Don E Davis
Biographic Data
| ID | 3595864 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Don E Davis |
| GIVEN NAMES | Don E |
| FAMILY NAME | Davis |
| SIGNATURE | DAVIS D E |
| AFFILIATIONS | Georgia State University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-3169-6576 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 126 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 50 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 126 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1971 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Relationship stigma toward interracial relationships: Exploring ethnic identity and cultural humility as protective factors
Life loses some meaning after leaving religion
Causal estimates of multidimensional well-being under hypothetical forgiveness shift scenarios: Longitudinal evidence from a national panel in New Zealand
Forgiveness has been identified as a potential public health resource, but how might average well-being change if forgiveness were higher across the population? In this three-wave longitudinal study (Wave 1: 2018/2019 [T0], Wave 2: 2019/2020 [T1], Wave 3: 2020/2021 [T2]) with a nationally representative sample of New Zealanders ( N = 47928), we explore this question by investigating the potential causal effects of two hypothetical forgiveness shi…
Spiritual and Mental Health Care for Faith Deconstruction: Interdisciplinary Recommendations for Clinical Practice with Christian “Dones”
Target Trial Emulation Shows That Supported Causal Effects of Religious Attendance on Well-Being Are Selective
Religious service attendance is associated with better well-being, but observational associations do not establish causation. We analyse six annual waves of the New Zealand Attitudes and Values Study (N = 46, 377) to estimate causal effects of monthly attendance on 24 well-being indicators using target trial emulation. Deterministic 'make everyone attend' contrasts fail positivity: only 2-3% of non-attenders initiate attendance per year. We there…
Religious/spiritual struggles and well-being: Examining latent profiles of existential humility across two studies
Integration of Psychology and Mental Health in the Work of Religious Leaders
Religious leaders are often first responders to mental health concerns in their religious communities. The current study examined the extent to which religious leaders (a) integrate information from psychology/mental health into their religious work and (b) encourage congregants who are struggling with mental illness to seek treatment. Participants were 1,600 religious leaders (primarily Christian) recruited from a nationwide sample of religious …
Tradeoffs of humility in the face of existential concerns
What is Humility Good For? A Meta-Analysis of Humility, Health, and Well-Being
Humility, the organizing virtue of multicultural frameworks in counseling psychology, has traditionally been framed to be positively associated with health and well-being and negatively associated with mental illness. Despite lauded benefits, however, scholars have cautioned that humility may not always be of benefit. To examine these associations, we conducted a meta-analysis to clarify the magnitude of the associations between humility and phys…
Counselor Trainee Bias: Empathy and Blame in Co-Occurring Disorders
Using a 2 × 2 analog design, 138 counselors-in-training (CITs) were randomly assigned to vignettes to assess how they differently attributed blame and empathy toward a fictional client with a co-occurring substance use disorder (SUD) and posttraumatic stress disorder following a relapse. Vignettes varied by SUD (alcohol/crystal meth) and relapse determinants (intrapersonal/interpersonal). CITs attributed more blame to clients relapsing due to int…
The Even Shorter Almost Perfect Scale: Psychometric Evaluation and Cross-National Implications for Psychological Outcomes
Short empirically-supported scales or individual items are preferred in comprehensive surveys, brief screeners, and experience sampling studies. To that end, we examined the Short Almost Perfect Scale (SAPS) to evaluate empirical support for the interchangeability of items to measure perfectionistic strivings (Standards) and perfectionistic concerns (Discrepancy). Based on a large and diverse sample (N = 1,103) and tests of tau-equivalence (equal…
Meaning making enhances gratitude to God: The importance of spiritual appraisals
Burnout, racial trauma, and protective experiences of Black psychologists and counselors
Results from this study suggest that BMHPs may be more susceptible to burnout and race-based traumatic stress as a result of their work. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)
The causal effects of religious service attendance on prosocial behaviours in New Zealand: A national longitudinal study
We investigate the causal effects of religious service attendance on prosocial behaviours using longitudinal data from a nationally representative sample of 33,198 New Zealanders collected between 2018 and 2021. Our study innovates in three ways: (1) we use longitudinal rather than cross-sectional data; (2) we incorporate measures of help received alongside self-reported giving; and (3) our statistical models are designed to address causal questi…
Thanks Be to God: Divine Gratitude and Its Relationship to Well-Being
Gratitude is a pivotal concept in the psychology of religion because it is one of the most frequently experienced emotions toward God. The authors developed a trait measure of Gratitude to God (GTG-T) and investigated the association between Gratitude to God and psychological and spiritual well-being in four studies. Study 1 provided evidence for the validity of the GTG-T as Gratitude to God was associated with overall well-being and predicted in…
Too much of a good thing: Differentiating intellectual humility from servility in higher education
Recent studies have suggested that intellectual humility (IH) might facilitate (a) better learning outcomes, (b) more scientific mindedness, and (c) better peer and professional relationships. However, recent philosophical work has raised concerns that too much IH might lead to intellectual servility (IS), and thus might be vicious (albeit not blameworthy) rather than virtuous. We define IS as a disposition to over-own one’s intellectual limitati…
The Cultural Humility Scale for Students: Development and initial validation among adolescents
The experience of, and beliefs about, divine grace in mainline protestant Christianity: A consensual qualitative approach
The empirical study of grace, a relational virtue, is in its beginning stages. The purpose of this study was to provide rich, context-based, qualitative data to describe Mainline Protestants’ (a) experiences of, and (b) beliefs about, divine grace. Interviews were conducted with 28 community adults who were affiliated with Mainline Protestant Churches. Results indicated that Mainline Protestant Christians have varying beliefs about divine grace a…
Cultural Humility, Cultural Comfort, and Supervision Processes and Outcomes for Bipoc Supervisees
Clinical supervision is a cornerstone of clinical training, and supervision experiences are associated with important outcomes (e.g., stronger working alliances and more trainee disclosures in supervision). Psychology has made strides in understanding how cultural processes unfold in supervision, with the multicultural orientation (MCO) model garnering increasing empirical support, but less is known about the dynamics that occur based on racial d…
Stepping Outside the Echo Chamber: Is Intellectual Humility Associated With Less Political Myside Bias
In recent years, an upsurge of polarization has been a salient feature of political discourse in America. A small but growing body of research has examined the potential relevance of intellectual humility (IH) to political polarization. In the present investigation, we extend this work to political myside bias, testing the hypothesis that IH is associated with less bias in two community samples ( N 1 = 498; N 2 = 477). In line with our expectatio…
Resource loss and mental health during Covid ‐19: Psychosocial protective factors among U.S. older adults and those with chronic disease
Across the globe, COVID‐19 has disproportionately affected the physical and mental health of several vulnerable groups. In a series of two cross‐sectional studies conducted April to July 2020, we examined its acute mental health effects on two vulnerable U.S. community samples—home‐bound older adults who were at or below the poverty line (Study 1, N = 293, M age = 76.94, SD = 8.64; 75.1% female, 67.9% Black) and adults with chronic disease (Study…
The role of spiritual fortitude in meaning and mental health symptoms following a natural disaster
Who are the religious “dones?”: A cross-cultural latent profile analysis of formerly religious individuals
Orienting to Otherness: Intellectual Humility, Moral Foundations, and Mature Alterity Outcomes
Scholars and practitioners have increasingly called for the development of social justice commitment, intercultural competence, and appreciation of diversity among ministers and helping professionals. In religious contexts, individual factors may contribute to differences in the degree to which spiritual leaders emphasize intercultural and social justice initiatives. Personality factors, such as virtues and specific moral commitments, predict the…
The Role of Religious Coping in Understanding the Suicide Risk of Older Adults during Covid-19
In the United States, racially diverse, homebound older adults have been among those most impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. During times of disaster, persons impacted tend to turn to their faith to make sense of suffering. COVID-19 has been an unusual disaster, as physical distancing was required to keep those most susceptible safe. Due to the resulting social isolation and loneliness, suicidal behaviors and ideation (e.g., desire to die) have i…
The moral foundations hypothesis does not replicate well in Black samples
The current study examined the generalizability of the moral foundations hypothesis (Graham, Haidt, & Nosek, 2009), which predicts that conservatism will be positively related to the binding foundations (i.e., virtues of ingroup/loyalty, authority/respect, and purity/sanctity). Religiosity has been consistently linked with the binding foundations in predominately White samples, but Black people in the United States are both more religious and mor…
We Welcome Refugees? Understanding the Relationship between Religious Orientation, Religious Commitment, Personality, and Prejudicial Attitudes toward Syrian Refugees
Approximately 5 million refugees have been displaced since the start of the Syrian civil war in 2011. In 2016, the refugee crisis reached deadly proportions, causing many Syrians to flee their homes in search of asylum. Individual responses to refugees differed as Syrians attempted to resettle throughout the world. Research has shown that religious orientation (intrinsic, extrinsic, quest), religious commitment, and personality traits can help ex…
Racial/Ethnic Identity, Religious Commitment, and Well-Being in African Americans
Although the study of positive psychology has flourished in recent years, most research has focused on White samples. There is, however, a growing body of research examining cultural factors that may contribute to the psychological health and well-being of African Americans. The present study examined the associations between racial/ethnic identity, religious commitment, satisfaction with life, and meaning in a sample of African Americans ( N = 1…
Cultural Humility, Cultural Comfort, and Supervision Processes and Outcomes for Bipoc Supervisees
Clinical supervision is a cornerstone of clinical training, and supervision experiences are associated with important outcomes (e.g., stronger working alliances and more trainee disclosures in supervision). Psychology has made strides in understanding how cultural processes unfold in supervision, with the multicultural orientation (MCO) model garnering increasing empirical support, but less is known about the dynamics that occur based on racial d…
Gratitude to God Predicts Religious Well-Being over Time
The authors used a prospective design to investigate how gratitude to God predicts religious well-being over time. Gratitude to God is a central aspect of monotheistic religions, and thus may be particularly important to the religious/spiritual well-being of believers. Participants completed online measures of trait and state gratitude to God, along with spiritual well-being, nearness to God, and religious commitment scales over a one-to-two-mont…
Can Religion Promote Virtue: A More Stringent Test of the Model of Relational Spirituality and Forgiveness
Rather than simply studying whether religious individuals are more forgiving than nonreligious individuals, recent research has focused on how religion may promote a more fluid and efficient forgiveness process. The present studies sought to strengthen evidence for a model of relational spirituality and forgiveness (Davis, Hook, & Worthington, 2008), given the reliance of prior studies on cross-sectional designs that did not control for hurtfulne…
Toward an Understanding of Religious Tolerance: Quest Religiousness and Positive Attitudes Toward Religiously Dissimilar Others
We interact frequently with individuals with religious beliefs that vary from our own. Although we may naturally prefer interacting with religiously similar others, individuals vary in their attitudes toward religiously dissimilar others. In the present set of studies, we examined how variability in quest religiousness affects religious tolerance. In Study 1 (N = 159), we found that quest religiousness in Christian undergraduates was associated w…
National longitudinal evidence for growth in subjective well-being from spiritual beliefs
Previous research finds an association between spirituality and subjective well-being. However, the widespread use of poorly defined concepts of spirituality, tautological spirituality scales, and heavy reliance on cross-sectional samples cast doubts on prior findings. Here, we leverage ten waves of panel data from a nationally diverse longitudinal study to systematically test whether having spiritual beliefs leads to growth in personal well-bein…
The Role of Religious Coping in Understanding the Suicide Risk of Older Adults during Covid-19
In the United States, racially diverse, homebound older adults have been among those most impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. During times of disaster, persons impacted tend to turn to their faith to make sense of suffering. COVID-19 has been an unusual disaster, as physical distancing was required to keep those most susceptible safe. Due to the resulting social isolation and loneliness, suicidal behaviors and ideation (e.g., desire to die) have i…
Trait Sources of Spirituality Scale: Assessing Trait Spirituality More Inclusively
We develop the Trait Sources of Spirituality Scale (TSSS), which assesses experiences of closeness to the sacred, within and outside a religious tradition. After using factor analysis to finalize the scale, we examine evidence of construct validity, including latent profile analysis that reveals 5 patterns of how spirituality is experienced
Negative internal causal attributions of a specific offense and forgiveness
Causal attributions are important social‐cognitive predictors of forgiveness. This article presents the Transgression Attribution Questionnaire ( TAQ ), a measure of one's negative internal causal attributions of a specific offense. In 4 studies, scores on the TAQ showed initial evidence of estimated internal consistency, temporal stability, and construct validity. Negative internal attributions for the cause of a transgression predicted lower le…
Relational Spirituality and Forgiveness of Offenses Committed by Religious Leaders
In the present article, we extend a model of relational spirituality and forgiveness to the context of major offenses by clergy. In Study 1, undergraduate students (N = 208) described a major offense that they had experienced by a religious leader and then completed several questionnaires in relation to the offense and the religious leader. Appraisals of relational spirituality were significantly associated with forgiveness, after controlling for…
Till death do us part: Terror management and forgiveness in close relationships
Two experiments extended terror management theory to investigate forgiveness in close relationships. We hypothesized that mortality salience would elicit less forgiveness in less committed relationships. In Experiment 1, participants were primed with either mortality salience or a physical pain control condition, recalled a recent hurtful interpersonal offense, and reported their degree of forgiveness. Mortality salience evoked less forgiveness i…
The American Ymca and the Russian Revolution
In hope it began; in perplexity it ended. The twenty-three-year presence of the American Young Men's Christian Association in Russia that began in 1900 and reached a peak between 1917 and 1920, when more than 440 YMCA staffers served in that country and the Association spent almost eight million dollars for its operation, was over in 1923. In fact, the Association was required to curtail certain of its activities between 1917 and 1920 by both the…
The Soviet Warfare State
An American in Russia: Russell M. Story and the Bolshevik Revolution, 1917‐1919
The American Ymca and the Russian Revolution
In hope it began; in perplexity it ended. The twenty-three-year presence of the American Young Men's Christian Association in Russia that began in 1900 and reached a peak between 1917 and 1920, when more than 440 YMCA staffers served in that country and the Association spent almost eight million dollars for its operation, was over in 1923. In fact, the Association was required to curtail certain of its activities between 1917 and 1920 by both the…
Human/nature: Toward a critical ecology
Insecure attachment and depressive symptoms: The mediating role of rumination, empathy, and forgiveness
Relational spirituality and the development of the Similarity of the Offender’s Spirituality Scale
We present a model of relational spirituality and forgiveness that considers how a victim’s spirituality affects his or her experience of and response to a transgression. In 2 studies, we investigate the psychometric properties of the Similarity of the Offender’s Spirituality Scale (SOS), which assesses the extent to which the victim sees the offender as spiritually similar. Results suggest the SOS has 2 factors that assess the offender’s spiritu…
The Dedication to the Sacred (DS) Scale: Adapting a Marriage Measure to Study Relational Spirituality
We describe the development of the Dedication to the Sacred Scale (DS). The measure was created to test a model of relational spirituality and forgiveness. Items from a measure of commitment in couples (Stanley & Markman, 1992) were adapted to assess a victim's dedication to a relationship with the Sacred. In Study 1 (N = 171), confirmatory factor analysis revealed good fit to a single-factor model. We removed poor items and replicated the factor…
Humility: Review of measurement strategies and conceptualization as personality judgment
Humility is an understudied virtue in positive psychology. Both conceptual and methodological challenges have retarded its study. In this article, we discuss how humility has been defined. Specifically, researchers disagree whether humility refers to the accuracy of an individual's view of self, or whether humility primarily describes someone's interpersonal stance toward others. We critique four approaches that researchers have used to measure h…
Relational Spirituality and Forgiveness: Development of the Spiritual Humility Scale (Shs)
Research on spirituality and forgiveness has begun to examine the types of dynamic, spiritual experiences that can promote forgiveness. Specifically, we explore how victims may see an offender’s humility in relationship with the Sacred, and how this appraisal affects forgiveness. We also describe the development of the Spiritual Humility Scale (SHS). In Study 1 ( N = 300; F = 166, M = 134), the SHS had a single-factor structure using exploratory …
Relational Spirituality and Dealing With Transgressions: Development of the Relational Engagement of the Sacred for a Transgression (Rest) Scale
In the study of spirituality and forgiveness, researchers have begun to look at how dynamic spiritual experiences influence forgiveness. In three studies, we develop the Relational Engagement of the Sacred for a Transgression (REST) Scale, which assesses the extent to which victims actively engage a relationship with the Sacred to deal with a specific transgression. In Study 1, exploratory factor analysis was used to determine the factor structur…
Religion and spirituality
Many clients highly value religious and spiritual (R/S) commitments, and many psychotherapists have accommodated secular treatments to R/S perspectives. We meta‐analyzed 51 samples from 46 studies ( N = 3,290) that examined the outcomes of religious accommodative therapies and nonreligious spirituality therapies. Comparisons on psychological and spiritual outcomes were made to a control condition, an alternate treatment, or a subset of those stud…
Relational Humility: Conceptualizing and Measuring Humility as a Personality Judgment
The study of humility has progressed slowly due to measurement problems. We describe a model of relational humility that conceptualizes humility as a personality judgment. In this set of 5 studies, we developed the 16-item Relational Humility Scale (RHS) and offered initial evidence for the theoretical model. In Study 1 (N = 300), we developed the RHS and its subscales--Global Humility, Superiority, and Accurate View of Self. In Study 2, we confi…
Marriage Matters: A Description and Initial Examination of a Church-Based Marital Education Program
Predictors of God concept and God control after Hurricane Katrina
Sanctification of forgiveness
Integration, Multicultural Counseling, and Social Justice
In this article, we explore the integration of psychology and Christianity in the areas of multicultural counseling and social justice. First, we give a brief overview of the multicultural counseling and social justice movements. Second, we explore two aspects of Christianity that we believe make integration in this area difficult. Third, we critically evaluate the multicultural counseling and social justice movements from a Christian perspective…
Humility and the Development and Repair of Social Bonds: Two Longitudinal Studies
A theory of relational humility asserts that humility can promote strengthening social bonds. To complement prior, cross-sectional research on this topic, two longitudinal studies were conducted. In Study 1, college students in romantic relationships (N = 123), all of whom had been hurt or offended by their partners within the last two months, completed measures of humility and unforgiveness for six consecutive weeks. Relational humility predicte…
Can Religion Promote Virtue: A More Stringent Test of the Model of Relational Spirituality and Forgiveness
Rather than simply studying whether religious individuals are more forgiving than nonreligious individuals, recent research has focused on how religion may promote a more fluid and efficient forgiveness process. The present studies sought to strengthen evidence for a model of relational spirituality and forgiveness (Davis, Hook, & Worthington, 2008), given the reliance of prior studies on cross-sectional designs that did not control for hurtfulne…
Cultural humility: Measuring openness to culturally diverse clients.
Building on recent theory stressing multicultural orientation, as well as the development of virtues and dispositions associated with multicultural values, we introduce the construct of cultural humility, defined as having an interpersonal stance that is other-oriented rather than self-focused, characterized by respect and lack of superiority toward an individual's cultural background and experience. In 4 studies, we provide evidence for the esti…
Research on religion/spirituality and forgiveness: A meta-analytic review
In the present article, we review the literature on religion/spirituality (R/S) and forgiveness using meta-analysis. R/S was positively related to trait forgivingness (i.e., across relationships and situations; r .29), state forgiveness (i.e., of a specific offense; r .15), and self-forgiveness (r .12). Contextual measures of R/S more proximal to the forgiveness process were more strongly related to state forgiveness than were dispositional measu…
Defensive religion as a source of meaning in life: A dual mediational model
Religion is a prominent source of meaning in life. However, the content of religious belief systems varies considerably. Previous research suggests that defensive religion serves an existential function but has yet to empirically substantiate its relation to existential outcomes. The present research extends previous work by (a) examining whether defensive religion serves as a source of meaning in life, and (b) identifying mediators of that relat…
Resource loss, religiousness, health, and posttraumatic growth following Hurricane Katrina
This study examined associations among resource loss, religiousness (including general religiousness, religious comfort, and religious strain), posttraumatic growth (PTG), and physical and mental health among a sample of Mississippi university students soon after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf coast in 2005. Resource loss was negatively associated with health, but positively associated with PTG. Religious comfort was associated with positive outc…
Till death do us part: Terror management and forgiveness in close relationships
Two experiments extended terror management theory to investigate forgiveness in close relationships. We hypothesized that mortality salience would elicit less forgiveness in less committed relationships. In Experiment 1, participants were primed with either mortality salience or a physical pain control condition, recalled a recent hurtful interpersonal offense, and reported their degree of forgiveness. Mortality salience evoked less forgiveness i…
Relational spirituality and forgiveness: Appraisals that may hinder forgiveness
In three studies, we focused on negative spiritual appraisals theorized to hinder forgiveness: being angry toward God, viewing the transgression as a desecration, or viewing the offender as evil. Because the latter construct did not have an existing measure, the first two studies describe exploratory (Study 1; N = 200) and confirmatory (Study 2; N = 300) factor analyses of the Viewing the Offender as Evil (VOE) scale. Then, in Study 3 (N = 425), …
Religion and couple therapy: Description and preliminary outcome data
Psychology (110 works) · Social Psychology (98 works) · Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology (70 works) · Forgiveness and Related Behaviors (42 works) · Humility (38 works) · Spirituality (37 works) · Grief, Bereavement, and Mental Health (35 works) · Psychotherapist (31 works) · Sociology (30 works) · Forgiveness (27 works)