Browsing by Subject "Spirituality"
Now showing 1 - 11 of 11
Results Per Page
Sort Options
Item Being and becoming: an exploration of student spirituality in the second year of college(2015-02) Melin, LeeAnn JessenSpirituality is a critical component of the holistic development of college students. This phenomenological case study explored the ways in which 11 second-year students conceptualized and experienced spirituality while enrolled in a course addressing life purpose at a large public research institution. Their unique journeys captured how students encountered a spirituality framed in meaning, purpose and connectedness during their second year of college. Their experiences were shaped by influences of their past, present and future which therefore created a unique and individualized spirituality. Students experienced connectedness as a sense of belonging in college and in relation to a universal connectedness. Students' spirituality emerged in how they experienced diversity, the campus climate, their spiritual practices and wellbeing, and through co-curricular involvement. The busyness and pressures of college life served as a barrier to their spirituality. A course exploring life purpose provided a guiding framework to accompany, support and stimulate the motion of spirituality during their second year. Implications of the study address intentional policies and practices that encourage and support students' spiritual development.Item Beyond Social Support: Spiritual Support as a Novel Design Dimension in Sociotechnical Systems(2020-12) Smith, C. EstelleFor people facing life-threatening physical and/or mental illness, matters of spirituality or religion often assume a role of elevated importance in their lives. However, spirituality is an understudied topic in Social Computing, and has largely been omitted or minimized in research narratives and trajectories related to online health. Taking a human-centered design approach that seeks to honor people's core values and beliefs, this dissertation contributes an empirically-derived theoretical perspective that views spirituality as a crucial underlying dimension in sociotechnical systems for online health and social support, such as Online Health Communities (OHCs). Because of their widespread adoption and ability to provide users with social support, OHCs are a topic of prominent interest in Human-Computer Interaction and Social Computing. OHCs have been studied across a variety of online spaces, ranging from disease-specific niches on larger social media platforms, to specialized platforms designed specifically for patients and caregivers--such as CaringBridge, a Minnesota-based nonprofit OHC that served over 300,000 people daily in 2019, including 40 million unique users from 237 countries. Two studies in this dissertation were completed in collaboration with CaringBridge, while the third presents Flip*Doubt, a novel prototypical system for crowd-powered cognitive reappraisal. Whereas prior work in OHCs has focused on conventional support categories, the first study provides a content analysis and survey of CaringBridge users that, together, quantitatively distinguish ``prayer support'' as an independent category of crucial importance to users. Because prayer indicates a deeper set of beliefs/values that cannot be captured quantitatively, the second study involves qualitative focus groups with CaringBridge stakeholders. This study contributes a definition of ``spiritual support,'' along with its design implications in OHCs. In particular, one implication is that designers should consider technical mechanisms to provide users with assistance with supportive communication. Thus, the final study of this dissertation, a field deployment of Flip*Doubt, can inform the development of future AI/ML-based systems in OHCs for mental health. All together, these contributions help to shift the lens through which we view social support online, and to guide future work towards creating systems that serve the deepest needs of users.Item Eric McLuhan’s 2015 Book and Walter J. Ong’s Thought(2016-09-05) Farrell, Thomas J.Item Health Outcomes of Family Caregivers: Examining the Role of Spirituality and Religion(2018-07) Trudeau, StephanieIt is estimated that there are nearly 40 million family caregivers actively providing care for a loved one with a chronic illness in the United States today (American Association for Retired Persons, 2015). This number is projected to double by the year 2050, as our nation’s baby boomers become recipients of this care (Family Caregiving Alliance, 2016; Pollard & Scommenga, 2014). Family caregivers are at higher risk for negative emotional (e.g., depression, anxiety) and physical (e.g., heart disease, cancer, diabetes, arthritis) health outcomes (Charles, Piazza, Mogle, Sliwinski, & Almeida, 2013; Li, Shaffer, & Bagger, 2015; Roth, Fredman, & Haley, 2015). The impacts that caregiving have on health outcomes are clear. Which factors put caregivers at higher risk for poor health outcomes is not as clear (Kane, 2011). What remains particularly understudied is how the spiritual and religious practices of caregivers influence their personal mental and physical health. This study advanced a secondary analysis on a longitudinal sample of caregivers aimed to understand how use of spirituality impacts mental and physical health outcomes. This subset of prospective data was taken from the National Survey of Midlife Development (n = 89), in 2004-2006, and 2014-2015. A predictive model showed that caregivers’ religious resources had an impact on their mental health. More specifically, use of private religious practices showed more positive mental health outcomes over other variables of religious resources. Implications for clinical practice and research are discussed.Item Imaging the decolonial spirit: Ecowomanist literature and criticism in the Chinese Diaspora(2013-07) Pu, XiumeiMy work explores the interrelated themes of gender, nature, and spirituality in contemporary women's literature of the Chinese Diaspora. Drawing from three texts by diasporic Chinese women writers of "the wounded generation" and a piece of my own short fiction, my dissertation problematizes the alienating ideologies and practices in the process of China's modernization and urbanization. More importantly, my work examines the ways in which the bond of nature-woman-spirituality functions as a resistance to androcentric and anthropocentric beliefs and practices in the Mao and post-Mao eras in China, and as a catalyst for alternative ways of knowing and knowledge production. I argue that this bond can be better understood within the frameworks of the decolonial imaginary and ecowomanism. It is important to re-member this bond and to refocus it in order to move toward a more just world. My short fiction adds new threads to the fabric these three writers have woven, bringing rural women and folk knowledge to the forefront. Using womanist literary criticism and production, my work sheds light on the possibilities opened up by forgotten and subjugated ways of knowing and knowledge production to imagine a global healing praxis that helps bridge the gap between the East and the West. Thus it broadens our understanding of the links between interdisciplinary and diverse feminist theories such as the decolonial imaginary and ecowomanism by revealing an Asian dimension to these largely Western discourses.Item Jarena Lee(Voices from the Gaps, 2001) Novak, Terry Lee, Ph.D.Item Nature as impression for Dao: A theory of spiritual tourism development in Da-Nang - Viet-Nam(2015-09) Tran-Tuan, HungTo keep pace with the developing trend of spiritual tourism in Viet-Nam, the city of Da-Nang continuously expands the size of spiritual festivals, inaugurates new religious establishments, and prepares to build a spiritual cultural theme park. Given this form of tourism is young for Da-Nang, the issue is how the city should develop its spiritual tourism offering in a determinative and authentic way for the efficiency of its environment, socio-cultural, and economic sectors. This research aims to generate a theory of current spiritual tourism development in Da-Nang by a qualitative method, grounded theory, which refers to interview data and utilises a specific coding system. Discussion of the theory is based on comparisons and contrasts to cases and situations of heritage, cultural, and especially spiritual tourism development; and to the tourism development literature. Recommendation is made for a selective orientation for a more sound and effective development. Theoretical contributions of spiritual tourism development in Da-Nang, and future research directions are presented.Item The Role of Spirituality in the Ongoing Recovery Process of Female Sexual Abuse Survivors(2008-10) Houg, Bonnie LouiseThis study investigated the role spirituality plays in the recovery process of female childhood sexual abuse survivors (CSA). Fourteen female CSA survivors participated in individual interviews. They responded to questions regarding their spiritual development across the recovery process, effects of spirituality on their interpersonal and intrapersonal processes, and obstacles to their spiritual development. Data were analyzed using Consensual Qualitative Research (CQR; Hill et al., 1997) to identify major themes that include: 1) participants distinguished between spirituality and religion; 2) the role of spirituality varied across their recovery process; 3) many had a positive spiritual role model/mentor during their childhood; 4) ongoing sexual abuse led to rebellion as adolescents/young adults (e.g., anger against God’s failure to intervene, self-destructive behaviors that further exacerbated mistrust, shame and alienation; and 5) participants eventually reached spiritual reconciliation, which they viewed as the greatest single factor in their recovery. Practice and research recommendations are provided.Item The spiritual engagement of students entering institutions that belong to the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities(2013-06) Fereira, James A.Religion has been connected to higher education throughout its history in the United States and recent research suggests that the development of spirituality, as a part of the pursuit of higher education, is important to today’s college student. In an effort to understand twenty-first century college students’ perspectives on spirituality in relation to their education, this study examines the relationship between student pre-college characteristics and the spiritual engagement of students entering institutions affiliated with the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities. Data for this study were drawn from the Cooperative Institutional Research Program’s Freshman Survey and the College Students’ Beliefs and Values survey administered to 112,232 entering freshman at 236 colleges and universities across the United States during the fall semester of 2004. The subjects examined in this study were the 9,838 students who enrolled at colleges and universities affiliated with the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities and who participated in both portions of the 2004 survey. Findings of this research suggest that students’ gender, race or ethnicity, high-school academic achievement, high-school type, and religious identification are informative in understanding their spiritual engagement as they enter colleges and universities affiliated with the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities. These findings may be useful to researchers and practitioners as they design ways to encourage students in their unique journeys toward spiritual maturity during their college years.Item Understanding Jung’s Thought(2015-07-06) Farrell, Thomas J.Item The word made flesh: the perception of holiness in the texts of late medieval and early modern holy women in England.(2009-08) Howard, Amy KathleenThis project analyzes the perception of holiness in the texts of four late medieval and early modern holy women. It argues that lived holiness was defined not by strict religious standards, but by the reaction of the communities in which these women lived and wrote. These reactions could be influenced by factors ranging from the type of spiritual expression that was manifested to the political circumstances in which the holy woman lived. These women used their texts as a way to advocate for the holiness of their spiritual experiences and their lives.