Relationships between religiosity, spirituality, and personality: A multivariate analysis

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Abstract

It has been purported that univariate analyses may be too simplistic when studying correlates of religiosity and spirituality (Thoresen & Harris, 2002). Consequently, the current study evaluated the relationships between religiosity, spirituality, and personality at both the univariate and multivariate levels. Our results suggest strong relationships between these constructs at both levels. At the univariate level, all religiosity and spirituality variables, excluding the Extrinsic orientation, demonstrated significant associations with the Big Five. However, at the multivariate level, the Extrinsic orientation, in conjunction with the Quest orientation and the Intrinsic orientation, demonstrated a significant association with the Big Five. These findings support the supposition that religious and spiritual constructs ought to be examined at a multivariate level and further explicates the nature of religious and spiritual constructs by grounding them within a comprehensive taxonomy of personality.

Section snippets

Relationships between religiosity, spirituality, and personality: a multivariate analysis

Religion has had a profound impact on human existence and on virtually all of our lives. In a poll of 50,000 respondents from 60 countries, the Gallup International Millennium Survey revealed that 87% of individuals ascribe to some religion (Egbert, Mickley, & Coeling, 2004). In North America, 62% of respondents believe there is a God, 24% believe there is some form of spirit or life force, and 83% of respondents who believe there is a God award Him great importance in their lives. Whether

Participants

Undergraduates (n = 230) enrolled in psychology courses at The University of Southern Mississippi (USM), and 80 family members of USM undergraduates, completed the measures listed below. Family members were recruited by USM undergraduates who sought additional course credit. Both populations were sampled to acquire participants with a broad range of ages. Each participant’s SES was measured according to the Hollingshead (1975) socio economic status categories. When gathering data from students,

Religiosity, spirituality, and demographic variables

Mean differences in the religiosity and spirituality variables across gender and ethnicity were examined using t-tests. Results indicated that women scored significantly higher than men on the Intrinsic orientation and African–Americans scored significantly higher than Caucasians on the Extrinsic and Intrinsic orientations. For age and SES, Pearson correlations were computed to determine their relationships with the religiosity and spirituality variables. The only statistically significant

Discussion

The goal of the current study was to further delineate the relationships between spirituality, religiosity, and personality. Multivariate methods were used because they are conspicuously absent from the current literature and such methods help to address Thoresen and Harris (2002) concerns that univariate analyses may be too simplistic when studying correlates of religiosity and spirituality. In general, results from the current study suggested strong relationships between religiosity,

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