigate prejudice in specific domains such as race, religion, gender, and appearance; and develop explicit, evidence-based strategies for disrupting the processes that produce and maintain prejudice. This handbook challenges researchers and readers to move beyond their comfort zone, and sets the agenda for future avenues of research, policy, and intervention.
The present chapter reviews findings on justice sensitivity as an indicator of an individual’s concern for justice. People differ systematically in their inclination to perceive injustice and the strength of their cognitive, emotional, and behavioral reactions. These differences have been found to be consistent across types of injustices and relatively stable across time. Justice sensitivity has been differentiated according to the perspectives that can be adopted towards injustice (victim, observer, beneficiary, perpetrator). These sensitivity perspectives have been shown to be distinct from other personality variables. Whereas victim sensitivity seems to entail rather antisocial inclinations and the fear to be exploited, observer, beneficiary, and perpetrator sensitivity are related to prosocial orientations. The sensitivity perspectives have been shown to be powerful predictors of reactions to perceived injustice, people’s own adherence to justice standards, and more distal health outcomes. Theory and findings regarding the psychological processes that translate the justice sensitivity perspectives into emotional and behavioral reactions are reviewed, and questions regarding the development of justice sensitivity across the lifespan are raised. In sum, a substantial body of evidence highlights the importance of justice sensitivity for a complete understanding of justice-related phenomena such as protest, retaliation and forgiveness, cooperation, altruistic sharing, compensation, and punishment, moral courage, and solidarity. The chapter closes by identifying open questions and directions for future research.
Religious/spiritual commitment tends to show positive associations with well-being, and yet, questions remain about the mechanisms for the association. Some have recently proposed that virtues may mediate the religious/spiritual commitment – well-being association. However, empirical support for this mediating role stems largely from cross-sectional studies. Further, scholars have increasingly drawn attention to validity concerns when studying religiousness/spirituality, virtues, and well-being. As such, we explored associations among religious/spiritual commitment, virtues, and well-being, prior to and after conducting factor analysis. Our sample consisted of graduate students attending 18 seminaries across North America (N = 580; Mage = 31.50; SD = 11.12; 47.3% female; 62.9% White). Patterns of associations initially showed evidence of construct overlap among two pairs of virtues, which was confirmed by factor analytic findings, the latter which suggested a five-factor first-order structure of the virtues. Latent variable modeling showed cross-sectional associations between greater religious/spiritual commitment and greater well-being through greater blessedness and forgiveness. Longitudinal associations did not replicate the cross-sectional findings, but did show associations between prior levels of greater humility and later levels of greater eudaimonic well-being, and between greater hedonic well-being at time 1 and greater blessedness at time 3 through greater eudaimonic well-being at time 2. Greater religious/spiritual commitment at time 1 also predicted greater well-being at time 3, through a synchronous mediation process involving blessedness at time 2. Findings highlight the importance of attending closely to potential construct overlap in the measurement of religiousness/spirituality, virtues, and well-being.
Scholars and practitioners have increasingly called for the development of social justice commitment, intercultural competence, and appreciation of diversity among ministers and helping professionals. In religious contexts, individual factors may contribute to differences in the degree to which spiritual leaders emphasize intercultural and social justice initiatives. Personality factors, such as virtues and specific moral commitments, predict the degree to which people report positive attitudes and demonstrate mature alterity. In this study, we explored the degree to which intellectual humility predicted mature alterity outcomes after controlling for the effects of five moral foundations (care, fairness, loyalty, authority, purity) in a sample of Christian seminary students in the United States. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed for ministry and the helping professions.
We advanced an integrative trend examining religiousness/spirituality (R/S) and flourishing using person-centered data analyses. Specifically, we tested a relational spirituality model (RSM) proposition that a latent profile comprised balanced dwelling (e.g. R/S commitment) and seeking (e.g. R/S exploration) would emerge and display greater flourishing, relative to the other subgroups, and we did so using a diverse sample of emerging religious leaders attending 17 graduate theological schools across North America (N = 580; Mage = 31.56; SD = 11.13; range = 19–71; 47.8% female; 62.7% White). A 5-profile model best fit the data, which included an Integrated profile that depicted a balanced relational spirituality that displayed flourishing. Findings suggested that an RSM theoretical framing of R/S indicators provided a distinct relational characterization and contextual lens to offer guidance on promoting flourishing, and specifically, by intervening into the dwelling–seeking dialectic, and self- and relational regulation.
Increasing evidence indicates that many published findings in psychology may be overestimated or even false. An often-heard response to this “replication crisis” is to replicate more: replication studies should weed out false positives over time and increase robustness of psychological science. However, replications take time and money – resources that are often scarce. In this chapter, I propose an efficient alternative strategy: a four-step robustness check that first focuses on verifying reported numbers through reanalysis before replicating studies in a new sample.
Cross-lagged panel models (CLPMs) are common, but their applications often focus on "short-run" effects among temporally proximal observations. This addresses questions about how dynamic systems may immediately respond to interventions, but fails to show how systems evolve over longer timeframes. We explore three types of "long-run" effects in dynamic systems that extend recent work on "impulse responses," which reflect potential long-run effects of one-time interventions. Going beyond these, we first treat evaluations of system (in)stability by testing for "permanent effects," which are important because in unstable systems even a one-time intervention may have enduring effects. Second, we explore classic econometric long-run effects that show how dynamic systems may respond to interventions that are sustained over time. Third, we treat "accumulated responses" to model how systems may respond to repeated interventions over time. We illustrate tests of each long-run effect in a simulated dataset and we provide all materials online including user-friendly R code that automates estimating, testing, reporting, and plotting all effects (see https://doi.org/10.26188/13506861). We conclude by emphasizing the value of aligning specific longitudinal hypotheses with quantitative methods.
Students working toward a Master’s of Social Work in Israeli colleges must complete a demanding research seminar course, a source of stress for many. Focusing is a contemplative practice that these and other students may use to self-regulate their emotions and better cope with the seminar course and beyond. This qualitative research assessed the impact of introducing a modified focusing approach to 17 MSW students enrolled in a research seminar course at a college in Northern Israel. Participants wrote individual reflections on their experience. Analysis revealed four main themes: turning inward, clear thinking, the body knows (a sense of knowledge), and practical application (a sense of efficacy). The results of this contemplative pedagogy suggest students who learn meditative methods of self-regulation, such as focusing, can shift rapidly from stressful states.
The authors evaluated the acquisition of 6 constructs related to multicultural and social justice competence for 60 counselors‐in‐training (CITs) in 3 multicultural counseling courses. Each course was assigned a unique pedagogical approach: didactic, experiential, or community service learning. Statistical analyses indicated that pedagogical approach had the greatest impact on CITs’ growth in multicultural relationship, multicultural skills, and social justice advocacy constructs. Analyses also indicated growth across all 3 pedagogies for multicultural knowledge and multicultural awareness constructs. The authors explore patterns of pedagogical impact, discuss practical implications, and make suggestions for further research.
Ideological attitudes supporting group‐based dominance (i.e., social dominance orientation, SDO) and in‐group authority (i.e., right‐wing authoritarianism, RWA) are well‐established dual antecedents of prejudice. We extend classic perspectives of prejudice as an attitudinal outcome by testing this dual‐antecedent model with prejudice operationalized as inclusive behavioral intentions in a nationally‐representative Australian community sample (N = 2,632). An exploratory structural equation model simultaneously derived three domains of behavioral intentions in the data: small, interpersonal gestures (e.g., saying hello to people from other groups), volunteering to help the disadvantaged (e.g., mentoring people from disadvantaged groups), and political action (e.g., organizing a demonstration). There was evidence for a dual‐motivational basis of inclusive behavior intentions, with SDO negatively predicting all three categories of behaviors, particularly interpersonal gestures, while RWA showed a small negative relation only with political action. The findings suggest that motivations for group‐based dominance are the primary barrier against behavioral intentions toward social inclusion, which can inform the design of public interventions for reducing prejudice and discrimination.
Conservative Protestants have been successful in communicating their religious voice in the public sphere, while liberal Protestants have struggled to articulate a distinctly liberal, religious voice. In this article, I show that a major component of liberal Protestant identity—inclusivity—itself constitutes a fundamental barrier to developing that voice. Drawing on 26 interviews and a year of participant observation at a liberal Protestant congregation in the southeast, I first show that congregants construct their identity of inclusivity in response to cultural associations of Christianity with conservatism and exclusivism. I then analyze three discursive strategies that congregants use to make sense of individuals’ involvement in Moral Mondays, a left‐leaning local social movement. By connecting Moral Mondays to social justice, to religious beliefs, and to individual commitments, congregants depoliticize involvement in Moral Mondays and maintain their commitment to inclusivity. I argue that inclusivity does not limit their participation, but rather limits their ability to connect that participation to their liberal religious voice. This research has important implications for understanding barriers to liberal Protestants’ articulation of a distinctly liberal and religious voice in the public sphere.
This article compares a general cross-lagged model (GCLM) to other panel data methods based on their coherence with a causal logic and pragmatic concerns regarding modeled dynamics and hypothesis testing. We examine three "static" models that do not incorporate temporal dynamics: random-and fixed-effects models that estimate contemporaneous relationships; and latent curve models. We then describe "dynamic" models that incorporate temporal dynamics in the form of lagged effects: cross-lagged models estimated in a structural equation model (SEM) or multilevel model (MLM) framework; Arellano-Bond dynamic panel data methods; and autoregressive latent trajectory models. We describe the implications of overlooking temporal dynamics in static models and show how even popular cross-lagged models fail to control for stable factors over time. We also show that Arellano-Bond and autoregressive latent trajectory models have various shortcomings. By contrasting these approaches, we clarify the benefits and drawbacks of common methods for modeling panel data, including the GCLM approach we propose. We conclude with a discussion of issues regarding causal inference, including difficulties in separating different types of time-invariant and time-varying effects over time.
This is the first paper in a series of two that synthesizes, compares, and extends methods for causal inference with longitudinal panel data in a structural equation modeling (SEM) framework. Starting with a cross-lagged approach, this paper builds a general cross-lagged panel model (GCLM) with parameters to account for stable factors while increasing the range of dynamic processes that can be modeled. We illustrate the GCLM by examining the relationship between national income and subjective well-being (SWB), showing how to examine hypotheses about short-run (via Granger-Sims tests) versus long-run effects (via impulse responses). When controlling for stable factors, we find no short-run or long-run effects among these variables, showing national SWB to be relatively stable, whereas income is less so. Our second paper addresses the differences between the GCLM and other methods. Online Supplementary Materials offer an Excel file automating GCLM input for Mplus (with an example also for Lavaan in R) and analyses using additional data sets and all program input/output. We also offer an introductory GCLM presentation at https://youtu.be/tHnnaRNPbXs. We conclude with a discussion of issues surrounding causal inference.
Compassion has become a major focus for international research in prosocial behaviour. This paper explores the evolutionary origins of caring and how recently evolved cognitive competencies create human compassion. While some see compassion as linked to an emotional or affective state, others root compassion in an evolved motivation and social mentality. The paper will briefly explore fears, blocks and resistances to compassion, how compassion can be understood as a social mentality and the increasing focus on compassionate mind training.
Pedagogical space is a theo-ethical-pastoral process where one notices and probes the reality of what is being wrought in the world. Theo-ethical-pastoral space requires the learning community to discern what we contribute to the state of affairs and ascertain our obligations to move from discernment and analysis to activism for justice. In other words, this space is formational and has a telos in mind. Because it is formational space, our understanding of pedagogical practices has to go beyond analytical capacities of theo-ethical pastoral reflection; the process must entail formational strategies and methodological action.
This qualitative study examined how a national program, established by Latina/o faculty, engaged in socialization efforts to foster persistence in doctoral degree programs. The study used spiritual activism as a framework to examine the mentoring relationships fostered among program participants. Data derived from interviews with 19 program alumni and document analysis. Findings revealed that the selection of graduate scholars entailed screening for a commitment to Latina/o communities, which supported the development of bonds among graduate scholars. As emerging scholars, the participants experienced academic validation. Finally, participants fostered a national mentoring network that was rooted in reciprocity. The findings result in the conceptualization of a mentoring framework entitled “spiritual mentor-activism.”
This article has two interrelated aims. First we explore a novel conceptual analysis of the “unity” of the virtues. Virtues come in clusters differentiated by broad functions within overall character. We identify three such clusters—virtues of intelligent caring, virtues of willpower, and virtues of humility. Virtues within a cluster are “unified” by some commonality, e.g., justice, compassion, and truthfulness all are kinds of intelligent caring. The allocentric virtues, a sub-class of the virtue of intelligent caring, are forms of intelligent caring about people. Virtues of willpower are capacities to manage impulses: desires, emotions, and habits. Virtues of humility are absences of vices of pride. These clusters support and exploit one another in a healthy character. Second, we explore whether empirical psychology can support conceptual analysis such as we propose. Our discussion of the conceptual analysis and empirical studies of the relations between pairs of allocentric virtues illustrates this exploration.
In this article, I trouble the pedagogical practice of comforting discomfort in the social-justice classroom. Is it possible to support white students, for instance, and not comfort them? Is it possible to support white students without recentering the emotional crisis of white students, without disregarding the needs and interests of students of color, and without reproducing the violence that students of color endure? First I address the dangers of comforting discomfort and discuss Robin DiAngelo's notion of white fragility, which has been used to explain the tendency of white people to flee discomfort rather than tarry with it (DiAngelo 2011). Employing Erinn Gilson's work on vulnerability, I argue that white fragility is not a weakness but an active performance of invulnerability (Gilson 2011, 2014). I conclude by arguing that developing vulnerability is a counter to white fragility, and that one way such vulnerability can be encouraged is through offering critical hope, which I maintain is a type of support that does not comfort.
Cultural diversity and social justice are relatively controversial topics in the United States among Evangelical Christian communities, and graduate trainees in the helping professions are expected to develop commitments to social justice (SJC) and intercultural competence (ICC). The present study tested a hypothesized model with different relational spirituality orientations (i.e., faith maturity and defensive theology) of graduate students in the helping professions at an Evangelical seminary (N = 228) predicting SJC and ICC while controlling for dispositional humility and impression management. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses indicated dispositional humility was positively associated with both SJC and ICCC, and faith maturity (positively) and defensive theology (negatively) each predicted SJC and ICC over and above dispositional humility. These findings indicate that relational spirituality orientations and dispositional humility each contribute uniquely to SJC and ICC, and these effects are not reducible to impression management. We consider implications for both graduate training and future research.
Generalized prejudice (GP), biases expressed toward multiple outgroups, is typically explained by two aspects of authoritarianism: ‘bowing’ in the form of submission (i.e., right-wing authoritarianism, RWA); and ‘kicking’ in the form of dominance (i.e., social dominance orientation, SDO). Whereas contemporary approaches treat RWA and SDO as separate GP predictors, we statistically model the commonality between RWA and SDO reflecting an underlying tendency toward generalized authoritarian (GA). Re-analyzing data from an existing meta-analysis (Study 1), and modelling meta-analytic data from studies containing clear GP-relevant information (Study 2), we compare: (a) the standard approach of predicting GP based on RWA and SDO as unique predictors (Model 1); with (b) an alternative approach based on a latent GA factor indicated by RWA and SDO (Model 2). The alternative model provided stronger (and near-perfect) prediction of GP, along with specific associations between RWA and two types of prejudice (sexism, homophobia). These findings have fundamental implications for understanding authoritarianism and prejudice-proneness.