Can an Algorithm Tell How Spiritual You Are? Using Generative Pretrained Transformers for Sophisticated Forms of Text Analysis.

Objective: Text analysis is a form of psychological assessment that involves converting qualitative information (text) into quantitative data. We tested whether automated text analysis using Generative Pre-trained Transformers (GPTs) can match the "gold standard" of manual text analysis, even when assessing a highly nuanced construct like spirituality.

Method: In Study 1, N = 2199 US undergraduates wrote about their goals (N = 6597 texts) and completed self-reports of spirituality and theoretically related constructs (religiousness and mental health).

Temporal associations between meaning in life, ultimate meaning struggles, and mental health outcomes in a spiritually integrated inpatient program.

Background: Meaning in life is a benchmark indicator of flourishing that can likely mitigate the severity of depression symptoms among persons seeking mental healthcare. However, patients contending with serious mental health difficulties often experience a painful void or absence of ultimate meaning in their lives that might hinder recovery. This two-wave longitudinal study examined temporal associations between perceived presence of meaning in life, struggles with ultimate meaning, flourishing, and depression symptoms among adults in a spiritually integrated inpatient treatment program.

Attachment to God, Contingent Self-Worth, and Mental Health Outcomes in U.S. Collegiate Athletes.

Scholars and practitioners have recently devoted increased attention to the psychological well-being of student-athletes. However, sparse research has examined the role of religion/spirituality in well-being in athletic populations. In a sample of U.

Virtue in Pursuit of Goals: A Goals-Based Approach to Patience Measurement.

In this paper, we provide a contextualized assessment of virtue through validation of a goals-based approach to measuring patience, the Goals-Based Virtue-Patience Scale (GBV-P). To assess virtue in a way congruent with its definition requires consideration of situational and contextual factors; however, most extant measures of virtue instead assess virtue at a decontextualized, global level (Ng & Tay, 2020). As such, we developed a contextualized and motivationally attuned goals-based assessment of the virtue of patience, the ability to remain calm in the face of frustration, suffering, or delay in goal pursuit.

Closeness to God, Spiritual Struggles, and Wellbeing in the First Year of College.

Spirituality is an important, but oft-overlooked, aspect of the self that may affect college students' wellbeing and belonging. Few studies have systematically examined closeness to God and spiritual struggles as predictors of college student wellbeing during early college, which is a critical window for identity development. Moreover, research exploring interactions between spiritual struggles and closeness to God in predicting wellbeing outcomes is scarce.

Positive exchanges buffer negative exchanges: Associations with marital satisfaction among U.S. mixed-sex couples.

Perceived positive and negative exchanges in relationships contribute to marital satisfaction in qualitatively distinct manners. However, the nature of these associations is unclear with some studies demonstrating curvilinear relationships and some literature suggesting interaction effects of positive and negative exchanges on marital satisfaction. Extant work has not compared curvilinear and interactive models to address this discrepancy.

Perceptions of Divine Forgiveness, Religious Comfort, and Depression in Psychiatric Inpatients: A Mixed Methods Study.

Understanding how forgiveness relates to mental health outcomes may improve clinical care. This study assessed 248 adult psychiatric inpatients, testing associations of forgiveness, religious comfort (RC), religious strain (RS), and changes in depressive symptomatology from admission to discharge. Experiencing divine forgiveness and self-forgiveness was both directly associated with RC and inversely associated with RS.

Humanitarian Athletic Participation and Identity Work.

Numerous studies examine youth purpose and volunteerism, but only few investigate how altruistic activities shape identity development within athletic contexts. Endurance-based humanitarian fundraising teams are becoming increasingly popular forms of volunteerism among adolescents and young adults in the United States, but little is known about their developmental role. Twenty-four participants (15-21 years of age; = 17.

Mindset as Characteristic Adaptations: Using Response Surface Analysis to Assess Mindset in the Personality System.

This study aimed to assess the congruencies and discrepancies between mindset domains in relation to well-being and sought to demonstrate that mindset falls into the characteristic adaptation level of personality. Data ( = 618, = 16.07, = 0.

Mixed Results on the Efficacy of the CharacterMe Smartphone App to Improve Self-Control, Patience, and Emotional Regulation Competencies in Adolescents.

Unprecedented levels of access to adolescents' time and attention provide opportunities to convert traditional character and socioemotional competencies interventions into behavioral intervention technologies. However, these new tools must be evaluated rather than assuming previously validated activities will be efficacious when converted to a mobile platform. Thus, we sought to design and provide initial data on the effectiveness of the CharacterMe smartphone app to build self-control and patience, which are built on underlying social-emotional regulation competencies, in a sample of 618 adolescents ( = 16.

Religiousness, meaning, and quality of life: Test of a mediational model among adults seeking a spiritually integrated inpatient program.

Objective: Religious beliefs and practices may augment a sense of meaning in life that could support quality of life (QOL) in physical, social, and emotional domains amid mental health crises. However, these associations have not been thoroughly tested among persons with serious mental illness (SMI).

Methods: Focusing on 248 adults who had recently enrolled in a spiritually integrated acute psychiatric hospitalization program, we incorporated structural equation modeling to examine whether (1) religiousness would be associated with better overall QOL; and (2) inpatients' sense of meaning in life would at least partially account for the religiousness-QOL link.

Religiosity in adolescence.

Person-centered approaches to religious development across adolescence reveal diverse trajectories of change, which are differentially subject to environmental and genetic influences. Studies support the robust protective effects of religiosity on adolescent internalizing and externalizing symptoms. However, some specific religious beliefs may predict poor adjustment.

Bidirectional Associations across Time between Entitativity, Positive Affect, Generosity, and Religiousness in Adolescents Training with a Religiously Affiliated Charity Marathon Team.

Numerous studies have established that participation in regular physical activity provides physical, cognitive, and affective benefits to adolescents, but fewer studies have examined how athletic involvement might affect character, social, or religious developmental markers of psychosocial functioning. The purpose of this study is to examine the bidirectional associations between entitativity (group closeness), positive affect, generosity, and religiousness across time among adolescents and emerging adults involved in charitable marathon training. We collected data from 396 adolescents and emerging adults who trained for half/full marathons with a religiously affiliated charity team.

Religion, Spirituality, and Thriving: Transcendent Narrative, Virtue, and Telos.

A theory is proposed to explain how religion/spirituality (R/S) is related to positive youth development and thriving. The concept of telos is employed to define thriving as continued growth through strength-based living that leads to contributing to one's communities and living out one's ethical ideals. Virtue development is proposed as a primary process by which R/S promotes thriving.

Transcendent motivations and virtue development in adolescent marathon runners.

Objective: To understand how health, prosocial, and spiritual motivations correspond to changes in the virtues of self-control, patience, and interpersonal generosity among adolescents and emerging adults.

Method: Participants included adolescent and emerging adult athletes (N = 396; 12-22 years, M = 18.42, SD = 2.

Spiritual struggles and mental health outcomes in a spiritually integrated inpatient program.

Background: Persons contending with serious mental health difficulties often experience struggles with religious faith and/or spirituality that may also demand clinical attention. However, research has not examined the relative importance of specific forms of spiritual struggles in mental health status or treatment outcomes of psychiatric patients.

Methods: Focusing on 217 adults who completed a spiritually integrated inpatient program, this study examined (1) which struggles in Exline et al.

God imagery and affective outcomes in a spiritually integrative inpatient program.

Religion and/or spirituality (R/S) can play a vital, multifaceted role in mental health. While beliefs about God represent the core of many psychiatric patients' meaning systems, research has not examined how internalized images of the divine might contribute to outcomes in treatment programs/settings that emphasize multicultural sensitivity with R/S. Drawing on a combination of qualitative and quantitative information with a religiously heterogeneous sample of 241 adults who completed a spiritually integrative inpatient program over a two-year period, this study tested direct/indirect associations between imagery of how God views oneself, religious comforts and strains, and affective outcomes (positive and negative).