Digital Commons Network^™

An Exploration Of The Experience Of Adults With Learning Disabilities Through Art, Adi Greenboim-Zimchoni

Expressive Therapies Dissertations

This study employed arts-based research with phenomenological, qualitative inquiry to understand and explore the perspectives of adults with learning disabilities and their sense of self and support in inclusive and special education classrooms in Israel during their school years. In this study, the researcher attempted to take Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory (1979) one step further by examining the participants’ feelings and relationships with the people in their daily lives during childhood. The researcher met with 12 participants ages 18-31 diagnosed with learning disabilities between third and eleventh grade. Participants created drawings illustrating how they felt about teachers, parents, friends and …

Intimations Of A Spiritual New Age: Iii. Martin Heidegger’S Phenomenology Of Numinous/Being Experience And The “Other Beginning” Of A Futural Planetary Spirituality, Harry T. Hunt

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies Advance Publication Archive

The phenomenology of numinous or Being-experience in the later Heidegger is the focus in this third in a series of papers on a group of independent figures— also including Jung, Reich, Toynbee, Teilhard de Chardin, and Simone Weil—who beginning in the crisis years of the 1930s envisioned versions of a futural “New Age” spirituality to address a globalizing materialism and its disenchantments—and so also creating a context for much of contemporary transpersonal and consciousness studies. A preliminary consideration of Heidegger in the contexts of transpersonal psychology, religious studies, the macro-histories of Toynbee and Sorokin, James on “pure experience,” and spirituality …

Promoting Spiritual Wellness On A College Campus Through Community Based Participatory Research, Regina Idoate, Melissa Tibbits, Mark Gilbert, Michele Marie Desmarais, Christopher Fisher, Alicia Bower, Daniel J. Shipp, Joe Kaminski

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies Advance Publication Archive

This case study describes an initiative to promote spiritual wellness on a public state college campus and demonstrates evidence of the effectiveness of taking a community-based approach. We employed the community readiness model to develop an initiative to promote spiritual wellness in a Midwestern state university. We recruited informants through purposeful sampling and conducted interviews, both pre- and post-initiative launch. Baseline data was used to inform initiative efforts. The community’s level of readiness to promote spiritual wellness increased from stage three, vague awareness, at baseline to stage six, initiation, at follow up. Although these findings are specific to our community, …

The Alchemical Vessel, River Soma

MFA Statements

My work comes from a place of deep feeling on a bodily level. Amidst the decorative play, there is a sense of the primitive and primordial, and also a certain humanity and clumsiness through struggle. Through the hermetic tradition I relate the alchemical vessel and its symbolic process of interior development to my artistic practice. Focusing in mixed media sculpture, I discovered a concentrated accumulation of symbolism specific to my practice, but also the full recognition of my practice as a ritualized psychological undertaking.

Ignatian Banners Of Hope And Support For Recently Detained Immigrant Families, Daniela Domínguez

Psychology

University of San Francisco (ASUSF) decided to allocate a portion of its annual budget each year to assist undocumented students with non-tuition dollars, most often used for the growingly expensive cost of living within the Bay Area. One year prior, in 2015, USF’s School of Law launched its Immigration and Deportation Defense Clinic to represent unaccompanied children and migrant women with children in Northern California and the Central Valley.

Altogether, these acts of solidarity demonstrate how Jesuit institutions have strived for greater acceptance and empowerment of migrants and refugees. Contributing to this effort, the collection of essays in this book …

Promoting Spiritual Wellness On A College Campus Through Community Based Participatory Research, Regina Idoate, Melissa Tibbits, Mark Gilbert, Michele Marie Desmarais, Christopher M. Fisher, Alicia Bower, Daniel J. Shipp, Joe Kaminski

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

This case study describes an initiative to promote spiritual wellness on a public state college campus and demonstrates evidence of the effectiveness of taking a community-based approach. We employed the community readiness model to develop an initiative to promote spiritual wellness in a Midwestern state university. We recruited informants through purposeful sampling and conducted interviews, both pre- and post-initiative launch. Baseline data was used to inform initiative efforts. The community’s level of readiness to promote spiritual wellness increased from stage three, vague awareness, at baseline to stage six, initiation, at follow up. Although these findings are specific to our community, …

Is Diversity Possible In An Integrative Psychology-Transpersonal As A Whole Person-All Person Approach, Glenn Hartelius

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

N/A

Participatory Research Methods In Transpersonal Studies: Introduction To The Special Topic Section, Olga R. Sohmer

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

N/A

Science, Social Critique, And The Need For Ethics, Peter Woodford, Alecia Carter

Animal Sentience

Marino & Merskin’s target article on the cognitive and psychological capacities of sheep commendably aims to use science to critique human practice. However, the article fails to make specific recommendations about how human-sheep relations should change going forward. We also underscore two problematic assumptions highlighted by other commentators: (1) that cognitive complexity is important to the case for the moral status of non-human animals and (2) that the way humans use and treat animals is caused by our conception of animals’ capacities. Scientists should engage more with philosophy and ethical theory to articulate the implications of animal capacities for human …

The Effect Of Religion On Trait Priority In Potential Partners In Short And Long Term Relationships, Sara K. Glass

Honors Theses

This study builds upon previous research that demonstrates how various demographic characteristics, as well as relationship type, affects trait preferences for potential mate partners. This study also explores the potential effects of religious affiliation and religiosity on trait preferences, as no previous research explicitly tests how individuals’ religious affiliation or strength of religiosity influences their rank ordering of potential partner traits. Seven hypotheses were proposed, as well as four points of exploration regarding sexuality, relationship status, religious affiliation, and race were proposed. Hypotheses 1, which predicted that women will rank financial stability higher than men and that men will rank …

The Philosopher's Journey: A Chapter In Kindness And Animals, Vaughn E. Sayers

UNF Undergraduate Capstone Projects and Honors Theses

We each are presented with a choice; do we remain in the cave of ignorance or embark on the philosopher’s journey. Your choice will determine the way in which you interpret this paper. However, I will confidently make the assumption that you, like myself, desire to embrace an existence guided by the light of wisdom. This thesis is one of many chapters in the philosopher’s journey, dealing with animals and (cutting through the jargon) kindness. I have found that a lot of scholarship on animal ethics acknowledges a truth, but does not acknowledge that the application of such a truth …

The Relationship Between Mindfulness And Leadership: How Mindfulness Practices Affect Leadership Practices, James Van Auken

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The aim of this study was to explore and understand the relationship between mindfulness practices and actual leadership practices. This qualitative study utilized narrative inquiry with phenomenological interviewing techniques to explore selective leaders who use mindfulness practices, and see how they used mindfulness in their leadership practice. Sixteen in-depth interviews were conducted and thematic analysis was utilized. Eleven themes were identified with multiple sub- and sub-sub-themes, including: “Personal, Internal Mindfulness Practice,” “Being Mindful Toward Self,” “Being Present with Others,” “Being Present with a Group,” “Mindful Shift of Focus/Attention,” “Emotional Intelligence,” “Buffering of Reactivity,” “Resilience and Recovery,” “Alignment,” “Improved Job Performance,” …

Religious Motivation, Priming And Their Effects On Sexist Language, Bridget Bard, Hank Rothgerber

Undergraduate Theses

This experiment delves into the potential effects of sexist language used in the Christian religious context on increased use of sexist language, and endorsement of sexism on an individual level. In order to demonstrate a relationship between these two variables, an experiment was designed. Participants were exposed to either a religious or neutral priming session and were then immediately asked to complete several scales and measures of sexist language, sexism, and their level of intrinsic religious motivation. The hypothesis was that participants who ranked lower on intrinsic religious motivation, and who received a religious prime, would generate increased sexist language …

P-06 Faith, Hope And Love: An Integrated Conceptual Framework For Examining Religious Outcomes In A Global Church, Karl G. D. Bailey, Duane C. Mcbride, Shannon M. Trecartin

Celebration of Research and Creative Scholarship

The 2017-18 Global Church Member Survey conducted by the General Conference of the Seventh-day Adventist Church is designed to assess the quinquennial Church Strategic Plan (2015-2020). In designing this survey, we considered a variety of theoretical frameworks that could explain relationships between the target outcomes in the Strategic Plan. The resulting novel theoretical framework is based on Biblical principles and an integration of a number of frameworks in the social sciences: motivation (Deci & Ryan, 2008; Greenberg, Solomon, & Arndt, 2008; Koole, Greenberg, & Pyszczynski, 2006; Pyszczynski, Greenberg, & Goldenberg, 2003; Ryan & Deci, 2000) and hope (Bernardo, 2010; Snyder, …

Grief And Its Implications In Childhood And Adolescence, Electa C. Willander

Student Publications

Death has always been a taboo subject. However, it is impossible for anyone to avoid death in terms of their loved ones or their own mortality. Therefore it is impossible to avoid the at times overbearing emotion of grief. Grief can be exposed in the light of someone passing, loss of a relationship, diminishing health, loss of a job, and even loss in athletic ability. There is no singular reason for grief to be present, nor are there simple and straightforward ways to cope and move forward. Grief on the individual and universal scale has no time frame. It is …

A Neurotheological Approach To Spiritual Awakening, Andrew B. Newberg, Mark R. Waldman

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

A neurotheological approach suggests an analysis of spiritual awakening experiences by combining phenomenological data with neuroscience. This paper presents a synthesis combining information on the thoughts, feelings, and experiences associated with spiritual awakening experiences and neurophysiological data, primarily from neuroimaging studies, to help assess which brain structures might be associated with these experiences. Brain structures involved with emotions correlate with emotional responses while areas of the brain associated with the sense of self appear to correlate with the key feature of these experiences in which an individual loses the sense of self and feels intimately connected with God, universal consciousness, …

Re-Veiling The Revealed: Insights Into The Psychology Of “Enlightenment” From The Kabbalah, B. Les Lancaster

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

I explore psychological aspects of a mystically-awakened state as depicted in the Kabbalah. This awakened state is portrayed using imagery of light and is associated with wisdom. The path towards the state entails intense hermeneutic work, and the core characteristic of the awakened person is the ability to see into that which is concealed—be it in scriptural texts, fellow humans, or the outer world. The primary distinction between this kabbalistic state and awakened states as portrayed in recent psychological and perennialist conceptions is the importance of cognitive and intellectual components in the former. I argue that cultural constructions of spiritual …

Transcendence From Below: The Embodied Feminine Mysticism Of Marion Woodman, Lora L. Menter

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

This article outlines the mystical path followed by Jungian analyst and author Marion Woodman. It unpacks the mystical aspects of Jungian psychology and uses Woodman’s life as a lens to view how the practice of mysticism can operate within alternative psycho-religious belief systems. Woodman deeply embraces mysticism as a transformative, feminist practice by focusing her work on healing the psycho-spiritual effects of patriarchy and the associated repression of women and the body. This paper also discusses how Woodman’s mystical revelations have begun to affect the epistemological foundation of Jungian psychology in a way that echoes the embodied and enactive perspective …

Purposeful Explorers: Adolescents Finding Their Purposes In A Catholic High School, Brandy P. Quinn

Journal of Catholic Education

Contemporary research about purpose suggests that adolescents benefit in multiple ways when they develop purpose, and at the same time, that many adolescents are not purposeful. Adolescents in Catholic high schools may receive a unique set of contextual supports that help them develop a sense of purpose and understand what that purpose is. This study was designed to understand the content and organization of purpose for young adolescents during their first year in a Catholic high school. The sample included 153 ninth grade students from a Catholic high school in the United States (M age at T1 = 14.02 …

Assessing The Experience Of Awe: Validating The Situational Awe Scale, William L. Krenzer

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

Awe is an overwhelming feeling of admiration sometimes mixed with wonder or fear. Inspired by a cross-disciplinary review of perspectives on awe, we constructed a new measure that would reflect all of these perspectives. In this dissertation, I introduce the Situational Awe Scale (SAS) and report a set of studies designed to validate the measure. An exploratory factor analysis in Study 1 suggested a four-factor structure (i.e., liberation/connection, oppression/isolation, chills, and small-self/vast-world); the study also provided initial evidence of the measure’s convergent and criterion validity. Study 2 provided evidence for the structural validity of the SAS, by confirming the factor …

Transpersonal Psychology And The Paradigm Of Complexity, Kelly, Sean M.

Journal of Conscious Evolution

No abstract provided.

P-09 A Conceptual Framework For Analyzing The 2017-2018 Seventh-Day Adventist Global Church Member Survey, Karl G. D. Bailey, Duane C. Mcbride

Adventist Human-Subject Researchers Association

We, along with others, developed the 2017-18 Global Church Member Survey currently being used by the Seventh-day Adventist Church to assess the quinquennial Church Strategic Plan. We included items for comparison to previous surveys, along with items to measure performance indicators from the Strategic Plan. However, our unique contributions were grounded in a novel theoretical framework based on Biblical principles and concepts in the social sciences. The Biblical contribution to the core of this framework focused on scriptural teaching on discipleship and God’s active role believer’s lives. The social science contribution to the core integrated theories of motivation (Deci & …

The Prospective Influence Of Religiousness On Alcohol Use: What Role Do Perceived Norms Play?, Corey Todd Brawner

Dissertations

Alcohol misuse is recognized as one of the most pressing health hazards for college students. Previous research has supported a protective relationship between religiousness and problematic alcohol use, but it is less clear what aspects of religiousness are protective and through what mechanisms its effect is exerted. The current study utilized a prospective design to accomplish three primary goals: (1) Delineate the protective effects of religious motivation and public participation on alcohol use and alcohol-related problems in a sample of undergraduates at a large public university in the southeastern United States, (2) determine whether effects were maintained long-term, and (3) …

The Cost And Value Of Your Education, T. Perry Hildreth

Journal of Counseling and Psychology

This brief address explores the issue of the dominance of the economical way of valuing education over a more traditional idea of education as moral formation. An education in a Christian liberal arts university uniquely gives priority to the idea that education should shape the student's moral understanding and consequent actions. The address is an invitation to consider how one, professionally and personally, might serve members of a culture shaped largely by the idea that human meaning and purpose are reducible to economic value as merely producers and consumers.

The Relationship Between Religiosity And Mental Illness Stigma In The Abrahamic Religions, Emma C. Bushong

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Numerous studies have established and examined the critical interplay between religion and mental health. A systematic review of existing literature found that the endorsement of religious beliefs and frequent attendance at religious services were routinely associated with greater physical and psychological well-being (Koenig, 2012; Tsaousis, Karademas, Kalatzi, 2013). Yet, history has shown that religion can be a source of conflict and prejudice and that individuals fostering negative religious perceptions can exhibit poorer mental health (Lee & Newberg, 2005; Pargament, 1997). Because religious and spiritual beliefs often guide perceptions and affect behavior toward others, the present study examines such influence as …

Alabama Cacrep And Non-Cacrep Graduate Students' Perceptions Of Readiness To Counsel Clients With Substance Use Disorders, Keli M. Brothers

Counselor Education

A quantitative survey study was conducted to assess counselor perceptions of competence to counsel clients with substance use disorders based on educational experiences. The 31 participants included counseling graduates from two North Alabama universities, one with Council for Accrediting of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) certification and one without, and Alabama members of NAADAC, the Association for Addiction Professionals. There were no significant differences found in perceptions of competence to counsel between CACREP and non-CACREP certified graduates. However, a positive correlation was found between participants’ understanding of addiction and perceptions of readiness to counsel clients with substance use disorders.

The Effects Of Privacy Violation Abstractness On Privacy Attitudes And Behaviors, Delicia Anceisao Vaz

Masters Theses

"This research investigates new methods to present privacy policy information to consumers. It makes the argument that current privacy policies do not present consumers with information in a manner that helps align their privacy attitudes with their privacy behaviors. With the introduction of smart appliances to the market, it is critical that appropriate privacy policies are created to equip consumers with information that is easy to understand. Neutral Examples and Risk Examples were created along with the Traditional Content of a privacy policy. These three components were used in different combinations to provide privacy information about smart appliances. Additionally, it …

Dreams, Doubt, And Dread: The Spiritual In Film, Joel Mayward

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a book review of Zachary Settle and Taylor Worley, eds. Dreams, Doubt, and Dread: The Spiritual in Film. Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 2016.

Mixed-Method Study Of Perfectionism And Religiosity Among Mormons: Implications For Cultural Competence And Clinical Practice, Samuel O. Peer, James S. Mcgraw

Issues in Religion and Psychotherapy

Extending prior research on perfectionism and religiosity, the current study investigated their relation among Latter-day Saints (LDS)–also known as Mormons–through a sequential mixed-methods design. An online community sample of 194 LDS completed the Religiousness Measure-Revised and the Hewitt Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale. Subsequently, six of these participants were interviewed to further explore how perfectionism manifests among Mormons in a qualitative pilot study. Quantitative results demonstrated significant positive correlations between religiosity and perfectionism, but only for self- and other-oriented perfectionism. Qualitative content analysis indicated further how adaptive and maladaptive perfectionism manifest in an LDS context. Implications for culturally competent practice and future …

Grace As Psychotherapy: Suggestions For Therapists With Latter-Day Saint Clients, Matthew R. Draper, James S. Mcgraw, Daniel Sturtevant, Richard D. Draper

Issues in Religion and Psychotherapy

There is a growing body of literature that shows how perfectionism has tremendous effects on a person’s well-being. Specifically, maladaptive perfectionism continues to have an alarming influence on many individuals’ experiences with depression, anxiety, eating disorders, and suicidal ideations. Interestingly, for religious or spiritual individuals, perfectionism is often colored by profound religious themes that further complicate treatment. This paper seeks to explore this issue by introducing the case of Sister Vivi, a Mormon woman who suffered a great deal of depression and anxiety, and eventually a suicide attempt due to perfectionism entwined within her religious beliefs. In cooperation with her …