Religiosity and personality: are mystics introverted, neurotic, or psychotic?

Nonordinary Experiences, Well-being and Mental Health: A Systematic Review of the Evidence and Recommendations for Future Research

Throughout history, people have reported nonordinary experiences (NOEs) such as feelings of oneness with the universe and hearing voices. Although these experiences form the basis of several spiritual and religious traditions, experiencing NOEs may create stress and uncertainty among those who experience such events. To provide a more systematic overview of the research linking NOEs with mental health, we present a systematic review of studies focusing on NOEs, well-being and mental health indicators. In a search of ProQuest and PsycInfo, we identified 725 references, of which 157 reported empirical data and were included in our review. Overall, the studies reviewed suggest that the relationship between NOEs and mental health is complex, varying according to a series of psychological and social factors. In particular, they suggest that appraisal processes play a fundamental role in the mental health outcomes of these experiences. However, we also highlight important methodological challenges such as the conceptual overlap between NOEs and well-being or psychopathological constructs, the conflation between experiences and appraisal processes in the assessment procedure, and the need for clearer assessment of the duration, controllability, impact on daily functioning and general context of the experiences. We provide a qualitative summary of empirical evidence and main themes of research and make recommendations for future investigation.

Religious Commitment and its Relation to Happiness among Muslim Students: The Educational Level as Moderator

This study examines the relationship between religiosity and level of happiness in an Islamic context among Muslim students studying at Malaysian universities. The determinants of happiness included in this research are positive attitudes, self-esteem, and other-esteem. Religiosity has long been considered as the main determinant in increasing happiness, and educational level strengthens its relationship. For this purpose, the researchers sampled 230 Muslim students aged 17-40 years studying at Malaysian universities in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The study found a positive and significant correlation between religious commitment and level of happiness. Religious commitment also shows positive and significant correlations with positive attitudes, self-esteem, and other-esteem. The study also concludes that educational attainment moderates the relationship between religious commitment and happiness. Thus, religious commitment plays a very important role in increasing levels of happiness.

The Varieties of Self-Transcendent Experience

Various forms of self-loss have been described as aspects of mental illness (e.g., depersonalization disorder), but might self-loss also be related to mental health? In this integrative review and proposed organizational framework, we focus on self-transcendent experiences (STEs)—transient mental states marked by decreased self-salience and increased feelings of connectedness. We first identify common psychological constructs that contain a self-transcendent aspect, including mindfulness, flow, peak experiences, mystical-type experiences, and certain positive emotions (e.g., love, awe). We then propose psychological and neurobiological mechanisms that may mediate the effects of STEs based on a review of the extant literature from social psychology, clinical psychology, and affective neuroscience. We conclude with future directions for further empirical research on these experiences.

Emotional Thinking in the Adult: Individual Differences in Mysticism and Globality-Differentiation

The present study explored emotional thinking in the adult using four related scales. A new Mysticism Scale assessed tendencies to use magical, esoteric, incomprehensible, and unfounded concepts and hypotheses. Two related scales (Paranormal Belief, Magical Ideation) correlated .88 and .74, respectively, with the Mysticism Scale. The Globality-Differentiation Scale assessed emotional, subjective, and centered thinking and related to unpleasant, arousable, and submissive characteristics, showing it to be the cognitive counterpart of Trait Anxiety or Neuroticism. The Globality/maladjustment relationship was confirmed by positive relationships of the Globality Scale with measures of Trait Anxiety, Depression, Panic, Somatization, and Drug Use. In comparison, the Mysticism Scale related only to Trait Arousability (a measure of positive and/or negative emotional sensitivity) and, along with the Paranormal Belief and Magical Ideation scales, was generally unrelated to measures of psychopathology.

Personality Attributes as Discriminating Factors in Distinguishing Religio-Mystical from Paranormal Experients

In the first section of this article, an operationalized notion of preternatural experience is described which includes two general classes of experience: religio-mystical (Ontic) and paranormal (Perceptual). The exploratory study which follows uses the personality measures of the complete Tellegen Differential Personality Questionnaire taken from 120 subjects who reported having had spontaneous religio-mystical and/or paranormal experiences at some time in the past. The scores on all eleven primary dimensions, three higher order affect factors, and two validity scales were used individually, in univariate ANOVAs, and together, in a Direct Discriminant Function Analysis, to successfully separate two classes of preternatural experients from non-experients and from each other.

Islamic Personal Religiosity as a Moderator of Job Strain and Employee's Well-Being: The Case of Malaysian Academic and Administrative Staff

Presently, there is increased in research on job strain and the effects of religiosity on employee well-being. Despite increased recognition of religiosity as a moderator of well-being, limited research has focused on Islamic perspective of moderating job strain. This study examines the moderating effects of Islamic personal religiosity on the relationship between job strain and employee well-being in Malaysian universities. One hundred and seventeen (117) Muslim academic and administrative staff from four public universities were sampled. Data were collected via questionnaires, and our findings show that the effect of job strain on well-being is significant for employees and that personal religiosity of employees contributed to alleviating job strain and enhancing well-being. Thus, the study concludes that Islamic personal religiosity moderates the relationship between job strain and employee well-being.

Obsessive-Compulsive Symptomatology, Religiosity Levels and the Illusion-of-Control Paradigm in a Non-Clinical Undergraduate Sample

The present research employed the illusion-of-control paradigm to investigate the relationships between Obsessive-Compulsive disorder (OCD) symptoms, religiosity levels, and illusory sense of control (SC). An opportunistic sample of 60 undergraduate students was presented with a pre-programmed series of neutral visual stimuli (i.e. lines) and was expected to try to control the sequence through the use of keyboard presses. Participants assessed their perceived level of control twice throughout the computerised task. In addition, the study was interested at examining the relationship between religiosity and OC behaviour and the Santa Clara Strength of Religious Faith Questionnaire (SCSRF) was employed. In proportion to predictions, OCD symptoms were correlated with higher illusory SC; furthermore, religiosity levels were related to some degree to OCD symptoms. The essential role of mental control in OCD is discussed, particularly the significant clinical implications of such an association. Furthermore, the possible contribution of religious affiliations to the maintenance of OC behaviour is further discussed.

Measuring religiosity and its effects on personal well-being: a case study of Muslim female academicians in Malaysia

This study seeks to measure religiosity in an Islamic context and to assess its effects on the personal well-being of Muslims. The determinants of religiosity included under this research are prayer, beliefs, and worship. This research also attempts to examine the coping strategies Muslims use to deal with life problems and changes such as prayer, supplication, trust and reliance on God, remembrance of death, and concept of life after death. Today, many scales of religiosity are being put into use among Muslims. This study measures religiosity and its effects on the well-being of Muslim academicians. The researchers used 315 Muslim female of academic staff as respondents, working in Research Universities in the Klang Valley such as University of Malaya, National University and Putra University area of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Their ages ranged from 30 to 60 years. The results of this study show that there exists a positive yet significant correlation between personal well-being and religiosity. The well-being also shows significant positive correlations with beliefs and worship and prayer.

Assessing clinical implications of spiritual experiences

Since spiritual experiences (SE) very often resemble dissociative and psychotic symptoms, there is a risk of misdiagnosis in both directions: labeling a healthy SE as a mental disorder or taking a mental disorder as an SE. There is a scarcity of well-controlled studies on this subject. The paper provides a brief overview of studies on dissociative and psychotic experiences in the non-clinical population, especially those occurring in spiritual populations. At the end, some guidelines are proposed to help clinical reasoning when making the differential diagnosis between healthy SE with psychotic and dissociative experiences and mental disorders that may resemble SE.

Personality and religion among female drug misusers

Fifty female drug misusers completed the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire and the Francis scale of attitude towards Christianity on entry to a Christian residential rehabilitation programme. The data confirm the deviant personality profile of drug misusers, who score high on psychoticism and neuroticism and low on extroversion and the lie scale, and demonstrate that the general findings relating religious attitudes to the Eysenckian dimensions of personality among normal populations also hold good among this deviant group, thereby confirming the generalisability of the conclusion that it is psychoticism, rather than neuroticism or extroversion, which is fundamental to religiosity. The practical relevance of these findings is discussed for rehabilitation programmes which include spiritual or religious components.