Page 13 - EMCAPP-Journal No. 5

Empirical steps toward a Christian Psychology

you are likely to encounter in secular literature. entists to explore this, at the suggestion of Paul
When I first searched a database of the Ameri- Watson, my colleagues and I began a project to
can Psychological Association publications and measure the apprehension of grace and to see
entered “grace” into the engine, the only articles whether it makes a difference in how we live
that it retrieved were about an American televi- our lives as followers of Christ. In doing so, we
sion program called “Will and Grace” after the sought to provide empirical evidence for the
lead characters’ names. It is an area that is clear- impact of the understanding of God’s grace in
ly Christian and not really a category in secular the lives of Christians, to use this as a way to
thinking, nor is it really found in the same way communicate with the broader scientific com-
in the other great monotheisms of Islam and Ju- munity, and to hopefully lay groundwork for
daism. Grace is central to who we are as Chri- developing application in counseling to promo-
stians, and thus it seems vital to involve this in a te healthier views of God’s grace.
discussion of the psychology of Christians and God’s grace, of course, cannot be measured,
in how we counsel fellow believers. Little also so we realized from the outset that there was
has been written in integration journals (with no hope of accomplishing that. However, we
Watson, Morris, and Hood [1988a,b] being rare could develop a measure for what people belie-
exceptions). The story of grace that follows of- ve about grace and what how that impacts their
fers a model of a Christian Psychology program lives. So, the first step was to develop a measure
of research. of peoples’ apprehension of grace (Sisemore et
al., 2011). We asked stu-
dents in research classes
Tim Sisemore, Ph.D., is Professor of at two Christian instituti-
Counseling and Psychology and Director
of Research at Richmont Graduate Uni- ons to submit items that
versity in Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA. reflected their understan-
ding of God’s grace. 35
He received his doctorate in Clinical Psy-
chology from Fuller Theological Semina- items were selected after
eliminating duplicates and
ry where he also earned a Master’s De-
gree in Theology. He directs the research evaluating the remainder
programs and thesis track at Richmont based on clarity and di-
versity of concepts. In this
and also teaches Methods of Research
and Christian Traditions for Counseling. initial study, we sought to
establish reliability and
His writing has had several foci. His ma-
jor work has been in the area of anxiety validity for the scale, and
Researching Grace disorders as he has published four books that was accomplished.
Grace is a gift of God, ranging from children’s workbooks to Measures were admi-
given freely to sinners treatment manuals for professionals. nistered to 219 subjects
who do not deserve it. He has written two parenting books for largely drawn from three
It not only saves us, but the Christian market and coedited a re- evangelical colleges in the
strengthens us to live cent book on counseling applications of southeastern United Sta-
Christian lives. It gives different models of relating counseling tes, predictably meaning
us hope in our failures, and Christianity (Greggo and Sisemore, the sample was skewed
and hopefully moves us Counseling and Christianity: Five Ap- toward youth (over 90%
to show grace to others, proaches, 2012). were between 18 and 26
as we learn in the pa- tsisemore@richmont.edu years of age), though the-
rable of the unforgiving re was more balance with
debtor in Matthew 18. sex as 56% were males and
Thus, grace is a vital part of being a Christian 44% females.
and living the Christian life, and as such has a Internal reliability for the Richmont Grace Sca-
place in any comprehensive Christian psycho- le (as we named it) was strong as all but one
logy. Given that we cannot expect secular sci- item showed a positive item-to-total correlati-

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