Stauner, N., & Ozer, D. J. (2011). Joint factors of spirituality and religiousness. Poster presented at the 91st convention of the Western Psychological Association, Los Angeles, CA.

1. Introduction References
Batson, D. C., & Schoenrade, P. A. (1991). Measuring
Are religiousness and spirituality truly distinct personality constructs? religion as quest: 2) Reliability concerns. Journal for
the Scientific Study of Religion, 30(4), 430-447.
Differences exist in theory (Wuthnow, 1998; Wink & Dillon, 2003). Gorsuch, R. L., & McPherson, S. E. (1989).
UC IVER
• Religiousness: “dwelling” within a traditional religious institution & its practices Intrinsic/extrinsic measurement: I/E Revised and
• Spirituality: “seeking” connectedness to the sacred via autonomous, sometimes non- UNIVERSITY OF single-item scales. Journal for the Scientific Study of
traditional means. Religion, 28(3), 348-354.
CALIFORNIA Osarchuk, M., & Tatz, S. (1973). Effect of induced fear of
death on belief in afterlife. Journal of Personality and
Empirical support (Schlehofer, Omoto, & Adelman, 2008):
Social Psychology, 27, 256-260.
• Religion: associated with personal beliefs, community affiliation, organized practices
SIDE
Piedmont, R. L. (1999). Does spirituality represent the
• Spirituality: more abstract than religion; includes nontheistic notions of a higher power sixth factor of personality? Spiritual transcendence
and the Five-Factor Model. Journal of Personality,
Do self-report measures discriminate between religiousness and spirituality? 67(6), 985-1013.
• Moderate to strong correlations among measures of spirituality and religiousness Schlehofer, M. M., Omoto, A. M., & Adelman, J. R. (2008).
(Piedmont, 1999; Seidlitz, Abernathy, Duberstein, Evinger, Chang, & Lewis, 2002) How do “religion” and “spirituality” differ? Lay
definitions among older adults. Journal for the
Do meaning in life and the search for meaning overlap with religiousness and spirituality? Scientific Study of Religion, 47(3), 411-425.
• Presence of meaning relates to religiousness moderately (r = .42; Steger et al., 2010). Results Seidlitz, L., Abernathy, A. D., Duberstein, P. R., Evinger,
• The search for meaning relates to nonreligiousness weakly (r = -.17). J. S., Chang, T. H., & Lewis, B. L. (2002). Development
• Might search be related to spirituality? Table 1. Joint factor loadings of spirituality & religiousness indices of the Spiritual Transcendence Index. Journal for the
Index ℓ1 ℓ2 Final Communality Estimates Scientific Study of Religion, 41(3), 439-453.
Steger, M. F., Frazier, P., Oishi, S., & Kaler, M. (2006). The
Spiritual Transcendence .95 -.12 .86 meaning in life questionnaire: Assessing the presence
Method I/E-R – Intrinsic .85 -.30 .68 of and search for meaning in life. Journal of Counseling
Psychology, 53, 80–93.
Participants: 149 undergraduates at the University of California, Riverside STS - Prayer Fulfillment .78 .11 .66 Steger, M. F., Pickering, N., Adams, E., Burnett, J., Shin, J.
Age: mean = 19.3, SD = 1.8 71% female _ I/E-R - Extrinsic Personal .72 .08 .56 Y., Dik, B. J., & Stauner, N. (2010). The quest for
42% East Asian 17% Hispanic 14% Caucasian meaning: Religious affiliation differences in the
Belief in Afterlife .67 .15 .52
10% African 9% South Asian 9% Other / Mixed correlates of religious quest and search for meaning in
50% Christian 28% Atheist/Agnostic/Irreligious MLQ – Presence .43 -.01 .18 life. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, 2(4), 206-226.
12% Buddhist 6% Muslim 4% Other I/E-R - Extrinsic Social .24 .08 .07 Wink, P., & Dillon, M. (2003).
Measures: Religiousness, spirituality, and psychosocial
STS – Connectedness .16 .66 .52 functioning in late adulthood: Findings from a
Belief in Afterlife index, Form A (Osarchuk & Tatz, 1973)
10 items (alpha = .91) E.g., “There must be an afterlife of some sort.” STS – Universality .48 .58 .71 longitudinal study. Psychology and Aging, 18(4), 916-
I/E-R index (Intrinsic/Extrinsic-Revised; Gorsuch & McPherson, 1989) 924.
MLQ – Search -.10 .55 .28 Wuthnow, R. (1998). After heaven: Spirituality in America
Intrinsic – 8 items about deeply valuing and identifying with religion
E.g., “My whole approach to life is based on my religion.”
Religious Quest .00 .52 .27 since the 1950s. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Extrinsic Personal – 3 items about pragmatic benefits of religion Note. Extraction method: Principal axis factors. Rotation: oblimin.
E.g., “I pray mainly to gain relief and protection.” Eigenvalues = 4.04, 1.27, 0.52. Interfactor r = .25.
Extrinsic Social – 3 items about social benefits of religion Loadings > .30 bolded for emphasis. N = 143
E.g., “I go to church mainly because I enjoy seeing people I know there.”
Spiritual Transcendence Index (Seidlitz et al., 2002)
8 items about sacred experiences affecting identity, feelings, goals, & resilience Discussion
E.g., “My spirituality gives me a feeling of fulfillment.”
Spiritual Transcendence Scale (STS; Piedmont, 1999) Religious and spiritual beliefs and fulfillment belong to one factor.
Prayer Fulfillment – 9 items about joy & contentment from prayer • Faith and positivity emerge as the common theme.
E.g., “I find inner strength and/or peace from my prayers or meditations.” • These similarities overwhelm distinctions between religion & spirituality.
Universality – 9 items about belief in the unity and purpose of life
E.g., “There is an order to the universe that transcends human thinking.” Spiritual, religious, and humanistic concerns and nonreligious beliefs share a second factor.
Connectedness – 6 items about felt responsibility to others (alpha = .66) • Interest in and identification with abstract existential and spiritual thoughts and questions provide a common theme.
E.g., “It is important for me to give something back to my community.”
Religious Quest (Batson & Schoenrade, 1991) Interpreting these as simply religious and spiritual factors is insufficient since:
12 items about religion as an open dialogue with existential questions • The Spiritual Transcendence Index and Prayer Fulfillment subscale of the STS appear indistinct from religiousness
E.g., “Questions are far more central to my religious experience than are answers.” • Religious Quest loads exclusively on the otherwise nonreligious factor
Meaning in Life Questionnaire (MLQ; Steger et al., 2006)
Presence – 5 items about subjective meaning and purpose in life (alpha = .88) These two separate factors are analogous to the presence of meaning and the search for meaning.
E.g., “My life has no clear purpose.” (Reverse scored) • Presence of meaning involves positive declarations of purposefulness and existential fulfillment, like other measures on the first factor.
Search – 5 items about motivation to seek meaning in life (alpha = .84) • Search for meaning involves expressions of interest in resolving abstract existential questions, like other measures on the second factor.
E.g., “I am searching for meaning in my life.” • Presence & search remain somewhat independent constructs, given low communalities.