Psychology and Spirituality
Overview
This is an elective course unit meant for students who are pursuing Bachelor of Arts in Psychology Gender and Arts General. This course is usually taken in the fourth year of study and it assumed that by this time you could have been exposed to various courses in psychology (Theories of personality, social psychology, group dynamics and abnormal psychology) that are prerequisites for your understanding of the concepts in this course
Introduction to Pschology and spirituality
As the names suggest, this a blend of psychology and spirituality. However, you as a psychologist you can agree that any mention of two are like strange fellows sharing a bed. In this course you need to appreciate that psychology and spirituality (religion) are different disciplines with different method of enquiry. These differences notwithstanding, there are potential benefits to be derived from each other’s influences and complements. Secular psychology encompasses behavioral, cognitive, affective and physiological domains of client and excluding spiritual dimensions. This exclusion has made psychology to fail in meeting the needs of the client because his or her spiritual/religious values affect his or her world view, psychological functioning and expression of stress. The addition of spiritual domain of the client will increase the scope of enquiry and thus enhance the effectiveness of psychological interventions. This does not mean that client need to forsake their personal spiritual/religious beliefs nor does it mean the psychologist to abandon the scientific approach to delve in spiritual dimension therapy using religious experience. Instead it is worthwhile to explore how spirituality and psychology can converge and complement each other for us to have integrative comprehension of client’s functioning and to deliver psychotherapy in a holistic manner. As it will be noted in the lessons psychological interventions that are consonant with spiritual/ religious values and beliefs of the clients are more likely to be accepted and complied to hence bringing lasting and desired change. Therefore spiritual dimension provide an additional resource to a psychologist upon which to draw in pursuing change in clients.
In this module we introduce you to how spirituality and psychology can converge and complement each other to have integrative comprehension of client’s functioning and to deliver psychotherapy in a holistic manner. For better understanding we unravel the meaning of spirituality and make an attempt to distinguish its usage with religion. We try to rationalize why spiritual inclusion in psychotherapy is necessary especially in understanding human nature, morality and mental health; family dynamics and support. As course progresses we shift focus on specific issues of religion which include rituals, guilty, forgiveness, good and evil concepts and how they influence behaviors and mental processes which are subject concerns of psychology. The course will end by focusing on unhealthy spirituality especially development of cults and techniques that cult leadership use to lure and maintain new and old members.
We hope the course will equip you with adequate knowledge, attitude and skills on how clients’ spirituality could inform your assessment, diagnosis, treatment planning and interventions for effective service provision. We hope that you will find this module exciting, educative, and engaging.This is an elective course unit meant for students who are pursuing Bachelor of Arts in Psychology Gender and Arts General. This course is usually taken in the fourth year of study and it assumed that by this time you could have been exposed to various courses in psychology (Theories of personality, social psychology, group dynamics and abnormal psychology) that are prerequisites for your understanding of the concepts in this course. The learning outcomes include:
- Explain the importance of integrating spiritual perspective in understanding human behaviors and mental processes.
- Demonstrate an understanding of religious and psychological explanations of human nature- good and evil
- Examine the influence of various religious rituals on behavior and mental processes
- Explain the concepts of guilty and forgiveness in religious and psychological contexts.
- Discuss aspects of unhealthy spiritual