A Counselling Psychologist's Exploration of How Religion and Humanistic Approaches Can Enhance Sexual and Psychological Wellbe
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A counselling psychologist’s exploration of how religion and humanistic approaches can enhance sexual and psychological wellbeing Hadassah Fromson Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Professional Doctorate in Counselling Psychology (DPsych) City, University of London Department of Psychology June 2018 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................... 2 TABLE OF TABLES ..................................................................................... 8 TABLE OF FIGURES ................................................................................... 9 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ......................................................................... 10 DECLARATION ......................................................................................... 12 PREFACE .................................................................................................... 13 PART A: Doctoral Research ........................................................................ 19 Abstract ........................................................................................................ 20 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ............................................................. 22 1.1 General Overview .................................................................................. 22 1.2 Sexual Satisfaction ................................................................................. 26 1.3 Defining Sexual Satisfaction .................................................................. 28 1.4 Factors associated with sexual satisfaction ............................................ 31 1.4.1 Individual Factors ............................................................................ 32 1.4.2 Relationship Factors ........................................................................ 34 1.4.3 Sexual Factors ................................................................................. 36 1.4.4 Issues with measuring sexuality ...................................................... 39 1.4.5 Non-sexual Factors .......................................................................... 41 1.4.5.1 Culture ...................................................................................... 41 1.4.5.2 Religion ..................................................................................... 42 1.4.6 Issues with measuring religion ........................................................ 46 1.5 Religion and Sexuality ........................................................................... 49 1.5.1Psychological theories about religion and sexuality ........................ 49 1.5.2 Christianity and Sexual Satisfaction ................................................ 51 1.5.3 Judaism and Sexual Satisfaction ..................................................... 53 1.5.3.1 Modesty and Sexuality .............................................................. 55 1.5.3.2 Jewish Family Law ................................................................... 58 1.6 Sexual Education and Sexual Satisfaction ............................................. 60 1.7. Social norms and Sexual Satisfaction ................................................... 63 1.8 Summary ................................................................................................ 68 1.9 Aims and Rationale ................................................................................ 69 1.10 Hypotheses ........................................................................................... 71 2 CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY ............................................................ 72 2.1 Overview ................................................................................................ 72 2.2 Epistemological Stance .......................................................................... 73 2.3 Reason for Research Paradigm .............................................................. 75 2.4 Reflexivity .............................................................................................. 76 2.5 Pilot phase .............................................................................................. 77 2.6 Participants and recruitment ................................................................... 79 2.7 Design .................................................................................................... 80 2.8 Power analysis ........................................................................................ 81 2.9 Instruments ............................................................................................. 82 2.9.1 Demographics .................................................................................. 83 2.9.2 Sexuality Measures .......................................................................... 83 2.9.2.1 New Sexual Satisfaction Scale (NSSS) .................................... 85 2.9.2.2 Brief Sexual Attitude Scale (BSAS) ......................................... 86 2.9.3 Centrality of Religiosity Scale (CRS) ............................................. 87 2.9.4 Sexual Knowledge ........................................................................... 88 2.9.4.1 Basic Sexual Knowledge Questionnaire: Scale Development . 89 2.9.4.2 Basic Sexual Knowledge Questionnaire: Content Validity ...... 90 2.9.4.3 Basic Sexual Knowledge Questionnaire: Item Analysis .......... 92 2.9.4.4 Basic Sexual Knowledge Questionnaire: Criterion Validity .... 95 2.9.4.5 Basic Sexual Knowledge Questionnaire: Reliability ................ 96 2.9.5 Perceived Sexual Norms and Expectations ..................................... 96 2.10 Procedure.............................................................................................. 97 2.11 Ethics and permissions ......................................................................... 98 2.12 Data Analyses..................................................................................... 101 2.12.1 Missing data................................................................................. 101 2.12.2 Outlier analysis ............................................................................ 102 Chapter 3: RESULTS .............................................................................. 104 3.1. Normality of Data ............................................................................... 104 3.1.1 Shapiro Wilk test for smaller group sizes...................................... 104 3.1.2. Levene’s Homogeneity of Variance ............................................. 106 3.1.3 Multicollinearity ............................................................................ 107 3.2 Analytic strategy .................................................................................. 108 3.3 Preliminary Analyses ........................................................................... 110 3.3.1 Demographic Characteristics......................................................... 110 3.3.1.1 Gender ..................................................................................... 113 3 3.3.1.2 Age .......................................................................................... 113 3.3.1.3 Relationship Status and Duration ........................................... 114 3.3.3.4 Children .................................................................................. 115 3.3.2 Correspondence between religious groups .................................... 116 3.3.3 Correlations between Religious Practice, Sexual Satisfaction, Sexual Attitudes and Sexual Knowledge ........................................................... 118 3.4 Differences between Religious Culture Groups ................................... 121 3.4.1 Sexual Satisfaction ........................................................................ 121 3.4.2 Sexual Knowledge ......................................................................... 122 3.4.2.1 Planned Comparisons ............................................................. 122 3.4.3 Sexual Attitudes............................................................................. 123 3.4.3.1 Sexual Attitudes: Permissiveness ........................................... 123 3.4.3.2 Sexual Attitude: Communion ................................................. 125 3.4.3.2 Sexual attitude: Instrumentality .............................................. 127 3.5 Differences between Religious Practice............................................... 128 3.5.1 Sexual Satisfaction ........................................................................ 128 3.5.1.1 Planned Comparisons ............................................................. 128 3.5.2 Sexual Knowledge ......................................................................... 129 3.5.2.1 Planned Comparisons ............................................................. 130 3.5.3 Sexual Attitudes ............................................................................. 130 3.5.3.1 Sexual Attitudes: Permissiveness ........................................... 131 3.5.3.2 Sexual Attitudes: Communion ................................................ 132 3.5.3.3 Sexual Attitudes: Instrumentality ........................................... 133 3.6 Regression Analysis ............................................................................ 134 3.7 Content Analysis .................................................................................. 136 3.7.1 Expectations of Sex ......................................................................