Longitudinal processes among humility, social justice activism, transcendence, and well-being.

Introduction: Existing research shows positive associations between humility and well-being, and between civic engagement and well-being. Rarely have humility, civic engagement, and well-being been examined together. We build off of previous cross-sectional findings and a prior longitudinal study that used three waves of data and found significant positive bivariate correlations between humility and the presence of life purpose across time points. Methods: Extending these previous findings, we used six waves of data obtained from graduate students at 18 seminaries across North America (N = 574; Mage = 31.54; 46.7% female; 65.3% White) to explore the dynamic associations among humility and life purpose, along with horizontal transcendence (an indicator of the attitudinal dimension of civic engagement) and social justice activism (an indicator for the behavioral dimension). We explored reciprocal short-run processes and dynamic long-run effects using a general cross-lagged panel model. Results and discussion: We found robust evidence for a reciprocal influence between the presence of life purpose and horizontal transcendence, and long-run effects for initial levels of life purpose to influence later levels of horizontal transcendence. We also found long-run effects for the influence of initial levels of life purpose on later levels of humility, and initial levels of social justice activism on later levels of horizontal transcendence. Implications center on the use of the findings for planning future one-time life purpose and social justice interventions to affect changes in humility and horizontal transcendence.

A practice-based study of relational virtues and alliance correspondence in psychodynamic psychotherapy.

OBJECTIVE: Treatment outcome monitoring typically emphasizes pathology. In contrast, we responded to the need to establish psychodynamic psychotherapy as evidence-based by modeling changes in gratitude and forgiveness. METHOD: We utilized a practice-based research design involving non-manualized outpatient treatment. We employed a longitudinal mixture modeling approach to evaluate treatment effectiveness. We did so by testing the theorized role for relational virtues (i.e., gratitude, forgiveness) as signs of progress in psychodynamic treatment, with relational virtues referring to the application of character strengths to specific situations. We modeled clients' self-reported level on the virtues as a joint process over five time points, and examined the influence of early treatment alliance correspondence on patterns of change using a sample of outpatient clients (N = 185; Mage = 40.12; 60% female; 74.1% White). RESULTS: A 3-class solution best fit the data, with one class exhibiting growth in gratitude and forgiveness, improved symptoms, and a greater likelihood of symptom improvement relative to well-being gains. Alliance correspondence predicted the classes of change patterns, with greater similarity between clinicians' and clients' perceptions about the alliance predicting greater likelihood of belonging to the subgroup showing highest levels of virtues and well-being, lowest symptoms, and improved well-being. CONCLUSION: Clinical implications involve monitoring gratitude and forgiveness as signs of progress and navigating the dialectic between implicit alliance processes and explicit virtue interventions. The former involves nurturing a strong alliance and repairing ruptures, whereas the latter involves direct in-session conversation and/or the practice of virtue interventions in and/or outside of session.

Virtue, flourishing, and positive psychology in psychotherapy: An overview and research prospectus.

Researchers have increasingly called for the examination of both mental health symptoms and well-being when providing and evaluating psychotherapy, and although symptoms and well-being are typically inversely related, these appear to be distinct constructs that may require distinct intervention strategies. Positive psychology interventions, virtue-based treatments, and psychotherapies explicitly focused on promoting well-being have emerged in response to, or perhaps in concert with, the calls for attention to symptoms and well-being. Our review of the relevant and vast research pockets revealed that these treatments demonstrated relative efficacy in promoting well-being, whereas evidence for relative efficacy when reducing symptoms was largely inconclusive, particularly in psychotherapy contexts. We organized our review around the virtue-ethics notion that growth in virtuousness fosters flourishing, with flourishing consisting of more than the absence of symptoms, and specifically, that flourishing also involves increased well-being. The lack of evidence for relative efficacy among active alternative treatment conditions in promoting flourishing may suggest equal effectiveness, and yet, this also suggests that there are yet-to-be-identified moderators and mechanisms of change and/or insufficient use of research designs and/or statistical procedures that could more clearly test this major tenet of the virtue-ethics tradition. Nevertheless, we know that evidence-based problem-focused psychotherapies are effective at reducing symptoms, and our review showed that positive psychology interventions, virtue-based treatments, and psychotherapies explicitly focused on well-being promote well-being and/or virtue development. We encourage researchers and psychotherapists to continue to integrate symptom reduction and well-being promotion into psychotherapy approaches aimed at fostering client flourishing. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Religiousness and Rape Myth Acceptance: Risk and Protective Effects.

This study addressed the lack of research simultaneously examining multiple dimensions of religiousness when predicting rape myth acceptance, and extended prior findings of a mediating role for right-wing authoritarianism (i.e., uncritical submission to authority and aggressive attitude toward those who do not conform to social norms) in the association between religiousness and prejudice. The sample consisted of 99 undergraduate and graduate students (M age = 31.87 years, 66.7% female, 80.82% White, and 93% Christian affiliated) from a religiously affiliated university in the Midwest United States. As hypothesized, dimensions of religiousness exhibited differential associations with rape myth acceptance. Religious motivation characterized by openness and exploration (i.e., quest religiousness) was a significant negative predictor of rape myth acceptance, directly, and indirectly through right-wing authoritarianism. In contrast, rigid adherence to religious beliefs, assumed to be "right" and absolutely true (i.e., religious fundamentalism), and extrinsically motivated religiousness each exhibited a positive association with rape myth acceptance through right-wing authoritarianism. In addition, internally motivated religiousness and religious fundamentalism each moderated the nonlinear effect for quest predicting rape myth acceptance. Findings suggest that uncritical religious and secular submission to external authorities or uncommitted and nonexploring religiousness may have increased the extent to which persons adhered to rape myths, whereas religious exploration was protective. Practical implications center on the need for socioculturally relevant prevention and intervention efforts with religious identifying college students.

Latent trajectories of change for clients at a psychodynamic training clinic.

OBJECTIVE: Employing practice-based research methods, we addressed the need to examine the effectiveness of psychodynamic treatment as a supplement to the efficacy evidence offered by randomized clinical trials. METHOD: We used person-centered analyses to generate latent subgroups of clients (N = 118; M age = 40.92; 53.4% female; 81.4% Caucasian; 80.5% heterosexual) receiving contemporary relational psychotherapy (CRP) at a psychodynamic community mental health training clinic. RESULTS: Subgroups of clients reported a change in depression, social conflict, and anxiety symptomatology, and overall life satisfaction, depicted by significant quadratic growth curves. Findings also offered exploratory support for a theoretical proposition from CRP that improved relational functioning would correspond to improved affect dysregulation and overall life satisfaction. CONCLUSION: Clinical and training implications highlight the need to distinguish subgroups of "responders" and "nonresponders" to inform treatment.

Humility, Relational Spirituality, and Well-being among Religious Leaders: A Moderated Mediation Model.

Prior research has demonstrated positive associations between general humility and well-being, and posited a protective effect for intellectual humility against maladjustment among religious leaders. We tested a model that extended findings on general humility to include intellectual humility among religious leaders (N = 258; M age = 42.31; 43% female; 63.7% White; 91.9% Christian affiliation). We observed a positive general humility-well-being association. Contrary to expectations, we observed risk effects for religion-specific intellectual humility. Our findings also point to the possibility that these risk effects might be attenuated by the integration of high levels of general and intellectual humility.

Religiousness and Levels of Hazardous Alcohol Use: A Latent Profile Analysis.

Prior person-centered research has consistently identified a subgroup of highly religious participants that uses significantly less alcohol when compared to the other subgroups. The construct of religious motivation is absent from existing examinations of the nuanced combinations of religiousness dimensions within persons, and alcohol expectancy valuations have yet to be included as outcome variables. Variable-centered approaches have found religious motivation and alcohol expectancy valuations to play a protective role against individuals' hazardous alcohol use. The current study examined latent religiousness profiles and hazardous alcohol use in a large, multisite sample of ethnically diverse college students. The sample consisted of 7412 college students aged 18-25 (M age = 19.77, SD age = 1.61; 75% female; 61% European American). Three latent profiles were derived from measures of religious involvement, salience, and religious motivations: Quest-Intrinsic Religiousness (highest levels of salience, involvement, and quest and intrinsic motivations; lowest level of extrinsic motivation), Moderate Religiousness (intermediate levels of salience, involvement, and motivations) and Extrinsic Religiousness (lowest levels of salience, involvement, and quest and intrinsic motivations; highest level of extrinsic motivation). The Quest-Intrinsic Religiousness profile scored significantly lower on hazardous alcohol use, positive expectancy outcomes, positive expectancy valuations, and negative expectancy valuations, and significantly higher on negative expectancy outcomes, compared to the other two profiles. The Extrinsic and Moderate Religiousness profiles did not differ significantly on positive expectancy outcomes, negative expectancy outcomes, negative expectancy valuations, or hazardous alcohol use. The results advance existing research by demonstrating that the protective influence of religiousness on college students' hazardous alcohol use may involve high levels on both quest and intrinsic religious motivation.

Forgiveness in the Treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder: A Quasi-Experimental Study.

OBJECTIVE: This pilot study evaluated a manualized group forgiveness module within dialectical behavior therapy (DBT). METHOD: The study utilized a quasi-experimental double pretest design with adults (N = 40; 88.1% female, 11.9% male) diagnosed with borderline personality disorder in outpatient DBT. Measures of forgiveness, attachment, and psychiatric symptoms were completed at 4 time points. RESULTS: Participants showed increases in all measures of forgiveness and decreases in attachment insecurity and psychiatric symptoms during the forgiveness module and maintained to the 6-week follow-up. These effects were not observed during the prior distress tolerance module. Latent change score modeling showed reductions in anxious attachment mediated the effect of changes in benevolent motivations to forgive and trait forgiveness scores on reductions in psychiatric symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: Effect sizes were similar to meta-analytic findings on (a) forgiveness interventions and (b) reductions in psychiatric symptoms in DBT. Participant feedback suggested elements for further development. A randomized controlled trial is needed.

Religiousness and hazardous alcohol use: a conditional indirect effects model.

The current study examined a conditional indirect effects model of the association between religiousness and adolescents' hazardous alcohol use. In doing so, we responded to the need to include both mediators and moderators, and the need for theoretically informed models when examining religiousness and adolescents' alcohol use. The sample consisted of 383 adolescents, aged 15-18, who completed an online questionnaire. Results of structural equation modeling supported the proposed model. Religiousness was indirectly associated with hazardous alcohol use through both positive alcohol expectancy outcomes and negative alcohol expectancy valuations. Significant moderating effects for alcohol expectancy valuations on the association between alcohol expectancies and alcohol use were also found. The effects for alcohol expectancy valuations confirm valuations as a distinct construct to that of alcohol expectancy outcomes, and offer support for the protective role of internalized religiousness on adolescents' hazardous alcohol use as a function of expectancy valuations.