PSYCHOLOGICAL AND SPIRITUAL MATURITY

Both theology and psychology are concerned with people and with working with people to show them the way to live full, complete, and satisfying lives. However, while the two fields share many assumptions and notions about human nature, they also have clear differences in their perspectives.

The purpose of this paper is to examine for both overlap and disagreement in theology and psychology regarding the topic of maturity. In other words, the paper examines the question: What is spiritual maturity and how is it the same and/or different from psychological maturity? The first section of the paper presents a review of the relevant research and theory on psychological and spiritual maturity, while the second section of the paper presents a series of conclusions about the two approaches to the concept. All presented conclusions are formulated on the basis of the reviewed research.

Psychological and Spiritual Maturity: Summarization of Research

In terms of any comparison between psychological and spiritual maturity, one important point that needs to be addressed is that behavioral perspectives of what constitutes psychological maturity can and often do differ. For example, Vaughn and Pfenninger (1994) point out that some psychological theories of maturity utilize biological maturation, evolution and developmental stage perspectives as the bedrock of their models; in other words,

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1980) conducted an empirical study in which he attempted to examine for relationship between spiritual maturity (defined in relation to the "God Concept") and psychological maturity. Specifically, Day's study examined seven concepts of God as they related to psychological maturity. Psychological maturity was defined as the ability to self-disclosure in a relatively comfortable manner and as the attainment of self-actualization. A distinction was made between what people think about God (cognitive) from how they personally experience God (affective). Subjects in the study (N=201) were between 18 and 38 years of age. They represented different religious denominations and vocations. God concept scores were obtained by using Benson and Spilka's loving and controlling God scales and the adjective rating scales which rated God as traditional christian, wrathful, kindly, deistic, and omni-istic. Self-disclosure was measured using Jourard's Self-Disclosure Questionnaire. The Personal Orientation Inventory was used to measure self-actualization, and social desirability was measured using the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale. Findings did show, at the empirical level, overlap between the two notions of maturity.
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Approximate Word count = 3045
Approximate Pages = 12 (250 words per page)