Journal of Psychology and Theology 

About: Journal of Psychology and Theology is an academic journal published by SAGE Publishing. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Mental health & Religiosity. It has an ISSN identifier of 0091-6471. Over the lifetime, 1491 publications have been published receiving 23919 citations. The journal is also known as: Psychology and theology & Journal of psychology & theology.

Spiritual well-being: Conceptualization and measurement.

Abstract: Recent attempts to measure the quality of life or subjective well-being show promise for a more helpful and accurate appraisal of the collective and individual state of people than objective, econo...

International Journal for the Psychology of Religion

Abstract: Previous research has established how childhood attachment extends into adult romantic attachment and attachment to God. Other research has shown that individuals' styles of attachment to God are differentially associated with three types of spiritual coping methods, self-directing, deferring, and collaborative. Hernandez, Salerno, & Bottoms (2010) sought to extend this body of research by investigating the relationship between God attachment, spiritual coping, and alcohol use. A "novel link" was established between God attachment and alcohol use (p. 106). Research on spiritual coping methods has identified three spiritual coping styles associated with people's relational state with God: self-directing, a self-reliant coping and problem-solving style that works independently of God; deferring, where the responsibility of problem-solving rests on God alone; and collaborative, a problem-solving style that views God and person as cooperative partners in coping and problem-solving. Moreover, a person's God attachment has been differentially associated with these coping methods. Hernandez, Salerno, & Bottoms (2010) sought to extend research on attachment and coping by being the first to study "the effects of God attachment and spiritual coping on alcohol use" (p. 99). They hypothesized that spiritual coping styles would mediate the effect of God attachment on alcohol use. Specifically, they predicted that insecure God attachment style, compared to secure God attachment style, would use "collaborative and deferring style coping styles less and self-directing coping style more," which would then result in increased alcohol use (p. 100). For the study, 429 undergraduate Introductory Psychology students from the University of Illinois at Chicago participated for course credit. The sample's (60% female) religious orientation was 46% Catholic, 43% Christian, 6% Hindu, 3% Muslim, 2% Jewish, 0.4% Greek Orthodox, and 0.4% Sikh. Five measures were utilized to test their hypotheses. The Attachment to God Scale was used to measure participants' "perceived emotional attachment to God" (p. 101). The Religious Problem-Solving Scale was used to measure participants' "religious problem solving tendencies," broken down into three spiritual coping styles: self-directing, deferring, and collaborative (p. 101). The Alcohol-Related Coping Scale was used to measure participants' "social, coping, and enhancement motives for drinking alcohol" (p. 101). The Alcohol Frequency Scale was used to measure participants' general alcohol use. Finally, participants' religious characteristics, such as religious orientation and level of religious involvement, were measured. To test the data, the researchers first implemented a series of one-way between-subjects ANOVA with God attachment style as the independent variable and spiritual coping styles, alcohol-related coping, and general alcohol use as dependent variables. This was followed by mediation analyses to test if the "effect of God attachment on alcohol use and alcohol coping was mediated by spiritual coping styles" (p. 102). Related to spiritual coping, there was a significant main effect of God attachment on spiritual coping, F(2,226) = 26.88, p

Religious Commitment and Mental Health: A Review of the Empirical Literature:

Abstract: Research on the relationship between religious commitment and psychopamology has produced mixed findings. In a recent meta-analysis, Bergin (1983) found mat 23% of the studies reported a negative relationship, 47% reported a positive relationship, and 30% reported no relationship at all between religion and mental health. Based on our review of more than 200 studies, we have discovered four additional trends: (a) Most studies linking religious commitment to psychopathology have employed mental health measures that we have called “soft variables,” that is, paper-and-pencil personality tests which attempt to measure theoretical constructs. In contrast, most of the research linking religion to positive mental health is on “hard variables,” that is, “real life” behavioral events which can be reliably ob-served and measured and which are unambiguous in their significance. (b) Low levels of religiosity are most often associated with disorders related to undercontrol of impulses, whereas high levels of religiosi...

Norms for the Spiritual Weil-Being Scale:

Abstract: As part of the growing interest in quality of life and subjective well-being, the Spiritual Well-Being Scale was constructed to measure the spiritual dimension. Research has shown good reliability ...

Attachment to God: The Attachment to God Inventory, Tests of Working Model Correspondence, and an Exploration of Faith Group Differences:

Abstract: Recent theoretical and empirical work by Lee Kirkpatrick and others has suggested that relationship with God can be fruitfully described as an attachment bond. However, this literature has been lim...