Geoffrey W. Sutton PhD, Psychology and Culture

  Religious Music 2023 by Geoffrey Sutton and Bing Does religious music influence wellbeing? Music, Religious Identity, and Wellbeing   Renate Ysseldyk and others examined responses of Christians and Atheists to religious music. Previous studies found a positive link between listening to music and both memory and wellbeing. But the authors wondered if religious identity would make a difference. Psychologists find that our identities are bound up with our sense of our social groups. If the groups we identify with are threatened, then many of us experience negative effects such as a negative mood and even impaired memory needed for learning. The study There were 188 women and 72 men between the ages of 16 and 56 in this study. Their religious identity was used to form two religious groups: Christian and Atheist. The researchers presented them with one of four types of music, which created four music groups: Christian hymn Buddhist chant Classical No music con...

Outside my house neighbors keep their political signs on their lawns or waving in the air as if they have not given up hope that their candidate who lost the election will find a way to show that the "win" granted to the opposition is false. So many in the US have identified with a political party and its leader. This identification is going to have a predictable effect on self-esteem (one's value or worth) and one's self-concept. The effect may be temporary as other life activities force other identities to become more salient--such as the demands family, work, and school as well as the time-distance since the election. This strong political identity illustrates the social context influencing the self and it also illustrates the limited stability of the self because every 2-4 years there may be a shift in party fortunes. Although some view the self as relatively stable, many studies show the impact of social contexts on our self-concept and those parts of the self-co...

Perfectionism: Maladaptive and Adaptive    and Spirituality As a clinician, specializing in the treatment of persons with spiritual issues in addition to general mental health conditions, it was not uncommon to see persons struggling with imperfection and feeling like a failure. This was especially true among clients associated with fundamentalist beliefs and those faiths with strict behavioral expectations. And from time to time I saw people with religious obsessions and compulsions. A recent study in Psychology ofReligion and Spirituality examines adaptive and maladaptive perfectionism in a sample of Latter Day Saints. What Can We Learn About the Spirituality of Latter Day Saints (LDS, Mormons)? The Latter Day Saints (LDS) is an example of an American religion, which began in the 1800s. Religions specify beliefs and values as well as expected behavior patterns. In short, many religions define morality for their adherents. Failure to comply with the beha...