"Mental Health, Religion & Culture"

Kent, Stephen A.; Manca, Terra A.

doi: 10.1080/13674676.2012.737552pmid: 24348087

Over 60 years ago, founder L. Ron Hubbard began what has become Scientology's greatest battle. Scientology emerged from Dianetics, which Hubbard hoped would replace the psychiatric profession. In this article, we discuss how Scientology attempted to position itself as a rival profession to psychiatry and the consequences of those attempts. Scientology's battle with psychiatry gained some success from the social conditions during which it emerged, but it continues in a time that has seen increasing success with various psychiatric treatments. As such, Scientology's direct influence on the psychiatric profession may be difficult to measure, but its actions have coincided with substantial challenges to psychiatry.

Aghababaei, Naser; Wasserman, Jason Adam; Nannini, Drew

doi: 10.1080/13674676.2012.737771pmid: N/A

The relationship of religiousness with the HEXACO (Honesty-Humility, Emotionality, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Openness) model of personality was studied in Iran and the United States. Correlations of personality factors and religiousness were generally similar across the two societies. In both countries, religiousness was associated with higher scores on Honesty-Humility, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness. The Honesty-Humility factor was one of the strongest correlates of religiousness in both countries. These findings support Saroglou's observation that the main personality characteristics of religiousness are consistent across different religious contexts and personality measures and models.

Abdel-Khalek, Ahmed M.

doi: 10.1080/13674676.2012.742047pmid: N/A

The present study sought to test for an association between, and sex-related differences in, happiness, health, and religiosity. A sample (N = 239) of Lebanese adolescents was recruited (111 boys and 128 girls). They responded to the Oxford Happiness Inventory, the Satisfaction with Life Scale, the Love of Life Scale as well as five self-rating scales to assess happiness, satisfaction, mental health, physical health, and religiosity. Boys obtained a higher mean score on mental health than did their female counterparts. All the Pearson correlations between the study scales were significant and positive but two. Principal components analysis yielded two salient components in boys and labelled “Happiness”, and “Religiosity and health”. In girls, only one component was retained, and labelled “Happiness, health, and religiosity”. It was concluded that those consider themselves as enjoying happiness, experienced good mental and physical health and more religious.

Saavedra, Javier

doi: 10.1080/13674676.2012.745493pmid: N/A

Religious delusion complexes (RDC) are phenomena sometimes experienced by people diagnosed with schizophrenia. The prevalence of this type of delusion varies according to area, culture and religious practice. Religious delusions have been associated to worse responses to treatment and worsening psychopathological conditions. However, religious beliefs and practices have also been described as factors of protection. Religious delusions are multidimensional phenomena within a continuous dimension with normality. This study uses a qualitative methodology to analyse an RDC in situ during a narrative interview with a person with paranoid schizophrenia. On the basis of this analysis we suggest that the functions and meanings of religious beliefs within the patient's narrative and cultural context require analysis before they can be categorised as delusive.

Hui, C. Harry; Chan, Stephanie W.Y.; Lau, Esther Y.Y.; Cheung, Shu-Fai; Mok, Doris Shu Ying

doi: 10.1080/13674676.2012.745494pmid: N/A

How would religion and a life event carrying an existential threat (LEET) jointly impact a person's life goals of becoming wealthy and successful in one's career? Goal reprioritisation, socioemotional selectivity, and gerotranscendence theories predict a shift away from material goals following a LEET, independent of the effect of religion. However, terror management theory (TMT) predicts that the effect of death thoughts depends on one's prevailing cultural values. As religion can be regarded as a culture, it is possible that Christians' and non-believers' material life goals would be differentially altered by LEET. Data from 1259 young Chinese adults reveal no main effect of LEET, but a strong effect of religion. Moreover, there was an interaction effect between LEET and religion on material life goals: LEET weakened material goals for Christians but not for non-believers. These findings suggest that TMT is more suitable than the other theories for predicting life goal changes.

Ngamaba, Kayonda Hubert

doi: 10.1080/13674676.2012.746654pmid: N/A

This study investigates religious leaders' perceptions of their emotional and psychological needs using a qualitative Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis design consisting of semi-structured in-depth interviews. This study found that there are different factors contributing to becoming a religious leader; the participants are seeing their profession as a vocation, a job, a service, a calling but not as a career. Participants indicated having emotional problems but also having strong commitment to continue their work. Religious leaders are shown to have role conflicts and are not finding it easy to maintain their relationships. And participants used different coping strategies to overcome their emotional problems. This is the first study in psychology to explore in detail how religious leaders perceive their own emotional problems and interpret their own experiences, and as a result, a number of implications of the findings and recommendations for future research are discussed.

Miner, Maureen; Ghobary, Bagher; Dowson, Martin; Proctor, Marie-Therese

doi: 10.1080/13674676.2012.749452pmid: N/A

Theory and measurement of attachment to God have largely been developed from a western Christian perspective. However, the relevance of the attachment construct for Muslims should be examined if it is to contribute to a greater understanding of Islamic spirituality and psychological health. In this paper, we explore similarities and differences between Islamic and Christian understandings of human-divine relationships. We consider evidence of a common core of attachment themes of relevance to both religions, and whether different dimensions are emphasised in religious writings of the two traditions. This theoretical work is foundational for cross-cultural/cross-religious research. We argue that a core difference between the two faiths is that Muslims approach God in a less direct, more mediated fashion than Christians. Such differences have important implications for the wording of self-report assessment items and approaches to interventions designed to increase the security of Christians' and Muslims' attachment to God and mental health.

Saleem, Rizwan; Treasaden, Ian; K. Puri, Basant

doi: 10.1080/13674676.2012.749453pmid: N/A

The relationship between religion and psychiatry remains controversial amongst British psychiatrists. We looked at the provision of spiritual and pastoral care facilities in a high-security hospital and the role of faith chaplains with particular reference to the Muslim minority group. There was a significantly higher uptake of pastoral care services amongst those of Muslim faith compared to Church of England and Roman Catholic Christians. Possible reasons for this are discussed. Resources allocated for the Muslim faith group were limited and heavily dependent on the availability of the Muslim faith chaplain. Our study highlighted the need for clearly defined standards for the provision of spiritual and pastoral care within high-secure psychiatric hospitals, and by implication other NHS psychiatric settings, a re-examination of the role of the faith chaplain in relation to the clinical team, and raised questions about the equitable allocation of resources between various faith groups within the hospital.

Ineichen, Bernard

doi: 10.1080/13674676.2012.756183pmid: N/A