Sprituality in Psychology

The limited number of professional training programs available for psychologist and social scientist that address religion and spirituality contribute to the research deficit (Hill, 2003). Without proper training and knowledge, the empirical arena is bound to suffer. The possibility also exists that these institutions (ones in which religion and theology are main focuses) are purposely ignored by potential students and candidates.

A reason for this prejudice and the general understudy of psychology, religion and spirituality is the belief that religion and spirituality are not as important to psychologist and other health researchers when c

Recommendations five, six, and seven include exploring the patients religious and spiritual sources of strength, knowing when to offer alternative techniques or practices for substitution, and the act of praying, and meditating with patients. Recommendation seven should be explored only after recommendation eight has been evaluated. Examining the therapist’s own views on religion and spirituality, I feel is as important as receiving training and evaluating the patient’s history. Without understanding the beliefs of one’s own self, improvement cannot expect to be made on someone else.

With the use of global indices such as self-rated frequency of church attendance, religion and spirituality have demonstrated to be successful predictors of health related outcomes. These global indices posses limited reliability and in the past have lead researchers to ignore important aspects within religious and spiritual experiences (Hill, 2003). Without correct concepts and specific, reliable measurements, the religion- spirituality problem in health research cannot be fully addressed. Fortunately, in the recent past, there have steps taken in “delineating religion and spirituality concepts and measures” that are functionally related to mental and physical health (Hill, 2003). These constructs and measures include closeness to God, orienting and motivating forces, religious support, and religious and spiritual struggle. These measures have been shown through empirical studies to be significantly tied to health, which provides supporting evidence that religion and spirituality aid in the prediction of physical and mental health (Hill, 2003).

The importance of religious beliefs and spiritual ties are again demonstrated as positive health-influencing variables by providing cognitive and emotional benefits for patients. Patients lean on their religious faith during illness and have reported that their personal faith provided important emotional support (Hill, 2003). In some cases of poor circumstance, this may be all patients have as means of coping. Financial and social support may be unavailable, which is not uncommon in the United States where so many, especially children, do not have med

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