Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

A Phenomenological Investigation Of The Meaning Making Experiences Of Christian Women Who Had An Abortion, Anne E. Stocker

Dissertations

Whether or not a woman should have an abortion is a hotly debated topic, and little information is known about how women make sense of their abortion experiences. Even less is known about how women make sense of abortion experiences in the context of their religious or spiritual belief system. This qualitative study explores the phenomenon of how women who have had an abortion make meaning of their abortion experience in the context of their Christian identity. This phenomenon was explored via research questions related to a woman’s experience of having both an abortion history and a Christian identity, how …

Clinically Healing By Faith For Black Christian Women: A Proposed Model For Collaborative Religious And Psychological Treatment For The Aftermath Of Infidelity, Aldra Forrester

Dissertations

Infidelity rates are high in the United States and one of the leading causes for divorce between married couples. Research indicates that the Black community has a higher proclivity to infidelity compared to Whites. Black women have a higher chance of ending up in undissolved marriages than other races (Jarama et al., 2007). Previous studies have explored reasons behind the increased rates of high marital instability among Black women, including: the sex ratio imbalance, high mortality, and incarceration among Black men. Since African Americans are considered more religious than the general population, this literature review identified the need for an …

Identification Of Cultural Differences And Their Effects On International Relations: A Novel Approach, Stephen W. Jones

Dissertations

International Relations suffers from underspecified treatments of culture that risk reifying, essentializing, or ignoring the effects of cultural differences in the conduct of relationships between states. Following a review of the development of the culture concept, this interpretivist, epistemologically critical realist, dissertation introduces intercultural adaptive frameshifting from the intercultural communication literature. To assess whether culture has effect within an epistemic community, four frameworks are evaluated within a non-IR field (global Christian reasoning). Speech act theory is used to assess meaningful affect through illocutionary and/or perlocutionary divergence based on cultural difference.

Following the findings that such cultural differences do in fact …

Attitudes And Beliefs Of Christian Denominations Toward Mental Health, Javier Velez

Dissertations

This empirical study assessed common attitudes and beliefs toward mental health services in the varying denominations of Christian churches. Specifically, the objective of this study was to identify the effects of Christian denomination on attitudes toward seeking mental health treatment and to identify whether there are racial and age differences that also impact those attitudes within the church. The study sought to answer the following questions: (a) What is the difference in attitudes and beliefs between different races toward mental health services in the church among Christians? (b) Is there an age difference in attitudes and beliefs toward mental health …

Acts 2:42 In 2006: Examining Small Group Discussion In An American Mega-Church, Sheri Guseman Edd

Dissertations

During the last century, Americans have become increasingly isolated from one another, resulting in feelings of loneliness and creating a void of community (Frazee, 2001). However, as attendance at mainline churches continues to decline (Stafford, 1998), attendance and participation in mega-churches, defined as those serving more than 2,500 individuals and offering a multiplicity of services, continues to increase (http://www.hirr.hartsem.edu/org ). One popular explanation for this phenomenon is that mega-churches are often characterized by an organized small group ministry---something absent in more traditional churches. Although this trend has clearly swept the nation (Gladwell, 2005), related research on the efficacy of the …