Dr jaime dy liacco book

Research Paper Read Description

The Research Paper will discuss 6 major ideas that make up the basics of personality theory as well as include a section on biblical integration.

These are the required topics that should be viewed from the perspective of: How is this related to personality? Each topic (article selected) must be clearly connected to personality.

1. Nature versus Nurture

2. The Unconscious

3. View of Self

4. Development

5. Motivation

6. Maturation

Must follow the outline given in attachment to structure the paper; it is important that it do not stray from the outline.

It is imperative that your Research Paper include scholarly research and not your opinion. The paper is a presentation of research regarding each of the required headings. The paper must use 3rd person writing instead of 1st person (I, my, we) or second person (you) language. The Research Paper must include 8–10 pages of text (not including the title, abstract, or reference pages).

The Research Paper requires the use of at least 10 scholarly references (books and journal articles). At least 6 of these references must be scholarly journal articles. Do not use dictionaries, encyclopedias, websites, book reviews, or your textbook as references in your paper. Must use the Bible, but it does not count toward the 10 scholarly references.

Be sure to follow current APA formatting per the current APA manual. Must include in-text citations as well as a reference page within the paper. Paraphrasing with citations is strongly preferred over direct quotes. If the paper do not include any in-text citations in this assignment, a zero will be received.

The Unique Role of Spirituality in the Process of Growth Following Stress and Trauma

Mary Beth Werdel & Gabriel S. Dy-Liacco & Joseph W. Ciarrocchi & Robert J. Wicks & Gina M. Breslford

Published online: 30 April 2013 # Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013

Abstract This study investigated the unique contributions and moderating effects of pos- itive and negative experiences of spirituality in predicting variance in stress-related growth and positive affect over and above the variance explained by the domains of the Five-Factor Model of Personality, social support, perceived stress, and gender in a sample of 109 male and 320 female volunteers. Responses were analyzed using hierarchical linear regression. Results indicated that faith maturity predicted unique variance in stress-related growth after controlling for the influence of personality and gender; faith maturity and spiritual struggle predicted significant unique additional variance in positive affect over and above the variance predicted by personality, social support, and stress-related growth; and spiritual struggle moderated the relationship between stress-related growth and positive affect. The implications of these results are discussed in light of Park’s (Journal of Social Issues 61:707– 729, 2005) model of religion as a meaning-making framework.

Keywords Spirituality. Stress-relatedgrowth .Faithmaturity. Spiritual struggle . Incremental validity

Introduction

The idea that positive psychological changes may occur following stress or trauma is a concept that is well documented. There are a number of terms used to describe the phenomenon. The term posttraumatic growth, coined by Calhoun and Tedeschi (2006), conceptualizes growth following stress and trauma as fitting into one of three categories: changes in the perception of self; changes in relating to others; and philosophical changes

Pastoral Psychol (2014) 63:57–71 DOI 10.1007/s11089-013-0538-4

M. B. Werdel (*) Graduate School of Religion and Religious Education, Fordham University, Bronx, NY 10458, USA e-mail: mwerdel@fordham.edu

G. S. Dy-Liacco School of Psychology and Counseling, Regent University, Virginia Beach, VA, USA

J. W. Ciarrocchi : R. J. Wicks Pastoral Counseling Department, Loyola University Maryland, Columbia, MD, USA

G. M. Breslford University of Pennsylvania Harrisburg, Harrisburg, PA, USA

of priorities, appreciations, and spirituality (Calhoun and Tedeschi 2006). Posttraumatic growth is the most widely used term in the literature. Other closely related terms include ‘stress-related growth’ (Park et al. 1996), ‘adversarial growth’ (Linley and Joseph 2004) and ‘benefit-finding’ (Tennen and Affleck 1998).

Not everyone who experiences stress or trauma will experience posttraumatic growth. In an attempt to understand why, the empirical research provides evidence that posttraumatic growth has a correlational relationship with a number of environmental and personal factors. For instance, research indicates that a heightened level of distress is a key factor in initiating the process of posttraumatic growth (Park 2005; Tedeschi and Calhoun 2004). If too little distress is experienced, a person post-stress or -trauma may not initiate the cognitive process necessary to experience growth (Levine et al. 2008).

A second factor that is important to posttraumatic growth is social support. Research suggests that when a person discloses information about a trauma in a supportive relation- ship, a person receives emotional support, informational feedback about the trauma, and tangible assistance which over time may lead a person to view others more positively and increase their self-confidence (Swickter and Hittner 2009). Additionally, close relationships may help people discover new ways of perceiving or thinking about the world or new coping methods (Tedeschi and Calhoun 2004).

A third factor relative to growth is personality (Calhoun and Tedeschi 2006). Personality contributes to the way a person’s experiences are perceived (DeNeve and Copper 1998). Evidence suggests that people who score high on levels of the personality factors of extraversion and openness to new experiences may be more likely to experience growth after trauma than people who have lower levels of the same factors (Calhoun and Tedeschi 1999). (For a more detailed discussion of the variables of perceived stress, social support, and personality, see Calhoun and Tedeschi 2006.)

While the aforementioned variables explain a significant amount of the variance in models of growth, there may be other variables that contribute to the process of growth that are important to uncover for both research and clinical purposes. However, knowing that perceived stress, social support, and personality have evidenced relationships with posttraumatic growth, these factors should be considered in future studies of growth so as to increase parsimony in the literature.

The role of spirituality

The conversation that posttraumatic growth researchers have engaged in the psychological literature is one that religious and spiritual texts have long discussed. People often turn to religion with questions that result from the experience of suffering (Bemporad 2005). It is not surprising that a number of religious and spiritual variables have been examined in regards to their relationship with growth. Research suggests that posttraumatic growth is linked to religious and spiritual practices (Cadell et al. 2003), prayer (Levine et al. 2009), positive religious coping (Proffitt et al. 2007), negative religious coping (Pargament et al. 2004), and religious orientation (Calhoun et al. 2000).

Religiosity and spirituality are multidimensional variables that incorporate cognitions, sentiments, and behaviors including both positive and negative aspects of an individual’s relationship with the Divine. There are a number of relationships between religiosity, spirituality, and growth after stress and trauma that have not been explored. Additionally, spirituality has primarily been explored without a model that considers the potential overlap of personality and spiritual variables. Furthermore, the studies heretofore have not consid- ered the potential of spirituality as a moderator variable. Two specific spiritual variables worthy of attention are faith maturity and spiritual struggles.

58 Pastoral Psychol (2014) 63:57–71

Faith maturity Faith maturity captures the “degree to which a person embodies the priori- ties, commitments, and perspectives of vibrant life-transforming faith” (Benson et al. 1993, p. 3). To date there have been no studies that have examined the relationship of faith maturity to posttraumatic growth. However, previous research suggests that faith maturity is a robust indicator of positive psychological adjustment (Salsman and Carlson 2005). Additionally, research suggests that faith maturity correlates with variables that also correlate with posttraumatic growth. For example, in a study of 251 male and female undergraduate students, faith maturity was correlated with intrinsic religious orientation, a variable with known relationships to growth. Therefore, it is reasonable to propose that faith maturity will also correlate with posttraumatic growth and may predict unique variance in posttraumatic growth as well. The results of research on posttraumatic growth and faith maturity may distinguish differences that assessing religious and spiritual practices or religious coping style do not. An individual may attend church services, pray, or attempt to use religion to cope, but any relationship found between such activities and growth does not explain the relationship if the use of a mature faith versus an immature faith matters when engaging in such religious and spiritual practices and coping. It seems reasonable to suppose that a person with a higher maturity of faith would be able to hold the paradox of a loving God and tragic and painful life experiences in a way that allows new positive meaning about their self, about others, or about their God to be discovered.

Spiritual struggle A second aspect of spirituality that warrants more attention is the rela- tionship that exists between growth and spiritual struggle. Spiritual struggle is an aspect of negative religious coping concerned with whether or not a person feels abandoned by, punished by, or angry with God. Research suggests that there are profound negative mental and physical health implications associated with spiritual struggle. For instance, viewing God as punishing, as well as expressions of spiritual discontent, have been linked to poorer physical health, decreased quality of life, and greater depression (Koenig et al. 2004; Koenig et al. 1998). Negative religious coping has even been associated with increased likelihood of mortality in samples of medically ill patients (Koenig et al. 1998; Oxman et al. 1995). Whereas secure relationships with God are thought to aid in the coping process following stress and trauma, the presence of a spiritual struggle is thought to exacerbate distress (Ano and Vasconcelles 2005).

In a two-year longitudinal study consisting of 236 medically ill elderly patients, Pargament et al. (2004) examined the relationship between negative religious coping and posttraumatic growth. Results indicated that participants who evidenced high degrees of negative religious coping at both the start of the study and two years later also evidenced significant declines in quality of life, declines in functional status, and increased levels of depressed moods.

Given the profoundly negative relationship that exists between negative religious coping and posttraumatic growth, research that includes spiritual struggle may be useful. One way that the construct of spiritual struggle may be helpful is in understanding the conflicting data that exist in the literature as to whether an association exists between posttraumatic growth and positive affect. While time has been indicated as a potential condition, there may be other intrapersonal moderators of the relationship such as the presence of a spiritual struggle. The psychological literature on emotions provides evidence to support the idea that negative emotional experiences have a stronger, more lasting effect on subjective measures of well- being than positive experiences (Baumeister et al. 2001). With this evidence, it is hypoth- esized that spiritual struggle is negatively related to growth following stress and trauma. Furthermore, the presence of a spiritual struggle may be one condition that would affect the relationship between growth and positive affect.

Pastoral Psychol (2014) 63:57–71 59

No prior studies have examined how negative religious coping may interact with the process of posttraumatic growth. An answer would lead the field further along from the principal question of whether or not spirituality relates to growth and closer to answering the question of how spirituality relates to growth. If spiritual struggles are an obstacle to the experience of growth, then a clinical implication of understanding the role that spiritual struggle plays in relationship to growth is that it may lead therapists and pastoral counselors to assess for spiritual struggles when working with people experiencing stressful life events that would otherwise go unexplored and untreated.

The incremental validity paradigm in psychological research

It is imperative that personality variables be included in psychological research of spiritual variables. Piedmont (2005) suggested the use of the Incremental Validity Paradigm in the psychological research of religious and spiritual variables. This paradigm considers the role of personality as a potential mediator of relationships between spirituality and outcome variables (Piedmont 2005). There is evidence of a significant relationship be- tween personality and religious and spirituality variables (Saroglou 2002). Including personality variables in research studies is a way to demonstrate the distinctiveness of spiritual variables’ contributions by providing evidence that spiritual variables capture something unique about outcome variables not already understood by models of person- ality (Piedmont 2005). The use of the incremental validity paradigm provides evidence for religious and spiritual variables as more than a “religification” (Van Wicklin 1990) of psychological constructs.

Incremental validity is tested through mediational analysis. Baron and Kenny (1986) explain that a variable functions as a mediator “to the extent that it accounts for the relationship between the predictor and the criterion” (p. 1176). A predictor variable may correlate with both an outcome variable and a proposed mediator variable. When the relationship between the predictor and the outcome is reduced to zero or a nonsignificant relationship, after controlling for their common correlation with the proposed mediator, there is evidence for a mediator variable. However, if the correlation is not reduced to zero and remains statistically significant, then there is evidence of the unique contributions of the predictor to the outcome variable.

Hypotheses

This study proposes that growth following stress and trauma will be significantly positively correlated with faith maturity, positive affect, and social support with a medium effect size. Additionally, stress-related growth will be significantly negatively correlated with perceived stress with a small effect size. As well, this study proposes that the domains of the Five- Factor Model of Personality, social support, and perceived stress will predict stress-related growth. Faith maturity and spiritual struggle will explain significant unique variance in stress-related growth over and above the variance explained by the domains of the Five- Factor Model of Personality, social support, and perceived stress.

Also, this study proposes that the domains of the Five-Factor Model of Personality, stress- related growth, social support, and perceived stress will predict positive affect. Faith maturity and spiritual struggle will explain significant unique variance in positive affect over and above the variance explained by the domains of the Five-Factor Model of Personality, social support, and perceived events. Furthermore, spiritual struggle will mod- erate the effects of stress-related growth on positive affect.

60 Pastoral Psychol (2014) 63:57–71

Method

Participants

This study is an analysis of unanalyzed relationships in a data set that was partially collected for a Positive Psychology and Spirituality Research Group at a mid-Atlantic university. A total of 255 participants in the data set completed all measures of interest. An additional 174 participants were recruited. The sample is predominantly female (74.6 %), Caucasian (80.1 %), and Christian (56.8 %). Participants’ ages range from 17 to 80 years (mean = 42.18). A total of 49.6 % are married, 35.9 % are single, and 12.9 % are divorced. The sample is highly educated; 80.5 % have at least a college degree, and 50.8 % have a graduate degree.

Measures

Demographic questionnaire The Demographic Questionnaire developed by the second and fourth author captures age, gender, marital status, ethnic group, and educational level.

Faith maturity scale (FMS) short form Developed by Benson et al. (1993), the FMS scale captures values and behavioral manifestations of faith (Tisdale, 1999). The FMS measures two domains: Faith Maturity Vertical (FMS-V, the emphasis that an individual places on his or her relationship with the transcendent) and Faith Maturity Horizontal (FMS-H, the emphasis that a person places on serving others) (Piedmont and Nelson 2001). The scale is an 11-item, 7-point Likert-type scale with responses ranging from 1 = Never true to 7 = Always true. Eight items make up the FMS-Vand three items make up the FMS-H.

Brief religious and spiritual coping scale (RCOPE)/spiritual struggle The RCOPE is a 63- item measure with 21 subscales that “assess the degree to which [people make] use of various religious methods of coping” (Pargament et al. 2004, p. 716). The Brief RCOPE (Pargament et al. 1998) is a shortened version of the instrument that consists of 14 items and 2 subscales, each subscale containing 7 items. The Negative Religious Coping subscale is “an expression of a less secure relationship with God” (Pargament et al. 1998, p. 712), indicated by punishing God appraisals, interpersonal religious discontent, demonic appraisals, spiritual discontent, and questioning God’s powers. Items are answered on a 4-point frequency scale, and responses range from 0 = Not at all to 3 = A great deal. For the purpose of this study, a composite variable, Spiritual Struggle, was created from two items of the Negative Religious Coping Subscale of the RCOPE. The two items used to assess spiritual struggle are: “I feel that God is punishing me for my sins or lack of spirituality” and “I wonder whether God has abandoned me.” The items are answered on a 4-point frequency scale with responses of: 1 = A great deal, 2 = Quite a bit, 3 = Somewhat, and 4 = Not at all. A total score is derived by summing the two items, with high scores indicating high levels of struggle. The composite variable of spiritual struggle used in this study is supported by the work of Piedmont et al. (2006). See article for more information.

Perceived stress scale 4-item version (PSS) Developed by Cohen et al. (1983), the PSS is a measure of the degree to which a person appraises situations in life as stressful. A 4-item short-form measure was developed from the original scale. Two of the items have a positive valence and two have a negative valence. The items are answered on a 5-point Likert-type scale from 0 = Never to 5 = Very often. The positive valence items are reverse coded, and the total score is then derived by summing all 4 items.

Pastoral Psychol (2014) 63:57–71 61

Perceived social support- friends (PSS-Fr) Developed by Procidano and Heller (1983), the Perceived Social Support—Friends Scale is a 20-item scale that was designed to measure “the extent to which an individual perceives that his/her needs for support, information, and feedback are fulfilled by friends” (p. 2). Participants read declarative statements and respond by indicating, Yes, No, or I don’t know. A total score is derived by summing all the items, with a high score indicating high levels of perceived social support.

50-item IPIP-NEO inventory Goldberg et al. (2006) developed the short form of the questionnaire to capture the domains of the Five-Factor Model of Personality (FFM): Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness, Agreeableness, and Consciousness (the degree to which one has personal organization). The 50-item IPIP-NEO is a self-report measure to which individuals respond with Likert-type item responses ranging from 1 = Very inaccurate to 5 = Very accurate.

Stress-related growth scale 15-item short form (SRGS) Park et al. (1996) developed the SRGS, a 50-item self-report measure, to capture positive changes following an identified stressful event in a number of areas: personal resources, social relationships, life philosophy, and coping skills. Items are answered on a 3-point frequency scale: 0 = Not at all, 1 = Somewhat, and 2 = A great deal. The 15-item short form of the SRGS, developed by Cohen et al. (1998), consists of the 15 highest-loading items of the 50-item measure.

Midlife development inventory—affect scales (MIDI) The Midlife Development Inventory was developed by Brim and Featherman (as cited in Mroczek and Kolarz 1998) for a national survey that studied midlife in the United States in regard to health and well-being. The survey contains a number of measures related to aspects of midlife and aging. Participants respond with a 5-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1 = All of the time to 5 = None of the time.

Procedure

Participants completed self ratings on all measures through Psychdata, the online survey software. First, correlations were used to determine a relationship between the variables. Second, a series of hierarchical multiple regressions were used to determine if positive and negative experiences of spirituality explain unique variance in stress-related growth, without mediation by the domains of the Five-Factor Model of Personality. Third, a series of hierarchical multiple regressions were used to determine (a) if positive and negative expe- riences of spirituality explain variance in positive affect without mediation by the domains of the Five-Factor Model of Personality and (b) if the relationship between stress-related growth and positive affect is moderated by levels of negative spirituality.

Results

The data were reviewed for possible gender differences. Independent sample t-tests for gender differences for scores for all the scales indicated a significant difference between males and females on four scales. As can be seen in Table 1, females scored significantly higher on levels of stress-related growth, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and social support. The result of the t-test indicating gender differences in the Stress-Related Growth Scale shown in Table 1 is congruent with previous research that suggests women tend to report more posttraumatic growth than men (Tedeschi and Calhoun 1996). Table 2 displays

62 Pastoral Psychol (2014) 63:57–71

the means, standard deviations, and acceptable alpha reliability coefficients for all predictor and criterion variables. All of the alpha reliability coefficients are acceptable.

Correlational analysis

As predicted, faith maturity and positive affect correlate positively with stress-related growth. Social support correlates positively with stress-related growth with an effect size that approaches medium. There is a significant negative correlation between perceived stress and stress-related growth with a small effect size. As can be seen in Table 3, the data support that positive affect and spiritual struggle have a significant negative correlation with a moderate effect size.

Table 1 Independent Sample t-tests for Gender Differences on Scale Scores

Variable Gender N M SD t value

1. Growth 3.87***

Females 317 36.42 6.51

Males 111 33.52 7.54

2. Agreeableness 2.15**

Females 317 39.61 5.67

Males 111 38.21 6.45

3. Conscientiousness 3.07**

Females 317 38.52 6.52

Males 111 36.24 7.30

4. Social Support 3.73***

Females 317 14.43 3.94

Males 111 12.73 4.71

N =429 for all scales

*p <. 05, **p<.01, ***p <. 001

Table 2 Descriptive Statistics

Variable M SD Alpha

Stress-related growth 35.70 6.90 .93

Positive affect 20.50 4.17 .90

Neuroticism 25.10 8.23 .88

Extraversion 36.20 7.00 .82

Openness 40.80 5.81 .71

Agreeableness 39.30 5.90 .78

Conscientiousness 37.90 6.79 .84

Faith maturity 54.50 15.00 .92

Spiritual struggle 2.47 .97 .74

Perceived stress 7.65 3.56 .78

Social support 14.00 4.21 .89

N for all scales = 429

Pastoral Psychol (2014) 63:57–71 63

T ab

le 3

C or re la tio

ns am

on g P re di ct or

an d O ut co m e V ar ia bl es

1. 2.

3. 4.

5. 6.

7. 8.

9. 10

. 11 .

12 .

1. S tr es s- re la te d gr ow

th

2. P os iti ve

af fe ct

.4 0*

** 1

3. H op

e .4 1*

** .5 8*

** 1

4. N eu ro tic is m

−. 23

** *

−. 68

** *

.5 0* **

1

5. E xt ra ve rs io n

.2 2*

** .3 4*

** .4 6* **

−. 35

** *

1

6. O pe nn es s

.1 1*

* .1 4*

** .2 6* **

−. 05

.2 4* **

1

7. A gr ee ab le ne ss

.2 4*

** .3 3*

** .3 0* **

−. 36

** *

.2 3* **

.2 1* **

1

8. C on sc ie nt io us ne ss

.2 3*

** .4 3*

** .5 2* **

−. 45

** *

.1 9* **

.0 8

.3 9* **

1

9. F ai th

m at ur ity

.3 9*

** .3 5*

** .3 3* **

−. 29

** *

.2 1* **

.2 0* **

.4 0* **

.2 3* **

1

10 . S pi ri tu al

st ru gg le

−. 05

−. 35

** *

−. 24

** *

.3 7* **

−. 11 **

−. 17

** *

−. 20

** *

−. 16

** *

−. 09

1

11 . P er ce iv ed

st re ss

−. 13

** *

−. 51

** *

−. 37

** *

.4 6* **

−. 03

−. 04

−. 25

** *

−. 32

** *

−. 09

.3 3*

** 1

12 . S oc ia l su pp or t

.2 9*

** .3 7*

** .4 7* **

−. 31

** *

.3 5* **

.2 1* **

.3 3* **

.2 3* **

.2 3*

** −. 21

** *

−. 20

** *

1

N = 42

9

It em

s in

bo ld

fa ce

si gn

if ic an t at

th e p < . 00

1 le ve l

** p < .0 1,

** *p

< . 00

1

64 Pastoral Psychol (2014) 63:57–71

Incremental validity

Table 4 presents the first hierarchical regression of stress-related growth on the Five-Factor Model of Personality, perceived stress, social support, faith maturity, and spiritual struggle. As can be seen in Table 4, personality is a significant predictor of growth on the first step. Perceived stress and social support are entered in a forward fashion on the second step of the model after the variances of personality and gender are removed from the equation. These predictors also significantly predict growth. However, an inspection of the beta weights shows that social support accounts for the entire additional 2 % (ΔR2=.02) of significant unique variance in the model, β=.14, p<.01 (social support) and β=−.04 p>.05 (perceived stress).

When the numinous variables are entered in a forward fashion on step 3 of Table 4, after the effects of personality, social support, and perceived stress are removed from the equation, the numinous variables are a significant predictor of stress-related growth. The numinous variables accounted for an additional 8 % (ΔR2=.08) of the variance in stress-related growth. However, as can be seen in Table 4, an inspection of the beta weights shows that faith maturity explains significant unique variance β=.31, p<.001 but spiritual struggles does not β=.05, p>.05. Contrary to the hypothesis, the correlation analysis revealed that spiritual struggle did not correlate with stress-related growth and so it is expected that spiritual struggle would not explain any variance in stress-related growth in a regression model, as one of the assumptions of regression is that the predictor and outcome variables are correlated. Table 4, Model 4, step 3 shows that the beta weight for faith maturity was medium sized, β=.31, p<.001.

Table 5 presents the second hierarchical regression of positive affect on the Five-Factor Model of Personality, stress-related growth, perceived stress, social support, faith maturity, and spiritual struggle. As can be seen in Table 5, as predicted, personality is a significant predictor of positive affect. Also, as predicted, when stress-related growth, perceived stress, and social support are entered in a forward fashion on the second step of the model after the

Table 4 Final Hierarchical Regression Model of Stress-related Growth on the Five-actor Model of Person- ality, Perceived Stress, Social Support, Faith Maturity and Spiritual Struggle

Predictor R2 ΔR2 F Change df B T β

Model 3

Step 1 .13 .13 10.55 *** 6,421

Neuroticism −.03 −.70 −.04 Extraversion .08 1.55 .08

Openness .01 .06 .01

Agreeableness .01 .07 .01

Conscientiousness .07 1.31 .07

Gender −1.89 −2.70 −.12* Step 2 .15 .02 4.44** 2,419

Perceived stress −.09 −.85 −.04 Social support .24 2.89 .14**

Step 3 .23 .08 21.38***

Faith maturity .14 6.39 .31***

Spiritual struggle .37 −1.09 .05

N=429

*p<.05, **p<.01, ***p<.001

Pastoral Psychol (2014) 63:57–71 65

variance of personality is removed from the equation, the predictors also significantly predict positive affect and explain an additional 9 % of the variance. As predicted again, when the numinous variables are entered in a forward fashion on step 3, after the effects of personality, stress-related growth, social support, and perceived stress were removed from the equation, the numinous variables were a significant predictor of positive affect. The numinous vari- ables explain an additional 1 % of the variance (ΔR2=.01) in positive affect. An inspection of the beta weights shows that faith maturity and spiritual struggle explain significant unique variance in positive affect.

Moderation analyses

As indicated in Table 5, there is a significant interaction effect between levels of spiritual struggle and levels of growth on positive affect indicating that, as hypothesized, spiritual struggle moderates the effects of stress-related growth on positive affect. Graphing the interaction (see Fig. 1) reveals that individuals who score high on spiritual struggle and low on stress-related growth score low on positive affect, and individuals who score low on spiritual struggle and high on stress-related growth score high on positive affect. Individuals who score high on struggle and medium on growth experience a decrease in positive affect. Yet, people who score low on struggle and medium on growth experience an increase in positive affect. This may imply that those who have found some positive meaning in a stressful life event, but who continue to struggle spiritually, will most likely experience a dip in positive emotion. However, those who have found some positive meaning in a stressful life event but do not experience a spiritual struggle will most likely experience an increase in positive emotions.

Table 5 Final Hierarchical Regression Model of Positive Affect on the Five Factor Model of Personality, Stress-related Growth, Perceived Stress, Social Support, Faith Maturity, and Spiritual Struggle

R2 ΔR2 F Change df B T β