Postmodernism, positive psychology and post-traumatic growth within a Christian ideological surround

Abstract

The ideological surround model (ISM) of the relationship between religion and the social sciences uses innovations in standard research methods to demonstrate how the challenges of postmodern relativism can be addressed. In this project, ISM methodologies evaluated the Post-traumatic Growth Inventory-Short Form (PTGI-SF), a measure relevant to positive psychology. The PTGI-SF correlated predictably with religious variables and with psychological well-being, and such relationships also appeared with a Christian version of the PTGI-SF created through ISM empirical translation scheme procedures. In ISM comparative rationality analyses, all PTGI items proved to be ‘rational’ relative to Christian commitments, and Christian rationality assessments of these items fully or partially mediated relationships of both the psychological and Christian expressions of post-traumatic growth with other constructs. These data demonstrated how ISM methodologies can document compatibilities between the rationalities of Christianity and contemporary positive psychology and more generally can address the challenges of postmodern relativism.

Keywords:

• Post-traumatic growth
• ideological surround model
• postmodernism
• positive psychology
• empirical translation schemes
• comparative rationality analysis

Acknowledgments

We express our special thanks to Dr. Stephen Bradshaw and Dr. Clark Rose of Bryan College for their assistance in recruiting students for participation in this project. Benjamin Andrews has received his M.A and is currently working on his Psy.D. in the Department of Psychology at Wheaton College in Wheaton, IL.