Emotions and the Sacred In Human Lives. (original) (raw)

Presentation at the 112th Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association

2020

I was trained in developmental, not clinical, psychology, and I do not practice psychotherapy. I study it. I study it because I find the therapeutic activity, in particular, the social therapeutic activity, to be fascinatingly paradoxicalsimultaneously exhilarating and tedious, intense and trivial, touchingly meaning making and incomprehensible, an extraordinary life-affirming creative act whose materials are often anything but life affirming. Moreover, as a researcher into human development, studying therapy has become important to me because of its developmental potential or, to use the terminology of the humanistic psychology tradition, its potential for experiences of actualization and transcendence. Since I began my research career, about thirty-five years ago, I've always studied things that are very difficult to study-some, I've discovered, even impossible to study-unless you go outside the bounds of the existing research paradigm. The first time I encountered this ...

Association for Humanistic Psychology

In order to examine for features of posttraumatic growth, this preliminary and exploratory study adopted a case study method with three individuals who had endured a traumatic event, as a consequence of the political violence in Northern Ireland. Most of the extant research carried on this topic has focused on the pathogenic effects that result from the conflict. Little is known about whether growth following political adversity in Northern Ireland has occurred or even likely, given the ongoing political violence, which serves as a constant reminder of what has happened before and what may still occur, regardless of the peace process. Employing Tedeschi and Calhoun's model of growth, findings reveal that certain features of growth are evident in the domains of a greater appreciation of life and changed relationships, which has lead to new possibilities. Two of the three participants reported change in the domain of personal strength and all reported ongoing psychological distress, which served to temper the degree of growth experienced. Differences in the growth domain relating to religion and spirituality set the three cases apart. Findings may serve as a springboard for future research in this neglected area within trauma research in the Northern Irish context.

Positive psychology: Sampling the vintage

Originally published in Contemporary Psychology: APA Review of Books, 2003, Vol 48(6), 860-861. The specific hope of Life Goals and Well-Being: Towards a Positive Psychology of Human Striving (see record 2001-01629-000) is to develop empirically confirmed recommendations for which goals people should pursue. Guided by these goals, the various contributions to the work provide a rich and varied set of empirical excursions. Life Goals and Well-Being, assembled under the able editorship of Peter Schmuck and Kennon Sheldon, provides an opportunity for a closer look at the potentials of positive psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved) Full text: Along with Beaujolais nouveau, positive psychology has most definitely arrived. It has been heralded by a spate of new books, articles, monetary enticements, Web sites, and national conferences. Its entry on the scene is much to be welcomed. Psychological science has long been enamored by a problem-solving orientation in which the identification of a " problem " lends both dramatic force and potential utility to its inquiries. Problems of aggression, conflict, prejudice, conformity, substance abuse, inferior intelligence, low self-esteem, and the deficits of aging are only a few of the popular targets of research. These efforts are eclipsed by the enormous efforts devoted to " diagnosing and curing mental illness. " During the last century, our discipline has contributed to the spawning of more than 300 new terms for human deficit. At the same time, this focus on " problems " and " solutions " may have precisely the opposite from its intended effect. In constructing human action in terms of deficit, such research not only offers the culture forms of self-understanding, but stamps these forms with the mark of scientific expertise. As we dispense the language of deficit, people come to see themselves in these terms. For example, although the concept of depression is less than a century old, psychological science has helped it to become a popular form of self-description. Should we be surprised, then, that more than 10 percent of the population is now said to be suffering from depression, and antidepressant medication is a billion-dollar business? In constructing people in terms of their problems, we create and sustain a society in which people understand themselves—and come to live—in just these ways. In contrast to this legacy of suffering, positive psychology may have the opposite effect. There is much to be welcomed in this. The present volume, Life Goals and Well-Being, assembled under the able editorship of Peter Schmuck and Kennon Sheldon, provides an opportunity for a closer look at the potentials of positive psychology. Is this a Beaujolais nouveau, which like many fads in psychology move through our presses with as the seasons change, or do we detect here the preliminary signs of a great vineyard? There is surely great promise in the present volume. The major concern is with human happiness and the most effective ways to attain it. I felt a surge of enthusiasm in the editors' proposal that " there is reason to doubt the current western way of life, based mainly on hedonism and consumption, is optimal for individual well-being and societal welfare—either for most people, or for the long run " (p. 2). The specific hope of the volume, then, is to " develop empirically confirmed recommendations for which goals people should pursue " (p. 10). Guided by these goals, the various contributions to the work provide a rich and varied set of empirical excursions. For example, Ken Sheldon provides evidence suggesting that individual well-being is higher when people select life goals that represent their enduring values, as opposed to the values imposed on them by others. Such findings are congenial to those offered by Kasser and Ryan, indicating that people are lower in sense of well-being and self-esteem when they focus on extrinsic goals, such as financial

Sociality, Spirituality, and Meaning Making: Chicago Health, Aging, and Social Relations Study

Review of General Psychology, 2005

Scientific theories in the natural sciences posit invisible forces operating with measurable effects on physical bodies, but the scientific study of invisible forces acting on human bodies has made limited progress. The topics of sociality, spirituality, and meaning making are cases in point. The authors discuss some of the possible reasons for this as well as contemporary developments in the social sciences and neurosciences that may make such study possible and productive.