Liz Gulliford

Human spiritual qualities: Integrating psychology and religion

Positive psychology is largely concerned with human qualities that have long been the subject of religious discussion and been encouraged through spiritual practices. We suggest that, rather than seeing positive psychology as replacing this earlier religious approach, it should be pursued in dialogue with it. We illustrate this with reference to work on forgiveness, gratitude, and hope in the Psychology and Religion Research Programme in the University of Cambridge. Though the recent upsurge of interest in therapeutic forgiveness has brought a welcome rigour to its investigation, there are still aspects of forgiveness that are better handled in the religious literature, such as the importance or receiving forgiveness. Building on recent psychological work on gratitude, we have been particularly interested in the hypothesized relationship between gratitude and subjective well-being, and have initiated research to investigate more rigorously whether there is indeed a causal connection between the two. Concerning hope, we suggest that the distinction between hope and optimism, often made by religious thinkers, could usefully be imported into the psychological literature, as much of what is called hope may really only be optimism. We have also considered, using Snyders theory of hope, how religious faith can contribute to human hope.

Gratitude in the UK: A new prototype analysis and a cross-cultural comparison

The present research examined gratitude in the UK, contrasted features of gratitude with those identified in the USA, and explored whether gratitude is associated with virtue. In three studies, we demonstrated that gratitude is prototypically organized; that there are cross-cultural differences between UK and US descriptions of gratitude; and that judgments of gratitude are closely related to judgments of virtue. Study 1 demonstrated that the frequencies of negative attributes are considerably greater in the UK than in the USA. We suggest that gratitude has a common core with culturally ubiquitous features, but also socially constructed elements specific to individual cultures. Study 2 noted discrepancies between centrality and frequency ratings. We propose that prototype analyses should consider both intuitive frequency ratings and the deliberative processes involved in assessing centrality. In Study 3, we noted a significant correlation between judgments of gratitude and judgments of virtue, suggesting the two are intrinsically linked.

Educating Gratitude: Some Conceptual and Moral Misgivings.

In a rapidly expanding academic literature on gratitude, psychologists, philosophers and educational theorists have argued that gratitude is not just of great psycho-social importance but also of moral significance. It would therefore seem to follow that the promotion of gratitude is also of moral educational significance. In this regard, recent attempts by psychologists to develop practical interventions designed to make people more grateful should be of some interest. However, while appreciating some benefits of such work, this article argues that much of it falls short of the educational task of developing an adequate pedagogy of gratitude focused on assisting learners’ acquaintance with the complex normative grammar (moral and conceptual) of gratitude discourse. With reference to ongoing work by the authors, the article proceeds to explore further this important dimension of educating gratitude.

Learning and teaching virtuous gratitude

Gratitude has been widely regarded by philosophers, psychologists and educational theorists as a personal and/or pro-social response of some moral significance. Indeed, beyond its more obvious value as a basic form of social association and reciprocation, gratitude has also been conceived as a moral virtue—if not, more grandly, as a ‘parent of the virtues’. Insofar, one might also expect the promotion of gratitude to be a matter of some educational importance. Despite this, and notwithstanding recent psychological attempts to develop practical interventions designed to promote gratitude, this paper argues not just that the educational role of such interventions is open to serious question, but also that—beyond any requirement of the young to express thanks as a matter of routine social reciprocation—the status of gratitude as an educable virtue is more complex and problematic than has often been previously supposed.

Psychology’s Contribution to Ethics: Two Case Studies

This paper contends that psychology cannot replace ethics. However, it will be argued, with reference to two case studies, that the empirical investigation of human morality can offer an important contribution to ethics. First, an empirical approach can illuminate matters of definition. Normative ethicists often make distinctions between concepts that do not reflect lay usage, and may seek to refine or reclaim the ‘true’ meaning of words to prevent the erosion of conceptual distinctions. However, it might be argued that they should hold no privileged place when it comes to defining the terms of language as it is used. It is essential that philosophers take seriously the question of what laypeople understand by ethical concepts, partly because the cultural and social differences such analyses reveal are interesting in themselves, but also because there are implications for the relationship between laypeople and the academy. The first case study thus shows that psychology can make a contribution towards defining ethical concepts. Secondly, it will be shown that psychology can elucidate the processes by which ethically desirable ends might be facilitated. Psychological approaches to forgiveness may, for example, help to expedite a goal which may seem remote from the human dynamics of forgiveness. Psychological interventions focus not on when forgiveness is appropriate or fitting (as a normative ethical account might) but on how this goal can be promoted. These methods do not replace ethics, but they do complement it in elucidating how certain ethically desirable ends might be progressed.

Death anxiety and religious belief: an existential psychology of religion

Is it true that ‘…if man did not die, if he lived forever, if there were no such thing as death, there would be no religion’ (Feuerbach, 1851, 1967, 33)? Are we so scared of death that we try to pursue symbolic and literal immortality? This intriguing book aims to shed light on Feuerbach’s contention – and the more recent assertions of Terror Management Theory empirically, and by means of some ingeniously thought-out methods. Of course, anyone expecting simple and definitive answers to these questions will be disappointed – but probably shouldn’t expect a clear-cut resolution to matters which have occupied the minds of thinkers such as Feuerbach, Freud, Becker and Marx, to name a few.

Exploring the “unity” of the virtues: The case of an allocentric quintet:

This article has two interrelated aims. First we explore a novel conceptual analysis of the “unity” of the virtues. Virtues come in clusters differentiated by broad functions within overall character. We identify three such clusters—virtues of intelligent caring, virtues of willpower, and virtues of humility. Virtues within a cluster are “unified” by some commonality, e.g., justice, compassion, and truthfulness all are kinds of intelligent caring. The allocentric virtues, a sub-class of the virtue of intelligent caring, are forms of intelligent caring about people. Virtues of willpower are capacities to manage impulses: desires, emotions, and habits. Virtues of humility are absences of vices of pride. These clusters support and exploit one another in a healthy character. Second, we explore whether empirical psychology can support conceptual analysis such as we propose. Our discussion of the conceptual analysis and empirical studies of the relations between pairs of allocentric virtues illustrates this exploration.

Compassion and education: cultivating compassionate children, schools and communities. Edited by Andrew Peterson. Pp 180 + IX. London: Palgrave Macmillan. 2017. £72 (hbk), £68 (ebk), ISBN 978-1-137-54837-5

This timely book raises questions about education and compassion in a thoughtful and reflective way. Peterson seems to have been stimulated to write this book because of his ‘concerns about the inc...

Strengths and Virtues: An Integrated Approach

For the most part, positive psychologists have tended to study human strengths in isolation from one another. For instance, there are experts on strengths like gratitude, such as Philip Watkins, Mike McCullough, Robert Emmons and Jeffrey Froh. There are authorities on hope, optimism and ‘optimistic explanatory style’ - for example, Martin Seligman, Chris Peterson, Charles Carver, Michael Scheier and the late Rick Snyder. Clearly, these psychologists have earned their places as key contributors to growing fields of research, and it is not my intention to attempt to undermine the recognition they have merited in their respective domains. However, in this essay I propose that rather than examining strengths separately, there is much to be gained from studying mutually reinforcing strengths.