The Alienation Between Religion and Psychology The New Zeitgeist Western and Eastern Spiritual World Views A Theistic Spiritual View of Personality and Mental Health A Theistic Spiritual View of Psychotherapy Ethical Issues and Guidelines Religious and Spiritual Assessment Religious and Spiritual Practices as Therapeutic Interventions Spiritual Interventions Used by Contemporary Psychotherapists Case Reports of Spiritual Issues and Interventions in Psychotherapy A Theistic Spiritual View of Science and Research Methods Directions for the Future.

A Spiritual Strategy for Counseling and Psychotherapy

This work analyzes male-female relationships outside the context of mating in a troop of wild baboons. Barbara Smuts used long-term friendships between males and females, documented over a two-year period, to show how social interactions between members of friendly pairs differed from those of other troop mates, Her findings, now enhanced by 15 years of field studies, suggest that the evolution of male reproductive strategies in baboons can only be understood by considering the relationship between sex and friendship: female baboons prefer to mate with males who have previously engaged in friendly interaction with them and their offspring. Smuts suggests that female choice may promote male investment in other species, and she explores the relevance of her findings for the evolution of male-female relationships in humans.

Sex and Friendship in Baboons.

Empirical research on religion and psychotherapeutic processes and outcomes: A 10-year review and research prospectus.

A spiritual strategy for counseling and psychotherapy, 2nd ed.

OBJECTIVE:
Kindness-based meditation (KBM) is a rubric covering meditation techniques developed to elicit kindness in a conscious way. Some techniques, for example, loving-kindness meditation and compassion meditation, have been included in programs aimed at improving health and well-being. Our aim was to systematically review and meta-analyze the evidence available from randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing the effects of KBM on health and well-being against passive and active control groups in patients and the general population.

METHOD:
Searches were completed in March 2013. Two reviewers applied predetermined eligibility criteria (RCTs, peer-reviewed publications, theses or conference proceedings, adult participants, KBM interventions) and extracted the data. Meta-analyses used random-effects models.

RESULTS:
Twenty-two studies were included. KBM was moderately effective in decreasing self-reported depression (standard mean difference [Hedges's g] = -0.61, 95% confidence interval [CI] [-1.08, -0.14]) and increasing mindfulness (Hedges's g = 0.63, 95% CI [0.22, 1.05]), compassion (Hedges's g = 0.61, 95% CI [0.24, 0.99]) and self-compassion (Hedges's g = 0.45, 95% CI [0.15, 0.75]) against passive controls. Positive emotions were increased (Hedges's g = 0.42, 95% CI [0.10, 0.75]) against progressive relaxation. Exposure to KBM may initially be challenging for some people. RESULTS were inconclusive for some outcomes, in particular against active controls. The methodological quality of the reports was low to moderate. RESULTS suffered from imprecision due to wide CIs deriving from small studies.

CONCLUSIONS:
KBM showed evidence of benefits for the health of individuals and communities through its effects on well-being and social interaction. Further research including well-conducted large RCTs is warranted.

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Effect of kindness-based meditation on health and well-being: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Enhancing empathy: The interpersonal implications of a Buddhist meditation technique.

A previously underappreciated factor, the specific letters used to label the groups, was found to influence the magnitude of the well-established illusory correlation (IC) effect . The typical IC effect of an association between the minority group and the rarer (negative) behavior was strong when the minority group was labeled with an infrequent letter (e.g. X, Z) and the majority group was labeled with a frequent letter (e.g. S, T), but the effect was eliminated (or reduced) with the reverse pairing of the majority group with an infrequent letter. The letter label effect was also found with the A and B labels most commonly used in this paradigm. The results were consistent with an explanation based on the affect associated with the letters due to the mere exposure effect. The findings reveal a previously unexplored way that the names for groups may influence stereotype formation, contribute to the debate on the mechanism underlying IC, and illustrate how arbitrarily chosen labels for groups and other objects in social research may bias processing in unexpected ways.

Craig G. Johnson

Papers

Enhancing empathy: The interpersonal implications of a Buddhist meditation technique.

Letter labels and illusory correlation: infrequent letters bias reactions to the group.