Raymond F. Paloutzian

Norms for the Spiritual Weil-Being Scale

As part of the growing interest in quality of life and subjective well-being, the Spiritual Well-Being Scale was constructed to measure the spiritual dimension. Research has shown good reliability for the scale and has provided encouraging support for its validity. It indicates well-being in a variety of spheres, including physical and mental health, psychological adjustment, and assertiveness. However, no norms have been published and little descriptive data have been readily available for the scale. Test-retest and internal consistency reliability coefficients and descriptive data are presented for several religious, student, and client groups. In evangelical samples the typical individual gets the maximum score; thus, the scale is not useful in distinguishing among individuals for purposes such as selection of spiritual leaders. The scale is currently useful for research and as a global index of lack of well-being.

Religious Conversion and Personality Change

The question of whether religious conversion causes changes in someones personality is examined in light of two bodies of literature—the research on personality change and the research on conversion. When the theory and research on personality change is applied to the question of whether conversion causes such change, the answer depends on what level of personality is of concern. Research on the relation between religious conversion and a variety of behavioral, attitudinal, emotional, and lifestyle variables is consistent with this conclusion. Although conversion seems to have minimal effect on elemental functions such as the Big Five traits or temperaments, it can result in profound, life transforming changes in mid-level functions such as goals, feelings, attitudes, and behaviors, and in the more self-defining personality

Forgiveness and Reconciliation

- The Role of Forgiveness in Human Affiars: Integrative Themes.- An Integrative, Systemic Framework for Forgiveness and Reconciliation.- Forgiveness Ethics and the Views of Five World Religions.- The Bullet and the Disease: The Psychology of Meaning in Forgiveness-Nonforgiveness.- Mending Tears in the Social Fabric via Reconciliation and Forgiveness.- Changing Childhood Trauma into Forgiveness.- The Alternative of Dialogic Intelligence in Trauma Therapy.- Promoting Forgiveness Through Restorative Conferencing.- Forgiveness on a Deeper Leel: Healing Trans-Generational Trauma.- A Black Perspective on Interractial and Interethnic Forgiveness in the U.S.- The India-Pakistan Partition: Sequaelae of Unresolved Political Conflicts and their Resolution.- Forgiveness and Reconciliation in Unresolved Conflicts: The Case of Darfur.- The Meaning of Forgive when the Trauma Continues: A Case Study from Armenia.- Repentance and Forgiveness, Pillars of Genuine Reconciliation -- A View from Rwanda.- Forgiveness in Unresolved and Denied Mass Trauma.- An International Perspective: Teaching Forgiveness and Building Peace in Divided Societies.- Political Forgiveness and International Affairs.- Dialogue Processes at the Intergroup Level.- Forgiveness: An Idea Whose Time Has Come.

Conversion Experience, Belief System, and Personal and Ethical Attitudes

Two studies assessed the relation between type of religious belief system (“ethical” vs. “born again” Christianity), type of conversion experience (sudden vs. gradual vs. unconscious), and four attitudinal dependent variables: the Purpose in Life Test, Social Interest Scale, Religious Orientation Scale, and Dogmatism. In Study 1, 84 college students served as subjects. In Study 2, 177 adults of varying ages served as subjects. The same basic pattern of results was obtained for the two studies. Born again Christians were significantly more intrinsically motivated in their religious beliefs and higher in social interest than ethical Christians. Sudden converts were significantly more intrinsic in religious orientation than unconscious converts. Professed Christians scored significantly higher on the Purpose in Life Test and Social Interest Scale than professed non-Christians. The findings suggest that it is useful to classify Christians according to type of belief and type of conversion experience. A deep religious commitment seemed to be accompanied by a sense of meaning in life, greater concern for the welfare of others, and a more dogmatic way of thinking.

Effects of Deindividuation, Removal of Responsibility, and Coaction on Impulsive and Cyclical Aggression

The influence of two deindividuating variables, altered responsibility and coaction in groups, on ones tendency to deliver noxious or helpful stimulation impulsively and in a cyclical pattern to a target person was investigated in a laboratory experiment with use of 96 male and female junior college students. Analysis of variance revealed that, as hypothesized, Ss who coacted in groups of three and who had the responsibility for their behavior removed delivered noxious (but not helpful) stimuli more impulsively than Ss who worked alone and were made to feel responsible (p less than .01). Ss responded in a more cyclical pattern which delivering aversive tones than when delivering facilitating tones (p less than .005). A marginally significant finding was that Ss in groups responded in a more cyclical pattern than Ss alone only when the response was seen as aversive. It was concluded that the probability of impulsive and cyclical aggression may be increased by altered responsibility and coaction.

The SWB Scale in Nursing Research

It has been twenty years since the publication of the Spiritual WellBeing Scale (SWBS). Given that the scale is now a veteran of two decades of research and testing, it seems fitting to pause, look at what contribution the scale has made, assess its properties and identify conclusions that come from the large SWBS database. This is especially important because, to the great and wonderful surprise of Dr. Ellison and me, approximately half of the research done with the scale comes from the field of nursing.

Believing, Remembering, and Imagining: The Roots and Fruits of Meanings Made and Remade

Without believing, there is no human life as we know it. Processes of believing are fundamental to how all people function. Although more often nonconscious than conscious, believing is the guide that leads humans and animals through the myriad options to settle upon or test the next action, reaction, possibility, or hunch. What we call a “belief” is a meaning that has been made. This chapter begins by explaining the substrates of meaning systems and relates them to all matters of believing whether religious or spiritual, unusual versus routine, or narrow versus broad in scope. Processes of believing enable us to navigate all life domains. In order to explain the development of the substrates of meaning systems, the chapter summarizes evolutionarily root ed aspects of human and animal functioning for which the emergence of some form of meaning making, assessment, and remaking is essential. The sequence goes from micro to macro in level of analysis. Each step reflects meaning system processes more developed than those prior to it. The propensity for meaning making, appraisal, and remaking is increased as one goes up the steps, from relatively rudimentary to complex global human meaning systems. The steps include perceiving, learning, intuiting, implementing, remembering, and imagining. The process of believing is multi-layered, consisting of making and remaking meanings, acting upon them mentally or behaviorally, and appraising the outcomes in view of the expectations and predict ions. The process continues, as one remakes meanings, whether similar or modified, re-appraises them, and remakes them again through a continuous feedback cycle. The processes are integral to basic psycholog ical functions including learning, perception, motivation, development, social cognition, human interaction, and human information processing, and show myriad effects across the spectrum from normal to abnormal mental states and behavior.

EDITORS' NOTE: From Conflict to Dialogue: Examining Western and Islamic Approaches in Psychology of Religion

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The Bullet and Its Meaning: Forgiveness, Nonforgiveness, and Their Confrontation

One of the biggest challenges that a person can face is to forgive those who killed those they love. This is so whether the killer is a single individual acting alone, or a member of an opposing social class, nation, or bygone empire. In such a situation the pain is so great, the hurt goes so deep that if someone tells you that you should forgive, it twists the knife that is already deep inside your chest and causes it to go deeper, causing more grief and agony than before.

Relating Theologies and Belief Systems to Scientific Psychology: Recent Approaches and Perspectives

Recent attempts to relate theologies and belief systems to psychological concepts and research are based on three basic methodologies: (a) Documenting a parallel between psychological and theological concerns, (b) using religious belief and behavior as variables in basic psychological research, (c) suggesting theological reality as part of the process that accounts for religious experience. These fundamental approaches underlie both the articles in the present issue (Donahue, 1989; Hertel, 1989; Hood, 1989; Spilka & Bridges, 1989; Williams, Taylor, & Hintze, 1989) and earlier attempts at integration. The meaning and limits of each are clarified.