Spirituality is a multidimensional construct that refers to the experience of self-transcendence and connection with a higher sacred reality. Previous research has demonstrated that spirituality represents a consistent resilience factor for stress and a range of stress-related mental disorders, but neural mechanisms by which spirituality confers resilience are unknown. This paper focuses on intrinsic spirituality, or the extent to which spirituality functions as a master motive in one’s life regardless of religious affiliation, and reviews the research literature on behaviors and brain structures and functions related to intrinsic spirituality. Additionally, literature is reviewed on adaptive and maladaptive functions of the stress response, its relationship to psychopathology, and its underlying neurobiology. To understand neural responses underlying the link between intrinsic spirituality and stress, the current study utilized a script-guided imagery task to assess brain activity during a stress exposure. Results showed that during a stressful experience higher intrinsic spirituality is associated with greater deactivation in the hippocampus, brain stem, ventral striatum, thalamus, extending to the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), as well as in another cluster comprising of the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) and right inferior parietal lobule. These regions are implicated in stress responsiveness, emotional and cognitive processing, and self-referential processing. While preliminary, results provide a potential neural substrate for how spirituality may influence stress processing. Moreover, they suggest a role for spirituality in attenuating neural responses to stress responsivity, regulating emotion during exposure to stress, and preventing and treating stress-related psychopathology.

Multicultural competence is widely considered to be an integral part of psychological research, theory, training, and effective as well as ethical practice. While some specific components of culture have received significant attention in multicultural literature and practice, religion remains an often-neglected component of culture, with little research, training, and practical guidelines available on the topic. The current study investigated potential therapy clients' perceptions of the helpfulness of two different therapist approaches to addressing religious concerns in order to identify the approach that clients find more helpful and promote its use in practice and training. One approach was characterized by basic counseling skills, such as empathy and reflection, while the other demonstrated specific knowledge and skills for working with religious concerns. University student participants completed a measure of their religious commitment (the RCI-10), watched one of two videos depicting the therapy approaches, and rated the therapist's helpfulness and credibility. Results revealed no statistically significant differences between therapist ratings completed by participants who watched different videos or endorsed different levels of personal religious commitment. These findings suggest that not all client groups may place high importance on discussions of religion in therapy, and highlight the need for therapists to assess clients' religiosity and desire to address religious issues in counseling in order to tailor their interventions to particular clients' needs.

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are traumatic events during a person’s early life that can influence their later mental health, physical health, and wellbeing. Internalizing symptoms such as anxiety and depression are common mental health outcomes associated with these events. Two factors, religiosity/spirituality (R/S) and mindfulness, are possible protecting factors to help lessen the effect of traumatic experiences on later mental health. This study examined whether R/S and mindfulness are protective factors in the relationship between ACEs and future internalizing symptoms. Further, this study examined whether the impact of R/S was influenced by an individual’s mindfulness (moderated moderation). Participants (N = 769, age M = 20.43, SD = 4.507) for this study were recruited through the SONA research platform at East Tennessee State University as a part of the REACH (Religion, Emotions, and Current Health) self-report survey. Results from the current study did not support either mindfulness or R/S as moderating factors for the relationship between ACEs and internalizing symptoms. However, exploratory mediation suggested mindfulness was a mediator for this relationship. This study, while it did not demonstrate the buffering capacity of study variables, provides information about the implications of ACEs in a Northeast Tennessee sample. Future research should examine new variables as potential protective factors for this relationship and more detailed information about the mediating effect of mindfulness.

The present study contributes to the widening body of spirituality research by conceptualizing it as a state-trait construct. A new measure of spirituality, the State-Trait Spirituality Inventory (STSI), was created and validated according to psychometric methods of test construction. In its current form, the STSI contains seven state spirituality items and six trait spirituality items. A thorough review of the literature identified common themes in spirituality definitions and assisted in developing definitions of trait and state spirituality. Internal consistency for the trait scale was .88 and for the state scale, .68. Good test-retest reliability was found with coefficients of .84 for trait spirituality and .81 for state spirituality. Results from a preliminary undergraduate sample as well as from the validation sample yielded a two-factor solution. In general, items determined by expert panels as trait items loaded on one factor and items deemed to be state items loaded on the second factor. Multitrait multimethod analysis yielded mixed findings for convergent, divergent, and concurrent validity for the spirituality and religiosity traits. Methods consisted of paper-and-pencil cognitive and behavioral measures. Cognitive measures were more likely to support convergent/divergent validity than were behavioral measures. A major emphasis in the study was to determine whether state and/or trait spirituality were able to predict current health status and provide evidence for predictive validity. Positive relationships were identified between trait spirituality and the mental health measures of the Short Form-36® (SF-36). In contrast, it was negatively related to the Role-Physical scale. State spirituality was inversely related to the Physical Component scale. These findings are discussed within the context of minimal research using the SF-36 and spirituality measures. The MTMM analysis was limited by available spirituality and religiosity measures that contain only cognitive or behavioral items. Suggestions for future research are offered.

Talking about spirituality can be uncomfortable. The topic is especially precarious within the sphere of education. Despite the discomfort and precarity, many scholars argue that there may be room in the postmodern curriculum for safe, open, and generative dialogue about religion and spirituality as cultural phenomena. These curriculum theorists (see Slattery, 2013; Doll, 2002; Huebner, 1991; Noddings, 2005; Whitehead, 1967a/1929; Wang, 2002) propose a sensitive critique of spirituality and religion that can lead to cultural healing, re-membering, re-integration and re-collection (Huebner, 1991). In an increasingly fractured world (Slattery, 2013), where spiritual and religious underpinnings cause an array of conflict, this study works toward critical dialogue in a secondary level public school art classroom. Through art-making, writing, and class discussions, the teacher and student researchers explored, critiqued, and de/constructed their own spirituality—with the aim of aggregating, accommodating (Rolling, 2011) and appreciating ways of thinking, being, and practicing that were different from their own. The project adopted A/r/tography as a qualitative research methodology, which views art-making, writing, and conversations as generative pools of data that can produce new understandings, meanings, and potentialities (Irwin et al., 2006; Irwin & de Cosson, 2004; Irwin & Springgay, 2008).

Man and liturgy. Mass and psychology of today's man. This theses deals with the celebration of the Holy Mass with an emphasis on the needs of today's man in terms of modern psychology. In the first part the work will deal with contemporary man, his values and spirituality. In the next part it will try to approach the celebration of the Holy Mass in connection with the values and needs of contemporary man from the psychological point of view. He asks whether the celebration of the Holy Mass, as we know it today, corresponds to the current needs or values of today's man. It considers possible forms of celebration of worship that would best meet the aforementioned human needs.

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The central theme of my final thesis is contemporary secular spirituality. I am interested in the correlation between the general mood in the globalized society of the Euro-American world and the specific way of dealing with spirituality and mysticism. I assume that, as a result of the widespread feeling of insecurity, the desire to achieve the illusion of community and the need for an excess of order is a fundamental characteristic of our time. It is determined by a highly individualistic regime of contemporaneity, a time of excess spectacles, cynical indifference to reality and illusion. It is a time when visions are lacking and when goods and interpersonal relationships have a short lifespan. The formal form of this neo-spirituality in the context of pop culture also has a defining and telling value for me.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / There has been an upsurge of interest in Christian spirituality in recent years. In this thesis I will provide a brief survey of the history and forms of Christian spirituality in order to sketch the background against which this study will be situated with specific reference to the history of contemplative spirituality. Beginning with the life and teachings of the Desert Fathers it will show that contemplative prayer is firmly rooted in the ancient Christian tradition. More specifically, I will focus on two contemporary exponents of the contemplative tradition of spirituality, namely Thomas Keating (1923-2018) and Henri Nouwen (1932-1996).