Past Research
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B
Babler, J. E. (1997). A comparison of spiritual care provided by hospice social workers, nurses, and spiritual care professionals. Hospice Journal, 12 (4), 15-27.
(Babor, T.F., Mendelson, J.H. (1986). Ann NY Acad Sci, 472, 46-59. - see other file)
Bagley, C., & Ramsay, R. (1989). Attitudes toward suicide, religious values, and suicidal behavior. In R.F.W. Diekstra, R. Maris, S. Platt, A. Schmidtke, & G. Sonneck (Eds), Suicide and Its Prevention (pp. 78-90). Leiden: E.J. Brill
Bahnson, CB, Hudson, D., Mallios, R. (1986). Psychosocial predictors of breast cancer. Paper presented at the annual convention of the American Psychosomatic Society, Baltimore MD, March 19-23, 1986. Compared patients with breast cancer vs. those with benign breast tumor. Those with breast cancer found to be more religious than those with benign breast tumor. Based on four item religious commitment scale. (p=.023, 2-way anova). Negative study.
Bahr, H.M., & Harvey, C.D. (1979a). Widowhood and perceptions of change in quality of life: Evidence from the Sunshine Mine Widows. Journal of Comparative Family Studies, 10, 411-428. (44 of 91 young widows of miners who died in a fire in Idaho; the mean age 37; church membership (63 percent versus 29 percent), attendance (64 percent versus 25 percent), and higher self-rated religiousness (77 percent of those who considered themselves very religious) was related to great stability of quality of life (better adjustment) over the previous 5 years; when other factors were controlled in a step wise multiple regression analysis (N = 39) revealed that religiosity independently predicted greater adjustment (p<.01)
Bahr, H.M., & Harvey, C.D. (1979b). Correlates of loneliness among widows bereaved in a mining disaster. Psychological Reports, 44, 367-385. (in 1972, fire at Sunshine Mine of Kellogg, Idaho, trapping 174 minters underground; 91 perished and 83 escaped; 6 months after fire, interviewed widows of victims who would consent; all widows and survivor's wives were potential interviewees; 41/66 victims' wives who had not moved away were interviewed (3 additional interviews were sent and returned by mail to widows who had moved away); 48/62 survivor's widows who had not moved away were interviewed; thus, 92 survivors and widows of miners in fire, compared with 128 wives of miners not in the fire from that area; church affiliation, attendance, religious salience, change in importance of religion since fire, and participation in church social events; loneliness measured by 2-item measure; among widows who did not belong to a church or attended church infrequently, 94% felt lonely (vs 67% who did belong to a church, p<.05) and 41% felt under-involved in community life (vs 30% of church belongers, ns); no relationship for survivors wives or other miners' wives; and no association for importance of religion since disaster, participation in church social events, or religious importance; among survivor's wives did not participate in church social events 22% were lonely compared to 70% of those who did participate (opposite of expected); thus, only among bereaved population was church activity associated with less loneliness, presumably because church helps bereaved deal with their loss) (uncontrolled associations)
Bahr, H.M., & Martin, T.K. (1983). "And thy neighbor as thyself": Self-esteem and faith in people as correlates of religiosity and family solidarity among Middletown high school students. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 22, 132-144. (C/S survey of randomly selected high school students (n=1,673) but actual N for analysis only 500 do to "alternate forms of the instrument" (Middletown, a midwestern town); examined religiosity (church attendance, religious preference, and evangelicalism (positive response to "Christianity is the one true religion") and self-esteem (Rosenberg); little relationship was found between (although both church attendance and evangelicism were positively related to self esteem (.08 and .09), and church attendance was significantly related to faith in people (.21, p<.05); also, both church attendance and evangelicalism were significantly related to family solidarity; multivariate modeling showed no relationship with self-esteem for either church attendance or evangelicalism, but a significant positive relationship between church attendance and faith in people (p<.01) (though a significant negative relationship was found between evangelicalism and faith in people)) (negative)
Bahr, H. M., & Chadwick, B.A. (1988). Religion and family in Middletown, U.S.A. In Darwin TL (editor), The Religion and Family Connection: Social Science Perspectives. Provo, UT: Brigham Young University. (Cross-sectional survey of 698 currently married adults in Middletown, Indiana (sampling method unknown) . Examined relationship between religious affiliation and religious attendance, and marital satisfaction (very satisfied, satisfied, neutral, dissatisfied are very dissatisfied). Affiliated subjects were more likely to be satisfied than unaffiliated persons (p<.05), and frequent attenders (at least monthly) were significantly more likely to be very satisfied with their marriages (p<.01).
*[Baider, L., & Sarell, M. (1983). Perceptions and causal attributions of Israeli women with breast cancer concerning their illness: The effects of ethnicity and religiosity. Psychology and Psychosomatics , 39, 136-143.]
Baider L, Russak, S. M., Perry S, Kash, K. M., Gronert, MK, Fox B, Holland, JC, Kaplan-Denour A. (1999). The role of religious and spiritual beliefs in coping with malignant melanoma: an Israeli sample. Psycho-oncology, 8,27-35. (Cross-sectional survey of 100 malignant melanoma patients (stages 1 and 2, A and B) in Israel. Subjects administered the Systems on Belief Inventory (SBI-54), as well as other measures of coping, psychological stress, and social support. Investigators found a significant correlation between SBI scores and an active cognitive coping style (r=.48, p<.01).
Bailey, W. T., & Stein, L. B. (1995). Jewish affiliation in relation to suicide rates. Psychological Reports, 76(2), 561-562.
Bainbridge, W., & Stark, R. (1982). Suicide, homicide, and religion. Annual Review of the Social Sciences of Religion, 5, 33-56.
Bainbridge, W. S. (1989). The religious ecology of deviance. American Sociological Review, 54, 288-295.
*[Baines, E. (1984). Caregiver stress in the older adult. Journal of Community Health Nursing, 1, 257-263.] (prayer was identified by 74% of caregivers as their primary coping method)
Baker, M., & Gorsuch, R. (1982). Trait anxiety and intrinsic-extrinsic religiousness. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 21, 119-122. (C/S survey of 52 participants in a religious wilderness camping organization in Southern California; Allport's I-E scale; correlated with IPAT Anxiety scale and its subscales (ego weakness, lack of self-sentiment development, paranoia, guilt proneness, frustration tension) and State-Trait Anxiety Inventory; IR was inversely related to total trait anxiety (r=-.33, p<.05, lack of self sentiment (-.27, p<.05), ego weakness (-.43, p<.01), paranoid-type insecurity (-.39, p<.01); ER, on the other hand, was positively related to trait anxiety (.35, p<.01), lack of self sentiment (.28, p<.05), ego weakness (.31, p<.05), and paranoia (.27, p<.05); no relationship found between either IR or ER and state anxiety; no control variables)
Baldree, K.S., Murphy, S.P., & Powers, M.J. (1982). Stress identification and coping patterns in patients on hemodialysis. Nursing Research, 31, 107-112. (C/S survey of volunteer sample of 35 patients on hemodialysis for at least 6 months, ages 21 to 60 (Chicago, IL); prayer was third most common coping method among a list of 40 possible coping behaviors from Jalowiec & Powers 1981 coping scale)
Bales, R.F. (1944). The therapeutic role of alcoholics anonymous as seen by a sociologist. Quarterly Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 5, 267-278. (opinion piece) (other file)
Ball, R.A., & Clare, A.W. (1990). Symptoms and social adjustment in Jewish depressives. British Journal of Psychiatry, 156, 379-383. (C/S survey of a sample of 25 Jewish and 26 non-Jewish patients consecutively referred to the psychiatric services of a north-east London hospital; new patient referrals or old patients who had relapsed after 3 months of symptom free; equal numbers of inpts, outpts, day pts in two groups; Jewish patients were required to give this as their religion on registration and have two Jewish parents; immigrants and persons under age 45 were excluded; all patients fulfilled RDC criteria for major depression, although patients with serious concurrent medical conditions were excluded as were those with a history of other psychiatric illness or substance abuse; religiousness was assessed with the Ferdinando (1973) Religiousness Scale (RS) (score of religious behavior devised for assessment of the East-End Jewish community in London, and includes synagogue attendance, observation of feasts and dietary regulations, and travelling on the sabbath); religious behaviors of Christians was assessed by frequency of church attendance; symptoms profiles were extracted from the PSE, Social Maladjustment Scale (SMS) was administered, as was the Hamilton Rating Scale (HDRS); in comparing Jews with non-Jews, found Jews had more hypochondriasis (80% Jews vs 30% non-Jews, p<.001), tension (92% Jews vs 58% non-Jews, p=.025), agitation (24% Jews vs 4% non-Jews, p=.06), and self-neglect (Jews 20% vs 4% non-Jews, p=ns), but less guilt (48% Jews vs 92% non-Jews, p=.005) and obsessive neurosis (12% Jews vs 35% non-Jews, p=ns); no differences on social maladjustment; no correlation between scores on RS and either SMS or HDRS) (no controls)
Ball, R.A., & Goodyear, R.K. (1991). Self-reported professional practices of Christian psychotherapists. Journal of Psychology and Christianity, 10, 144-153. (C/S surveys; two studies reported: (1) mailed survey to persons on national membership list of Christian Association for Psychological Studies (CAPS), where 174/303 questionnaires returned (83% men, mean age 45, 77% PhD's); (2) 30/89 CAPS members in Southern California were interviewed (63% male, mean age 47); Study 1 results indicated that respondents viewed Christian counseling as uniquely different from secular counseling in 14 different ways (386 differences placed in 14 categories): prayer, teaching about theological issues, direct reference to Scripture, relaxation techniques guided by Biblical images, direct reference to spiritual concepts, forgiveness and confession, self-disclosure of own spirituality by therapist, homework with spiritual journaling, use of Christian community (pastor), etc. (in order of frequency); Study 2 results indicated 121 interventions grouped into 15 categories: prayer, use of Christian community outside of therapy hour, confrontation /challenge, self-disclosure of own spirituality by therapist, forgiveness and confession, etc.)
Ballard, A., Green, T., McCaa, A, & Logsdon, C. (1997). A comparison of the level of hope in patients with newly diagnosed and recurrent cancer. Oncology Nursing Forum, 24, 899-904. (Cross-sectional survey of a convenience sample of 20 newly diagnosed patients with cancer and 18 patients with recurrent cancer (mean age 56). The majority of participants were white, female, were married and had a high school education; came from oncology practices in 2 urban areas in the southern United States. Purpose of the study was to compare levels of hope in patients with newly diagnosed in recurrent cancer. Patients with recurrent cancer tended to emphasize their religious faith as a source of hope (11/18) (61%), whereas newly diagnosed patients reported drawing hope from health care professionals (13/20) rather than faith (6/20)(30%). Among the examples given by authors of responses to the open-ended question "What gives you the most hope at the present time?", 3 out of 12 involve a statement about religion.
Balk, D.E. (1991). Sibling death, adolescent bereavement, and religion. Death Studies, 15, 1-20. (C/S survey of a convenience sample of 42 adolescents, ages 14-19, middle-upper income midwestern families, most from urban environments (Chicago, St. Louis, Indianapolis), all white, 60% female, 52% Protestant and 42% Catholic; sibling deaths occurred average of 2 years prior to interview; religion measured by importance of religion, value of religion as mans of coping with death, and difficulties believing in religion; immediately after death of sibling, religious subjects (vs. non-religious) had more trouble eating (39% vs. 21%), more confusion (91% vs. 79%), more thoughts of suicide (48% vs. 16%), and more likely to feel that feels would endure forever (61% vs 47%); at the time of the interview, religious subjects had more trouble sleeping (43% vs 21%, but were less likely to be experiencing, depression (43% vs 53%), and thoughts of suicide (17% vs 32%); statistically compared as a group only - not individually, and not controlled; concluded that both religious and non-religious adolescents had a difficult time coping with death of their sibling)
Banks, R.L., Poehler, D.L., & Russell. (1984). Spirit and human-spiritual interaction as a factor in health and in health education. Health Education, August/September, 16-19. (assessed the spiritual dimension of health or the concept of human-spirit interactions; discusses three studies -- highly subjective; none of most important issues related in either of the three studies had anything to do with God, but rather caring and ethnics and diversity -- highly liberal notions of spirituality)
Bankston, W.B., Allen, H.D., & Cunningham, D.S. (1983). Religion and suicide: A research note on sociology's "one law." Social Forces, 62, 521-528. (incidence of suicide in each of 64 parishes between 1967-1979 examined from annual reports of Louisiana State Department of Health; mean rates of suicide were calculated for individual parishes during the 13 year period; examined "percent parish population Catholic" plus four control variables (race, SES, urbanization, living alone); looked at effect of percent Catholic on suicide rate; presence of Catholics does not reduce the rate of suicide, and when Catholic populations are not located within traditionally Catholic culture, their presence is associated with a greater risk of suicide; they erroneously conclude, however, that "it is not so much the structure and/or content of the religious belief system which connects religion and suicide, but the integration of that system and its carriers in a broader institutional context" (p 524); Catholic "affiliation" says very little about the structure or content of faith, given the huge number of nominal Catholics)
Barak, Y., & Achiron, A period (1998). Age related disorders in the Bible. Aging & Mental Health, 2, 275-278. A computer assisted search of the Old Testament using elders, aging, ancient, gray, old age and old was carried out, with specific reference to the Jewish faith. The elderly have a special place in biblical society. Age-related disorders were recognized in the Bible, and humane and social interventions suggested. Also provides some interesting history.
Barbarin, O.A., & Chesler, M. (1986). The medical context of parental coping with childhood cancer. American Journal of Community Psychology , 14, 221-235. (C/S survey of a convenience sample of 74 parents of surviving children with cancer (white) from Michigan; graduate students audiotaped interviews, typed, and coded by several raters; coded open-ended questions about coping with regard to reliance on religious beliefs/faith for support and understanding of illness (0-10 scale); religious coping unrelated to medically-related stress, quality of relationship with medical staff, number of hospitalizations, or coping effectiveness); however, among significant correlations, found "acceptance" inversely related to hospitalizations and positively related to parent-staff relations, problem solving and education inversely related to parent-staff relations, and denial positively related to coping effectiveness (somewhat unusual pattern of results) (negative study)
Barnard (1983). Religion and religious studies... J Allied Health , August, 192-195 - in other file
Barnard, D., Dayringer, R., & Cassel, C.K. (1995). Toward a person-centered medicine: Religious studies in the medical curriculum. Academic Medicine, 70, 806-813. (outlines 3 reasons for including religion in medical curriculum: (1) religion as a source of meaning, (2) religion as a source and framework for values, and (3) religion as an outstanding context for the appreciation of human diversity; can foster the student's respect for the individuality of the patient in his/her cultural context; heighten student's awareness of the patient's faith as resources for coping with illness, suffering, and death; emphasizes patient-centered medicine that emphasizes the person rather than the disease; discuss strengths and limitations of different methods for teaching religious studies in the medical curriculum and provides resources to this end; discusses curriculum goals and objectives, including knowledge, skills, and attitudes; notes that a 1992 survey of all medical schools in U.S. found that 13 had required curriculum in religious studies; 24 others included religious studies in another course, usually medical ethics)
Barnes, B.A., Treiber, F.A., Turner, J. R., Davis, H., & Strong, WB (1999). Acute effects of transcendental meditation on he Moe dynamic functioning in middle aged adults. Psychosomatic Medicine, 61,525-531 (study of 32 healthy adults divided into the TM group and a control group; transcendental meditation reduce systolic blood pressure and total peripheral resistance compared to control groups. Concluded that total peripheral resistance decreases significantly during TM, and this may help to explain the effects that TM has on blood pressure)
Barns, M., Doyle, D., & Johnson, B. (1989). The formulation of a Fowler scale: An empirical assessment among Catholics. Review of Religious Research, 30, 412-420. (does not examine health outcomes; survey of 277 members of the College Theology Society (a largely Catholic group of college teachers of theology or religious studies) and members of a Catholic parish (n=301); found that higher faith stages correlated with decrease in traditional religiosity, as measured by belief in afterlife, authority of church, founding of church, miracles of Jesus, Jesus' self-identity, divinity of Christ, resurrection of Christ, interpretation of Eucharist, and belief in God)
Barraclough, B., Bunch, J., Nelson, B., & Sainsbury, P. (1974). A hundred cases of suicide: Clinical aspects. British Journal of Psychiatry, 125, 355-73.
Barrett, M.E., Simpson, D.D., & Lehman, W.E.K. (1988). Behavioral changes of adolescents in drug abuse intervention programs. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 44, 461-473. (prospective cohort study of 326 new Mexican-American clients (47% of total new clients) entering counseling services in 8 community-based substance abuse programs in Texas (72% male, 75% ages 13-16, 56% living with both parents); religious involvement measured by attendance at services; outcome was problem behaviors exhibited during the first 3 months of involvement in the program; LISREL was used to develop a causal model of predictors of problem behavior during program; religious involvement at program entry was significantly and inversely related to problem behavior during program) (beta -.10, p<.05)) (improved outcomes)
Barron, M.L. (1958). The role of religion and religious institutions in creating the milieu of older people. In Organized Religion and the Older Person, A report produced by the University of Florida Institute of Gerontology on the Eighth Annual Southern conference on Gerontology at University of Florida, April 10-11. ("The over-all picture that research provides is that religion plays a smaller part in the lives of older people than one would assume; in the first nation-wide survey of urban aged (1952-1953), a sample of 1,206 predominantly male respondents age 60 or over; revealed that the Bible is a relatively insignificant part of the reading material of these older urban Americans: of the 1,021 responses to the question, "What is it that you usually read?, only 206 respondents indicated the Bible; only 16% of the sample were members of "church clubs" (2nd most common club or organization); when asked about church attendance, only 306 indicated every Sunday or Sabbath and 221 indicated "most Sundays or Sabbaths" (regular church goers, though, made up 527 or over 50% of sample!) (no connections with health examined) [negative] (not quantitative)
Barrow, J.G., Quinlan, C.B., Cooper, G.R., Whitner, V.S., & Goodloe M.H.R. (1960). Studies in atherosclerosis. III. An epidemiologic study of atherosclerosis in Trappist and Benedictine monks: A preliminary report. Annals of Internal Medicine, 42, 368-377. (studied two religious communities, a Trappist (n=80) and Benedictine monastery (n=70); Trappist community known for lacto-ovo-vegetarian died with low fat content; Benedictine control group, since their habits are largely identical to Trappist monks, except for diet; on average Trappists derive 26% of diet calories from fat and Benedictine's derive 45% from fat; results show that Trappists have significantly lower average serum cholesterol (205 mg%) than Benedictine's (236 mg%); furthermore, free cholesterol, esterified fatty acids, phospholipids, total lipids, and cholesterol beta fraction for the Trappist community are all significantly lower than for the Benedictines); concluded that most serum lipids vary on the basis of age and dietary fat intake)
Barry, R. (1997). The biblical teachings on suicide. A response to Margaret Pabst Battin, Can suicide be rational? Yes, sometimes. Issues in Law and Medicine, 13(3), 283-299. Claims suicide is unacceptable in the Bible, with one exception - the principle of self-sacrifice to God. Ms. Battin, on the other hand, had asserted that the 10 Commandments only prohibits murder, not suicide. Examples of pleas to God for suicide which were denied: Moses (Numbers 11), Elijah (1 Kings 19), Jonah (Jonah 4), Job, Sarah (Judges 16). The author also indicates that there are several condemned suicides in the Bible. When Saul commits suicide (1 Samuel 37), his memory is mocked, his remains burned, and those who buried him fasted for seven days as in penance for a sin. "The Scriptures do not explicitly and formally declare suicide to be against the Law of God, but they do portray those who deliberately killed themselves without his authority to be alienated from the life and holiness of God." (p.290). Abimelech (Judges 9), Zimri (1 Kings 16), Ahitophel (2 Samuel chaps. 16 & 17) also were seen as committing suicides and being condemned, as if a fitting punishment for their sins. Judas Iscariot of the New Testament was reduced to shame in church, town, and country; his suicide is also described as a fitting punishment in the Gospel of Luke. The author cites Paul's interactions with the jailer (Acts 16) as evidence of the New Testament's denouncing of suicide as Paul called for faith in place of despair. The exceptions cited are Samson (Judges 13) and Razis (2 Macabees 14) who committed acts of martyrdom.
Bartrop, R.w., Lazarus, L., Luckhurst, E., Kiloh, L.G., & Penny, R. (1977). Depressed lymphocyte function after bereavement. Lancet, April 16, 834-836. (immune) (26 bereaved spouses were assessed in a prospective study of severe stress on immune function (ages 20-65); compared to 26 hospital staff members matched for age, sex, and race; T and B cell numbers and function were studied 2 weeks and 6 weeks after bereavement; response to phytohaemagglutinin was significantly depressed in the bereaved group at 6 weeks, as was response to concanavalin A; there were no differences in T and B cell numbers, other indicators of immune functioning, or hormone levels between bereaved group and controls; first time that severe stress shown to cause change in immunity in the absence of changes in hormones)
Bascue, L.O., Inman, D.J., & Kahn, W.J. (1982). Recognition of suicidal lethality factors by psychiatric nursing assistants. Psychological Reports, 51, 197-198. (C/S survey of 49 psychiatric nursing assistants at VA Medical Center in Pennsylvania; ages 25-40, 59% women, 59% Black, 47% single, 47% Protestant, and 84% at least somewhat religious; ability to predict suicide measured by 13-item Lethality Scale; results indicated that those who considered themselves more religious were more likely to consider grief and mourning rituals important, to believe suicide should be prevented, and to believe psychological factors could influence death; the mean suicide lethality score was 5.44, which was lower than physicians (9.37), psychiatrists (9.03), psychologists (7.53), social workers (6.23), and counselors (5.87), but was higher than college students (5.23) or ministers (5.33))
Bateman, M.M., & Jensen, J.S. (1958). The effect of religious background on modes of handling anger. Journal of Social Psychology, 47, 133-141. In 1954, 51 Protestant students (23M, 28F) in a psychology college course at Wayne State University were given a questionnaire that measured the duration and quality of the subjects' religious teachings. Rosenzweig's Picture-Frustration Test (P-F, 1947) was administered to assess the subjects' ways of dealing with anger. "The students with the greatest religious exposure tended to turn less aggression on the environment...and more upon themselves; while those with the least religious exposure showed the opposite responses." (p. 137). However, none of the results were significant. In a second study in 1955, the questionnaire was modified so that the subject (n=33, all male) also indicated the beliefs of his mother and father individually. As predicted, the level of aggression a subject turned on the environment was inversely proportional to religious background, and the level of aggression a subject turned inward was directly related to the level of religious background (p<.05). There were no significant findings regarding present beliefs and ways of coping with anger.
Batson, C.D. (1976). Religion as prosocial: Agent or double agent? Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 15 (1), 29-45. (examines why many studies show that religion is unrelated to humanitarianism and positively related to prejudice and intolerance, and that being religious "in the right way" may be what is missing from these analyses; examines religious orientation and prejudice in 42 Princeton Theological Seminary students; extrinsic religiosity correlated uniformly with prejudice against Blacks, Jewish, others; intrinsic religiosity negatively correlated uniformly with above; religious orientation and helping behavior examined in 40 Princeton Theological Seminary students, by experimentally confronting them with a situation in which one option was helping a victim in distress; again extrinsics much less likely than intrinsics to offer help)
Batson, C.D., Naifeh, S.J., & Pate, S. (1978). Social desirability, religious orientation, and racial prejudice. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 17, 31-41. (C/S survey of 51 psychology students expressing an interest in religion (University of Kansas at Lawrence); subjects completed 6 religious orientation scales (Allport & Ross' Intrinsic (IR) and Extrinsic scales (ER), Batson's External (BE), Internal (BI), Interactional (B-interact), and Doctrinal Orthodoxy scales (B-DO)); racial prejudice measured by Anti-Negro Scale (ANS) (Allport & Ross) and social desirability by Marlow-Crowne Social Desirability Scale; finally, a combined prejudice index, where social desirability both "psychometrically" (prejudice attitudes) and "behaviorally" (prejudice behaviors) controlled; ER positively correlated with ANS (.17, ns); IR, BE, BI, and B-DO all inversely correlated with ANS (-.36, p<.01; -.36, p<.01; -.35, p<.05; -.30, p<.05); IR positively correlated with social desirability (SD) (.36, p<.01), as was BI (.35, p<.05) and B-DO (.50, p<.001); prejudice index controlled for SD (psychometric controlled) was inversely correlated with IR, BE, and BI (-.30, p<.05; -.33, p<.05; and -.29, p<.05); no correlations with behavioral control were significant; of course, when combining both psychometric and behavioral controls, only Batson's Quest scale and Interactional Scale were significantly inversely correlated with prejudice (-.37 and -.32); he concluded that "Rather than concluding that IR rules out enmity, contempt, and bigotry, it seems at least as plausible to conclude that IR relates to desire to present oneself as more righteous than one actually is." (p 38)
Batson, C.D., & Gray, R.A. (1981). Religious orientation and helping behavior: Responding to one's own or to the victim's needs? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 40, 511-520. (experimental situation involving 60 female undergraduates at University of Kansas, who were confronted with another female undergraduate who was lonely; 15 student assigned to each of four experimental conditions (victim wanted vs did not want help x high vs low social appropriateness); students received notes from Janet who expressed her loneliness and desire to have someone be her friend; a very dramatic plea for help was provided in one letter (help wanted condition), whereas another letter gave the same plea for help, but concluded with a short paragraph saying she wanted to deal with the problem on her own (help not wanted condition); persons scoring higher on IR showed as much desire to help the student whether she wanted help or didn't want help (as indicated by the half-hearted withdrawal of desire for help in the second letter); concluded that IR persons is primarily a response to an internal need to be helpful which is not responsive to the needs of the other person)
Batson, C.D., & Ventis, W.L. (1982). The Religious Experience . NY, NY: Oxford University Press.
Batson, C.D., Oleson, K.C., Weeks, J.L., Healy, S., Reeves, P.J., Jennings, P., & Brown, T. (1989). Religious prosocial motivation: Is it altruistic or egoistic? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , 57, 873-884. (two clinical trials: (1) 46 introductory psychology students at U of T at Austin; students randomly signed to easy and difficult qualifying-standard conditions; experiment involved exposing students to a situation where they were given the opportunity to volunteer to help a young boy in need, but told that it would be either difficult to quality (told that 15% of young persons qualify) or easy to qualify (60% of persons would qualify) to help the boy; religious orientation measures were obtained after the experiment, including Batson's orthodoxy, interactional, internal, external scales, and Allport & Ross' IE scale; since IR was significantly related to helping only in the "difficult" qualifying-standard condition, concluded that motivation was "egoistic" - i.e., IR was associated with prosocial motivation only in the condition where the likelihood of actually having to help was low, and that IR associated with an egoistic desire to reap the self-benefits of appearing helpful without having to follow through; IR was significantly related to performance on qualifying task only in the non-helpers (n=8), not the helpers (n=14), confirming that helping was egoistic; (2) second study involved 60 female introductory psychology students at Univ of Kansas; exposed to a situation where they read a letter from "Katie" who needed help in the difficult situation; asked if wanted to help Katie and how many hours wanted to volunteer; experimentally produced high pressure to help (where students given impression that most persons were helping Katie) and low pressure (students given impression that few persons were helping) conditions; IR was positively related to helping in both high and low pressure situations, but neither reached statistical significance; findings suggested that student's high on Batson's quest scale were more truly motivated to help) (experimental situations highly contrived)
Batson, C.D., & Flory, J.D. (1990). Goal-relevant cognitions associated with helping by individuals high on intrinsic, end religion. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 29, 346-360 (experiment involving 38 female introductory psychology students at Univ of Kansas, all reporting at least a moderate interest in religion; like usual, assessed on Allport & Ross' IE scales and Batson's External, Internal, Interactional, and Orthodoxy scales; complicated experimental design; there were only weak correlations between amount of help offered Katie and score on the religious orientation measures; helping by subjects high on IR was correlated positively with color-naming latency for reward-relevant words, indicating that seeking social and self-rewards was the goal of helping (i.e., egoistic helping) -- again confirming the author's contention that IR is associated with motivation to meet the helper's own need to be helpful rather than to meet the victim's need)
Batson, C.D., Schoenrade, P., & Ventis, W.L. (1993). Religion and the Individual: A Social-Psychological Perspective. NY: Oxford University Press.
Bauer, T., & Barror, C.R. (1995). Nursing interventions for spiritual care: Preferences of the community-based elderly. Journal of Holistic Nursing, 13(3), 268-279. Convenience sample of 50 adults (age 60 yrs. and older) living in four retirement communities and private residences volunteered to participate (Nebraska area). Measures were: Nursing Intervention for Spiritual Care Inventory (NISCI), Index of Core Spiritual Experience-Revised (INSPIRIT-R), Spiritual Perspective Scale (SPS), and Self Transcendence Scale (STS). NISCI measures extent to which each item is perceived as an important service for nurses to provide in meeting spiritual needs of patients. INSPIRIT-R measures spiritual experiences related to a belief in a Higher Power or Force and feelings of connectedness with that Higher Power or Force. SPS measures frequency of practicing spiritual behaviors and the extent to which spiritual beliefs are endorsed. STS elicits information regarding developmental abilities and events of later life associated with self-transcendence. Age range was 61-98, all Caucasian, 68% Female, 91% Protestant, and 84% reported "fair" or better health. Pearson product-moment correlation coefficients among the INSPIRIT-R, SPS, and STS indicated that the INSPIRIT-R was positively correlated with the SPS (r=.80) and the STS (.40). Moreover, the SPS also was correlated with the STS (.45). All correlations were positive and met a significance level of p< .01. Rank orders 1-30 spiritual-care interventions of NISCI scale. #1 was: shows a caring and respectful attitude towards me, #2: respects my religious beliefs, #3: helps me feel hopeful, #4: listens to me when I want to talk, #5: treats my religious articles and rituals with respect. Bottom 5 were: #26 encourages me to explore my thoughts about spiritual issues, #27 offers to pray with me, #28 asks me about relationship with God or greater power, #29 asks me about my image of God or greater power, #30 helps me explore the meaning or purpose in my life. These results were similar when sample was split by belief in Higher Power having high prominence in their life vs. low prominence.
Bay, M.J. (1997). Healing partners: the oncology nurse and the parish nurse. Seminars in Oncology Nursing, 13, 275-278. (about parish nursing)
Bazzoui, W. (1970). Affective disorders in Iraq. British Journal of Psychiatry, 117, 195-203. (all patients (n=98) with affective disorders (40 cases of mania and 58 cases of depression) admitted to psychiatric hospital during 1 yr; simply record religion: 90 Muslim, 6 Christians, 2 Jewish; too small N's for Christian and Jewish for comparison)
Bear, D.M., & Fedio, P. (1977). Quantitative analysis of interictal behavior in temporal lobe epilepsy. Archives of Neurology, 34, 454-467. (case-control study of four groups totaling 48 subjects; 27 patients with TLE (15 right TLE, 12 left TLE) "chosen" from five general epilepsy clinics; 12 normal adults comparable in age, education, geographical distribution, and SES (employees of NIH and state agency); 9 patients with neuromuscular disorders at NIH; important differences between groups: normals completed more schooling (better educated) than patient groups (p<.05); 18-behavioral trait Bear-Fedio Personal Behavior Inventory completed by subjects (included religiosity -- as defined below (Bear et al 1982) -- as well as philosophical interests and hypermoralism); also subjects rated "objectively" along same dimensions by "a long-time observer" of subjects; among self-ratings, epileptic patients significantly greater religiosity than non-epileptics (p<.001) (but no L vs R TLE differences); among observer-ratings, epileptics patients significantly greater religiosity than non-epileptics (p<.01) (but no L vs R TLE differences); note, however, that one-third of TLE group (n=9) had a history of psychiatric hospitalization for thought disorder or affective disorder, whereas none of the control or contrast subjects had any psychiatric history; also cannot rule out that TLE's more likely to gravitate toward religion due to other character traits, like obsessionalism, emotionality, or hypermoralism)
Bear, D., Schenk, L. & Benson, H. (1981). Increased autonomic responses to neutral and emotional stimuli in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy. American Journal of Psychiatry, 138, 843-845 (CS 5 patients with TLE (3 with past psych hx); compared to 7 controls (students/hospital employees); TLE had signif greater palmar conductance responses to emotionally charged stimuli, consistent with increased emotional responsivity) (no religion)
Bear, D., Levin, K., Blumer, D., Chetham, D., & Ryder, J. (1982). Interictal behavior in hospitalized temporal lobe epileptics: Relationship to idiopathic psychiatric syndromes. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry, 45, 481-488. (case-control study; research assistants randomly selected an encoded diagnoses for subjects in the study from patients receiving EEGs at McLean Psychiatric Hospital; all subjects ages 15-69; 10 subjects in each of five groups assembled: 10 patients with TLE (this group had an average of 1.5 prior psychiatric admissions, 6 men and four women, ave age 29); 10 other epileptics (ave 1.2 prior psychiatric hospitalizations, 5 men and 5 women, ave age 27); 10 schizophrenics with normal EEGs (5 patients paranoid, average 1.3 prior psych hosp, six men and four women, ave age 26); 10 primary affective disorders, primarily bipolar type (5 in manic phase, 5 in depressed phase, ave 1.5 prior hosps, 5 men and 5 women, ave age 26); and 10 aggressive character disorders (5 borderlines, 2 schizoid, 2 antisocial; ave 1.1 prior psych, six men and four women, ave age 23 (younger); subjects underwent structured interview by two psychiatric interviewers un aware of subject's assigned group; rated patients on 14 general groups of character traits; religiosity defined as "Holding deep religious beliefs, often idiosyncratic; multiple conversions, cosmic consciousness"; found that TLE were higher on 13/14 character traits than 30 psychiatric patient groups, including religiosity; TLE significantly more religious than character-disordered group (p<.001) (not surprising) or affective disorder group (p<.05), but not schizophrenics; TLE also significantly more religious than other seizures group (p<.05))
Bearon, L.B., & Koenig, H.G. (1990). Religious cognitions and use of prayer in health and illness. The Gerontologist, 30, 249-253. (C/S survey of a convenience sample of 40 members of the Duke Aging Center subject registry in Durham, NC (50% female, 53% Black; 100% Protestant); subjects asked about the causes for illness and about 25 symptoms and if they had prayed about the symptom last time they had it; 26% agreed that sickness was a test of faith, 15% believed illness sent as punishment for sin, 33% believed illness is punishment for disobedience; 90% reported at least one symptom (average 3); 53% indicated they had prayed for the symptom; low education and Baptist affiliation were correlated with praying for a symptom; symptoms were more likely to be prayed for it they were discussed with a physician or if medication was taken for the symptom) ???
Beck, S.H., Cole, B.S., & Hammond, J.A. (1991). Religious heritage and premarital sex: Evidence from a national sample of young adults. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 30, 173-180. (prospective cohort study involving National Longitudinal Surveys of Youth, a stratified, multistage area probability sample of persons aged 14-22 in 1979, who were surveyed again in 1983; overall results for white females indicated that fundamentalist background significantly reduced the likelihood of premarital sex, but not for "teenage premarital sex" (N for analyses not given); for Black females, Baptists had higher rates of premarital sex compared to Mainline Protestants (N for analyses was not given); for both white non-hispanic males and females, "institutionalized sect" (Pentecostals, Jehovah Witnesses, Mormons) was associated with less premarital sex, independent of controls; for Black males, there was no significant differences across affiliation groups. For the white, non-hispanic teen virgin sub-sample (1103 females, 969 males), Baptist, fundamentalist, or institutional sect membership were significantly predictive among either males or females or both, for not having premarital sex; frequency of church attendance was significantly inversely related to premarital sex in both males and females, an association that persisted at (p<.01) after other variables were controlled (including denomination, age, whether married before or after age 20, area of country, rural vs. urban, education of parents, whether both parents in home)
Becker, U., Bohme, K., Breitmaier, J., Drisch, D., Schaefer, D., Kulessa, C., & Wahl, P. (1987). Self-poisoning in Heidelberg, 1974-1980. Crisis, 8(2), 103-111. (Protestants over-represented among suicide attempts and completed)
Beckman, L.J., & Houser, B.B. (1982). The consequences of childlessness on the social-psychological well-being of older women. Journal of Gerontology, 37, 243-250. (C/S survey of 719 white Los Angeles County women ages 60-75 systematically sampled using a complex design (56% response); half were widows and half currently married and living with spouse; sample stratified so that half of women were currently childless and half had living children; PGC Morale scale, Zung SDS Depression, Dean Social Isolation Scale, and a social contact measure that included strength of support network, number of confidants, total quantity of social interaction, and satisfaction with quality of social contact; religiosity measured by a single item of how religious the woman considered herself to be, rated on 5-point scale); age, education, SES, income, religion, siblings, fertility status, and employment status also measured; using multiple regression, found that among childless widowed (n=114) and among parent widowed (n=138), religiosity was significantly related to well-being (beta .27, p<.01, and beta .22, p<.05); religiosity and quality of social interaction were the two strongest predictors of well-being in these two groups; religiosity unrelated to well-being in childless married or parent married)
(?) Beecher, H.K. (1961). Surgery as a placebo. JAMA, 176, 1102 (shows the power of faith, as exemplified by the results of surgery for anginal pain; one group involved ligation of the internal mammary artery on the theory that this would improve circulation to the heart; the operation resulted in 60-90% disappearance of pain, enhancement of quality of life, and improved cardiac function on exertion by EKG; a mock operation, in which skin was simply incised and artery was not touched, produced identical results; similar results for coronary artery bypass surgery - see Frank 1975)
Beeghley, L., Bock, E.W., & Cochran, J.K. (1990). Religious change and alcohol use: An application of reference group and socialization theory. Sociological Forum, 5, 261-278. (C/S survey using pooled data from 1972-1985 GSS (probability sample of adults aged 18 or older); alcohol use assessed as "abstainer", "user", and "misuser" (Do you sometimes drink more than you think you should?); religiosity measured by five variables: attendance (0-8) and three dichotomous variables (strength of religious identification, membership in church organizations, belief in life after death, and religious affiliation (current and at age 16) divided into proscriptive - Baptists, fundamentalists, evangelicals, and pentecostals - and nonproscriptive (Catholics, mainline Protestants, Jews) groups; results indicated that "abstainers" were most common among "non-changing" prospectives (45.6%) compared to nonchanging nonproscriptive (16.6%) (p<.001); religious attendance was most strongly correlated with alcohol use among proscriptive non-changers (-.41) and weakest among nonproscriptive non-changers (-.17); same pattern seen for strength of identification (-.35 vs -.18), organizational member -.27 vs -.12), and life after death (-.13 and -.01); after controlling for sociodemographic variables, partial correlations between religiosity and alcohol use still strongest among proscriptive nonchanger (attendance -.15 and strength of identification -.08, both p<.05); among all groups, though, the probability of abstaining is greater among the strongly religious (0.42 probability vs. .13), and greatest among the proscriptive nonchanger (0.73) (and the same pattern is found for misuse) (excellent study)
Beehr, T. A., Johnson, L. B., & Nieva, R. (1995). Occupational stress: Coping of police and their spouses. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 16(1), 3-25.
Beeson, W.L., Mills, P.K., Phillips, R.L., Andress, M., & Fraser, G.E. (1989). Chronic disease among Seventh-day Adventists, a low-risk group: Rationale, methodology, and description of the population. Cancer , 64, 570-581. (prospective cohort study of 34,198 non-Hispanic white Seventh-day Adventists ages 25-100 (Adventist Health Study) followed for 6 years; nonfatal case ascertainment completed through review of self-reported hospitalizations from annual mailed questionnaires (53% with at least one hospitalization); fatal case ascertainment determined by California state death certificate files, the National Death Index, and individual f/u; 1406 incident cancer cases and 2716 deaths from all causes identified during 6 years; no comparison data reported in this paper)
Beg, M.A., & Zilli, A.S. (1982). A study of the relationship of death anxiety and religious faith to age differentials. Psychologia, 25, 121-125. (C/S survey of death anxiety among Muslims in India; Religious Ideology Scale of Putney & Middleton (1961) (see below) administered along with Templer Death Anxiety scale to a convenience sample of 200 educated, healthy English speaking Muslims at the Aligarh Muslim University in India (100 students ages 20-30 and 100 older employees of university ages 40-60); high and low religiosity young and older subjects were divided into four groups; influence of religiosity on death anxiety was found to be insignificant; younger persons were significantly more anxious about death; however, persons with significant chronic illnesses and retired persons were excluded from this study)
Beit-Hallahmi, B. (1974). Psychology of religion 1880-1930: The rise and fall of a psychological movement. Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, 10, 84-90.] (nice review of the history of the psychology of religion movement between 1880 and 1930; concluded that "it was a combination of inherent, internal weaknesses, and the existence of outside pressures, which caused the decline in acceptability of religion as a focus for psychological inquiry. One possible inference is that the internal weaknesses, mainly the lack of a non-religious, non-philosophical theoretical bias, doomed the movement from its inception and caused its early death. The movement was obviously an easy prey, and its demise was quick and total." (p 89)
Beit-Hallahmi, B. (1975). Religion and suicidal behavior. Psychological Reports, 37, 1303-1306. (data from 18 European countries and regions used to examined the relationship between dominant religion and suicide rate; no association between high and low suicide rates (10/100,000 being cutoff) and Protestant and Catholic countries; concludes that "neither affiliation nor degree of religious involvement seems related in any significant way to suicide attempts", p 1303); in the discussion, however, he reviews studies that examine only suicide attempts among psychiatric patients, not completed suicides) (very poor)
Beitman, B.D. (1982). Pastoral counseling centers: A Challenge to community mental health centers. Hospital and Community Psychiatry , 33, 486-487. (psychiatrist writes "Other nonmedical professionals are also becoming involved in the delivery of mental health services. A large group of newcomers are ministers and rabbis..." (p 486); notes clergy being sued for malpractice (Suing clergy for malpractice. Time 117:75, 1981); "There is now one pastoral counseling center for every three mental health centers..." (p 487); "Is it psychiatrist's role to judge the adequacy of care delivered by other professionals? If so, there is much to question about the services offered by ministers and rabbis because their training is highly variable"( p 487); "The pastoral counseling movement may be looked upon as either an ally that reaches a population often untouched by psychiatrists or as a negative force attempting to usurp yet more of what was once psychiatrists' turf." (p 487))
Belavich, T.G., & Pargament, K.I. (1995). The role of religion in coping with daily hassles. Presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Psychological Association, New York City, NY. (C/S survey of 222 undergraduate students at BGSU (70% female, 92% White); spiritually-based coping scale; Pargament's Religious Coping Activities Scale: spiritually based coping, good deed based coping, religious discontent, religious social support, religious pleading, and religious avoidance; 10-item positive and 10-item negative affect schedules used to assess affect (PANAS), depression measured with BDI, and hassles measured by Brief College Hassles Scale; spiritual coping scale positively related to hassles frequency and severity; religious discontent and pleading correlated positively with frequency and severity of hassles, and number of major life events (as were non-religious coping scales); regression analyses controlling for gender and positive religious response bias determined that religious pleading was correlated with more depression (.23, p<.001) and more negative affect (.31, p<.001); spiritual coping was associated with more negative affect (.30, p<.001), religious avoidance associated with less negative affect (-.16, p<.05), and religious support associated with more positive affect (.18, p<.05); when non-religious coping variables added to model, spiritual coping still related to negative affect (.22, p<.05), pleading related to negative affect (.20, p<.01), religious avoidance negatively related to depression (-.27, p<.001), negative related to negative affect (-.20, p<.01), and religious support positively related to positive affect (.20, p<.01))
Bell, R., Wechsler, H., & Johnston, L.D. (1997). Correlates of college student marijuana use: Results of a U.S. national survey. Addiction , 92, 571-581. (C/S survey of national representative sample of 17,592 students (69% RR) at 140 American colleges (by Harvard School of Public Health); 25% of students reported using marijuana within the past year; multiple logistic regression identified predictors of marijuana use, including students who perceived religion as "not very important" (n=14,482, in whom adjusted OR was 2.73, 95% CI 2.31-3.22, an effect surpassed only by cigarette use and binge drinking) (drugs) (R 9)
Bell, R.R. (1974). Religious involvement and marital sex in Australia and the United States. Journal of Comparative Family Studies, 5(2), 109-116. (C/S 1972-73 survey in U.S. of 2,374 married women (average age 34.9) and a 1972-73 study in Australia of 1442 married women (average age 35.3) (no data on how sample was selected); they were asked often they achieved orgasm in marriage on a 5 point scale from 1 (never) to 5 (all the time); they were also asked how often they initiated sex (with 4 categories of response from "never" to "51-100%"; subjects were asked if they did or did not attend religious services (no/yes); among women in Australia who attended services, 41% achieved orgasms all or most of the time compared with 48% who did not attend religious services; in the U.S., it was 58% for religious attenders and 59% for non-attenders; among women in Australia who attended religious services, 72% never of seldom (1-25%) initiated sexual relations in marriage, compared with 58% of non-attenders; oral-genital sex on the wife was less common among attenders than non-attenders in both countries (Australia 55% vs.77%; U.S. 68% vs 85%); use of masturbation in marriage was less often in attenders than non-attenders (Australia 54% vs 66%; U.S. 52% vs 66%); extramarital sex was also less common among religious attenders than nonattenders (Australia 23% vs 41%; U.S. 19% vs 33%); when asked whether they would engage in extramarital sex in the future, 56% of church attenders and 26% of non-attenders said it would never happen; in U.S., 62% of attenders and 34% of non-attenders said it would never happen); concluded that religious women, while being as satisfied with sex in their marriage as non-religious women, are more conservative in their sexual behavior than non-religious women; they are also less likely to have extra-marital affairs or expect to have them in the future)
Ben-Eliyahu, S., Yirmiya, R., Liebeskind, J., Taylor, A.N., Gale, R.P. (1991). Stress increases metastatic spread of mammary tumor in rats: Evidence for mediation by the immune system. Brain, Behavior, and Immunology, 5, 193-205. (stress can cause immune system changes that increases vulnerability to cancer metastasis; fist study to establish that magnitude of reductions in natural killer cell activity produced by stress are sufficient to allow metastasis)
Ben-Meir, Y., & Kedem, P. (1979). Index of religiosity of the Jewish population of Israel. Megamot, 24, 353-362) (translated from Hebrew into English by Rabbi Dayle A. Friedman, chaplain at the Philadelphia Geriatric Center)
Bennett, M. (1997). Spirituality and addictions bibliography. Unpublished manuscript.
*[Benor (1990). Survey of.... Complementary Medicine Research, 4, 9-33.]
Benor, D.J. (1992). Healing Research: Holistic Energy, Medicine, and Spirituality. Volume One: Research in Health. Munich, Germany: Helix (reviews over 150 studies, many of them randomized controlled trials that examine the efficacy of prayer and other forms of spiritual healing, in the broad sense) (have it in bookshelf)
Benson, H., Kotch, J.B., Crassweller, K.D., & Greenwood, M.M. (1977). Historical and clinical consideration of the relaxation response. American Scientist, 65, 441-445. (reviews the research)
Benson, H. (1977). Systemic hypertension and the relaxation response. New England Journal of Medicine, 296, 1152-1156. (reviews the research) ("The relaxation response is defined as a set of integrated physiologic changes that may be elicited when a subject assumes a relaxed position, often with closed eyes, within a quiet environment, engages in a repetitive mental action and passively ignores distracting thoughts" (p 1152) (done 20 min, once or twice/day); subjects taught to elicit the relaxation response by transcendental meditation for 20 minutes twice/day; after two weeks, BP's measured every two weeks for 6 months (BP's never measured after meditation); among unmedicated subjects average drop in BP during 6 months was 7 mmHG lower than baseline and diastolic BP was 4 mmHG lower than baseline (subjects served as their own controls, with 6 week run-in period when non BP changes were observed before start of study); for subjects who "chose to stop meditation", both SBP and DBP returned to initial high levels within 4 weeks; refers to one study (published in 1973 in Lancet) that showed Yoga combined with biofeedback reduced SBP by 20 mmHG and DBP by 14 mmHG in medicated hypertensives, compared with no statistically significant change in a matched control group; another study using a control group and Buddhist meditation reported reductions of 15 mm SBP and 10 mm DBP in patients with hypertension (NEJM, 1976); other studies have shown significant decreases in BP in normotensive working populations for both SBP and DBP) (good review)
Benson, H., Malhotra, M.S., Goldman, R.F., Jacobs, G.D., & Hopkins, P.J. (1990). Three case reports of the metabolic and electroencephalographic changes during advanced Buddhist meditation techniques. Behavioral Medicine, Summer, 90-95. (3 monks ages 48-59 practicing meditation for >20 years; at a room temperature of 16 degrees C; one monk decreased his oxygen consumption or metabolism by 64% during meditation, whereas the other two monks increased their metabolism; concluded that advanced meditation can yield different alterations in metabolism and that the decrease can be striking)
Benson, H. (1996). Timeless Healing: The Power and Biology of Belief. NY: Scribners. (best selling popular book on subject) (have it in bookshelf)
Benson, H., & Dusek, JA (1999). Self-reported health, and illness and the use of conventional and unconventional medicine and mind/body healing by Christian scientists and others. Journal of Nervous & Mental Disease, 187,539-548. (Cross-sectional national telephone survey of 230 Christian scientists, compared to 589 non-Christian scientists; examined self-report of 13 common medical conditions or symptoms and use of conventional medicine, unconventional medicine, and mind/body (including spiritual) healing; multivariate analyses showed that Christian scientists were less likely to self-report the experience of in a less than non-Christian scientists (73% vs. 80%, OR .66, p=.04); similar proportions of Christian scientists and non-Christian scientists use some type of conventional medicine (74% vs. 78%), although Christian scientists were less likely to take prescription medicine than non-Christian scientists (p=.03); Christian scientists were more likely to report they were satisfied with life than non-Christian scientists (p=.0001), with 52% indicating they were very satisfied with their life compared to 37% of non-Christian scientists. Could there have been response bias -- given the Christian scientists are generally under attack from society over their beliefs and practices concerning health?)
Benson, P.L., & Spilka, B. P. (1973). God image as a function of self-esteem and locus of control. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 12, 297-310. (C/S survey of 128 male subjects (mean age 15) attending a Catholic high school in unknown location (considered self Catholic, both parents Catholic, never been a member of another religious denomination, never associated with a non-Catholic religious organization, member of a local parish for at least 10 years, and scored above mid-point on a scale measuring importance of religion and belief in God); used Rotter's locus of control scale and 23-item version of Coopersmith's self-esteem scale; images of God examined were Loving God, Controlling God, Vindictive God, Stern Father, Kindly Father, Impersonal: Allness, Impersonal Distant; Impersonal: Supreme Ruler; self-esteem significantly related to Loving God (r=0.51, p<.01), Kindly Father (r=.31, p<.01), and inversely related to Vindictive God (-.49, p<.01), Impersonal Allness (-.23, p<.01), Controlling God (-.35, p<.01), Stern Father (-.21, p<.05), Impersonal Distant (-.17, p<.05), and Impersonal Supreme ruler (r=-.18, p<.05); locus of control (external locus indicates high scores) was negatively related to self-esteem, and was related to Loving God (-.28, p<.01), Vindictive God (.23, p<.01), and Impersonal Allness (.18, p<.05); frequency of religious discussions was positively related to self esteem (.19, p<.05) and to internal locus of control (-.18, p<.05); frequency of devotions and hours spent in church activities were both related to internal locus of control (-.30, p<.01, and -.19, p<.05, respectively)); after controlling for six variables, the associations between self-esteem and God images changed negligibly and 6/8 relationships remained significant); with self-esteem is controlled for, however, the relationships with locus of control are greatly reduced)
Benson, P.L., Dehority, J., Garman, L., Hanson, E., Hochschwender, M., Lebold, C., Rohr, R., & Sullivan, J. (1980). Intrapersonal correlates of nonspontaneous helping behavior. Journal of Social Psychology, 110, 87-95. (examined 21 intrapersonal predictors in three categories (demographics, personality-value, religion) of (a) non-spontaneous helping in hours/year and (b) number of categories of helping behavior (14 in all); 134 students attending a small liberal arts college in the Midwest (Minneapolis) (mean age 20); averaged 137 hrs/year of helping behavior; of 21 predictors of hours of self-reported helping behaviors, the ones correlated at .01 level were social responsibility (.34), intrinsic religiosity (.30), importance of religion (.29), internal-external control (-.29), church attendance (.27), life satisfaction (.26); at .05 level were 4 variables, of which one was self-rated religiousness (.22); of the 21 predictors of number of categories of helping behavior, 10 were associated at .01 level -- including IR (.36), which had the strongest association of the 10, church attendance (.35), importance of religion (.31), and self-rated religiousness (.25); regression analysis showed that independent predictors of hours of helping behavior were social responsibility, internal-external control, and IR (.46 beta); for # of helping categories, it was IR (.36), size of town S grew up in, and church attendance (.45); this religious variables were among the strongest independent predictors of both hours of helping behavior and number of categories of helping behavior)
Benson, P.L., & Donahue, M.J. (1989). Ten-year trends in at-risk behaviors: A national study of black adolescents. Journal of Adolescent Research, 4, 125-139. (C/S multi-year survey involved yearly data collection of nationally representative samples of high school seniors at 125 high schools in U.S. (400 seniors from each school) (Monitoring the Future: A Continuing Study of the Lifestyles and Values of Youth, funded largely by NIDA) (sample consisted of 735 Black males, 914 Black females, 5,372 White males, and 4,993 White females (over 12,000 students); religiousness measured by frequency of church attendance and importance of religion (combined as an index); examined cigarette smoking, alcohol use, marijuana use, cocaine use, and truancy (negative behaviors) (NB); 10 other predictor variables (acting as controls); the strongest predictor of NB was the number of nights/wk student went "out for fun and recreation" (not surprisingly), the second strongest predictor was low religiousness (true for both whites and blacks) (replicates a large body of research as reported by (1) Spilka, B., Hood, R.W., & Gorsuch, R.L. (1985). The Psychology of Religion: An Empirical Approach. Englewood Cliffs, NJ:Prentice-Hall; Stark et al 1982 (see below); and Jessor, R., & Jessor, S. (1977). Problem Behaviors and Prosocial Development: A Longitudinal Study of Youth. NY: Academic Press) (excellent study)
Berardo, F.M. (1967). Social adaptation to widowhood among a rural-urban aged population. Agricultural Experiment Station Bulletin #689, Washington State University. (don't have it) (suggests church membership offers a strong source of social participation for bereaved older adults)
*[Bernard D, Dayringer R, Cassel CK (1995). Toward a person-centered medicine: religious studies in the medical curriculum. Academic Medicine, 70, 806-813.]
Berg, G., Reed, A., Fonss, N., and VandeCreek, L. (1995). The of religious faith and practice on patients suffering from a major affective disorder: a cost. Journal of Pastoral Care, 49, 359-363. (examined length of hospital stay among 37 patients diagnosed with major affective disorder and hospitalized on the St. Cloud, Minnesota, psychiatric inpatient service. Subjects were asked seven questions concerning their spirituality. One question involved the statement, "God/life has treated you unfairly." Respondents were asked to indicate how often they felt this way (1 = never, 2 = sometimes, 3 = often, 4 = very often). For every point increase on this 4-point question, the length of hospital stay increased by 11.4 days (or $2,252, assuming a cost of $197.38 per hospital day) (p=.05). Although this analysis did not control for age, sex, and marital status, those variables were not related to length of stay. Investigators also examined the relationship between frequency of church attendance and length of hospital stay. They compared persons attending religious services once per week or more (high attenders) with those attending services less than once per week (low attenders). The average length of stay among 14 low church attenders was 73 days ($14,395), compared with 35 days for the 11 high attenders ($6,944). The statistic of association was not given for the last comparison.)
Bergin, A.E. (1980). Psychotherapy and religious values. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 48:95-105. (R) (a landmark review that presents six highly controversial theses; compares "theistic" to "clinical-humanistic" approaches to values; received almost 1,000 replies to this article)
Bergin, A.E. (1980). Religious and humanistic values: A reply to Ellis and Walls. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 48, 642-645. (an articulate defense of including theistic values in psychotherapy)
Bergin, A.E. (1983). Religiosity and mental health: A critical reevaluation and meta-analysis. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 14, 170-184. (R) (in this review, points out that many conflicting results in studies are due to different views of investigators and differing mental health and religiosity measures used; the researcher's world view guides the choice of measures and interprets results to confirm to his/her predictions; did a meta-analysis of all studies performed through 1979 that had at least one religiosity measure and at least one clinical pathology measure; found 24 studies, 19 in college students, 1 rural adults, 1 urban adults, 1 Jewish temple members, 1 male prisoners, 1 adults > 65; of 30 effects tabulated, 23% manifested negative effect, 30% no relationship, and 47% a positive relationship; of the 7 significant effects, 5 were positive and 2 were negative; in reference to religious conversion, he states "gradual converts to more conventional religiosity are sometimes superior in their life adjustment, and that the effects of psychotherapy are not any better by comparison", p 178). - 2nd copy in other file
Bergin, A.E., Masters, K.S., & Richards, P.S. (1987). Religiousness and mental health reconsidered: A study of an intrinsically religious sample. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 34, 197-204. (survey of 119 Mormon psychology undergraduate students and 32 former Mormon missionaries who made up a religion class; Allport I-E scale administered, along with California Psychological Inventory (CPI), Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale, Rosenbaum's Self-Control Schedule, Beck Depression Inventory, and Ellis' Irrational Beliefs Test; for psychology student group, IR inversely related to manifest anxiety (-.27, p<.05), positively correlated with self-control (.38, p<.01), and positively correlated with 9 of 18 subscales on the CPI (sociability, sense of well-being, responsibility, socialization, self-control, tolerance, good impression, achievement by conformance, intellectual efficiency (r=.24 to .44)); ER was positively correlated with manifest anxiety (.27), and inversely correlated with 10 of 18 CPI scales (intellectual efficiency, good impression, sense of well-being, capacity for status, sociability, social presence, responsibility, tolerance, achievement by conformance, and achievement by independence) (-.24 to -.38)
Bergin, A.E., Stinchfield, R.D., Gaskin, R.A., Masters, K.S., & Sullivan, C.E. (1988). Religious life styles and mental health: An exploratory study. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 35, 197-204. (C/S survey; identified different styles of religiousness by intensive, case-by-base assessment of life-styles of a sample of 60 Mormon students at Brigham Young (27 men, 33 women); identified were "continuous" (C) religious development with mild religious experiences and "discontinuous" (DC) religious development with intense religious experience; MMPI was administered and compared between groups: DC students (n=16) were more likely to score higher than C on psychopathic deviance (66 vs. 55, p<.01), paranoia (58 vs. 54, p<.05), schizophrenia (65 vs 57, p<.05), and maladjustment (53 vs 47, p<.05) (uncontrolled for covariates).
Bergin, A.E., & Jensen, J.P. (1990). Religiosity and psychotherapists: A national survey. Psychotherapy, 27, 3-7. (C/S survey of 425 therapists surveyed who represented 59% of a national sample of clinical psychologists, psychiatrists, clinical social workers, and marriage and family therapists; none, atheist, or agnostic (combined) categories compared for psychologists (30%), psychiatrists (24%), social workers (9%), marriage & family (13%), and general population (9%); regular church attendance compared for psychologists (33%), psychiatrists (32%), social workers (44%), marriage and family therapists (50%), and general population (40% indicated that they had attended services in last 7 days); responding to the statement, "My whole approach to life is based on my religion," the category of uncertain/disagree/strongly disagree was chosen by psychologists (67%), psychiatrists (61%), social workers (54%), marriage & family (38%), and general population (28%))
Bergin, A.E. (1991). Values and religious issues in psychotherapy and mental health. American Psychologist, 46, 394-403. (R) (follow-up on his 1980 classic paper; discusses need to include religious values in psychotherapy; a state of the art review)
Bergin, A.E., & Payne, I.R. (1991). Proposed agenda for a spiritual strategy in personality and psychotherapy. Journal of Psychology and Christianity, 10, 197-210. (R) (authors review a variety of overlapping spiritual and psychotherapeutic techniques such as forgiveness, confession, and use of religious imagery; includes a section on empirical, eclectic, and ecumenical dimensions of spiritual strategies; suggests that spiritual strategy should be both ecumenical and denominationally specific, so that special needs of groups such as evangelical Christians, Latter-day Saint, and Orthodox Jewish persons will be met)
Berkel, J., & de Waard, F. (1983). Mortality pattern and life expectancy of Seventh-Day Adventists in the Netherlands. International Journal of Epidemiology, 12, 455-459. (case-control study of 522 Seventh-Day Adventist died between 1968-1977; mean age at death was 75 for males and 77 for females, which was 9 years longer for men and 4 years longer for women compared with the general population; overall standardized mortality rate was 0.45, with a SMR of 0.50 for neoplasms and SMR of 0.41 for cardiovascular diseases (based on ICD codes); concluded that abstinence from cigarette smoking was the main factor explaining low mortality from ischaemic heart disease, whereas prudent diet protected SDA's from colon cancer and other cancers)
Berkman, L.F., & Syme, S.L. (1979). Social networks, host resistance, and mortality: A nine-year follow-up study of Alameda County residents. American Journal of Epidemiology, 109, 186-204. (prospective cohort study of 6928 persons, but this analysis restricted to persons aged 30-69 years; 2229 men and 2496 women; mortality examined using death certificates; lower mortality rates were found for church members (both men and women); among men ages 30-49, 2.8% of church members (vs 4.1% non-members); for 50-59 yo's, 11.3% vs 14.7% died; and for 60-69, 31.6% vs 30.3% died, p<.05; among women, 1.4 vs 3.9% of ages 30-49 died, 6.9 vs 8.4% ages 50-59 died, and 15.8% vs 18.3% ages 60-69 died (p<.05); multi-variate analyses showed that marital status, contacts with friends, church membership, and group membership were all significantly related to less mortality, although marital status and contacts with friends were stronger predictors than church membership or group membership; social network index formed by these four variables; lower scores on social network index was associated with higher mortality rates independent of other risk factors)
Berkman, L.F., Leo-Summers, L., & Horwitz, R.I. (1992). Emotional support and survival after myocardial infarction. Annals of Internal Medicine, 117, 1003-1009. Prospective community-based cohort study set in 2 hospitals in New Haven, CT. to compare survival of elderly patients hospitalized for acute myocardial infarction who have emotional support with that of patients who lacked support, while controlling for severity of disease, comorbidity, and functional status. 194 (100 Males and 94 Demales) total patients aged 65 years or older hospitalized for acute myocardial infarction between 1982 to 1988. 76 of 194 (39%) died in first 6 months after myocardial infarction. In multiple logistic regression analyses, lack of emotional support was significantly associated with 6-month mortality (odds ratio, 2.9; 95% CI, 1.2%-6.9%) even after controlling for severity of myocardial infarction, comorbidity, risk factors such as smoking and hypertension and sociodemographic factors.
Berman, A.L. (1974). Belief in afterlife, religion, religiosity and life-threatening experiences. Omega, 5, 127-135. (C/S survey of 396 subjects ages 13-30 from metropolitan Washington DC area (interviews conducted on street corners to cafeterias); 198 persons (selected out of 649) with at least one life-threatening experience were designated "cases" (ever faced an experience which threatened an imminent, inevitable death) and 198 persons reporting no near-death experience were designated as "controls" and matched to cases on age, sex, religion (Ca, Prot, Jew), religiosity (devout or moderately devout vs. inactive), and SES; belief in afterlife (BA) measured by standard scale (Osarchuk and Tatz 1973 Form A); results: there was no difference in BA scores between groups, nor was their difference in extreme BA scores between groups; when comparing BA scores between those experiencing near-death experience within the past year with those experiencing greater than 1 year ago, scores were 56.3 vs 46.8 (in the expected direction, but NS); religiously active subjects were not less likely than inactive to experience anxiety, panic, or fear as an initial reaction to near death experience (27% vs 33%); religiously active, however, were more likely to pray or think about God (p<.05); religious activity, however, did not differentiate between those who "became more religious" as result of the experience; religiously active persons were less likely than inactive to have near-death experiences (p<.001) (although cases and controls were supposedly match on religious activity, with 138 religiously inactive persons in each group ??? -- unless entire sample of 649 persons was used; also some problem with N's not adding up in some other analyses); concluded that BA is primarily a function of religion, not a correlate of threat of death)
Bernt, F.M. (1989). Being religious and being altruistic: A study of college service volunteers. Personality and Individual Differences , 10, 663-669. (C/S survey of 178 undergraduates from four Catholic universities and 88 individuals applying to the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, and 100 non-JVC sample of undergraduates who indicated no interest in joining a volunteer service organization after graduation; for undergraduates, outcome was hours spent doing service volunteer work during previous semester (none, 1-4 hrs, 5-10 hrs, 10 or more hrs); religiosity measured by Allport's IE scale and Batson's Quest scale; neither extrinsic nor quest scales were related to volunteering, but IR was significantly related to more volunteering (p<.05); comparing JVC and non-JVC postgraduate volunteer activity groups, JVC sample tended to have higher GPA (chi-square 16.8, p<.001) and attended church more often (chi-square 9.6, p<.05); JVC group was significantly lower on extrinsic religiosity than the non-JVC group (F=15.5, p<.001), and was significantly higher on Quest than the non-JVC group (F=15.6, p<.001); there was a trend for greater intrinsic religiousness for the JVC group, but this did not reach significance)
Best JB, Kirk WG (1982). Religiosity and self-destruction. Psychological Record. 32(1), 35-39. A religiosity scale (Putney & Middleton, 1961) and a suicide acceptance scale (SAS, Hoelter, 1979) were administered to 66 college students. Highly religious subjects (those scoring above the median) were significantly less accepting of suicide than less religious subjects (those scoring below the median). On a scale of 0-6 on accepting suicide with a higher score representing greater acceptance, the mean for highly religious group was 1.27 compared to a mean of 2.24 for the less religious group (p<.01). Eight weeks later, all subjects were shown a 10-minute videotape of an "expert" who spoke on accepting a suicidal person's feelings. For one group, the expert was indicated to be a psychologist, for the second group, a minister, and for the third group, both a psychologist & and a minister. The SAS was re-administered after the videotape viewing. There was a significant increase in acceptance of suicide for viewers of psychologist and psychologist/minister videotapes (though no p value is given). On the other hand, viewers of the minister videotape showed a significant decrease in suicide acceptance (no p value given). Both effects were shown regardless of high or low religiosity. The study "...demonstrates that the highly religious person's negative attitudes toward suicide acceptance can be modified." (p.38).
Beutler et al (1988). Paranormal healing and hypertension. British Medical Journal, 296, 1491-1494. (prospective randomized clinical trial; 120 volunteers in the Netherlands with high diastolic blood pressures were included (68% taking antihypertensives, mean age 51, 57% men); three groups (n=40 each) were composed: (1) healing by laying on of hands, (2) healing at a distance by thought projection, (3) control group; treated once/wk for 20 minutes in AM for 15 consecutive weeks; 12 known healers experienced with laying on of hands or healing at a distance were selected from societies of paranormal healers; results indicated that laying on of hands associated with increase in DBP of 1.8 mm immediately after procedure, and reduction in heart rate after each session an average of 2.9 beats/min; at the end of 15 weeks, SBP/DBP reduced by 19.2/9.8 in Group 1, 16.7/8.9 for Group 2, and 17.2/7.6 for Group 3 (p=NS); 83% of Group 1 reported slight to much improved well-being, compared with 43% of Group 2 and 41% of Group 3, p<.001; healing at a distance by thought projection or laying on of hands had no significant effect on BP, although laying on of hand resulted in greater perception of well-being)
Bickel CO, Ciarrocchi JW, Sheers NJ, Estadt BK, Powell DA, and Pargament KI. (1998). Perceived stress, religious coping styles, and depressive affect. Journal of Psychology & Christianity, 17(1), 33-42. The relationships between perceived stress and religious coping styles with depressive affect were investigated in 115 male and 130 female adult members of 10 Presbyterian churches around Washington DC. Measurements used were the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS; Cohen et al., 1983), the Religious Coping Styles Scale (Pargament et al., 1988), and the Beck Depression Inventory (Beck et al., 1961). The authors predicted "collaborative religious coping would be helpful to people in high-stress situations" (p.35). They also predicted that the self-directing coping would "become harmful" as the perceived stress level increased. A hierarchical set regression was used for each of the three coping styles: 1) age and sex were not significantly associated with depressive affect; 2)total PSS scores accounted for 17.3% of the variance in depression (p<.01); 3) scores on each coping subscale; and 4) interaction of the coping style with either high stress or low stress. The authors predictions were supported. Whereas neither the collaborative (active Person/active God) nor the self-directed (active Person/passive God) coping styles had a significant effect on subjects reporting low stress, for respondents reporting high stress, depressive affect decreased significantly with an increase in reported use of collaborative coping style (correlation = -0.27, n=122) and increased significantly with an increase in reported use of the self-directed coping style (correlation= 0.27, n=122). As anticipated, the deferring coping style (passive Person/active God) showed no significant relationship with depressive affect nor did its interaction with perceived stress.
Bienenfeld, D., Koenig, H.G., Sherill, K.A., & Larson, D,B, (1997). Psychosocial predictors of mental health in a population of elderly women: Test of a simple model. American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 5, 43-53. (C/S survey of 89 women religious or Catholic nuns in two retirement/nursing home communities in Columbus, Ohio; dependent variables were disability (PGC MAI instrument of PADLs and IADLs), life satisfaction (20-item Neugarten scale), psychological distress (28-item General Health Questionnaire), depression (14-item subscale of GHQ), mastery (Pearlin & Schooler), social support (Cohen's Interpersonal Support Evaluation List), and religious commitment (7-item instrument of Kauffman's); regression model showed that: (1) Life Satisfaction predicted by mastery, social support, functional status and religious commitment (p=.07); (2) Psychological Distress predicted by only functional status, social support, and mastery; and (3) Depression predicted by mastery, social support, and religious commitment (p=.008); note, however, that religious commitment was strongly correlated with Mastery (0.38, p<.01)
Biggar, H., Forehand, R., Devine, D., Brody, G., Armistead, L., Morse, E., Simon, P. (1999). Women who are HIV-infected: the role of religious activity and psychosocial adjustment. AIDS Care, 11, 195-199. (Examined the role of religious activity in psychosocial adjustment of 205 inter-city African-American women, 1/2 of whom were HIV-infected. Women infected with HIV prayed more but viewed their prayers as less effective in coping with a chronic illness. Frequency of prayer predicted optimism about the future, whereas religious activity was not related to current depressive symptoms.)
Bilheimer, R.S. (ed) (1983). Faith and Ferment: An Interdisciplinary study of Christian Beliefs and Practices. Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg. (don't have it) (less than 10% of regular church-goers in America go to church strictly for religious reasons)
Billings, A.G., & Moos, R. H. (1981). The role of coping responses and social resources in attenuating the stress of life events. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 4, 139-157. (prayer considered an active cognitive and emotion focused coping behavior; no independent analysis of prayer and health outcomes)
Billy, J.O.G., Tanfer, K., Grady, W.R., & Klepinger, D.H. (1993). The sexual behavior of men in the United States. Family Planning Perspectives, 25(2):52-60. (C/S survey of national probability sample of 3,321 men ages 20-39 (National Survey of Men); religious affiliation was main religious variable (conservative Protestant, other Protestant, Catholic, and "other or none"; sexual behaviors was outcome variable; conservative Protestants reported significantly fewer lifetime partners (5.4 vs 7.3 for entire sample), greater likelihood of having a single partner over the past 18 months (74% vs 71% overall), and greater frequency of intercourse over past 4 weeks (4.6 vs 3.7 overall); men with no religious affiliation had most partners (8.4) and least likely to have a single partner in past 4 weeks (67%); men with non-Christian backgrounds or no religious affiliation were more likely to have had anal intercourse (22% vs 20% overall vs 18% for conserv Prots) with more partners (2.1 vs 1.6 overall vs. 1.4 for conserv Prots) than did other men; Conservative Protestants less likely to engage in performing or receiving oral intercourse (68% vs 75% overall and 72% vs 79% overall), and non-Christian or no affiliation men were most likely to perform or receive in oral intercourse (77% and 83% respectively); 2% of men had homosexual activity in past 10 years and 1% were exclusively homosexual, although no association with religious affiliation was found)
Bishop, L.C., Larson, D.B., & Wilson, W.P. (1987). Religious life of individuals with affective disorders. Southern Medical Journal, 80, 1083-1086. (case-control study of 64 inpatients with major affective disorders, compared with 109 unmatched controls persons with psychiatric disorder; more Baptists among cases (lower socioeconomic groups), fewer Methodists and Presbyterians; religiosity of mothers and fathers of cases and controls did not differ; significantly more cases experienced a decline in religious interest during adolescence; current religious activity was no different between cases and controls; they concluded that both early religious faith and affective health may have been casualties of early losses of parental figures, although depressives later returned to religion)
Bivens, A.J., Neumeyer, R.A., Kirchberg, T.M., & Moore, M.K. (1994-95). Death concern and religious beliefs among gays and bisexuals of variable proximity to AIDS. Omega, 30, 105-120. (C/S survey of 167 gay men with AIDS or HIV+ assessed on strength of belief in God and degree of religious orthodoxy; three groups: 43 HIV+, 69 involved as volunteers or professionals in AIDS hospices, wards, or organizations, and 55 gay/bisexual (G/B) men uninvolved; HIV+ group had significantly more fear of premature death; AIDS-involved group had significantly lower concerns about death than either of other two groups; both HIV+ and involved AIDS group had higher levels of religious belief than uninvolved G/B group; belief in God associated with less death threat (-.29), but not fear of death; Christian orthodoxy also tied to less death threat (-.20), but not fear of death); frequency of church attendance associated with less death threat (-.26); IR, belief in God, and religious attendance all inversely related to all four death threat index subscales: global threat, meaningfulness, survival concerns, and emotional appraisal; vertical dimension of Christian orthodoxy (but not horizontal dimension) was inversely related to all four Threat Index scores; for 8 specific fears, however, religious variables consistently inversely related only to fear of unknown ("I am afraid that death is the end of one's existence"); concluded that "The results of both canonical correlation and regression analyses revealed that the aspect of religiosity that was most related to our measures of death concern was best represented by the Intrinsic dimension of Religious Orientation Scale" (p 117))
Bjorck, J.P., & Cohen, L.H. (1993). Coping with threats, losses, and challenges. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 12, 36-72. (C/S survey of 293 undergraduates at University of Delaware (143 men, 157 Catholics); Feagin's 6-item IR scale, 15 written case vignettes (divided into threat, loss, and challenge), and projected coping measured by 66-item Ways of Coping index; religious coping was significantly more likely for highly stressful threats and losses than for mildly stressful challenge events; subjects with high IR significantly more likely to use religious coping; concluded that religious coping is more common for events that are highly stressful and uncontrollable (Park & Cohen 1992b))
Bjorck, J.P., Lee, Y. S., Cohen, L. H. (1997). Control beliefs and faith as stress moderators for Korean American vs. Caucasian American Protestants. American Journal of Community Psychology, 25, 61-72.
Blacker, E. (1966). Sociocultural factors in alcoholism. International Psychiatry Clinics, 3 (2), 51-80 (reviews some of the older studies suggesting low alcoholism in Jews and low rates in persons with religious affiliations, but increased problem drinking among those affiliated with traditions that condemn drinking, if they do drink)
Blackwell B, Bloomfield S, Gartside P, Robinson A, Hanenson I, Magenheim H, Nidich S, Zigler R. (1976). Transcendental meditation in hypertension: individual response patterns. Lancet 1(7953):223-226. Seven selected hypertensive patients were stabilized on drugs at a research clinic. Subjects were learned TM, were seen weekly, and took their blood pressure several times daily. After 12 weeks of TM, six subject showed improved psychological profiles and reduction in anxiety. Those six subjects also showed significant reductions in home and four in clinic blood pressures. Six months later, four subjects continued to show improved psychological profiles and 2 showed significant blood pressure reductions.
Blaine, B., & Crocker, J. (1995). Religiousness, race, psychological well-being - exploring social-psychological mediators. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 21, 1031-1041. 144 undergrad psych. students at SUNY-Buffalo. Subjects were 46% Black, 41% White, and 13% Hispanic, Asian or Native American. 43% Protestant, 33% Catholics, 11% Jewish, and 13% other or no affiliation. 67% freshmen/sophomore and 33% junior/senior. Instruments given were: Religiosity Salience-Cognition scale (King and Hunt 1975) - prominence of religion in everyday thoughts or feelings w/5 items, scale of 1-7, "Being a religious person is important to me", "I am frequently aware of God in a personal way" are examples. Three religious attribution scales were created to assess enhanced self-esteem, life meaning, and perceptions of control on a scale of 1-7. Behavioral index of religiousness was based on average number of times they attended religious services each month Collective Self-Esteem Scale (CSES: Luhtaner and Crocker - 1992) measures subject's self-evaluations of their social identity (4 item, 7 point scales measuring Private, Membership, Public, and Identity CSE). Personal self-esteem measured by Rosenberg (1965) Self-Esteem Scale, Beck Depression Inventory - short form , Satisfaction with Life Scale, and Beck Hopelessness Scale .MANOVA revealed significant effect of race (F(5.113) = 5.21, p<.01) on religious variables. Blacks reported greater belief salience (F(1.117) = 23.17, p<.01) and more frequent participation in religious services (F(1.117)=6.38, p<.01) than whites. Blacks made more meaning-enhancing (F(1.117)=24.15, p<.01), control enhancing (F(1.117)=12.86, p<.01) and self-esteem enhancing (F(1.117)=8.73 p<.01) attributions to God than whites. Well-being variables (self-esteem, depression, life satisfaction, hopelessness) score analyzed by MANOVA - Significant main effect for race (F(4.107)=3.78, p<.01). Only significant difference of well-being among individual items: whites were less depressed than blacks (F(1.110)=3.94, p<.01). Black students were more religious than whites, and religious salience was related to greater self-esteem (p<.07), less depression, greater satisfaction, and less hopelessness in Blacks only (p<.05, all, uncontrolled).
Blalock,S.J., DeVellis, B.M., & Giorgino, K.B. (1995). The relationship between coping and psychological well-being among people with osteoarthritis - a problem-specific approach. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 17, 107-115. (6-month prospective cohort study of 300 persons aged 50 or over; examined coping strategies used at Time 1 (study entry) and psychological well-being six months later (Time 2); multivariate analyses revealed that coping strategies at Time 1 significantly predicted well-being at Time 2; the specific strategies that predicted positive affect were different from those predicting negative affect and depressive symptoms; "turning to religion"(RC) was assessed using a subscale of the COPE (4 items); RC associated with social support and wishful thinking at T1, and cognitive restructuring and wishful thinking at T2; RC most common coping strategy for social relationships, household activities, leisure activities, pain management (all categories examined); in multivariate model, 5 coping strategies at T1 associated with negative affect at T2: social support, self-criticism, social withdrawal, less problem avoidance, and less turning to religion (p<.05 for latter, but not discussed)
*(Blane, H.T., & Hewitt, L.E. (1977). Alcohol and youth -- an analysis of the literature, 1960-1975. Prepared for the U.S. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. (NTIS Rep. No. PB268-698.) Springfield, VA: National Technology and Information Services. (don't have it) (religiousness inversely related to alcohol use/abuse)
Blaney, N.T., Goodkin, K., Feaster, D, et al (1997). A psychosocial model of distress over time in early HIV-1 infection: The role of life stressors, social support and coping. Psychology and Health, 12, 633-653. (prospective cohort study of 40 initially asymptomatic HIV+ homosexual men, participants in a larger study of HIV-1 disease progression who had remained asymptomatic by CDC staging for 1 year. All had either CDC stage II or III and had persistent generalized lymphademopathy or CD4 cell count < 700 cells/mm3. At entry, six months and 12 months, subjects completed the following battery of psychosocial instruments: Life Experiences Survey (LES) to measure stressors, Social Provisions Scale to measure social support, the COPE to measure coping and the Profile of Mood States (POMS). Seropositive group was significantly higher in distress (anxiety and confusion) and negative life events (count and impact) was significantly higher than a comparison group of HIV-1- homosexual men while level of distress was considerably below clinical samples. Two groups were comparable on measures of social support and coping style except for a tendency toward greater disengagement and denial coping among HIV+ men. Whether expressed as individual mean or change scores, negative life events (impact and count) were significantly associated with distress. Correlations of baseline sociodemographic variables and lifestyle variables with predictor and outcome variables revealed no significant associations with control variables requiring covariates in multiple regression models. Multiple regression analysis of change scores across the three time period yielded a significant model (R2 = .38, p<.001) with significant main effects for negatively rated life event impacts, social support, two coping factors (disengagement/denial and religion) and a trend for venting emotions. Changes in distress were inversely related to changes in social support and religion but directly related to changes in negatively rated life events, disengagement/denial and venting emotions. Control for prior distress made no change. Incremental social support reduced distress more and incremental negatively rated life events increased distress, when levels of the respective predictors are low.
Blasi, A.J., Hussaini, B.A., Drumwright, D.A. (1998). Seniors' mental health and pastoral practices in African American churches: An exploratory study in a Southern city. Review of Religious Research , in press (C/S random sample of 1/3 of Black Christian congregations in Nashville, TN; 51 of 196 pastors were interviewed; asked what pastors did when elderly came to talk abut stressful problems in the past month; 25.5% pastors did not make referral because not serious enough to require professional help; 25.5% provided prayers and counseling to seniors; and 49% referred distressed seniors to mental health professionals in community (10% physicians, 4% psychiatrists, 6% social workers, were the major sources); the more educated the pastor and the larger the church, the more likely to make referrals to professionals)
Blazer, D.G., & Palmore, E. (1976). Religion and aging in a longitudinal panel. The Gerontologist, 16, 82-85. (prospective cohort study of 272 patients at start of study (ages 60-94), 67% white, 52% female, 90% Protestant; religion subscale of Chicago Inventory of Activities and Attitudes - church attendance, listening to religious radio/TV, reading Bible/devotional books - made up religious activity scale, whereas religious attitudes were based on agreement or disagreement with statements indicative of religion's importance or extent of comfort derived from religion; over 20 years, religious activity gradually decreased over time, although religious attitudes remained stable; neither religious activities nor religious attitudes were related to mortality; religious activities were related to happiness (r=.16 overall, .26 in men, .25 in persons over 70), feeling useful (r=.25 overall, .34 for those with manual occupations and .32 for those over 70; and personal adjustment (r=.16 overall, .33 for manual occupations and r=.28 for males); religious attitudes were unrelated to happiness, but were related to usefulness (r=0.16 overall, r=.24 for manual occupations); correlations increased during the later rounds of the study, suggesting increasing importance of religion for well-being among elderly over time) (none of correlations were controlled)
(?) Bliss, J.R., McSherry, E., & Fassett, J. (1995). Chaplain intervention reduces costs in major DRGs: An experimental study. In Heffernan H, McSherry E, Fitzgerald R (eds), Proceedings NIH Clinical Center Conference on Spirituality and Health Care Outcomes, March 21, 1995. (Randomized 331 open-heart surgery patients to either a chaplain intervention ("Modern Chaplain Care") or usual care. Patients in the intervention group had an average 2 day shorter post-op hospitalization, resulting in an overall cost of $4,200 per patient.)
Bliss, S.K., & Crown, C.L. (1994). Concern for appropriateness, religiosity, and gender as predictors of alcohol and marijuana use. Social Behavior and Personality, 22, 227-238. (C/S survey of 143 undergraduate psychology students at Xavier University, Cincinnati, Ohio (78 males and 65 females, mean age 19); index of religiosity composed of two items with 3 response options each (importance of religion and frequency of church attendance and church related activities) (score range 0-6); assessed marijuana and alcohol use as outcomes; female students who perceived themselves as more religious drink less alcohol (7.6 vs 24.3 not important), but religious male students drink more alcohol (16.0 vs 8.6 not important); higher religious attendance for both sexes associated with less marijuana use)
Blumenthal, J.A., Williams, R.B., & Wallace, A.G. (1982). Physiological and psychological variables predict compliance to prescribed exercise therapy in patients recovering from myocardial infarction. Psychosomatic Medicine, 44, 519-527. (prospective study of 35 consecutive patients with recent MI's undergoing comprehensive physical and psychological assessments at entry into a cardiovascular rehabilitation program and then followed for 1 year; 14 patients dropped out; dropouts were more depressed, hypochondriacal, anxious and socially introverted and had lower ego strength than those who remained in the program; socially uninvolved persons are less likely to comply with an exercise program, suggesting that religiously involved persons -- because of their increased sociability -- may be more compliant with such programs)
Bock, E.W., Cochran, J.K., & Beehgley, L. (1987). Moral messages: the relative influence of denomination on the religiosity-alcohol relationship. Sociological Quarterly, 28, 89-103. (C/S survey using GSS's that represent a national probability sample of persons age 18 or older in U.S. (alcohol behavior assessed in 1977, 1978, and 1980 GSS surveys) (317 unaffiliated, 95 Jewish, 1118 Catholic, 666 liberal Protestant, and 2,093 conservative Protestant); 3 religiosity measures: strength of religious identification, frequency of attendance, and membership in church organizations; alcohol use and misuse are highest among unaffiliated (90% and 50%, respectively, vs. 28-46% misuse in affiliated groups and 24% in Jews); religiosity had no effect on decision to drink among the unaffiliated (use vs. non-use); for Catholics, all three religiosity measures were related to less drinking (although only strength of affiliation was statistically significant); among Jews, only Temple attendance was negatively related to drinking, and even that was not significant; among liberal Protestants, use vs. non-use of alcohol was unrelated to religiosity; among conservative Protestants, however, religiosity measures are all inversely related to alcohol use, with strength of identification and attendance statistically significant (explaining 11% of variance); with regard to misuse, no association in Jews and non-affiliates; in Catholics, R variables added 1.6% to 13% explained variance; in liberal Protestants, added 2.6% to 14% explained variance; in conservative Protestants, it is 3% of 8% total explained; they concluded that religious involvement fails to influence alcohol misuse within religious groups where the normative guidelines of religious groups and society at large are congruent (except for conservative Protestants who made up 49% of the sample of 4,289)
Bohannon, J.R. (1991). Religiosity related to grief levels of bereaved mothers and fathers. Omega, 23, 153-159. (C/S survey of 143 mothers and 129 fathers who lost a child within past 18 months were surveyed (mean ages 38-40) (123 Protestants, 19 Catholics, 1 non-affiliate among mothers, and 106 Protestants, 14 Catholics, and 9 non-affiliates among fathers) (all members of Compassionate Friends chapters in midwest); religious affiliation and frequency of church attendance measured (church attendance divided into high (twice/month or more) and low (less than twice/mo) categories), and completed the Grief Experience Inventory (despair, anger, gilt, social isolation, loss of control rumination, depersonalization, somatization, death anxiety, vigor, physical strength, optimism/despair; after controlling for social desirability, frequent church attendance (91 of mothers and 81 fathers) was associated with less anger (p=.001), guilt, loss of control (p=.0001), rumination (p=.005), depersonalization (p=.005), somatization, death anxiety (.002), and despair among mothers (8/12 scales), and less anger, guilt (p=.002), and death anxiety (p=.0001) among fathers (3/12 scales))
Bohrnstedt, G.W., Borgatta, E.F., & Evans, R.R. (1968). Religious affiliation, religiosity, and MMPI scores. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 7, 255-258. (C/S survey of 3,700 freshman college students at University of Wisconsin (1815 females, 1851 males); compared Catholics (469), Protestants (995), and Jews (283) with each other and with no affiliation (105) on MMPI scales; also used a 6-item measure of religiosity entitled Conventional Religiosity score; non-affiliates among males had higher scores on hypochondriasis, depression, hysteria, psychopathic deviation, lack of interest, paranoia, schizophrenia, hypomania, social I.E., question (/), life (L), validity (F), and K score (although differences were small); similar patterns were observed among females, but differences were somewhat larger; correlations between religiosity and the MMPI scales were negative for 10/14 scales in males and 13/14 scales in women; highest correlations in both males and females were for depression (-.17 and -.20, both p<.05); indicated that MMPI scales may have been confounded by the religious items contained in them)
Boland, CS (1998). Parish nursing. Addressing the significance of social support and spirituality for sustained health-promoting behaviors in the elderly. Journal of Holistic Nursing, 16, 355-368.
Bolduan, C., & Weiner, L. (1933). Causes of death among Jews in New York City. New England Journal of Medicine, 208, 407-416. (case-control study of 14,047 Jews and 27,186 white non-Jews in New York City in 1931; Jewish vs. non-Jewish determined by "place of burial"; significant differences in causes of mortality between Jews and non-Jews; among deaths, Jews more likely to die of diabetes (4.3% vs 2.5%), cancer (14.6% vs 10.8%), but less likely to die from TB (3.2% vs 7.3%) and pneumonias (10.3 vs 14.5%); cancers of digestive tract and peritoneum are about 50% higher among Jewish males compared to non-Jewish males; cancer of the uterus among non-Jewish females are about 50% higher than among Jewish females; no difference in lung cancer; breast cancer more common among Jews up to age 45, after which it becomes more common in non-Jews; death from diseases of liver and from syphilis is somewhat lower among Jews and non-Jews; suicides more common (about twice) for both male and female among Jews than non-Jews (although, some Christian cemeteries do not allow burial for suicides); no differences in deaths from cardiovascular causes)
Bolt, M. (1975). Purpose in life and religious orientation. Journal of Psychology and Theology, 3, 116-118. (C/S survey, convenience sample of 52 students in undergraduate psychology courses at Calvin college (most from conservative Protestant backgrounds); Allport & Ross E-I scale and Purpose in Life (PIL) scale administered; mean score on PIl for intrinsics (n=22), extrinsics (n=20), and indiscriminately proreligious (IPR) (n=10) were 115.6, 102.4, and 113.7 (F=9.1, p<.01); significant difference between intrinsics and extrinsics (p<.01) and between IPR and extrinsics (p<.01) (no controls))
Boomsma, D. I, de Geus, E. J., Van Baal, G. C., Koopmans, J. R. (1999). A religious upbringing reduces the influence of genetic factors on disinhibition: evidence for interaction between genotype and environment on personality. Twin Research, 2, 115-125. (Did on personality, anxiety and oppression, and religion were assessed in 1974 Dutch families consisting of adolescent and young adult twins and their parents. There were differences between individuals in religious upbringing, in religious affiliation, and participation at church activities that were not influenced by genetic factors. Family resemblance for different aspects of religion was high but could be entirely explained by environmental influences, to family members. Shared genes did not contribute to familial resemblances in religion. The absence of genetic influences on variation in several dimensions of religion contrasted with the genetic influences bound for a number of other traits that were studied and East when families. Analyses also indicated that subjects with a religious upbringing, who are currently religious and who engage in church activities are lower on the personality trait entitled "sensation seeking". Receiving a religious upbringing appeared to decrease the influence of genetic factors on disinhibition, especially in males.
Booth A, Johnson DR, Branaman A, Sica A. (1995). Belief and behavior: Does religion matter in today's marriage? Journal of Marriage and the Family 57(3):661 671.
Booth-Kewley, S., & Friedman, H.S. (1987). Psychological predictors of heart disease: A quantitative review. Psychology Bulletin, 101, 343-362. (Conducted a meta-analysis to integrate and organize results of studies examining the relationship between personality variables and CHD; personality variables included anger, hostility, aggression, depression, extraversion, anxiety, and Type A behavior; the Strongest Associations Were Found for Type A and, surprisingly, for depression; but anger, hostility, aggression, and anxiety were also reliably related to CHD ; concluded that the coronary -- prone personality is a person who has one or more negative emotions; emotions such as depression, anxiety, and anger have been linked to chronic disease)
Bottoms, B.L., Shaver, P.R., Goodman, F.S., & Qin, J. (1995). In the name of God: A profile of religion-related child abuse. Journal of Social Issues, 51, 85-112. (negative review) (religious beliefs can foster, encourage, and justify child abuse; examine cases of religion-related child abuse and describe cases involving withholding of medical care for religious reasons, abuse related to attempts to rid a child of evil, and abuse perpetrated by clergy; also report results of a national survey - but of almost 20,000 mental health professionals surveyed over their entire careers, investigators could locate only 417 cases of alleged abuse; of 271 pure cases (177 of which involved clergy abuse), there was corroborative evidence in only about one-half, and in less than 10% was the evidence strong enough to lead to a conviction)
Bouchard, T. J., McGue, Lykken, D., Tellegen, A.(1999). Intrinsic and extrinsic religiousness: genetic and environmental influences and personality correlates. Twin Research, 2, 88-98. (Data on IR and ER from 35 peers of monozygotic twins reared apart (MZA) and 37 pairs of dizygotic twins reared apart (DZA) were fitted to a biometric model and demonstrated significant heritability (0.43 and 0.39), with a model containing genetic plus environmental factors fitting significantly better than a model containing only an environmental component.)
*[Bouddreaux, E., Catz, S., Ryan, L., Amaral-Melendez, M., & Brantley, P.J. (1995). The Ways of Religious Coping scale: Reliability, validity, and scale development. Assessment, 2, 233-244.]
Bourjolly, J.N. (1998). Differences in Religiousness Among Black and White Women with Breast Cancer. Social Work in Health Care, 28(1):21-39. Convenience sample of 102 black and white women with breast cancer from an outpatient oncology clinic in large urban university hospital. Lazarus and Folkman's (1984) Ways of Coping Questionnaire used to assess coping (8 factors: confrontive, distancing, self-control, seeking social support, accepting responsibility, escape/avoidance, problem-oriented, and positive reappraisal), Strayhorn et al.'s (1990) Religiousness scale (private and public dimensions) measures religiousness, social functioning measured by Inventory of Functional Status-Cancer (Tulman, Fawcett, & McEvory 1991), health locus of control by items from Multidimensional Health Locus of Control Scale, and social support by network data, including perceived availability. 61% white, 41 black; mean age 61, all early stage breast cancer (no mastectomy), mean income for whites $57K, for blacks $28K (with half less than 20K); 63% of black group only had high school education, 77% of whites had at least some college. Significant differences in religiousness, both public and private, with blacks higher (p<.000); in stepwise regressions, race remained significantly associated with religiousness, with positive reappraisal coping also related to religiousness. Findings appropriately treated as preliminary, but religiousness treated as coping resource without any indication of its effect on stress or psychological outcomes related to the breast cancer or its treatment.
Bowden, J.W.. (1998). Recovery from Alcoholism: A Spiritual Journey. Issues in Mental Health Nursing, 19(0):337-352. Qualitative analysis of 8 recove