TY - JOUR
T1 - Assessing Spirituality on Two Dimensions
T2 - Closeness to God and Focal Orientation
AU - Sharp, Carissa A.
AU - Johnson, Kathryn A.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by the John Templeton Foundation [44032 & 52153]; John Templeton Foundation [52067]. The idea of a simple, multi-dimensional measure of relational spirituality originated during an informal meeting of the authors and Nicholas Gibson during Taco Night at the 2009 annual convention of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology. A different version of the measure was previously published as part of Carissa A. Sharp’s doctoral dissertation. Data collection and revisions of both the diagram and instructions continued through multiple iterations, made possible through the support of the John Templeton Foundation. We did not pre-register these studies collected over a five year period. The ThEOS measure and correlates were typically included as part of larger, unrelated as yet unpublished studies; therefore, we will not be making the data, analytic methods, and study materials available to other researchers at this time. Carissa A. Sharp and Kathryn A. Johnson share first authorship and can be contacted at c.sharp@bham.ac.uk or kathryn.a.johnson@asu.edu.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019, © 2019 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
PY - 2020/1/2
Y1 - 2020/1/2
N2 - Assessing the nature of people’s relationships with God or the Divine is a central concern in the psychology of religion. We developed an intuitive, single-item diagrammatic scale which measures spirituality along two dimensions: (1) closeness to God or the Divine, and (2) the focus of that relationship as aimed at understanding either God (theo-focused) or the Self (ego-focused). In predominantly Christian and SBNR US samples, we found that the closeness dimension (from distant to close) was highly correlated with awareness of God’s presence and also with various measures of religiosity and belief in a personal God. Additionally, focal orientation discriminated between different aspects of religiosity/spirituality. Theo-focused spirituality was associated with religious beliefs and practices such as religious commitment, belief in a personal God, and religious service attendance. Moreover, it was a positive predictor of social responsibility, belief in a dangerous world, and support for government spending on the military. In contrast, ego-focused spirituality was associated with an eclectic combination of unorthodox religious beliefs, an individualistic approach to spirituality, as well as an interest in science, support for government spending on scientific research, and environmentalism. Finally, we found similar between-group differences in closeness and focal orientation across the US, UK, and India. We expect that this short, intuitive measure will be useful for better understanding a wide range of relationships with the Divine.
AB - Assessing the nature of people’s relationships with God or the Divine is a central concern in the psychology of religion. We developed an intuitive, single-item diagrammatic scale which measures spirituality along two dimensions: (1) closeness to God or the Divine, and (2) the focus of that relationship as aimed at understanding either God (theo-focused) or the Self (ego-focused). In predominantly Christian and SBNR US samples, we found that the closeness dimension (from distant to close) was highly correlated with awareness of God’s presence and also with various measures of religiosity and belief in a personal God. Additionally, focal orientation discriminated between different aspects of religiosity/spirituality. Theo-focused spirituality was associated with religious beliefs and practices such as religious commitment, belief in a personal God, and religious service attendance. Moreover, it was a positive predictor of social responsibility, belief in a dangerous world, and support for government spending on the military. In contrast, ego-focused spirituality was associated with an eclectic combination of unorthodox religious beliefs, an individualistic approach to spirituality, as well as an interest in science, support for government spending on scientific research, and environmentalism. Finally, we found similar between-group differences in closeness and focal orientation across the US, UK, and India. We expect that this short, intuitive measure will be useful for better understanding a wide range of relationships with the Divine.
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U2 - 10.1080/10508619.2019.1633853
DO - 10.1080/10508619.2019.1633853
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85068764102
SN - 1050-8619
VL - 30
SP - 48
EP - 67
JO - International Journal for the Psychology of Religion
JF - International Journal for the Psychology of Religion
IS - 1
ER -