ABSTRACT The Meaning of Being: The Challenges of Existential Psychology for Biblical Counseling Frederick Nobuya Rodeheaver In fulfillment for the degree Doctor of Philosophy The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary 2017 Chair: Dr. Jeremy Pierre The thesis of this dissertation is that any anthropology that guides pastoral counseling must account for the totality of the human experience, including an individual’s subjective experience of his or her life. Existential psychology, while captive to its own faulty assumptions, has made this kind of anthropological subjectivity a primary focus and thus becomes a helpful dialog partner to the biblical counseling movement in its continued trajectory of theoretical and methodological refinement. This dissertation concludes that while the insights of existential psychology are helpful to biblical counseling, due to its naturalistic assumptions their own therapeutic foci are more comprehensively answered from a theological framework, specifically in the doctrines of the imago Dei, and Christology. The study concludes with practical applications of existential psychology’s insights in the counseling relationship after they have been recast into a Christological context. Chapter 2 examines existential psychology in detail with particular emphasis on its key distinctive; a focus on existence instead of essence. The chapter concludes with a discussion explaining the failure of existential psychology to be the corrective to human understanding that its proponents hoped it to be. Chapter 3 investigates the three unique foci that existential psychology stresses to capture or understand personal subjectivity; the pursuit of authenticity, the problem of anxiety and the question of authority & autonomy. Chapter 4 recasts the very issues of chapter 3 in a Christological context based upon the imago Dei and its corollary doctrine the imago Christi. This recasting provides a surer foundation to the very issues that existential psychology emphasizes and provides the theological link to the therapeutic advantage that is found in existential psychology’s insight and techniques. Chapter 5 provides the practical application of the insights and discoveries of chapters 2 through 4 to the counseling relationship between the biblical counselor and counselee. Chapter 6 summarizes the main arguments of the dissertation and provides recommendations for future research.

This study compares meaning in life scores of leader, non-leader, and deviant adolescents. Two thousand nine hundred and forty-nine secondary school students took the Purpose In Life Test. The students were divided into groups according to their behavior, their level of academic achievement, their sex, and grade level. Results: The leader group had the highest meaning in life score, the non-leader group had the second highest meaning in life score, and the deviant group had the lowest meaning in life score. The higher achieving group did not have higher meaning in life score than did the lower achieving group. Male and female students did not have significantly different meaning in life scores. Grade eight and nine students had higher meaning in life scores than did grade ten, eleven, and twelve students. These findings provide empirical evidence in support of several inferences based on Frankl's theory of meaning in life. First, a higher level of social and athletic involvement is associated with high meaning in life and a sense of usefulness and identity. Secondly, existential vacuum underlies deviant behavior of students who isolate themselves by violating the rules and sanctions of the school. Thirdly, academic success or subject matter mastery was not related to high meaning in life. Fourthly, questioning the meaning of life is most apt to occur during the later stages of adolescent development, namely, during grades ten, eleven, and twelve. Replication of this study would determine whether or not these findings and inferences are true of adolescents in general. / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate

No description available.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Saint Mary's University, 2009. / Includes abstract and appendix. Advisor: Albert J. Mills. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 218-231).

Thesis (doctoral)--Universität München, 1983. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [199]-208).

M.A. (Psychology) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

New professional immigrants, who come to Canada with significant education and work experience, often find themselves underemployed after immigration. As a result, many immigrants undergo some form of re-training post-immigration. This study was a sub-study of a larger Canada Research Chair project exploring the career development and re-training experiences of new professional immigrants to Canada. This particular study focused on exploring such experiences from an existential perspective. Within a qualitative research framework, 10 semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted with new professional immigrants to Canada. A grounded theory approach was adopted for data analysis. Several themes emerged and key findings, including participants’ relationship with the core existential concepts of death, freedom, and meaning are introduced. Results also compare how existential considerations were related to participants’ level of career satisfaction in Canada. Results have theoretical implications for career and vocational psychology and implications for practice, including professional and self-helping.

New professional immigrants, who come to Canada with significant education and work experience, often find themselves underemployed after immigration. As a result, many immigrants undergo some form of re-training post-immigration. This study was a sub-study of a larger Canada Research Chair project exploring the career development and re-training experiences of new professional immigrants to Canada. This particular study focused on exploring such experiences from an existential perspective. Within a qualitative research framework, 10 semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted with new professional immigrants to Canada. A grounded theory approach was adopted for data analysis. Several themes emerged and key findings, including participants’ relationship with the core existential concepts of death, freedom, and meaning are introduced. Results also compare how existential considerations were related to participants’ level of career satisfaction in Canada. Results have theoretical implications for career and vocational psychology and implications for practice, including professional and self-helping.

Thesis (M.A.R.)--Emmanuel School of Religion, Johnson City, Tennessee, 1996. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 51-54).

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1972. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.