Many religious/spiritual (R/S) individuals receive meaning from R/S and utilize R/S to help them cope with stressful life events. However, natural disasters can disrupt the R/S meaning-making process (e.g., positive R/S coping strategies) because natural disasters can elicit cognitive dissonance between one's core R/S beliefs and personal disaster experience. R/S individuals suffering from a disaster experience could benefit from interventions that allow them to process their R/S experiences. The purpose of this dissertation is to fill a gap in the literature by exploring the effectiveness of a spiritually-oriented expressive writing intervention on positive psychological outcomes (e.g., meaning in life, satisfaction with life) in 132 R/S individuals that have experienced a natural disaster (i.e., survivors of the 2016 Baton Rouge, Louisiana flood). Quantitative results indicated the spiritually-oriented intervention was effective in promoting increased meaning in life but not life satisfaction. Survivors with lower pre-intervention positive attitudes toward God evidenced the strongest positive impact on their meaning in life. Qualitative analyses, using the constant comparative method from Corbin and Strauss's grounded theory approach, revealed six themes in the experimental group's written responses: (a) R/S growth, (b) R/S struggle, (c) R/S cognitive dissonance, (d) R/S reappraisals, (e) R/S proximity-seeking, and (f) spiritual support and cohesion. I conclude by discussing limitation, areas for future research, and implications for counseling.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:unt.edu/info:ark/67531/metadc1707389 |
| Date | 08 1900 |
| Creators | Mosher, David K |
| Contributors | Hook, Joshua N, Watkins, Clifton E, Kaminski, Patricia L |
| Publisher | University of North Texas |
| Source Sets | University of North Texas |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | vi, 93 pages, Text |
| Rights | Public, Mosher, David K, Copyright, Copyright is held by the author, unless otherwise noted. All rights Reserved. |
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