Blog 3

The reading for this week was very interesting to me.  Duffy (2006) talked about an individual’s spirituality and religion and how that ties into their career development.  This is a very new topic in the field of study and I have read previously about it before. Trying to find related research articles was very difficult for me.  I wish I could have found more and when I did find a few I wish the results were significant with the study.  I believe it was my Psychology 211 and Psychology 212, both research classes, at Millersville University that I was first exposed to this research.  I remember the group that studied it did not get the results they wanted but also concluded like Duffy (2006) that when working with an individual it is still important to take into consideration their religion and spirituality when working with their career.  I’m hoping that there is some type of measuring scale that could determine this connection a lot better because I think it is a very important topic.  I remember the group that I mentioned previously who studied this was very frustrated throughout the semester due to lack of knowledge and previous studies on this topic. They could not find a good research article to put into their final literature review that supported their claim that the connection is significant between religion and spirituality and someone’s career development.

I discussed this in my discussion but I think people get very confused when they start to compare religion and spirituality.  I think of spirituality as something that an individual feels connected to that gives them a sense of purpose or meaning in life as compared to religion where I think of something that an individual believes in that control’s their own destiny.  My grandmother is not religious at all and has no affiliation with religion but she is very spiritual.  Some people argue and say that is not possible but it is. She does not believe in a higher power, but she believes that everyone has a purpose in their own life.  She believes that we create our own destiny but to the certain extent to which we work for it.  My grandmother says she feels alive more than ever now that she found what she was meant to do.   As Duffy (2006) mentioned, workplace spirituality “has less to do with support-based definitions tied to a higher power or powers and more to do with value systems and community” (p. 54).

Duffy, R. D. (2006, September). Spirituality, Religion, and Career Development: Current Status and Future Directions. The Career Development Quarterly, 55(1), 52-63. doi:10.1002/j.2161-0045.2006.tb00004.x