Maureen H Miner

Burnout in the first year of ministry: Personality and belief style as important predictors

Although cross-sectional research has found that personality dimensions and religious styles are associated with distress and burnout in clergy, there is little longitudinal research that considers predictors of psychological health, particularly over the initial twelve months of ministry. The authors study measured demographic and personality characteristics, openness to change in beliefs, and orientation to the demands of ministry in 60 graduating theological students in Sydney, Australia. Twelve months later they completed measures of anxiety and depression and the subscales of burnout: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal accomplishment. Multiple regression analyses were used to determine the best predictors of distress and burnout after twelve months in ministry. Neuroticism predicted emotional exhaustion, depression, and anxiety; extraversion predicted personal accomplishment; and openness to change of beliefs predicted emotional exhaustion, and depersonalization. The power of openness to belief change as a predictor of burnout supports the inference from secularization theory, that some degree of self-integration is necessary to avoid burnout.

Moral theory in ethical decision making: Problems, clarifications and recommendations from a psychological perspective

Psychological theory and research in ethical decision making and ethical professional practice are presently hampered by a failure to take appropriate account of an extensive background in moral philosophy. As a result, attempts to develop models of ethical decision making are left vulnerable to a number of criticisms: that they neglect the problems of meta-ethics and the variety of meta-ethical perspectives; that they fail clearly and consistently to differentiate between descriptive and prescriptive accounts; that they leave unexplicated the theoretical assumptions derived from the underlying moral theories; and that they fail to accommodate the complexity and comprehensiveness of the processes involved in the making and implementing of ethical decisions. Many of these problems also have implications for the methodological domain. This paper offers an analysis of the difficulties, and makes a number of recommendations for future theory, research and practical applications, including: the need for training in moral philosophy; clarification of the status of Professional Codes in decisional models; the development of theoretically comprehensive prescriptive models; and the testing of these models in ways that do justice to their dimensional scope and theoretical complexity.

The Impact of Child-parent Attachment, Attachment to God and Religious Orientation on Psychological Adjustment:

The impact of religion and spirituality on psychological adjustment is a continuing area of concern. This preliminary study attempted to examine the effects of religious orientation, retrospective accounts of child-parent attachment and current accounts of attachment to God on trait anxiety and existential well being, based on questionnaire responses of a sample of 116 adults from Sydney, Australia. Small, significant effects of attachment to God on the prediction of adjustment were found above the effects of child-parent attachments. Intrinsic religious orientation mediated the relationship between attachment to God and adjustment. In addition, groups were formed according to correspondence and compensation routes to secure religious attachment. Results gave preliminary support to a differentiation, rather than a surrogacy, model of compensation. Further work to examine the process whereby attachment to God does or does not compensate for insecure child-parent attachment is needed.

Changes in burnout over the first 12 months in ministry: Links with stress and orientation to ministry

Working in Christian ministry is stressful because it is focused on the intangible spirituality of people within a secularized society. Consequently, clergy are at risk of burnout. An internal orientation to the demands of ministry (where ministers depend on internal sources of authority and coping, such as spirituality and competence) is associated with low burnout in cross-sectional studies of ministers. However, little is known about stressors in early ministry and whether an internal ministry orientation is associated with burnout over the first year of ministry. Sixty graduating theological students completed demographic items, exploratory questions relating to the psychological effects of secularization, and measures of burnout, personality, and orientation to ministry. Most of these measures, together with ratings of stress and coping, were repeated after 12 months. Burnout increased over time in ministry, and ministers reported that ministry and relational issues were most stressful. Those with only a weakly internal orientation to ministry demands experienced higher levels of burnout on exit from theological college, and after 12 months. The results support a prediction from secularization theory, that the declining authority of ministers will have important consequences for their psychological health.

Back to the basics in attachment to God: Revisiting theory in light of theology

This article argues that contemporary theories of attachment to God lack a clear and coherent theological basis. The absence of theological argument weakens attachment theory as applied to relationships with God on three main grounds. First, cognitive social models easily slip into reductionism. Second, these models fail to consider fully the attributes of God to whom the individual attaches. Third, these models overlook that relationships with God and humans could include inter-subjectivity. Trinitarian theology as proposed by Colin Gunton is discussed and its usefulness for attachment theory examined. It is argued that models of attachment to God based in trinitarian theology can provide a coherent account of the origins of human relationship with God and of human inter-subjectivity. They can also suggest reasons for the existence of compensatory motivation, offer developmental models of spiritual maturity and draw attention to the importance of relationships with the Christian community for spiritual development.

Ministry orientation and ministry outcomes : Evaluation of a new multidimensional model of clergy burnout and job satisfaction

In secularized countries, where the authority of religious institutions has declined, church ministers face pressures that may precipitate burnout and threaten ministry satisfaction. This study examined the relationship of ministry orientation to burnout and ministry satisfaction in a large sample of Australian clergy. The sample comprised 2,132 church leaders surveyed as part of the 2001 National Church Life Survey in Australia. They completed brief, alternative measures of ministry orientation, burnout, and ministry satisfaction. Data were analysed by means of confirmatory factor analysis, a multiple indicator multiple cause model, and structural equation modelling. Results supported the validity of three-factor models of ministry orientation and burnout as applied to clergy, with burnout mediating the relationship between an internal orientation to ministry and satisfaction in ministry. The independence of personal accomplishment from satisfaction in ministry was also established. The usefulness of ministry orientation as predictive of ministry outcomes in the context of secularization is discussed.

The Nature and Structure of Muslim Religious Reflection

Muslims are often stereotyped as having rigid, fundamentalist attitudes. To date, studies have not examined the degree to which Muslims endorse a questing approach to religion, thus displaying openness to the exploration of religious practices and beliefs. A sample of 123 Australian Muslims and 74 Malaysian Muslims completed questionnaires including measures of: questing, as measured by Batson and Schoenrades 12-item Quest scale (1991b) and Altemeyer and Hunsbergers 16-item Quest scale (1992); conservative religious belief, as measured by the Religious Fundamentalism Scale (Altemeyer & Hunsberger, 1992); and Muslim religious reflection, as measured by a newly developed and validated measure named the Islamic Reflection Scale (IRS). The psychometric properties of the IRS are reported with associations between the other religious measures. Findings are discussed in terms of levels of Islamic openness and questing, and implications of a targeted measure of Muslim Religious Reflection for understanding the ...

The self-concept of homeless adolescents.

Thirty adolescents who had lived away from home for at least six months were compared on self-concept with 120 adolescents living at home. The latter group was divided into equal numbers of adolescents who were employed, unemployed, school students, and college students. The Offer Self-image Questionnaire for Adolescents was used to measure self-concept. Other measures used were the Beck Depression Inventory, the Hopelessness Scale of Beck et al.,and the Rotter Internal External Locus of Control Scale. These were used to examine the relationship between deficits in self-concept and psychopathology. Environmental factors such as family relationships, employment, school achievement, and friendships were also examined. It was found that homeless adolescents demonstrated significant deficits in five areas of self-concept and a specific pattern of deficits was related to hopelessness. Results were discussed with reference to the theory that acting-out behavior mitigates the impact of affective disturbance on self concept.

Exploring Christians' explicit attachment to God representations : the development of a template for assessing attachment to God experiences

Assessment of attachment to God (ATG) has generally focused on tapping the construct via self-report measures. Little, if any attention has been paid to assessing ATG via independent ratings of Christians’ relationship with God narratives, obtained at interview. The current study addressed this deficit. It documents the development of a template for assessing Christians’ relationship with God narratives for specific ATG experiences. Three theoretically-derived ATG profiles, labeled as secure-autonomous, insecure-anxious/preoccupied and insecure-dismissing ATG were operationally defined as a series of relational markers. Thirty-one Christians participated in a God Attachment Interview Schedule (GAIS), a semi-structured interview which taps Christians’ past and present relationship with God experiences. Participants’ narratives were analyzed using the template, this revealing relational evidence supportive of the hypothesized relational markers. Validation of the template is an important milestone in the development of a scoring protocol to assign an overall ATG profile based on the narrated experiences of Christians.

Healthy questing and mature religious reflection : critique, antecedents, and relevance of attachment theory?

Gordon Allport (1950) suggested that a willingness to reflect upon and question ones beliefs was a component of mature religiosity. Subsequently, the construct and measurement of quest was developed by Batson and colleagues. There has been much helpful research based on the Batson Quest Scale but also debate surrounding the psychometric properties of the scale, and attempts to develop other questing measures. However, there has been little attempt to develop a broad, theoretically based understanding of mature religious reflection, especially in view of the plurality of religions in the global context. This paper (1) analyses the nature and limitations of Batsons quest construct; (2) examines the need for a broader understanding of religious reflection in a pluralistic religious context; (3) justifies a developmental perspective based in attachment theory for an understanding of defensive and non-defensive religious reflection; and (4) presents some research implications of a developmental attachment-questing perspective.