Religious commitment, spirituality, and attitudes toward God as related to psychological and medical help-seeking: The role of spiritual bypass.

Abstract

Spiritual bypass denotes a process by which an individual avoids painful psychological experiences by using spirituality as a defense. Although spiritual bypass is often detected within psychological treatment, it has only recently been studied empirically. In the current study, we extend the study of spiritual bypass by testing (a) its associations with religious commitment, spirituality, attitudes toward God, and psychological as well as medical help-seeking attitudes and (b) direct and indirect relationships using bias-corrected, bootstrapped confidence intervals using a model recommended by Hayes (2018). In Study 1, we surveyed 265 community-based adults recruited from Amazon's Mechanical Turk (MTurk). Religious commitment and spirituality were directly related to attitudes toward psychological help-seeking. However, these relationships were indirectly associated with spiritual bypass. In Study 2, we surveyed 199 undergraduate students and found that attitudes toward God (i.e., positive attitudes toward or disappointment and anger with God) were related to medical help-seeking attitudes. Likewise, these relationships were indirectly associated with spiritual bypass. The implications were that (a) religious and spiritual variables relate to help-seeking attitudes; (b) religious and spiritual associations with help-seeking are both directly and indirect associated with spiritual bypass, and additional research is needed to uncover precise conditions under which spiritual bypass might or might not causally affect these relationships (i.e., investigate potential moderators and mediational effects); and (c) in practice, spiritual bypass can be an important patient quality to consider in relation to an individual's attitudes toward and perhaps benefit from psychological help.

Spiritually integrated psychotherapies in real-world clinical practice: Synthesizing the literature to identify best practices and future research directions.

“…Among patients who are wrestling with SERT concerns, exploring the relational dynamics involved can be foundational to understanding tension points and conflicts (e.g., feeling disappointed, angry or abandoned) that may impact spiritual well-being in several ways. First, spiritual practices and beliefs can sometimes be used defensively to avoid or circumvent consideration of psychological or physical needs; such spiritual bypass has been found to mediate links between SERT engagement and mental health distress, often serving as a barrier to help-seeking behaviors (Fox & Picciotto, 2019; Fox et al, 2020). Second, spiritual grandiosity involves attempts to manage existential anxieties about human differences through narcissistically privileging personal beliefs and culture in ways that demean and are intolerant of others (Moore, 2003).…”

Is God Listening to My Prayers? Initial Validation of a Brief Measure of Perceived Divine Engagement and Disengagement in Response to Prayer

“…In future work, it would be valuable to explore whether perceptions of divine engagement and disengagement in response to prayer might change in response to life events. It would also be interesting to consider whether a sense of divine engagement could have potential downsides, such as the possibility of engaging in spiritual bypass (Fox et al 2017(Fox et al , 2020, in which people focus on spiritual topics as a way of sidestepping psychological challenges.…”

Spiritual bypass as a moderator of the relationships between religious coping and psychological distress in Muslims living in the United States.

“…Spiritual bypass is expected to result in negative consequences to the individual as they may avoid engaging in necessary psychological work (Welwood, 2000) and be less likely to seek professional help. Indeed, spiritual bypass is associated with depression, anxiety, and stress (Fox et al, 2017; Picciotto et al, 2017), as well as poorer psychological and medical help-seeking attitudes (Fox et al, 2020). As noted, many Muslims may only utilize R/S coping strategies to endure difficulties, thereby limiting themselves by not using all available resources, including those that even Islam has recommended (e.g., seeking medication, asking people with expertise).…”