Faith from a Positive Psychology Perspective

261 Pages·2015·2.595 MB·English

by  Cindy Miller-Perrin, Elizabeth Krumrei Mancuso (auth.)

Cindy Miller-Perrin
Elizabeth Krumrei Mancuso
Faith from
a Positive
Psychology
Perspective
Faith from a Positive Psychology Perspective

Cindy Miller-Perrin (cid:129) Elizabeth Krumrei Mancuso
Faith from a Positive
Psychology Perspective
CindyMiller-Perrin ElizabethKrumreiMancuso
SocialScienceDivision SocialScienceDivision
PepperdineUniversity PepperdineUniversity
Malibu,CA,USA Malibu,CA,USA
ISBN978-94-017-9435-0 ISBN978-94-017-9436-7(eBook)
DOI10.1007/978-94-017-9436-7
SpringerDordrechtHeidelbergNewYorkLondon
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2014951710
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Contents
1 Religion,Spirituality,andPositivePsychology:
HistoryandDefinitions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 AHistoryoftheRelationshipBetweenReligionandScience. . . . 5
1.2 AHistoryoftheRelationshipBetweenReligion,Spirituality,
andPsychology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.2.1 Religion,Spirituality,andtheFieldofPositive
Psychology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
1.3 DefinitionandMeasurementofConstructs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
1.3.1 ReligiosityandSpirituality. .. . . . .. . . . .. . . . . .. . . . .. 12
1.3.2 OptimalPsychologicalFunctioning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
1.3.3 GoalsandObjectivesofThisBook. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2 FaithandPositiveEmotions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
2.1 ReligiousDifferencesintheExperienceofEmotions. . . . . . . . . . 24
2.2 Faith-BasedEmotions. . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . .. . 26
2.2.1 AssessingEmotionsDefinedasExplicitlySpiritual
orReligious. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
2.2.2 AssessingEmotionsRelatedtoaHigherPower. . . . . . . . . 28
2.2.3 AssessingEmotionsEvokedbyReligiousorSpiritual
Practices. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
2.2.4 TheUniquenessofFaith-BasedEmotions. . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
2.3 FaithPredictorsofPositiveEmotionsandWell-Being. . . . . . . . . 33
2.3.1 TheSizeandNatureoftheRelationshipBetweenFaith
andEmotionalWell-Being. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
2.3.2 ReligiousCopingasanAspectofFaithLinkedto
EmotionalWell-Being. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
v
vi Contents
2.3.3 PossibleModeratorsoftheRelationshipBetween
FaithandEmotionalWell-Being. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
2.3.4 DirectionalityintheRelationshipBetweenFaith
andEmotionalWell-Being. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
2.4 FaithPredictorsofPositiveEmotionsandWell-BeingAmong
DiverseReligiousSamples. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
2.5 PossibleMechanismsfortheLinksBetweenFaith
andWell-Being. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
2.6 Implications. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
2.6.1 ClinicalImplications. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
2.6.2 ACautionaryNote. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
2.7 DirectionsforFutureResearch. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
2.8 ChapterSummary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
3 FaithandBehavior. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
3.1 FaithandProsocialBehaviors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
3.1.1 AltruismandHelping. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
3.1.2 Forgiveness. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
3.1.3 MoralityandEthicalBehavior. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
3.2 Health-RelatedBehaviors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
3.2.1 Faith,Health-Promoting,andPotentialRiskBehaviors. . . 79
3.3 PotentialMechanismsofBehaviorOutcomes. . . . . .. . . . . . . . .. 83
3.3.1 SocialControlTheory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
3.3.2 Self-ControlandSelf-Regulation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
3.3.3 SocialLearningTheory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
3.3.4 PositiveEmotions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
3.4 Implications. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
3.4.1 ACautionaryNote. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
3.5 DirectionsforFutureResearch. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
3.6 ChapterSummary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
4 FaithandCognition. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
4.1 FaithandMeaning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
4.1.1 FaithandGlobalMeaning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
4.1.2 FaithandSituationalMeaning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
4.2 CognitiveFaithPracticesandPositiveOutcomes. . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
4.2.1 Prayer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
4.2.2 Meditation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
4.3 Implications. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
4.3.1 ClinicalImplications. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
4.3.2 ACautionaryNote. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
4.4 DirectionsforFutureResearch. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
4.5 ChapterSummary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Contents vii
5 FaithandRelationships. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
5.1 FaithandMaritalRelationships. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
5.1.1 ReligiousBeliefs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
5.1.2 Prayer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
5.1.3 InvolvementinaReligiousCommunity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
5.1.4 SharedReligiousActivities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
5.2 FaithandParent-ChildRelationships. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
5.2.1 FaithVariablesAmongParents. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
5.2.2 FaithVariablesAmongChildren. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
5.2.3 RelationalFaithVariables. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
5.3 FaithandFamilyFunctioning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
5.4 FaithandNon-familialRelationships. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
5.4.1 RomanticRelationships. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
5.4.2 Friendships. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
5.4.3 FaithandOrientationtoRelationships. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
5.5 PossibleMechanismsforLinksBetweenFaith
andRelationships. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
5.5.1 RelationshipValues. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
5.5.2 SocialSupport. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . 169
5.5.3 SpiritualResources. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
5.6 Implications. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
5.6.1 ClinicalImplications. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
5.6.2 ACautionaryNote. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
5.7 DirectionsforFutureResearch. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
5.8 ChapterSummary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
6 FaithandCommunity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
6.1 ATheoreticalModelofFaithandCommunityWell-Being. . . . . . 184
6.1.1 FaithandSocialWell-Being. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
6.1.2 FaithandSenseofCommunity. .. . . .. . . . .. . . . .. . . .. 186
6.1.3 FaithandSocialCapital. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
6.1.4 EmpiricalSupportforaModelofFaithandCommunity
Well-Being. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
6.2 FaithinEducationalSettings. . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 189
6.2.1 EducationSatisfaction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
6.2.2 EducationalAspirations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
6.2.3 EducationalAchievement. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
6.3 FaithintheWorkplace. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
6.3.1 PositiveOutcomesofFaith,Calling,andSanctification. . . 196
6.3.2 FaithandJobStress. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
6.3.3 FaithandOrganizationalEthicsandLeadership. . . . . . . . 198
6.4 Faith-BasedOrganizations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
6.4.1 ResourcesandOutreachEfforts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
viii Contents
6.5 Implications. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
6.5.1 EducationalSettings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
6.5.2 WorkplaceSettings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
6.5.3 ACautionaryNote. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
6.6 DirectionsforFutureResearch. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
6.7 ChapterSummary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
7 FinalReflectionsonFaithandPositiveHumanFunctioning. . . . . . . 219
7.1 RobustFindingsRelatingFaithtoOptimalFunctioning. . . . . . . . 220
7.2 EquivocalandCautionaryFindings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
7.2.1 EquivocalFindings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
7.2.2 CautionaryNotesAboutFaithandHumanFunctioning. . . 228
7.3 ModeratorsandMechanismsofFaithLinkstoOptimal
Functioning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
7.3.1 FaithModerators. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
7.3.2 FaithMechanisms. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
7.4 ClinicalImplicationsofFaith. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
7.5 ResearchLimitationsandFutureDirections. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236
References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
Author Biography
Cindy Miller-Perrin earned her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Washington
State University and is Distinguished Professor of Psychology at Pepperdine
University. She enjoys teaching Child Clinical Psychology, Positive Psychology,
Advanced Research Seminar (Psychology Honors Program), and Introductory
Psychology. She also enjoys researching with undergraduates and is the recipient
of the 2008 Howard A. White Award for Teaching Excellence. Dr. Miller-Perrin
has authored numerous journal articles and book chapters covering a range of
topics, including child maltreatment, family violence, vocation and life purpose,
andfaithdevelopmentincollegestudents.Shehasco-authoredthreebooks,includ-
ingFamilyViolenceAcrosstheLifespan(withO.Barnett&R.Perrin,Sage1997,
2005, 2011), Child Maltreatment (with R. Perrin, Sage 1999, 2007, 2013), and
Child Sexual Abuse: Sharing the Responsibility (with S. Wurtele, University of
Nebraska Press, 1992). She is an APA Fellow in the American Psychological
Association and has served with APA as the President of the Section on Child
Maltreatment and Member-At-Large for Advocacy for Division 37 Society for
Child and Family Policy and Practice. She is currently President-Elect of APA’s
Division37.
Elizabeth Krumrei Mancuso earned an M.A. in Religion and Counseling from
Pepperdine University in 2004 and a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Bowling
Green State Universityin 2009.Shejoined the faculty at Pepperdine University’s
Seaver College in2009,where she isnow AssociateProfessorofPsychologyand
teaches courses in psychotherapy, family therapy, basic and advanced research
methodology, and psychology of religion. She has published journal articles on
topicssuchasreligiouscoping,spiritualstruggles,gratitude,forgiveness,divorce,
andcollegestudentmentalhealth.Shehasalsoauthoredbookchaptersonspiritu-
ality in psychotherapy, religious coping, and spiritual struggles. Dr. Krumrei
Mancusohasreceivedgrantsandfellowshipsforresearchonthetopicsofreligious
coping, spiritual struggles, spiritual movement meditation, community-based
ix