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George Fox University

Positive psychology

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Full-Text Articles in Psychology

Experiencing Grace: A Review Of The Empirical Literature, Adam S. Hodge, Joshua N. Hook, Don E. Davis, Daryl R. Van Tongeren, Rodger K. Bufford, Rodney L. Bassett, Mark R. Mcminn Jan 2020

Experiencing Grace: A Review Of The Empirical Literature, Adam S. Hodge, Joshua N. Hook, Don E. Davis, Daryl R. Van Tongeren, Rodger K. Bufford, Rodney L. Bassett, Mark R. Mcminn

Faculty Publications - Doctor of Psychology (PsyD) Program

Positive psychologists have used science to understand many virtues but have only just started to study grace, recently defined as ‘ . . . the gift of acceptance given unconditionally and voluntarily to an undeserving person by an unobligated giver’. The purpose of the current article is to provide a systematic review of all empirical studies (published and unpublished) on grace. Broadly, the empirical study of grace has focused on what people believe and how people experience both divine and human grace. Additionally, empirical attention has shifted to explore outcomes of grace-based interventions (e.g., congregation-wide interventions, marital interventions). In general, …


The Effects Of Grace Interventions In Church Communities, Rodger K. Bufford, Mark R. Mcminn, Jeff A. Moody, Laura Geczy-Haskins Jan 2017

The Effects Of Grace Interventions In Church Communities, Rodger K. Bufford, Mark R. Mcminn, Jeff A. Moody, Laura Geczy-Haskins

Faculty Publications - Doctor of Psychology (PsyD) Program

Grace remains little studied though several recent studies have developed promising ways to measure grace. Here we report two studies involving grace interventions as part of an ongoing investigation of positive psychology in the context of Christian church communities, Study One used a crossover design in which two congregations were measured on grace and other variables at the outset, and again after phases one and two. One congregation received a grace intervention during phase one and the second during phase two. Results showed increased scores on grace but not an expected increase in marital satisfaction among married participants. Study Two …


Dimensions Of Grace: Factor Analysis Of Three Grace Scales, Rodger K. Bufford, Timothy A. Sisemore, Amanda M. Blackburn Jan 2014

Dimensions Of Grace: Factor Analysis Of Three Grace Scales, Rodger K. Bufford, Timothy A. Sisemore, Amanda M. Blackburn

Faculty Publications - Doctor of Psychology (PsyD) Program

Measuring grace is challenging. Prior research found the Grace Scale (GS), Richmont Grace Scale (RGS), and The Amazing Grace Scale (TAGS) to be reliable, have promising convergent and divergent validity, and to inter-correlate strongly. However, they may tap different constructs, or grace may be multidimensional (Bufford, Blackburn, Sisemore, & Bassett, 2015). Here two exploratory factor analyses of the combined items showed five factors: experiencing God’s grace, costly grace, grace to self, grace from others, and grace to others, partially paralleling Watson, Chen and Sisemore (2011). Items from all three scales loaded on Factor 1, only items from the RGS loaded …