Scrupulosity / Religious OCD

 

Scrupulosity is a type of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) characterized by religious obsessions and behavior to relieve the anxiety. Scrupulosity is also known as religous OCD and moral OCD.

In a mild form, people who regularly practice their religion are viewed as pious, which can be a coverup. For some, the obsessions and attendant compulsions become out of control when they interfere with one or more spheres of life.

Children may miss out on social activities and stay in their rooms reading religious texts and repeatedly praying over minor faults.

An adult may struggle with repetitive immoral thoughts, which they cannot seem to get rid of.

Obsessions

Obsessions are intrusive thoughts and images the person finds anxiety provoking and worrisome to an extreme. Their efforts to get rid of these thoughts don’t seem to work for long.

The powerful anxiety is often expressed as fearful thoughts. Some common examples include fear of:

Sinning against God

Eternal punishment in hell

Sexual sin

Doubting one’s faith

Being forgiven for sin

  Also-

            Repetitive thoughts about past mistakes

            Repeated thoughts about one’s sinful state

 

Compulsions

Compulsions may be mental or behavioral. A few examples follow.

Frequently going to confession or in other traditions,

            Frequently confessing sin to God and seeking forgiveness

Frequently speaking with clergy to gain reassurance of their faith

Repeating religious texts

Frequent praying that interferes with other responsibilities

Frequent efforts to suppress immoral thoughts

 

In their research that developed into a 15-item questionnaire (Penn Inventory of Scrupulosity; PIOS), Abramowitz and his colleagues discovered there are two dimensions to scrupulosity in religious persons.

1. Fear of God- and God’s punishment

2. Fear of Sin – and its consequences

 

Perfectionism

Perfectionism may overlap with scrupulosity in those who are excessively concerned, that is obsessed with, being perfect.

Read more about perfectionism.

Assessment

Olatunji and his colleagues (2007) provide a 15-item measure of scrupulosity useful for mental health clinicians. The scale is called PIOS (Penn Inventory of Scrupulosity).

 

References

Miller CH, Hedges DW. Scrupulosity disorder: an overview and introductory analysis. J Anxiety Disord. 2008 Aug;22(6):1042-58. doi: 10.1016/j.janxdis.2007.11.004. Epub 2007 Nov 21. PMID: 18226490.

Olatunji BO, Abramowitz JS, Williams NL, Connolly KM, Lohr JM. Scrupulosity and obsessive-compulsive symptoms: confirmatory factor analysis and validity of the Penn Inventory of Scrupulosity. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 2007, 21(6), 771-87. doi: 10.1016/j.janxdis.2006.12.002.

Notice

Scrupulosity can be severe and can be treated by mental health professionals.

Scrupulosity has been linked to suicide and suicidal ideation.

Help is available:

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline number 988.

Call 911.

Go to the nearest emergency room.

 

 **********

Geoffrey W. Sutton, PhD is Emeritus Professor of Psychology. He retired from a clinical practice and was credentialed in clinical neuropsychology and psychopharmacology. His website is  www.suttong.com

 

See Geoffrey Sutton’s books on   AMAZON       or  GOOGLE STORE

Follow on    FACEBOOK   Geoff W. Sutton    

   TWITTER  @Geoff.W.Sutton    

You can read many published articles at no charge:

  Academia   Geoff W Sutton     ResearchGate   Geoffrey W Sutton 

 

Dr. Sutton’s posts are for educational purposes only. See a licensed mental health provider for diagnoses, treatment, and consultation.

 

Spiritual and Religious Harassment

 

Spiritual harassment includes but is not limited to religious harassment. Harassment includes the terms emotional abuse or psychological abuse but is generally considered a different category of offensive conduct than physical and sexual abuse.

In general, harassment refers to behavior considered offensive by the person who is the target of the behavior. The behavior may be verbal or nonverbal. The harassing actions leave the targeted person feeling disturbed, upset, demeaned, or humiliated. Harassment includes discrimination.

Harassment By Spiritual Leaders is Not Necessarily Spiritual

What makes harassment religious or spiritual is the use of religious or spiritual texts or practices to produce the distress. Any kind of harassment may be spiritual if the actions negatively impact a person's spirituality. A religious or spiritual leader may harass a person in different ways. Following are examples of harassment that are not necessarily religious or spiritual.

Words that make people of a certain gender or ethnicity feel uncomfortable based on insulting language.

Policies that result in discrimination based on race, ethnicity, gender, ability, or other category.

Unwanted touching, hugging, kissing or pressure for dates.

Coercive sexual advances.

However…

If a person’s spirituality is negatively affected because a spiritual leader or a group of peers then it’s reasonable to call the actions spiritual harassment in addition to other types. For example, if a person avoids participating in meaningful religious or spiritual activities because someone is sexually harassing them then the negative effects can be additive.

 

Spiritual or Religious Harassment

Difficult Doctrines

Examples of spiritual or religious harassment are difficult to codify because many teachings identify various acts as right and others as sinful or wrong. Religious people are expected to give up their wrongdoing. In some religions, persistent sin or wrong doing can lead to personal ruin or eternal damnation. 

Christians are expected to give money and time. In some sects, people are taught to give a minimum of 10% of their income and encouraged to give more of their money and time. The failure to meet the expectations of a religion can lead to feeling unworthy, unloved, rejected, guilty, and ashamed. 

In my view, a healthy spirituality always provides a way of redemption. People can be forgiven, reconciled, restored—in short, no matter how much they have sinned according to their faith’s definition of sin, they may be restored to spiritual wellness. Perhaps the words of a Hebrew Psalm (46) and Welsh hymn capture the restoration, “It is well with my soul.”

Consent

When it comes to doctrines or traditional religious practices that are offensive but normative for a specific faith tradition, adults in free societies can usually practice their spirituality somewhere else. By normative I mean there is no obvious effort to single out a particular person and cause that person to be the target of offensive actions. Thus, the idea of consent is a factor in choosing to remain in a setting that leaves one feeling distressed, guilty, shamed, and so forth.

Adults must realize that children do not grant consent but may be placed in a setting that may negatively affect their spirituality and other aspects of their wellbeing. Spiritual harassment of children happens.

Examples of Spiritual or Religious Harassment

Discrimination based on amount of time or money donated

Discrimination in a secular workplace granting special privileges to one faith more than another

Defacing sacred places like a cemetery or place of worship

Defacing houses and personal spaces with symbols offensive to the person’s faith tradition

Promising spiritual blessings in exchange for time, money, or other acts

Threats of supernatural harm if a person does not perform certain acts

Pressuring victims of abuse to reconcile with their offender

Pressuring congregants to forgive and restore an abusive pastor or spiritual leader

Pressuring congregants to keep quiet about sinful and/or unlawful conduct of a spiritual leader

Pressuring people to give money or time—especially when they have little to give

Continually asking people where they were when they missed a scheduled meeting

Pressuring people in a group to support a decision because dissent is ungodly

Praying so loud that it interferes with other ongoing conversations such as in a restaurant

Persistent communication of spiritual or religious information or messages to people who do not wish to hear or receive such information

Coercing people to perform some act they consider sinful or uncomfortable based on an interpretation of a text or personal message from God

Shaming people who struggle with doubt about their faith or experience spiritual struggles

Shaming people who have a mental illness

Shaming people of the same faith for doing less than expected such as attending fewer meetings than expected or giving less time or money

Knowingly posting false information about a person’s spirituality or religion on social media in an effort to embarrass or humiliate them

Summary

Spiritual harassment includes religious harassment and is a subtype of harassment. Harassment may be verbal or nonverbal. Spiritual harassment consists of actions by spiritual leaders or other group members toward one or more people who experience considerable distress because of the unwanted actions. Spiritual harassment is usually discriminatory in that select people in a group are the targets of the harassment. Any kind of harassment in a spiritual or religious context may be considered spiritual harassment if the actions significantly negatively affect the target person’s spirituality. At some point, severe spiritual harassment may become spiritual or religious abuse. A key indicator of abuse is harm.

Related Posts

Spiritual and Religious Abuse

The Spiritual Abuse Questionnaire 

Learn more about spiritual and general wellbeing in Living Well

Learn more about Christian sexuality and morality, including abuse, in A House Divided.

Find A House Divided on AMAZON and GOOGLE

Please check out my website   www.suttong.com

   and see my books on   AMAZON       or  GOOGLE STORE

Also, consider connecting with me on    FACEBOOK   Geoff W. Sutton    

   TWITTER  @Geoff.W.Sutton    

You can read many published articles at no charge:

  Academia   Geoff W Sutton     ResearchGate   Geoffrey W Sutton 

Note. If you have constructive comments, please add them. Abusive comments and personal advertising will be deleted.

Conversion / Deconversion in Psychology of Religion

 

Conversion of St Paul by Benvenuto Tisi ca 1525

Conversion and deconversion are the acts of moving away from one spiritual or religious identity and moving toward another identity. A generic term for the processes is Spiritual Transformations.

Conversion and deconversion can occur as a result of a  spiritual struggle.

The processes of conversion have been scientifically studied for more than 100 years. An early observer was the American psychologist and philosopher, William James.

Read more about Spiritual Transformations in Chapter 15 of Counseling Pentecostal and Charismatic Christians.

See  Spiritual Struggles   and other spirituality measures in the Test Index for measures evaluating religiosity and spirituality.

_____________________

Please check out my website   www.suttong.com

   and see my books on   AMAZON       or  GOOGLE STORE

Also, consider connecting with me on    FACEBOOK   Geoff W. Sutton    

   TWITTER  @Geoff.W.Sutton    

You can read many published articles at no charge:

  Academia   Geoff W Sutton     ResearchGate   Geoffrey W Sutton 

Religious Spiritual Coping- Positive and Negative

Spiritual Coping 2023 by
Geoffrey W. Sutton & Designer

Coping is the act of dealing with stressful experiences. Religious or Spiritual (RS) coping refers to the act of employing religious or spiritual resources to cope with a stressful experience. 

KennethPargament is the psychology of religion scientist who identified two major groups of coping strategies as positive and negative RS coping. His seminal work was summarized in the 1997 book, The Psychology of Religion and Coping: Theory, Research, and Practice. Many studies since then have illustrated how positive and negative coping strategies work with different stressful conditions.

Pargament, Koenig, and Perez (2000) developed the RCOPE as a measure of positive and negative religious coping. The researchers identified five basic functions of religious coping with impactful events. A shorter form has been used widely in research (Brief RCOPE).

1. Meaning- positive and negative religious or spiritual reappraisal

2. Control- active and passive strategies to deal with the events

3. Comfort-drawing on RS connections or support, or becoming discontented with RS

4. Intimacy- seeking RS support from others or discontent in interpersonal RS relationships

5. Life transformation- RS direction, conversion or disengaging, deconversion

Gall, T. L., & Guirguis-Younger, M. (2013) have summarized some of the findings from coping research. In general, positive religious coping has helped people deal with distress- including general health and mental health conditions. However, negative coping is linked to worsened conditions in some studies. Seeing a condition as punishment by God seems to be a particularly common negative coping response among people whose conditions worsen.

Examples of drawing on RS (Religion or Spirituality) to positively cope with difficulties include the following:

RS purification and forgiveness

RS direction, guidance, and conversion

RS consultation with members of the clergy

RS connection

Examples of negative religious coping include

RS discontent

RS views of God or gods as punishing

RS reappraisal of God’s power

RS persistent pleading for divine assistance

When RS appears helpful in dealing with stressful experiences, people report increases in 

one or more of the following:

Acceptance

Happiness

Optimism

purpose in life

When RS does appears unhelpful in dealing with stressful experiences, people present with the following:

Anxiety

Feeling burdened

General negative mood

Callousness

Cite this page

Sutton, G. W. (2020, January 9). Religious spiritual coping-positive and negative. Psychology Concepts and Theories. Retrieved from https://suttonpsychology.blogspot.com/2020/01/religious-spiritual-coping-positive-and.html

References—These references offer a more in-depth look at RS coping.

Gall, T. L., & Guirguis-Younger, M. (2013). Religious and spiritual coping: Current theory and research. In APA handbook of psychology, religion, and spirituality (Vol 1): Context, theory, and research. (pp. 349–364). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/14045-019

Pargament, K. I. (1997). The psychology of religion and coping: Theory, research, practice. New York: Guilford Press.

Pargament, K. I., Feuille, M., & Burdzy, D. (2011). The Brief RCOPE: Current psychometric status of a short measure of religious coping. Religions, 2, 51–76. doi:10.3390/rel2010051

Ad. I write about psychology and religion- 

See on AMAZON and GOOGLE  at many sites worldwide.

Resource

Assessing Spirituality and Religiosity

Buy on AMAZON

Connections

   My Page    www.suttong.com

   My Books   AMAZON     GOOGLE PLAY STORE

   FACEBOOK   Geoff W. Sutton

   X  @Geoff.W.Sutton

   PINTEREST  www.pinterest.com/GeoffWSutton

Publications (many free downloads)

  Academia   Geoff W Sutton   (PhD)     

  ResearchGate   Geoffrey W Sutton   (PhD)

Spiritual Struggles Psychology of Religion

Spiritual struggles are typically experiences of conflicts of religious or spiritual beliefs, practices, or experiences that cause or extend distress. The distress may be experienced as an emotion such as sadness, anger, or anxiety. In addition, people who struggle may wrestle with conflicting thoughts.

Spiritual struggles can be interpersonal and intrapersonal. Interpersonal spiritual struggles may be between the individual and God such as anger with God for “not showing up as expected” or acting in a way that seemed unloving. Spiritual struggles may also be between the person and others such as a young college woman experiencing conflicts with parents over religious values or conflicts within congregations.

Intrapersonal struggles may be experienced as a failure to live up to spiritual standards of right living or difficulty in forgiving oneself for moral failure. Struggles may also be experienced as a battle with supernatural evil.

Spiritual struggles may be different from other psychological difficulties because of the experience of the supernatural as well as the importance of religion and spirituality to the identity of many people.

Spiritual struggles can be assessed through interviews and survey items.

Some research suggests younger persons and women are more susceptible to struggles than are others.

Spiritual struggles can affect mood and behavior with symptoms of depression and anxiety evident. Religious scholar Marcus Borg referred to anxiety, fear, guilt, and anguish as the told of his spiritual struggle as an adolescent Christian.

The effects of a struggle may be closely linked to the struggle itself or the effects may worsen an existing health or mental health condition. Spiritual struggles have been linked to worsening a variety of general health conditions such as cardiovascular problems and cancer.

Few studies have looked at the possibility of personal growth following a spiritual struggle. This is an area in need of research. An example might be a more mature outlook or sense of peace and wellbeing once the struggle has been resolved.

When spiritual struggles result from a person's behavior that violates their spiritual/moral standards, self-forgiveness may be helpful in repairing the distress and "healing the soul."

I am drawing on a summary by Julie Exline (2013) for this post. Please see her chapter (below) or other works to learn more about spiritual struggles and the names of prominent scientists who study this field.

You can find a variety of scales and survey items related to spirituality at my Assessment and Statistics Blog. Some of the measures are free to use or may be free with permission of the author.  https://statistics.suttong.com/

Some spiritual survey scales and items are included in the book CreatingSurveys  

available on AMAZON worldwide

How to measure Spiritual Struggles and Coping

Religious and Spiritual Struggles  Scale

Brief RCOPE Scale (religious coping)

Related posts

  Conversion / Deconversion in Psychology of Religion

  Demonology, Deliverance, and the Psychology of Religion

  Religious Spiritual Coping - Positive and Negative

Cite this post 

Sutton, G. W. (2020, January 8). Spiritual struggles. Psychology concepts and theories. https://suttonpsychology.blogspot.com/2020/01/spiritual-struggles.html

Reference

Exline, J. J. (2013). Religious and spiritual struggles. In J. J. Exline (Ed.), APA handbook of psychology, religion, and spirituality (Vol 1): Context, theory, and research. (pp. 459–475). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/14045-025

Connections

   My Page    www.suttong.com

   My Books   AMAZON     GOOGLE PLAY STORE

   FACEBOOK   Geoff W. Sutton

   TWITTER  @Geoff.W.Sutton

   PINTEREST  www.pinterest.com/GeoffWSutton

Publications (many free downloads)

  Academia   Geoff W Sutton   (PhD)     

  ResearchGate   Geoffrey W Sutton   (PhD)