Fernando L. Garzon

A Phenomenology of the Integration of Faith and Learning

This phenomenological investigation examined how eight student-nominated faculty who teach at an evangelical Christian liberal arts university describe their understanding and practice of the Integration of Faith and Learning (IFL). Collected data via informal, conversational, taped interviews led to the emergence of two primary themes: the Inseparability of Faith from Practice and the Outworking of Faith in Practice. The findings of the study highlight the need to create a more conducive context in which students can learn IFL and call for a re-examination of the already murky discourse surrounding definitional aspects of IFL. The study proposes to move the discourse forward by offering a new, yet to be discussed construct that emanated from the participants of this study, ontological foundation. A conceptual model describing its relationship with IFL is proposed.

Pilgrims’ Progress: Faculty and University Factors in Graduate Student Integration of Faith and Learning

Graduate students’ perspectives on integration of faith and profession were investigated using item response to identify underlying constructs. Students (N = 595) from various professions and four universities were sampled. Three factors were supported as separate and important constructs for students. The first two factors were drawn from Sorensons research on attachment theory, faculty as bulwark of the faith versus fellow sojourner and faculty as emotionally transparent versus emotionally distant. A new domain of integration, environmental factors such as class Scripture reading, was supported as a unique factor. An examination of diversity variables gave preliminary evidence that females and students of color may see emotional transparency and environmental factors as more important in Christian integration than other students.

The Efficacy of a Manualized Group Treatment Protocol for Changing God Image, Attachment to God, Religious Coping, and Love of God, Others, and Self

This study compared the efficacy of a manualized group treatment protocol on God image and attachment to God to a manualized Christian Bible study and a waiting list control group in a sample of undergraduate college students attending a Christian college. Thirty students were randomly assigned to one of the treatment conditions and assessed with measures of God attachment, God image, religious coping, and general spiritual outcomes. It was hypothesized that significant God image and attachment change would occur among the God image treatment group participants only. In addition, it was hypothesized that significant religious coping and spiritual outcome change would occur within both groups compared to the waiting list control group. The results supported significant spiritual outcome changes in both groups but no significant God image/attachment change or religious coping change. Feedback from group participants informed how manualized God image/attachment protocols may be modified in future research to improve outcomes for young college-age Christian participants.

Teaching Christian Integration in Psychology and Counseling: Current Status and Future Directions

In this article, we review the current status of theory and research on teaching Christian integration in psychology and counseling. Changes in student characteristics, emerging technologies, and paradigm shifts in the disciplines themselves predict unique opportunities and challenges for the future. We reflect upon directions integration learning theory and pedagogy should take in light of these considerations.

Teaching Christian Integration in Psychology and Counseling Courses

In the last 45 years, psychologists, counselors, academicians, and pastors have developed a wide variety of models describing the relationship between Christianity and clinical psychology/counseling. Some espouse no interaction between the fields (e.g., nouthetic counseling. Adams, 1970), while others advocate for a meaningful interaction (e.g., integration, McMinn & Campbell, 2007). Some models expand on how one defines science (e.g transformational psychology, Coe & Hall, 2010) and others on how one conceptualins psychology itself (e.g., Christian psychology, Johnson, 2007). For the sake of reading simplicity, the term integration in this special edition encapsulates the models that advocate for some form of meaningful engagement between psychology/counseling and Christianity. We recognize, however, the distinctiveness of these various models embedded in the term as we use it here. Integration models are now leading to operation-alized clinical strategies that are garnering empirical support (See Evidence-Based Practices jbr Christian Counseling and Psychotherapy, Aten, Johnson, Worthington, & Hook, 2013). Novel new intervention strategies likewise merit exploration (See Transformative Encounters, Appleby & Ohlschlager, 2013). This is an exciting time for those advocating for a meaningful relationship between Christianity and mental health treatment. One wonders, however, if the progress in models arid intervention strategies has left behind some important aspects. Meaningful questions remain. Psychology and counseling have numerous specialized bodies of knowledge captured in specific courses. What resources are available for instructors to make them more effective in teaching integration in these courses? Garzon and Hall (2012) observe that current resources are almost nonexistent or quite dated in this area. Over time, the Journal of Psychology and Theology (JPT) has taken the lead in providing resources. One course-specific exploration of teaching integration identified in the literature occurred with JPTs 1995 special edition on undergraduate teaching (volume 23, issue 4). In 2009, JPT published another special edition, this time with a focus on new research in how students learn integration and explorations of how to reach integration in graduate education contexts such as classroom learning, non-traditional environments (online), statistics, and clinical supervision in internship. More recently, Devers (2013) published an article in JPT encouraging the use of embodied integration, a pedagogical strategy building on the idea that the brain relies on bodily states and actions to inform cognition. Accordingly, this special edition of the JPT builds on these resources with a focus on course-specific integration at both the undergraduate and graduate psychology and counseling level. Current Integration Learning Theory and Research Course-specific integration must begin with present theories on how students learn integration. Randall Sorensons theory of how students learn integration stands out as the lone well-articulated and researched model in the literature (Sorenson, Derflinger, Bufford, & McMinn, 2004). Basing his ideas on attachment theory (e.g., Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters, & Wall, 1978; Bowlby, 1988; Main & Solomon, 1986), he proposed that students learn integration best through attachment-based mentoring relationships with professors. These relationships, to Sorenson, are the primary mediating pathway that facilitates significant integration learning (Sorenson et al.). Professors who desire their conceptual ideas about integration to be absorbed must seek to. develop meaningful relationships with their students. Research has supported Sorensons ideas (Sorenson, 1994, 1997; Sorenson et al., 2004, Staten, Sorenson, & Vande Kemp, 1998). These studies have found that students value getting a sense of a professors spiritual journey or on-going personal relationship with God. …

Research note: A randomized investigation of evangelical Christian accommodative mindfulness.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of religiously accommodative mindfulness compared with traditional mindfulness on stress, anxiety, and depression in an evangelical Christian college sample using a randomized trial design. Volunteer participants (n = 78) were randomly assigned to 1 of 2 treatment conditions. The Christian mindfulness training (CMT) group protocol was explicitly adapted to the evangelical Christian faith, while the conventional mindfulness training (MT) group protocol utilized typical mindfulness meditations. Participants completed 3 weeks of treatment that included psychoeducational group sessions and prescribed daily applications of the mindfulness techniques. Posttreatment differences between the 2 groups were then compared on the measures. Measures used included the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS, Lee, 2012) and the Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS, Lovibond & Lovibond, 1995). Results indicated significant differences within and between groups, with the CMT group reporting lower levels of stress and depression compared to the MT group, as well as lower overall negative symptoms based on total DASS scores. CMT group participants also reported significantly greater treatment compliance in comparison with MT group participants. Findings provide preliminary support for potential differences in treatment outcomes when religious accommodations are made to mindfulness. Limitations and recommendations are considered.