Spirituality as a scientific construct: testing its universality across cultures and languages - PubMed (original) (raw)

Spirituality as a scientific construct: testing its universality across cultures and languages

Douglas A MacDonald et al. PLoS One. 2015.

Abstract

Using data obtained from 4004 participants across eight countries (Canada, India, Japan, Korea, Poland, Slovakia, Uganda, and the U.S.), the factorial reliability, validity and structural/measurement invariance of a 30-item version of Expressions of Spirituality Inventory (ESI-R) was evaluated. The ESI-R measures a five factor model of spirituality developed through the conjoint factor analysis of several extant measures of spiritual constructs. Exploratory factor analyses of pooled data provided evidence that the five ESI-R factors are reliable. Confirmatory analyses comparing four and five factor models revealed that the five dimensional model demonstrates superior goodness-of-fit with all cultural samples and suggest that the ESI-R may be viewed as structurally invariant. Measurement invariance, however, was not supported as manifested in significant differences in item and dimension scores and in significantly poorer fit when factor loadings were constrained to equality across all samples. Exploratory analyses with a second adjective measure of spirituality using American, Indian, and Ugandan samples identified three replicable factors which correlated with ESI-R dimensions in a manner supportive of convergent validity. The paper concludes with a discussion of the meaning of the findings and directions needed for future research.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: One of the co-authors, Hye Wook Cheong, is affiliated with Dongwoo Fine-Chem Co., Ltd is through its mental health center which has no involvement or financial interests in the company's patents, marketed products, or products in development. Similarly, the company has no ownership, interests, or involvement with any other co-author or any aspect of this study including the data, findings, and the article itself. This does not alter the authors' adherence to PLOS One policies on sharing data and materials.

Similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Piedmont RL, Ciarrochi JW, Dy-Liacco GS, Williams JEG (2009) The empirical and conceptual value of the Spiritual Transcendence and Religious Involvement Scales for personality research. Psychol Relig Spiritual 1: 162–179.
    1. de Jager Meezenbroek EC, Garssen B, van den Berg M, van Dierendonck D, Visser A, et al. (2012) Measuring spirituality as a universal human experience: A review of spirituality questionnaires. J Relig Health 51: 336–354. 10.1007/s10943-010-9376-1 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. de Jager Meezenbroek EC, Garssen B, van den Berg M, Tuytel G, van Dierendonck D, et al. (2012) Measuring spirituality as a universal human experience: Development of the Spiritual Attitude and Involvement List (SAIL). J Psychosoc Oncol 30: 141–167. 10.1080/07347332.2011.651258 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Helminiak DA, Hoffman L, Dodson E (2012) A critique of the “theistic psychology” movement as exemplified in Bartz’s (2009) “Theistic Existential Psychotherapy.” Humanist Psychol 40: 179–196.
    1. Hill PC, Pargament KI, Hood RW, McCullough ME, Swyers JP, et al. (2000) Conceptualizing religion and spirituality: Points of commonality, points of departure. J Theor Soc Behav 30: 51–77.

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources