Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2005. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 116-123).

<p> Practices that cultivate healthy relationships with self and others are always needed and valuable, especially during this modern time of ever-increasing fragmentation through technology. Cultivating empathy individually and communally promotes increased levels of connection among individuals and can create greater harmony among communities. Centering prayer offers an intervention that respects Christian practices of contemplation and can address care needs. This study investigated the impact of centering prayer on levels of empathy. This study was conducted through a single group pilot study using a mixed methods design. Given that centering prayer is primarily a Christian practice of contemplation, the population for this study was a Christian church community. Both qualitative and quantitative data were gathered to create a greater understanding of possible applications for centering prayer. The initial findings from this study support centering prayer as a positive intervention to help build psychological and emotional tools of empathy that can be added to church community offerings or Christian organizations. </p><p>

<p> The present study examined the relationship between religiosity and competition anxiety in college athletes and whether there were differences in competitive anxiety for intrinsically religious, extrinsically religious, and non-religious individuals. College athletes (<i>N</i>= 110) from football, softball, and basketball from the NCAA division I and III completed a questionnaire that included the Age-Universal I/E scale, the Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 Revised, open-ended questions on habits related to religion, and demographic items. The questionnaire was completed one week prior to an upcoming competition for all athletes. Results revealed no significant relationship between intrinsic religiosity and extrinsic religiosity and competitive anxiety. There was also no significant difference between intrinsic, extrinsic, and non-religious participants on competitive anxiety. Results showed that 70% of participants reported praying before games to feel comfort, confident, protection, drive and passion, and to show gratitude.</p><p>

<p> The purpose of writing &ldquo;The Relationship Between Religious Coping and Resilience Among Senior Leaders at the United States Army War College&rdquo; was to determine the relationship of resilience and religious coping among senior Army officers. It measured religious coping, resilience, religious orientation, and explored service-related stresses as experienced by a representative sample of officers. </p><p> Chapter One develops the purpose out of a context with senior Army officers who carry a significant burden of responsibility as they are entrusted with the war-fighting effectiveness of soldiers in combat and serve in a culture which places enormous pressures on its senior leaders. The ministry problem is that the stressors faced and methods of religious coping with these stresses have not been fully studied and are not clearly understood by religious leaders, churches, and the military enterprise. </p><p> Chapter Two provides a review of the literature pertaining to a working definition and discussion of religion, coping in general, the role of religion in coping, religious orienting systems and how they impact one&rsquo;s coping patterns, religion&rsquo;s role in well-being, resilience and coping, spiritual fitness, and military culture. </p><p> Chapter Three describes the research design, procedures for data collection, and methodology utilized to measure and understand the relationship between religious coping and resilience. </p><p> Chapter Four presents the results and interpretative analysis. The findings indicated a moderate positive correlation between religious coping and resilience. There were several significant correlations between the demographic and religious variables which offer insight into the relationship between religious coping and resilience. </p><p> Chapter Five offers observations, implications, and recommendations based on the findings of the research. The results are applied to the ministry of military chaplains, churches, religious organizations serving the military, and the defense enterprise in terms of improved solutions to better support senior military leaders.</p><p>

Thesis (M.A.)--Carleton University, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 99-103). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

<p> Annually, a significant number of clergy burn out, are forced out, or take on the leadership of a congregation that burned out or forced out the previous leader (Beebe, 2007; LaRue, 1996). Previous research has identified congregation types that can lead to conflict (Becker, 1999), congregational characteristics that can lead to congregants' conflict-related exit (Chou, 2008), and the impact of clergy's conflict management style on role termination (Works, 2008), emotional intelligence (Gambill, 2008), and interpersonal conflict (McKown, 2001). The aim of this mixed-method study was to determine (a) if correlations exist among five conflict management styles as exhibited by clergy and the constructs of life satisfaction and religious commitment, (b) if there are negative relationships between clergy who exhibit an avoidant conflict management style and their life satisfaction and religious commitment, and (c) if interviews with clergy who experience congregational conflict will suggest themes that potentially predict conflict between clergy and congregations. North American, Protestant clergy were solicited as the study population (N = 48) with a subsample participating (n = 9) in the qualitative interview. Five hypotheses were developed and investigated. Hypothesis 1 investigated the relationship between clergy's conflict management style and their life satisfaction and could not be supported. Hypothesis 2 investigated the relationship between clergy's conflict management style and their religious commitment and was partially supported. Hypothesis 3 investigated whether clergy who exhibit the avoidant conflict management style will experience lower levels of life satisfaction than clergy who exhibit other styles and was partially supported. Hypothesis 4 investigated whether clergy who exhibit the avoidant conflict style will experience lower levels of religious commitment than clergy who exhibit other styles and could not be supported. Hypothesis 5 investigated whether themes would emerge during interviews with clergy that might act as predictors for future congregational conflict and was supported.</p>

<p> According to C. G. Jung, the individuation process requires a reflective turn inward toward the voice of psyche, or said differently, the inner voice. The inner voice can only be heard by the individual, but that does not mean the individual must discover it alone. A Quaker practice termed the clearness committee brings a small group of people together to help an individual access her inner voice in order to find clearness regarding a life issue. This phenomenological study explores the experiences of eight people who sought the assistance of clearness committees. The focus of this research is the exploration of these people&rsquo;s essential lived experiences of being the focus person in a clearness committee. Participant narratives reveal themes from their clearness committee experiences, illuminate characteristics helpful for hearing one&rsquo;s inner voice, and uncover insights they received while exploring the nature of their issue. A phenomenological psychological method guided the analysis toward a description of the essential experience of the clearness committee. This research concludes that the interaction of the clearness committee with the individual can lead to a tension of opposites in psyche that stirs movement of the individuation process. When combined with the perspective of transformational alchemy, this study suggests that repetitive stirring of psyche is required for the individuation process.</p>

Part One deals with social and historical aspects of melancholy in relation to the emergence of modernity. It is argued that one way of understanding modernity is in terms of the emergence of a characteristic world view associated with Copernicanism, and that this transformation 'from the closed world to the infinite universe' is the context within which the old term 'melancholy' was redefined in terms of the modern experience of 'motion', 'distance' and 'reflection'. It is argued that an initial understanding of this relation provides a meaningful context for the reading of Kierkegaard's comments on his own society, particularly those contained in his Two Ages, his varied journalistic production, and his thesis, The Concept of Irony. Part Two attempts to define and present three distinct perspectives within which psychological, philosophical and religious dimensions of melancholy are explored. I have termed these perspectives, respectively, topological, anthropological and philosophical. Not only the aesthetic works, but the 'theory of the spheres' - which has played a central part in much contemporary literature on Kierkegaard - are here treated as exemplifying a topological approach to the central issues of modernity. In contrast to this horizontal perspective, and cutting across it a various points, a distinctively vertical analysis of experience is explored in a number of anthropological works, including, The Concept of Anxiety. An openly philosophical analysis of modernity is then presented, using the works attributed to Johannes Climacus and Anti-Climacus. Part Three, as distinct from the secular works discussed in Parts One and Two, deals with Kierkegaard's explicitly religious writings. In these works, it is argued, Kierkegaard offers a description of religiously transformed, non-melancholic experience. He does so, however, by way of contrast with the melancholy which remains central to both our immediate and reflective forms of self-understanding.

This study attempts to investigate religion in the life of the young adult at University College Cork (UCC). It aims to ensure that pastoral ministry is based, not on guesses and assumptions, but on ascertained facts. The study is underpinned by historical, theological, psychological and sociological factors. It traces the provisions made for religion during each phase of its history as a nondenominational college. The contention is that religion arises from the nature of human beings in their capacity to relate to the mystery of God and the need to express this through organised religion in accordance with the culture. Expectations in relation to religion are informed by the psychological understanding that religious faith is not a constant through life. Young adult students are subject to the transitions which are typical of that stage of development. Account is taken of the effect on religion of the rapid changes in Irish society in the second half of the twentieth century. A multiple triangulation research design, consisting of a survey, depth interviews and participant observations, was used in the investigation. The survey was carried out by means of a postal questionnaire, administered to a systematic sample of students in the 18-23 year age group during the 1996/97 academic year. It examined student priorities, membership of religion, public worship, private prayer, charitable works, beliefs and moral values. The data were analysed using simple frequencies, descriptive statistics, cross-tabulations, ANOVA and T-tests. Further insights were obtained by means of twenty depth interviews and by the observations of the researcher. These strands were interwoven in creating a canvas on religion in the life of the young adult at UCC. Interested parties are challenged to a new approach to religion as UCC makes its transition from a college to an institution of full university status.

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