concepts and theories of spirituality

7/31/2019 Concepts and Theories of Spirituality

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Concepts and Theories of Spirituality

Report By: Group 1Eunice Alger

Krystal Jade Arenal

Ali Abdullah Alejandro Castro



Definition Of Spirituality

• Derived from the Latin word “Spiritus” which

refers to breath or wind.

• Is often defined as an awareness of one’s

inner self and a sense of connection to ahigher being, nature, or to some purposegreater than oneself

•

Is an important factor that helps individualsachieve the balance needed to maintainhealth and well-being and to cope with illness.



Spirituality According To Florence

Nightingale

• Spirituality is a force that provided energy

needed to promote healthy hospital

environment and that caring for a person’s

physical needs.



Scientific Knowledge Base

• Health Care research shows the association

between spirituality and health. There are

beneficial health outcomes when an individual

is able to engage his or her beliefs in higher

power and sense a source of strength or

support.



Nursing Knowledge Base

• Spirituality is a complex concept that is unique

to each individual, and is dependent upon a

person’s culture, development, life

experiences, beliefs, and ideas about life.



Concept Of Spirituality

• Spirituality gives individuals:

Energy- needed to discover themselve, tocope with difficult situations, and to maintain

health. It helps clients feel well and guideschoices made throughout life.

Self Transcendence-is the belief that there is aforce outside of and greater than the person.This force goes beyond space and time



Beliefs and values-provide the foundation of

truth. Values allow people to determine whatis important to them and help people

appreciate the beauty and worth of thoughts,

objects and behaviors.

Spirituality gives people the ability to find a

dynamic and creative sense of inner strength

that is often used when making difficult

decisions



Inner peace and harmony fosters calm,

positive, and peaceful feelings despite lifeexperiences of chaos, fear and uncertainty.

These feelings help people feel comforted

even in times of great distress.



Capturing The Concept

• Spirituality is often mistakely equated with

religion: religion can be important factor in a

person’s spirituality, but how important will

depend on the individual. Spirituality is much

broader than religion and would draw

together everything in a person’s life that

gives them a sense of meaning



Spiritual Theories

• Fowler's stages of faith development - It proposes a staged

development of faith (or spiritual development) across the life

span. It is closely related to the work of Jean Piaget, Erik

Erikson, and Lawrence Kohlberg regarding aspects of

psychological development in children and adults.



Fowler’s Stages of Faith Development • Faith is seen as a holistic orientation, and is concerned with the individual's relatedness to the universal.

Fowler defines faith as an activity of trusting, committing and relating to the world based on a set of assumptions of how one is related to others and the world.

• Stage 0 – "Primal or Undifferentiated" faith (birth to 2 years), is characterized by an early learning of thesafety of their environment (i.e. warm, safe and secure vs. hurt, neglect and abuse). If consistent nurture isexperienced, one will develop a sense of trust and safety about the universe and the divine. Conversely,negative experiences will cause one to develop distrust with the universe and the divine. Transition to thenext stage begins with integration of thought and languages which facilitates the use of symbols in speechand play.

• Stage 1 – "Intuitive-Projective" faith (ages of three to seven), is characterized by the psyche's unprotectedexposure to the Unconscious.

• Stage 2 – "Mythic-Literal" faith (mostly in school children), stage two persons have a strong belief inthe justice and reciprocity of the universe, and their deities are almost always anthropomorphic.

• Stage 3 – "Synthetic-Conventional" faith (arising in adolescence; aged 12 to adulthood) characterizedby conformity to religious authority and the development of a personal identity. Any conflicts with one'sbeliefs are ignored at this stage due to the fear of threat from inconsistencies.

• Stage 4 – "Individuative-Reflective" faith (usually mid-twenties to late thirties) a stage of angst andstruggle. The individual takes personal responsibility for his or her beliefs and feelings. As one is able toreflect on one's own beliefs, there is an openness to a new complexity of faith, but this also increases the

awareness of conflicts in one's belief.• Stage 5 – "Conjunctive" faith (mid-life crisis) acknowledges paradox and transcendence relating reality

behind the symbols of inherited systems. The individual resolves conflicts from previous stages by acomplex understanding of a multidimensional, interdependent "truth" that cannot be explained by anyparticular statement.

• Stage 6 – "Universalizing" faith, or what some might call "enlightenment". The individual would treat anyperson with compassion as he or she views people as from a universal community, and should be treatedwith universal principles of love and justice.



Westerhoff’s Four Stage Theory of

Faith Development

• John Westerhoff that faith is way of behaving.He developed a four stage theory of faithdevelopmenty based largely on his life

experiences and the interpretation of thoseexperiences.

1. Experienced Faith (infancy to earlyadolescence): experiences faith throughinteraction with other who are living aparticular faith.



2. Affiliative Faith (late adolescence) actively

participates in activities that characterize aparticulr faith tradition.

3. Searching Faith (young adulthood) throgh aprocess of questioning and doubting own

faith, acquires a cognitive as well as affectivefaith.

4. Owned Faith (middle adulthood) puts faith

into personal and social action and is willingto stand up for what he/she believes evenagainst the nurturing community

concepts and theories of spirituality

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