Under the cloud of recent revelations that officials within the American Psychological Association (APA) colluded with Department of Defense officials to fashion ethical deadlines that did not constrain U.S. programs using enhanced interrogation (Hoffman, et.al., 2015), APA held their annual convention from August 6-9, 2015 in Toronto, Canada.
Presentations spanned many diverse areas of psychology, including presentations on religion from the association’s Division 36: Psychology of Religion and Spirituality (DIV36). While most of the religion-focused presentations and posters concerned the use of religion in therapy sessions, the convention offered some fascinating research presentations on issues of nonreligion and secularity that would
…show more content…
be of particular interest to readers of this blog. On Thursday, DIV36 offered a data blitz of student research presentations. The data blitz format, utilized by DIV36 for the first time this year, presents research in a rapid-fire format of six graduate student presenters in 50 minutes with only limited time for questions. David Bradley of Case Western University, presented “The Reasons of Atheists/Agnostics for Nonbelief in God’s Existence Scale (RANGES).” Bradley examined why some people do not believe in God. He noted a variety of suggestions such as a rational rejection of God espoused by modern atheist writers such as Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins, the psychological suggestion that it is an angry rejection of a pseudo-father figure, and potential weakness in the ability to detect other minds. After reviewing the literature, Bradley developed 64 reasons for non-belief and sent them to more than 2,500 active nonbelievers identified through their participation with Internet blogs. The participants were asked to rate each reason on a 1 (not at all important) to 5 (extremely important) scale identifying how important each reason was in explaining their nonbelief in God. An exploratory factor analysis helped reduce the reasons down to 35 items across nine subscales: • Intellectual reasons • Societal concerns • Agnostic • Intuitive (gut level responses) • God relational • Bad experiences with religion • Emotional • Early socialization • Current socialization A second study of 520 participants obtained on MTurk who self-identified atheist and agnostic beliefs led to a confirmatory factory analysis confirming the Study 1 factor structure of the sub-scales. A third study of 217 atheists on MTurk added three items to improve reliability and confirmed the factory structure. In a discussion at the end of his talk and with this writer after the convention, Bradly noted that the question of evil and why God permits unnecessary suffering is often considered an intellectual question and debated passionately. However, according to his team’s data, “the problem of evil seems to hit people as primarily an emotional reason not to believe in God, rather than a purely intellectual reason. So the debate about the problem of evil is more about convincing people that God is loving vs. unworthy of love, rather than whether God's existence is logically necessary vs. logically impossible.” Bradley was not the only presenter to offer a scale addressing non-belief, an area understudied in psychology. On Friday, a paper session entitled “On the Outside Looking In – Experiences of Nonreligious and LGBTQ Individuals” offered exciting new research from a panel led by Melanie Brewster, a professor at Teacher’s College - Columbia University and editor of Atheists in America, reviewed here (http://blog.nsrn.net/tag/melanie-e-brewster/). The first presentation by Jacob Sawyer, a Columbia University graduate student, discussed potential outcomes of anti-atheist discrimination such as loneliness and psychological distress, while also detailing the Measure of Atheist Discrimination Experiences (MADE) scale. Sawyer noted that survey data has uncovered a range of 3-16% of U.S. individuals identifying as atheist, agnostic, or nonreligious and posed that atheism is a diversity issue that warrants exploration and additional research. In discussing atheist experiences, Sawyer noted minority stress theory (Meyer, 2003), which focuses on the excess stress people in stigmatized groups are exposed to as a result of their minority position (e.g., based on race, gender, sexual orientation).
He noted that anxiety, depression, substance abuse, and suicidality are all different possible manifestations of a minority stress experience. To examine these experiences, he used the MADE scale in a study of more than 1,000 participants of ages 18-83. The scale consists of 24 items across five sub-scales of possible experiences atheists face. Below are the five sub-scales and their brief …show more content…
explanation: • Immoral: Being called evil or not knowing right from wrong • Shame: Being told you are humiliating to family members • Pretend: Being asked to not exhibit • Severe: Being attacked • Ostracized: Being excluded from clubs Sawyer and his colleagues found that measured loneliness predicted experiences of discrimination and public self-esteem, and that experiences of discrimination and public self-esteem predicted psychological distress, results consistent with minority stress populations. This led the authors to note that nonreligious persons should be considered a diverse population in further psychological research. A second presentation also discussed a new scale.
Zhen H. Cheng of University of Oregon discussed how America is “a very religious nation”, citing findings from Gallup polls that 86% of Americans believe in God. At the same time, while the nonreligious are a small number, their numbers have increased from 15.3% in 2007 to 19.6% in 2012. This growing disparity between the religious and nonreligious can lead to subtle biases coming through as microaggressions, defined by Cheng as “people’s everyday behaviors that are interpreted by members of a group as denigrating, invalidating, and prejudicial” (see also Wing, 2010).
Scales regarding microaggressions and race, gender, and LGBTQ populations exist, but this was the first focused on nonreligious individuals, created by Cheng and colleagues to determine if microaggressions predicted negative mental health outcomes in nonreligious individuals. Their studies asked nonreligious individuals to note how often they experienced 109 possible microaggressions (such as “others have assumed that I am untrustworthy because of my lack of religion”). The items represented assumption of moral inferiority, denial of nonreligious prejudice, assumption of religiosity, and nonreligious
stereotypes. Study 1 was an exploratory factor analysis with 255 participants; Study 2 was a confirmatory factor analysis with 304 participants. Overall, they found that experiences with microaggressions correlated with poor mental health outcomes, higher levels of depression, and perceived stress. There was also a brief discussion of causality that is worth further research, as depressed nonreligious people might be more likely to see something as a microaggression and/or nonreligious people experiencing microaggressions might have poorer overall mental health. These issues of discrimination and microaggressions against nonreligious persons were particularly potent as the convention took place the same day a Bangladeshi secular blogger was hacked to death (BBC, Aug. 7, 2015). However, while Brewster noted a need for a safe space for people to congregate to discuss nonreligion, she also said it has been a recent and growing trend. One woman in the audience noted that there is a large community of atheists in Oklahoma City that meets for social events and that there is hope for more events in the future.
David Entwistle’s (2010) is the author of the Integrative Approaches to Psychology and Christianity. In the book Entwistle embarks on a journey to explore Psychology and Christianity. As the title suggests several approaches that are used to define the relationship of Phycology and Christianity. In the book Entwistle begins to takes us on shows that psychology and Christianity go in two different directions and meet up someplace in the middle. This allows them to provide different approaches to understanding and studying the human behavior. Entwistle, (2010) took a new approach that has rarely been used in other books that discussed the topic of integration. Entwistle, (2010) began to talk about the relationship of psychology and Christianity
This paper will be reviewing the book “Integrative Approaches to Psychology and Christianity: an introduction to worldview issues, philosophical foundations and models of integration, by David N. Entwistle. As the title states, this book discusses how to integrate psychology and theology. It also dives into why it is so important to be able to integrate the two. Entwistle explains that just because the two are different does not mean they should be separated, and that we have to use both our worldviews. “Weaving together perspectives from psychology and Christian theology can help us understand and appreciate humanity more fully than we could either perspective alone.”
A framework of five models is shared: Enemies, Spies, Colonialists, Neutral Parties, and Allies. The Enemies model either associates no relationship between Christianity and psychology. The Spies model focuses on what works best for them from both Christianity and psychology. Colonialists use psychology only to the degree that it fits theology. Neutral Parties model holds that psychology and theology are independent with possible correlation between findings of the two, however that is about as far as one discipline may encroach on the other. Allies, the model considered by Entwistle, acknowledges that while psychology and theology are separate, they are still dependent, based upon the underlying unity of truth of God’s written word and His Works (Entwistle, 2010). The underpinning of the integrative approach to psychology and Christianity appears to be that of anthropology; this may be seen in the two books, God g...
David Entwistle’s Integrative Approaches to Psychology and Christianity David Entwistle's (2010) Integrative Approaches to Psychology and Christianity is geared more towards Christians with conservative evangelical views and provides the reader with an outline to different worldview disputes and truth-seeking groundwork that surround the connection that underlies psychology and theology. In addition to analyzing the possible connection between psychology and theology, Entwisle discusses the consideration of integrating Christian faith with the practice of psychology. “Christian understandings of person-hood, the purpose of human life, our need for God, and the ethical teachings of Christian faith are integral to psychology, not merely parallel to it” (p. 199). Entwistle’s viewpoint on this matter is clearly stated. He believes that it is necessary for theology and psychology to be integrated in order to fully understand human nature.
Quinn, D. M., Crocker, J. (1999). When ideology hurts effects of belief in the protestant ethic and feeling overweight on the psychological well being of women. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77(2), 402-414.
Kosmin, Barry A. "Atheist Demographics." The Atheist Scholar. The Atheist Scholar. Web. 16 May 2014.
Bindley, Katherine. "Religion Among Americans Hits Low Point, As More People Say They Have No Religious Affiliation: Report." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 13 Mar. 2013. Web. 26 Feb. 2014.
Microaggressions have become an everyday occurrence. While they may be labelled ‘micro’, the effects on the targeted outgroup are long-term. Microaggressions trigger feelings of isolation in group contexts, and thoughts that one’s general character is perceived as wrong. Microaggressions are usually made without a second thought. Sly yet light hearted, the greater effects are not considered.
Atheism is disbelief or lack of belief in the existence of God or gods, they reject religion as apart of not only a rejection of ignorance, but also a rejection of their religious family and association of religion itself, says Catherine L. and Caldwell-Harris who are published in the Department of Psychology for Boston University, Lesley College,University of Haifa, and Trinity College. This is a stark contrast to theism, which is the belief in god and is the case for many Americans. This demographic is about 83% of America’s population, according to the most recent census. About 16% of the population, or about 34,169,000 people are of an unaffiliated position, which would include Atheists, Agnostics, Humanists, and those of no religious stance. This number has only increased since 1990 which was about 14,331,000 in 1990 (United States), and will only continue to grow as more and more people come out as the nonaffiliated in the coming years (Caldwell-Harris).
Worthington, E. L. Jr., Hook, J. N., Davis, D. E., & McDaniel, M. A. (2011). Religion and spirituality. In J. C. Norcross (Ed.), Psychotherapy relationships that work (2nd ed.). New York: Oxford University Press
In 2000, Christians made up the majority of the population in America. Shown by the American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS)...
I can distinguish between, various disorders and their impact on the patient such as Bipolar affective disorder and the distinct stages of mania and affect, the patient is presenting with, exposure to mental health disorders as an extension of the individual including symptoms and presentation has significantly contributing to my understanding of the mental health. the diversity and range he along the spectrum has increased my understanding as well as treatment services such as TMS AND ECT Although the analysis demonstrates the success of religious integration in group therapy and cohesion, it is necessary to consider individuals from other religions and those who are not religious or atheist. Sigurdardottir’s et al. (2016) wellness program may have shown prominent success due to the program leaning towards general activities such as yoga, art therapy and relaxation exercises with a focus on mind and body, irrespective of religious affiliation. Likewise, Tutty, Bubbins-Wagner and Rothery’s (2015) evaluation of the 14-week therapy program, You’re Not Alone also demonstrated improved mental wellbeing of the participants based on the interventions like character building, positive reinforcement and active role play which highlighted aggressive, abusive characters and the typical behaviours in relationships. the ability to interatw with a patient,
The topic of atheism has become an increasingly investigated topic in the United States. With the slow, but steady, rise of the atheist population in the United States, the inquiry is becoming more relevant in modern research. The atheist population in America are considered to be cognitively deviant because they reject a theist view which are the majority. They are also one of the most discriminated groups and hold a very large and pervasive stigma.. There are a multitude of recent studies that address the topic of atheism in the United States in varying ways.
Esophagus: Stress causing a person to either eat in larger amounts or in smaller amounts. There might be an increased intake of alcohol or cigarette usage. Stress also causes heartburn and acid reflux.
Kutcher, E., Bragger, J., Rodriguez-Srednicki, O, & Masco, J., (2010). The role of religiosity in