Generativity and spiritual disclosure in close relationships.

This exploratory study examines the link between generativity and an interpersonal aspect of religion and spirituality, spiritual disclosure, in close relationships. Three hundred seventy-eight adults aged 18 to 85 years were asked about their use of spiritual disclosure with close friends, views on their own generativity, questions related to personality characteristics, and level of general self-disclosure. This community sample’s reports on higher levels of spiritual disclosure were tied to higher levels of generativity and general self-disclosure. Spiritual disclosure also predicted unique variance in generativity beyond general self-disclosure, personality, and intrapersonal aspects of religion and spirituality. These findings suggest spiritual disclosure in close relationships is an important part of the religious/spiritual landscape, which merits further study in relation to generativity and other prosocial indices. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The empirical and conceptual value of the spiritual transcendence and religious involvement scales for personality research.

Despite their wide usage, the constructs of spirituality and religiosity have no universally accepted definitions, and very little research has examined how these numinous constructs relate both to one another and to established personality dimensions. Two studies are presented that examined the factor structure of a motivationally based measure of spirituality, the Spiritual Transcendence Scale (STS) and a behaviorally based measure of religiosity, the Religious Involvement Scale (RIS). Three causal models examining their relationships to one another and to psychological measures of growth and maturity, as well as their incremental validity in predicting a wide array of psychosocial outcomes over the influence of the Five-Factor Model domains were examined. Employing self and observer ratings and American and Filipino samples, the results demonstrated that these robust, cross-culturally generalizable scales provided insights into people not contained by traditional personality variables. The conceptual implications of these results were discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Using the five-factor model to identify a new personality disorder domain: The case for experiential permeability.

Two studies were conducted to demonstrate that maladaptive aspects of high and low Openness to Experience were related to characterological impairment and that this aspect of personality may define a new domain of personality dysfunction. The 55-item Experiential Permeability Inventory (EPI; containing 4 scales) was developed and demonstrated to have acceptable psychometric properties. Evidence of convergent, discriminant, and incremental validity was provided. These studies provide a methodological framework for identifying and developing aspects of personality dysfunction that can expand the comprehensiveness of the current set of Axis II disorders. Theoretical implications of the EPI are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Spirituality and religiosity as cross-cultural aspects of human experience.

This study evaluated the validity of western spirituality and religiosity constructs in a nonwestern culture. The Faith Maturity Scale, Religiosity Index, and measures of the Five-Factor Model of Personality, purpose in life, altruism, self-actualization, subjective well-being, individualism-collectivism, and materialism were administered to 654 Filipino nationals. Results indicated that the Faith Maturity Scale and Religiosity Index were reliable and valid in the Philippine sample. Furthermore, among four competing structural equation models of potential causal relations among spirituality, religiosity, and psychological flourishing (SEM A, B, C, and D), Models B and D demonstrated exact fit via the chi square test. SEM D, which specified spirituality as the underlying predictor of religiosity and psychological flourishing, fit the data more parsimoniously than SEM B, which specified psychological flourishing as the predictor of both religiosity and spirituality. Finally, the Faith Maturity Scale and Religiosity Index demonstrated incremental validity over the Five-Factor Model of Personality in explaining significant additional variance in salient criteria of human functioning. Implications and limitations were discussed regarding the generalizability of spirituality and religiosity across different religious and psychological cultures. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)