Charedi women, charedi men, and stress

This report examines data from interviews with 179 strictly-orthodox Jews living in London. The impetus was a debate in this journal on the question whether men or women in the strictly-orthodox community are more stressed. Many of the observations made in this journal on the quality of life among charedi men and women were born out. Quantitatively, severe stress and clinical levels of depression and anxiety were similar among the men and women studied, but women had overall more eventful lives than men, and were more likely to suffer from borderline depression and anxiety - though these differences were only marginally significant. It is suggested that the London sample studied were probably similar to charedim in Israel, and that the findings might therefore be applicable

Features associated with speaking in tongues (glossolalia)

Reports of the frequency, context, associated behaviours, feelings and meaning associated with glossolalia were collected from three groups of informants: speakers (n=14, who practised glossolalia), witnesses (n=15, who had witnessed but had never practised glossolalia), controls (n=16, who had neither witnessed nor practised glossolalia). All informants were practising Christians. Speakers reported glossolalia as a regular, daily, private activity, usually accompanying mundane activities, as a special form of prayer associated with calm, pleasant emotions. By contrast, witnesses and controls were more likely to describe glossolalia as an exceptional activity, usually occurring in the religious group, and associated with excitement. The views of witnesses were closer to those of speakers than were the views of controls. It is suggested that there may be two types of glossolalia, of which one is more likely to be associated with psychopathology

Culturally and religiously sensitive psychological help - from a Jewish perspective

This bit is to tell you something about who I am and where I am coming from. I read recently that it was a good idea to do this before writing up qualitative research, but I can’t see why it can’t be done before writing about any kind of research, or indeed any kind of psychology, qualitative research or otherwise. I am an orthodox Jew, strictly orthodox, and a common corollary of that is having a very large number of children. As the years go by, we have an increasingly large number of grandchildren. I am also an academic psychologist. I started off my academic career in the 1960s by doing a thesis on the relations between thinking and speaking, and particularly the question of whether the outcome of thinking was affected by talking about it. When I began teaching, I felt that I stood with a foot in social psychology, and a foot in cognitive psychology, and for many years I taught both. But I got softer and softer, or perhaps it was harder to find people to teach social psychology, so I began to teach more and more social psychology, and less and less cognitive psychology. Then my boss, the late Brian Foss, met a philosophy professor from Kings College (London), the late Hywel Lewis. Lewis was looking for psychologist to teach the psychology of religion, and I think I was the only psychologist that Brian knew who didn’t think religion was a meaningless word. So I began teaching the psychology of religion, and which got me interested in personality theory, including psychodynamic theory, and psychometrics, as well as doing the kind of research in which the researcher collects accounts of people’s experiences. I am still a bit confused about what personality is, and about what is being measured in psychometrics, but in spite of this - or, more likely, because of this – I began teaching personality, and psychometrics. Meanwhile the number of my children grew, and I began wondering about Brown & Harris’s (1978) report that women with several young children to care for, were more vulnerable to depression. The anthropologist, Jeanette Kupferman (1979) thought that strictly-orthodox Jewish women might be more cheerful in their lifestyle full of boundaries and rules, large families notwithstanding. I wondered who was right. Tirril Harris was very encouraging about the idea of doing a replay of the Brown & Harris Camberwell and Hebridean studies among orthodox Jews, and I was happy to get some funding for this work. This led me deeper and deeper into issues relating religion and mental health. As the younger children grew older, I began to write and publish more and more on different aspects of religion and mental health

Pastoral care of mental illness and the accommodation of African Christian beliefs and practices by UK clergy

Faith-based organisations, especially those related to specific ethnic or migrant groups, are increasingly viewed by secular Western government agencies as potential collaborators in community health and welfare programmes. Although clergy are often called upon to provide mental health pastoral care, their response to such problems remains relatively unexamined. This paper examines how clergy working in multiethnic settings do not always have the answers that people want, or perhaps need, to problems of misfortune and suffering. In the UK these barriers can be attributed, generally, to a lack of training on mental health problems and minimal collaboration with health services. The current paper attempts to highlight the dilemmas of the established churches’ involvement in mental health care in the context of diversity. We explore the inability of established churches to accommodate African and other spiritual beliefs and practices related to the etiology and treatment of mental health problems

Guarding the Tongue: A thematic analysis of gossip control strategies among orthodox Jewish women

This article describes the views and experiences of Strictly-Orthodox Jewish women with respect to the metapragmatic ethos of Shmiras HaLoshon (monitoring one's talk, literally 'guarding the tongue'). Eight extended interviews were conducted with Strictly-Orthodox women and teenagers in London, and salient themes were identified, namely: A. Loshon Hora ('evil talk') is the prime exemplar of bad talk. B. Loshon Hora is the hardest (one of the hardest) things to avoid, because it is so easy to do. C. The perceived consequences of Loshon Hora are very serious D. Great caution/various strategies are employed in order to not speak Loshon Hora E. Perceived gender differences exist in proneness to speak Loshon Hora. F. One is reponsible for monitoring others. G. Young children can be(come) aware of the issues. Subjects appeared to take this aspect of religious observance very seriously, and were taking active steps to promote observance. Social desirability bias may be an inappropriate concept for explaining our participants' behaviour. It is also suggested that the perceived importance of Shmiras HaLoshon may be important in helping to maintain community cohesion and preventing conflicts, by improving respect for privacy and reputation in a community where gossip is attractive but divisive

Faith conquers all? Beliefs about the role of religious factors in coping with depression among different cultural-religious groups in the UK

How effective is religious activity believed to be in coping with depression? This study assessed the perceived effectiveness of different religious activities - previously identified as important in coping – among 282 people in the UK. Mean age was 25 years, and participants were either Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, other religion, or no religion. Relative to other kinds of help for depression, religious activity was not seen as particularly helpful for depression. Religious activity was seen as less helpful by the ever-depressed than by the never-depressed, and as less helpful by women than by men. Among religious activities, faith and prayer were seen as the most helpful. Muslims believed more strongly than other groups in the efficacy of religious coping methods for depression, were most likely to say they would use religious coping behaviour, and were least likely to say they would seek social support for professional help for depression. Other differences between groups were also observed, and comparisons with qualitative material obtained in an earlier study were made. The implications of these findings for help seeking are considered

Drowning your sorrows? Attitudes towards alcohol in UK Jews and Protestants: a thematic analysis

Jewish culturally-supported beliefs may discourage drinking and drunkenness as ways of socialising and coping with stress. Thus Jewish men under stress may be relatively more likely to become depressed, and less likely to use and abuse alcohol. This study is the first qualitative comparison of Jews and Protestants, men and women. It examines whether alcohol-related beliefs are consistent with the alcohol-depression hypothesis, i.e. that positive beliefs about alcohol use and effects are associated with high alcohol use and low depression. Material and discussion: A thematic (interpretive phenomenological) analysis on open-ended question responses, from 70 Jews and 91 Protestants, and on semi-structured interviews with 5 Jews and 4 Protestants, identified three salient themes: the importance of retaining self-control, the pleasures of losing inhibitions, and the relations of alcohol-related behaviour to identity. Compared to Protestants, Jews described alcohol-related behaviour as threatening to self-control, loss of inhibition as unenjoyable and dangerous, and distinguished between the kinds of drinking behaviours appropriate for Jews and others. Sub-themes for Protestant men were denial that drinking threatens self-control, and appropriateness of going to the pub. Conclusions: The themes identified are not measurable using published research instruments. Alcohol-related behaviour may be a feature of Jewish identity. The beliefs identified are consistent with the alcohol-depression hypothesis

Stress, distress and air traffic incidents: job dysfunction and distress in airline pilots in relation to contextually-assessed stress

This study used contextual stress measurement to look at the occupational sequelae of stress. One hundred and five civil aviation pilots were interviewed. Events and difficulties were dated and rated for contextual threat; dating information was also obtained for distress symptoms and air traffic incidents. There were significant relationships between stress and air incidents, between stress and distress, and between distress and incidents. Some symptoms (sleep disturbances, loss of energy and tiredness) were more likely to be associated with reported incidents than others. The results are in line with previous suggestions that the effect of stress on job performance is via distress. Distress-related sleep disturbances may be particularly crucial. Further work using contextual stress measurement is needed to clarify the causal pathways involved