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Qualitative studies suggest that women's attitudes and religiosity have an important role in their experience of their male partners' pornography use, but these factors have not been adequately studied. The present study examined the contributions of perceived frequency of male partners' solitary pornography use (PFREQ), women's attitudes toward their partners' pornography use, conservative religiosity, and religious commitment to women's pornography-related distress, relationship satisfaction, and sexual satisfaction in women who reported they were married to or cohabitating with men who had used pornography in the prior 3 months (median frequency = 1-2 times/week). Participants were online research panel participants (n = 625), age mean = 44[

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) propos...

Spiritual and religious (S/R) competence is an important yet under-studied area of clinical multicultural competence. In a sample of clinicians who attended seminars on a specific S/R group trainin...

Recent research suggests that religious leaders’ humility is crucial to their own psychological wellbeing as well as the wellbeing of the communities they lead, yet little is known about how humili...

The degree to which clinical experience is a significant factor in predicting positive psychotherapeutic outcomes is an open question. Empirical studies comparing experienced and beginning practiti...

A dismissive or avoidant attachment style can present clinical challenges in psychotherapy as the attachment style may interfere with the development of a constructive therapeutic alliance and impa...

Previous research suggests that humility is important for religious leaders’ mental health and for the health of the communities they lead. There is evidence, however, that humility is particularly...

Forgiveness interventions have been employed in individual, couple, family, and group psychotherapy. Few attempts have been made to deliver forgiveness interventions via community-based campaigns. ...

Religion and spirituality have frequently been associated with mental health and well-being. However, inconsistent results suggest that there may be mediating factors. God representations highlight individual differences in relating to the sacred, which may have implications for mental health. Attachment theory has also been related to God representations and mental health. This study examined the relationships between benevolent and authoritarian God representations, attachment to God, and mental health in a sample of graduate students. Benevolent God representations were negatively associated with mental health problems, and this effect was mediated by attachment to God. Future research directions and implications are discussed.

Extensive empirical research has established therapeutic alliance as one of the most stable predictors of psychotherapy outcomes. Nearly all the contemporary empirical literature on therapeutic alliance focuses on the therapist-client dyad without attending to the relational experiences many clients in outpatient clinics have with administrative staff. Literatures from the fields of social work, psychiatric nursing and milieu therapy suggest there are more systemic relational and environmental dynamics that impact treatment beyond the therapist-client dyad, although these issues have been considered primarily in inpatient settings. A relational ecology framework has been developed drawing upon relational psychoanalysis, attachment theory and symbolic anthropology to help conceptualise the broader relational dynamics beyond the therapist-client dyad that may impact a more systemic therapeutic alliance in certain outpatient contexts. In an initial cross-sectional pilot study with a sample of clients (N = 10...

Loss is a fundamental human experience that can impact a person’s mental health in diverse ways. While this experience is potentially formative, harmful manifestations can fracture one’s sense of self and undermine relational health. In this article, we present a rationale for process-oriented group therapy focused on healing relational injuries associated with loss. We draw on attachment, self-psychology, intersubjectivity, and Yalom & Leszcz’s (2005) model of group psychotherapy to explore how group processes allow clients to work through losses and relational frustrations in the here-and-now. A case vignette and discussion offer practical insight on the ways in which loss manifests in the room and demonstrate the uniqueness of the group setting for reparative processing.

This preliminary study investigated the effects of training in Fitzmaurice Voicework® (FV) and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) Techniques on the physiological stress markers and mental st...

In maintaining that virtue is a legitimate concept worthy of empirical study, a strong situationist approach to the study of behavior is countered. An earlier analysis is then drawn upon to maintain that virtue has the capability of integrating several themes in positive psychology: ethics and health, embodied character, strength and resilience, communally embedded, meaningful purpose, and capacity for wisdom. The six themes are used to provide a framework for considering the unique case of moral and intellectual humility as a virtue.

“Relational spirituality” is a term that has been increasingly employed in psychological literature in recent years with a variety of definitions and within different theoretical orientations. In this article, we identify and review five ways relational spirituality is understood in terms of (a) cognitive appraisals of stress and coping; (b) implicit relational development; (c) couples, family, and community contexts; (d) social interconnection; and (e) a differentiation-based model of spiritual development. We conclude with a discussion of conceptual, psychometric, and applied issues related to this topic, and offer suggestions for future research.

There is now vast and multi-faceted empirical literature on the impact of relational dynamics in psychotherapy, and relationality is a central theme within contemporary psychoanalytic theories. Yet, there is virtually no literature addressing the relational dynamics around outpatient psychotherapy that influence the wider therapeutic alliance, that is the relational dynamics that unfold between clients and administrative office staff in making initial contacts and appointments, completing paperwork, negotiating payment, discussing insurance coverage, working through crisis calls, and the myriad of other forms of interaction which serve to form the relational ecology of psychotherapy. Milieu therapy or the use of supportive and structured therapeutic environments has been given significant attention in inpatient settings; however, administrative relational factors or administrative staff characteristics have seemingly been ignored in outpatient psychotherapy and psychoanalysis literatures. Many outpatient ...

In this exploratory study, we examined moderated mediation models grounded in psychoanalytic and attachment theory regarding the correspondence between adult attachment and Divine–human relating in a sample of graduate students in the USA. Results supported the correspondence hypothesis as positive correlations between adult attachment dimensions and attachment to God dimensions were observed. An interaction effect was observed as spiritual grandiosity moderated the indirect effect between insecure adult attachment and insecure God attachment dimensions through spiritual instability. Results therefore provided support for the theoretical notion that spiritual dysregulation can function as a mechanism of the attachment correspondence that varies as a function of spiritual grandiosity. Findings are discussed in the context of advancing existing theory on implicit models of attachment correspondence and the nature of the association between spiritual insecurity and spiritual grandiosity.

Spiritual instability is a spiritual struggle characterized by emotional dysregulation, fear of abandonment, and fear of punishment in relation to the sacred. The present study tested the relationships between spiritual instability, petitionary prayer, and hope among graduate trainees in the helping professions. The sample consisted of 206 graduate students from a Protestant-affiliated university in the United States. Results revealed moderator effect for petitionary prayer in the negative association between spiritual instability and hope. As frequency of petitionary prayer increased the correlation between spiritual instability and hope became increasingly negative. Future directions for research and implications for clinical practice are considered.

This article explores the virtue of humility and its applications to the practice of psychotherapy. Humility is distinguished from a clinical competency and defined as a disposition toward accurate self-assessment, other-orientedness, and the regulation of self-centered emotions. We explore the spiritual and philosophical foundations of humility and highlight the ways in which these perspectives are consistent and distinct from contemporary perspectives in psychology. Then we review the empirical literature on humility as a relational virtue. Finally, we make a case for clinician humility as a virtue supportive of best practice.

The present study tested a theoretical model of dispositional hope and positive religious coping as unique predictors of social justice commitment over and above impression management in a sample of graduate students (N = 214) in helping professions at an Evangelical Protestant university in the USA. This empirical study utilised a cultural psychology approach with a theoretical framework developed from (a) an earlier cultural psychology study of hope and social justice using the social philosophies of Martin Luther King, Jr, Cornel West, and Paulo Freire and (b) several liberation and Pietistic theologians. Results supported the discriminant validity hypothesis with dispositional hope and positive religious coping each predicting social justice commitment over and above a measure of spiritual impression management. Implications are considered for contextually sensitive training and future empirical and interdisciplinary research on social justice commitment.

The present study tested theoretical models of the forgivingness – well-being association with depression symptoms and social justice commitment as outcome measures and with differentiation of self (DoS) and dispositional humility as mediators. In doing so, we addressed the need to explicitly frame the study of virtues in a relational view of the self and extended the research on forgivingness and humility that moves beyond a focus on personal benefit and attends to the ways in which virtues also benefit other persons. The sample consisted of 213 graduate students from a religiously-affiliated university who completed a questionnaire of self-report measures. Results supported the proposed models as significant specific indirect effects were observed through DoS and humility. The findings support a self-regulating mechanism, as measured by DoS and dispositional humility, for the protective influence of forgivingness on depression symptoms and the promotive influence of forgivingness on prosocial relating.

In her book When God Talks Back: Understanding the American Evangelical Relationship with God, T.M. Luhrmann (2012) offers a fascinating and insightful anthropological account of American evangelic...

Spiritual pathology, religious coping, and dispositional forgiveness were investigated in two studies with graduate students at a Christian university-based seminary. Spiritual pathology was operationalised using measures of spiritual instability and spiritual grandiosity. Study 1 (N = 194) examined patterns of correlation between positive and negative religious coping items, spiritual pathology, and dispositional forgiveness. Spiritual instability correlated with numerous positive and negative religious coping items while spiritual grandiosity did not. Dispositional forgiveness correlated with more positive than negative religious coping items. Study 2 (N = 214) tested regression models with these variables. Spiritual grandiosity showed a significant quadratic (concave down) effect in predicting dispositional forgiveness while the linear effect was not significant. A hierarchical regression model showed positive religious coping, spiritual instability, and the quadratic effect for spiritual grandiosity e...

The current study tested a theoretical model of the relationship between spiritual dwelling and well-being, with differentiation of self (DoS) as a mediator variable. The proposed model is informed by a theory of differentiation-based spirituality, and therefore examined the hypothesis that DoS would significantly mediate the relationship between spiritual dwelling and negative mood. It was also hypothesised that DoS would not mediate the relationship between spiritual dwelling and positive mood. Data were collected on a sample of distressed graduate students at a Protestant-affiliated university. Results supported the two hypotheses, thereby offering support for the differentiation-based spirituality premise that the mechanism by which spiritual dwelling is associated with well-being involves the capacity to regulate negative emotion. Findings are discussed within the context of existing mediation models in the literature and the implications for future research on DoS and spirituality.

The present study tested the relationships between spirituality, differentiation of self (DoS), virtue (gratitude and forgiveness), and intercultural development among graduate trainees in the helping professions. A relational model of spiritual dwelling and seeking and the Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity were used to conceptualise the study. Data were collected in a sample (N = 174) of graduate students in counselling psychology, marriage and family therapy, ministry professions, and theology at a Protestant-affiliated university. Results supported the hypotheses that quest religiosity, DoS, and gratitude would be positively associated with intercultural development and spiritual grandiosity would be negatively associated with intercultural development. Intrinsic religiosity was not related to intercultural development. DoS mediated the relationship between gratitude and intercultural development. Contrary to hypotheses, forgiveness was largely uncorrelated with intercultural development...

In this study, the authors investigated generativity strivings or commitments in relation to spirituality, spiritual transformation (ST), gratitude, and mental health in the educational training context of graduate-level students (N = 194) at a university-based theological seminary in North America. Relational spirituality was operationalized based on a relational theoretical model (Shults & Sandage, 2006) that (a) defines spirituality as ways of relating to the sacred, including religious ways of relating, and (b) views spirituality as often involving a dialectic of dwelling and seeking (Wuthnow, 1998). Intrinsic religiosity was positively and quest negatively related to generativity strivings over and above age. The self-report of a recent ST moderated the relationship between generativity strivings and quest with those reporting an ST showing a quadratic relationship and those not reporting an ST showing a negative relationship. Gratitude mediated the relationship between generativity strivings and men...

We conducted a longitudinal study of spiritual development among a sample of graduate-level seminary students (N = 119) at a religiously affiliated university in the Midwest. Seven longitudinal hypotheses were tested based on a relational model of spirituality (Shults & Sandage, 2006). Over time, we expected that the seminary context would facilitate increases in students’ questing, intrinsic religiosity, spiritual well-being, spiritual openness, and spiritual activity. Furthermore, increases in intrinsic religiosity were hypothesised to lead to improvements in spiritual well-being, spiritual openness, realistic acceptance, and spiritual activity. Finally, we proposed that increases in spiritual questing would lead to greater spiritual openness and activity but decreased spiritual well-being. The results provide general support for these hypotheses and an empirical picture that differentiates intrinsic religiosity from questing.

Virtuous exemplars embody the virtues of a cultural community, a dynamic, contextual understanding that is best explored by critical hermeneutic analysis. In order to describe their lives and refine the mental-health treatment of Cambodian immigrants, 12 virtuous exemplars from a Cambodian-American Buddhist and 12 from a Cambodian-American Christian population were interviewed. Grounded theory and a mixed-methods analysis were used. Rigor-enhancing strategies include triangulation, collaboration, member checking, and researcher reflexivity, as well as interviewing a comparison group of 12 Euro-American Christians. Cambodian-American Buddhists and Christians take their religion seriously, and it influences their daily lives. These Buddhists focus on perseverence in the present life and gaining merit for the next. The Christians focus on serving God and nurturing relationships in this life. They report that they are more different from the Cambodian-American Buddhists than Latent Semantic Analysis indicates...

Stephen Wangh's insightful article, “Revenge and Forgiveness in Laramie, Wyoming” invites a psychoanalytic contribution to interdisciplinary dialogue on violence, revenge, and forgiveness. This author suggests that one strength of Wangh's perspective is his attention to the interplay of systemic and intrapsychic dynamics, which offers a needed corrective to dominant individualistic perspective in psychological and clinical literatures on forgiveness. He notes that Wangh does not clarify a particular definition of forgiveness or an approach to interdisciplinary dialogue. This commentary outlines a linguistic approach to the definition of forgiveness by drawing on three semantic domains of meaning (forensic, therapeutic, and redemptive or sacred). The author suggests some areas of rapprochement between the construct of forgiveness and psychoanalytical theory across each of these semantic domains and briefly illustrates the role of hermeneutics in interdisciplinary dialogue.