Divine relations, social relations, and well-being

The social support literature focuses on the effects of networks composed of "real" or concrete individuals on psychological well-being. Persons interact in imagination, however, with a wide range of others who may or may not actually exist. In modern societies as in traditional societies, persons experience, interact with, and appeal to spiritual or divine beings. Using data from the NORC General Social Survey, this study examines the extent to which relationships with "divine others" affect psychological well-being. Regression analysis reveals that divine relationships have a significant effect on several measures of well-being (controlling for sociodemographic background variables and church attendance). Hypotheses regarding the impact of stress, social relationships, cognitive resources, and images of the divine on the effect of divine relationships are also considered.     

Hardiness and Spiritual Well-Being Among Social Work Students

The challenge today for social work students is how to address the professional and educational demands placed on them as they attend to the development of the whole person. This article reports the findings from a 1994 study of social work students. Data collected from a survey of 105 social work students showed significant relationships among hardiness, spiritual well-being, and self-esteem. Spiritual well-being and hardiness were found to be strong predictors of self-esteem. This article discusses the need to explore the role of spiritual well-being as well as implications for research, practice, and education.     

Effect of Age,Initiator Status,and Infidelity on Women's Divorce Adjustment

Divorce can be a distressing event. Although various studies have been conducted to better understand this phenomenon, little research has focused on the combined effect of age, initiator status, spousal infidelity, and spiritual well-being on divorce adjustment. To determine the effect of these 4 factors on divorce adjustment, 133 divorced women in the United States were surveyed using the Fisher Divorce Adjustment Scale, Spiritual Well-Being Scale, and a participant questionnaire. Results indicate that initiator status, spousal infidelity, and spiritual well-being together can predict 38% of the variance in overall divorce adjustment for women. Spiritual well-being was found to be the strongest contributor. Recommendations for researchers and implications for clinicians are discussed.     

Finding God in Grain: Crop Circles,Rationality, and the Construction of Spiritual Experience

Crop circles, which are intricate geometric patterns cut in fields of grain, have taken on spiritual significance for thousands of people across the globe. Based on field work in southwest England and interviews with believers, I analyze the socially constructed bases of this form of “New Age” spirituality. Using a symbolic interactionist framework, I illustrate how believers define crop circles as spiritual using subjective and normative rationality. Crop circle culture furthers this construction by providing a normative foundation with which to understand and experience the circles, as well as a basis of legitimizing this intersubjective reality to skeptical outsiders. In these ways, and others, spiritual experience is constructed, maintained, and defended by the individual in a subcultural context.     

Spiritual but not religious seek unrestricted connection to selves,others, and earth: Formative research on the explosive growth of an ‘inactive public’ beyond the organization

In the last half century, we have observed an explosive growth in individuals who identify as spiritual but not religious. Today, over one in four U.S. adults fall into this category. This phenomenon is an influential component of our modern and changing society, as spiritual beliefs are associated with health, well-being, goals, feelings, and attitudes. In this formative research study, we apply the public relations’ approach of Sense-Making of an ‘inactive public’ beyond the organization to explore how these individuals define themselves, how their beliefs influence their behaviors (such as political, environmental, communal) and how they feel they are perceived by those around them. Amongst others, our main findings reveal that the spiritual but not religious have disparate specific beliefs and often struggle or resist articulating who they are, yet more broadly share a common belief in connection to others, the natural environment, and one’s self. The majority emphasize acceptance, tolerance, compassion, and the importance of each individual embracing their own spiritual positions. The participants report feeling misunderstood, misrepresented, or ignored by others and media, and that their behaviors (perspective on the world, actions, political ideologies, etc) are influenced by their spiritual beliefs.     

Social Work,Spirituality, and Diasporic Communities

Abstract

The discourse surrounding the role of spirituality in social work practice has been expanding exponentially in recent years. Similarly, the discourse surrounding the role of spirituality among diasporic communities has expanded in recent times as well. In this paper, we will consider the linkages between social work, spirituality, and diaspora. We will focus our discussion on a particular diasporic spiritual community, the Sathya Sai Baba movement and its social service activities. We will then consider the implications of such spiritual movements for the social work profession. Among the key issues explored in this paper are the change in the social construction of populations that have moved between two countries as 'immigrant communities' to 'diasporic communities' and the implications of these changes for social work. Another critical issue we discuss is how working with spiritual movements may help address the 'spiritual deficit' concern that some social work academics have referred to, and indirectly at least, we begin to address 'the social work crisis' issue that has negatively affected the social work profession over the last few years.     

Authoring aging: Personal and social constructions

The aim of this paper is to set out some of the context for the journey I have taken as a gerontologist, reflecting both on some of the decisive “turning points” and the links between personal and social constructions of aging. Along the way, the paper examines some questions about the relationship between analytical and biographical themes. The article reviews the various influences affecting my approach to issues about aging, and the contribution of these to my own thinking about critical gerontology. The latter I see as having a long gestation within my own maturing as a gerontologist, following engagement with debates in sociology and social policy. The article identifies a number of important actors and institutions that have shaped my understanding of the social, economic and political relationships underpinning old age.     

When Social Work and Psychoanalysis Meet

In this paper I share my personal journey from agency social worker to psychoanalyst. I show how I have brought to my psychoanalytic work the teachings of such well known social workers as Mary Richmond, Bertha Reynolds, Gordon Hamilton, and Florence Hollis as well those of such contemporary social workers as the late Gertrude and Rubin Blanck, Nancy Bridges, and Eda Goldstein, among others. In the presentation, I also consider how social work values, social work ethics and social work attitudes have influenced my approach to the practice of psychoanalysis. The attitudes which I refer to, include flexibility, beginning where the client is; an appreciation of the importance of understanding a patient’s cultural background and a recognition of the importance of the relationship in the therapeutic encounter. These were not standard for psychoanalysts at the time I began to practice. Today however psychoanalysis has largely caught up with social work, and this paper affirms how those of us who have had a social work background are well prepared for psychoanalysis in the 21st century.

Muriel Dimen: Teacher,Mentor, Psychoanalytic Scholar

ABSTRACT

This essay is split in content and intent. In the first part, I share my reflections from my long personal relationship with Muriel Dimen, who taught, supervised, and mentored me as a young candidate and beginning scholar. In this part, I try convey how staunch and thorough her commitment, how extraordinary her generosity was in supporting the intellectual development of a new generation of emerging psychoanalytic thinkers and theorists.

The second part, written in an entirely different tone, takes on the body of work Dimen produced in the last decade of her life, which focused on sexual boundary violations. This work highlights the hybridity of her thinking and the brilliance of her mind. I flesh out the genealogy of her reflections on this topic and discuss in some depth how her last, posthumously published paper changes the terms of the conversation in this very difficult matter. In this topic, as she had previously done in many others, Dimen’s contribution introduced an entirely novel way to think about the recalcitrant problem of sexual abuses in the consulting room.     

Sexual trauma, spirituality, and psychopathology

This study assessed the association between spirituality and psychopathology in a group of sexual abuse victims and controls with a focus on whether spirituality moderated the association between sexual trauma and psychopathology. Seventy-one sexual trauma victims were compared to 25 control subjects on spiritual well-being, the Eating Disorder Examination, the PTSD Symptom Scale, and the SCID-I/P. The data showed that the two groups did not differ in terms of spiritual well-being. Sexual trauma status was associated with most of the psychopathology outcomes, but its impact on psychopathology was largely unmoderated by spirituality. Among sexual trauma victims, the level of spiritual well-being did not alter the probability of current psychopathology. However, increased spiritual well-being was generally associated with lower psychopathology for the entire sample.     

A literature review of overnight work travel within individual,family and social contexts

ABSTRACT

This paper presents results of a comprehensive literature review of empirical studies investigating travel for work and how it relates to individual lives. The paper presents information on how work travel has been operationalized in the literature. The paper describes findings concerning how feelings about travel, individual well-being, the work/family interface, family relationships and social connections have been found to be affected by work travel. The empirical articles on workers who travel have been conducted in multiple countries and via diverse methodologies, which provides richness to the findings. The lack of uniformity in how work travel has been operationalized presents challenges for drawing conclusions about the effects of work travel. Recommendations concerning how to move the field forward are presented, including uniting the employment-related literature with the family literature to provide more holistic and useful implications for the study of work travel.     

Levels of stress and anxiety in child and family social work: Workers' perceptions of organizational structure,professional support and workplace opportunities in Children's Services in the UK

Child and family social workers are consistently found to have high levels of stress, and this has often been linked to burnout and retention problems in the profession. Local authorities in the UK have recently been under pressure to reform services, and one focus has been exploring how different organizational structures might reduce stress and increase well-being of workers. This paper presents data on 193 social workers from five local authorities in England. We examine the effects of different ways of organizing Children's Services on workers' well-being, with particular focus on the underlying relationship between organizational elements, workplace opportunities, and practitioners' work satisfaction. The primary outcome measure is the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12, Goldberg, 1978), a widely validated measure of stress. This data is presented alongside information exploring aspects of organizational structure and functioning. Results indicated significantly different levels of reported stress and general well-being in practitioners working in different local authorities. Implications for how local authorities might support staff to work productively in the stressful and challenging environment of child and family social work are discussed.     

New working conditions and consequences on activity of home healthcare workers

Home healthcare is steadily growing in Europe. There are a number of reasons for this development: aging population, rising hospital costs, preference to stay in one's own home. Nevertheless, it has been known that home healthcare workers are frequently exposed to a variety of potentially serious occupational hazards. Furthermore, emotional labor is frequently high in this profession. This paper describes an ergonomic study conducted at a home healthcare service. The research focuses on analyzing working conditions of home healthcare aides and nurses, as well as the impacts of their work in terms of job satisfaction, well-being, emotions at work, relationships with the others and occupational stress. The study show that employee strategies are specifically centered around preserving the relationship between patients and workers and coping with the job demands. This paper also shows that home healthcare workers express emotions and conceal them from others. Finally, recommendations discussed with the manager and workers to improve working conditions in this sector led to practical proposals: for example, implementing certain equipment items better suited to difficult care, encouraging assistance between healthcare workers when operations require this through adequate organizational measures, extending work emotion-focused discussion groups with management involvement.     

Discourse of successful aging in The Globe & Mail: Insights from critical gerontology

While the determinants of successful aging receive much attention from researchers, few studies have considered media portrayals of successful aging. Yet the mass media shape the agenda for discussing and understanding aging and transmit the meanings and various experiences of aging between generations. Through thematic analysis of 146 articles featuring older adults in various contexts including family, work, civic engagement, social policy, health care, consumer market, and leisure published in The Globe & Mail in 2004–2006, this paper explores stereotypes of successful aging. Drawing on the insights from critical gerontology and critical discourse analysis, this study suggests that the three themes in the media discourse of successful aging (successful aging as an individual choice, individual responsibility for unsuccessful aging, and how to age successfully by staying engaged) embody the neo-liberal principles of containing the costs of eldercare and maximizing individual effort and responsibility for managing risks of disease and decline in later life.     

Teaching Sociology in Community College: Balancing Ideals with Institutional Constraints

Many professionals experience conflict between personal ideals about the meaning and importance of their work, and the structural limitations of the workplace. This conflict presents professionals with the challenge of how to hold true to their ideals within a non-supportive or even hostile environment. In this paper, I describe my experiences balancing my ideals about teaching, learning, and the purpose of a college education with the institutional constraints of a community college. There are three main sections in this paper. First is a discussion of the reasons I chose a career in community college teaching. The second section focuses on the institutional constraints I have encountered over the first 5 years of my career. In the third section, I explain how I have attempted to balance my ideals with the structural limitations of the college where I teach. Throughout the paper, I blend personal narrative with the relevant literature. In doing so, I intend to use my personal experience as a lens for discussing the challenges and possibilities that characterize community college teaching in general.     

Reconsidering table talk: Critical thoughts on the relationship between sociology,autobiography and self-indulgence

Those who use autobiographical perspectives in the practice of sociology and related disciplines have noted, with concern, the association of their work with self-indulgence (Devault, 1994; Jackson, 1990; Okely, 1992; Kreiger, 1991). This paper elaborates this concern by directing analytic attention to the nature of the charge of self-indulgence. The paper reads as an autobiographical defense of autobiographical sociology. It uses the naming of my own work as self-involved as a point of departure for explicating the implications of this regulatory practice. The device of irony is used to expose how self-indulgence, as a critique invoking highly insular relations of readership, authorship and subject/object distinction, relies on the conventions of a traditional masculine academic discourse.     

Positive dying and resiliency in later life: A qualitative study

This article examines resiliency factors and processes of older adults who experienced positive dying from their perspectives. A qualitative study was conducted based on interviews with 16 hospice patients and their primary caregivers. Core resiliency factors identified included empowering relationships with significant others, spiritual beliefs and practices, ability to skillfully confront mortality, and a stable caregiving environment. These older adults' psychological processes were characterized by a dialectical tension of surrender and resistance, and a creation of life-affirming narratives through which they derived meaning of death and dying. Aspects of personal growth and psychosocial and spiritual well-being were interrelated in these dying older adults' experience of life fulfillment. The examples of resilient older adults suggest that greater attention should be devoted to the interrelatedness of spiritual and psychosocial well-being and human development. Developing an understanding of the positive potential at the end of life is essential to form new ideas in end-of-life care.     

Spiritual Well-Being and Suicidal Ideation Among College Students

Objective: This study explored whether specific dimensions of spiritual well-being (religious well-being and existential well-being) relate to reduced suicidal ideation, and whether associations persisted after controlling for religiosity and psychosocial variables associated with suicide. Participants: Participants were 457 college students who completed measures that assessed spiritual well-being, religiosity, hopelessness, depression, social support, and suicidal ideation. Methods: The authors used linear regression modeling to assess religious and spiritual correlates of suicidal ideation. Results: After controlling for demographic variables and psychosocial factors, neither involvement in organized religion nor religious well-being significantly contributed to suicidal ideation. However, even after controlling for significant correlates, existential well-being remained a significant predictor of suicidal ideation. Conclusions: This investigation highlighted existential well-being as an important factor associated with lower levels of suicidal ideation among college students. Findings from this study focusing on the association between spiritual well-being and suicidality may prove especially beneficial to suicide prevention efforts.     

The Pet Connection: An Attachment Perspective

Using the ethological-evolutionary framework of attachment, and including how the theory has been updated and expanded by findings from attachment-based research, neuroscience and animal studies, this paper proposes that a relationship with a family pet, especially a dog or cat, reflects certain dynamics of attachment which may account for the sense of comfort and connection they provide to individuals at all stages of the life cycle. There is now convincing scientific evidence that companion animals have positive effects on psychological and physical well-being, helping shape how people regulate their emotions, deal with stress or trauma, and relate to others. Discussion considers the implications of these benefits for social work, in particular for policy, prevention, and psychotherapy. An illustration of treatment for pet loss, as well as a framework for promoting attachment in pets adopted from rescue shelters, is also presented. It is recommended that both social work professionals and social work students be educated about the human-animal bond and the significance of pets to so many of our clients.