ŚLĄSKIE STUDIA HISTORYCZNO-TEOLOGICZNE

DEVELOPMENT OF A PSYCHOLOGICAL MEASURE OF PENITENTS' ATTITUDE TO CONFESSION
Sin, as an act of rebellion against God, is a theological concept which also has its psychological determinants and consequences. Psychology is concerned with understanding and treating the latter. Sacramental Confession besides offering forgiveness of sins, also has the potential to offer psychological aid for the feelings of guilt or unworthiness, which are experienced by the penitent seeking forgiveness. Confession has as its aim a reuniting with both God and man. The Priest is perceived both as an agent of Divine mercy and as a significant authority figure. The penitent's perception of his Confessor plays a role in his attitude toward Confession. If pastoral endeavors are to succeed a clear understanding of the psychological impact of pastoral care is needed. This can only be determined through empirical research into these psychological (cognitive, affective or behavioral) factors. Psychological inquiry does not serve to establish theological knowledge, but helps understand the subjective reception of practical pastoral activity based on these theological or moral foundations, and can serve to promote pastoral care, that is both in accord with Church teaching and more effectively meets the spiritual and psychological needs of the faithful. This paper describes the development of a short 20-item scale (presented in the appendix) to measure the intensity of positive attitude to Confession among those who go to Confession. Items were selected from a pilot study(N = 100) which gathered responses to open-ended questions. A panel of judges with both theological and psychological backgrounds selected a set of 20 representative and relevant items. These were then included in a larger questionnaire of Confession. In a sample of 460 adults (230 men; 230 women) with an average age of 35, more positive attitude to confession was correlated with frequency of confession (r = 0,40). The scale displayed good psychometric qualities with an average item-scale correlation of r = 0,88. Only two of the 20 items had significantly different mean scores for men and women. The scale appears to differentiate adequately between penitents with indifferent and strongly positive attitudes toward Confession. Further research is needed to determine the sources and psychological correlates of a positive attitude to Confession.

MENTAL HEALTH PROBLEMS REPORTED TO THE DIOCESE FAMILY AND PASTORAL COUNSELING CENTER. Summary
About 4000 cases were reported and dealt with in the Diocese Family and Pastoral Counseling Center in Katowice in 1986-1999 (Father H. Krzysteczko was the head of the Center at that time) and every case concerned the problems of mental health. The writer of the paper focused his attention mainly on the problems connected with psychic disturbances such as: psychosis, neurosis and addictions. Schizophrenia was the most frequent case of psychosis. Not only the patient’s conditions are very poor, he hates himself for being unsuccessful in his job but also his family life is seriously disorganized and his relations with other people are disturbed. The question whether the patient’s marriage is in force arises quite often in such cases as well. The patient with neurosis has a feeling of mental discomfort without realizing the real reasons. Unrecognized problems have a great impact on interpersonal relations with family and other people. The aim of psychotherapy in such cases is to find the actual causes of conflicts and to teach the patient how to cope with them. All kinds of addictions are often accompanied by psychosis and neurosis. Alcoholism is the most common addiction dealt with in the Diocese Family and Pastoral Counseling Center in Katowice because it seriously disturbs family life. It often goes together with financial problems, disorganized family life, upbringing problems, losing a job, losing respect as well as co-addiction which makes it difficult to overcome the alcoholic problems. It is very hard to persuade the patient with alcoholic and psychosis problems to start the therapy. Motivating the patient and initiating the therapy is the essential element of helping both the patient and his family.