Defining Spiritual Development: A Missing Consideration for Student Affairs

Spirituality and Hallucinogen Use: Results from a Pilot Study among College Students

“…Results from the interviews also highlighted three aspects of spiritual development originally proposed by Love and Talbot (1999) as part of their spiritual development framework that were impacted by participants' use of hallucinogens. These three aspects were: 1) Sense of direction or purpose in life; 2) Feelings of connectedness with other people; and 3) Openness to a higher power.…”

“…Alan, Alice, and Dylan mentioned struggling with their spirituality, further supporting Bryant and Astin's (2008) conclusions that students who struggled with their spirituality were more likely to experiment with psychotropic substances than those who did not. Participants' hallucinogen use reflected three aspects of spiritual development originally proposed by Love and Talbot (1999). First, hallucinogen use had impacted their sense of purpose or direction in life, with Carrie being the only exception and reporting no effect.…”

“…Researchers tend to agree that spirituality involves a search for meaning, direction, and/or purpose in life (Love & Talbot, 1999;Estanek, 2006;. Responses to the question "How have your hallucinogen experiences affected your sense of direction or purpose in life?"…”

Islam and Higher Education in Transitional Societies

“…Hartley (2004) suggests that college campuses are often hostile toward religious, faith, and spiritual practices. Further, Love and Talbot (1999) state that "spiritual development, like student development, can either be fostered or inhibited by the environmental context in which students live, grow and develop," (p. 369) thus making the necessary link between student religious, faith, and/or spiritual development and campus environmental context. For some students, environmental influences that are hostile toward one aspect of self can leave them reeling within a college environment, while others will seek out opportunities to become more closely unified with a campus group affiliated with that aspect of identity (Hartley, 2004;Hurtado, 1996).…”

“…88-93). When these environments are perceived as welcoming by students, students are positively influenced (Abu El-Haj, 2007;Hurtado, 1996;Love & Talbot, 1999). Services on college campuses are aligned using developmental theories in an effort to be inclusive of an increasingly diverse student body.…”