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Spirituality as a Scientific Construct: Testing Its Universality across Cultures and Languages

Author

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  • Douglas A MacDonald
  • Harris L Friedman
  • Jacek Brewczynski
  • Daniel Holland
  • Kiran Kumar K Salagame
  • K Krishna Mohan
  • Zuzana Ondriasova Gubrij
  • Hye Wook Cheong

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Douglas A MacDonald & Harris L Friedman & Jacek Brewczynski & Daniel Holland & Kiran Kumar K Salagame & K Krishna Mohan & Zuzana Ondriasova Gubrij & Hye Wook Cheong, 2015. "Spirituality as a Scientific Construct: Testing Its Universality across Cultures and Languages," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(3), pages 1-38, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0117701
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0117701
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    Cited by:

    1. Mader, Philip, 2024. "Orchestrating self-empowerment in tribal India: Debt bondage, land rights, and the strategic uses of spirituality," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 174(C).
    2. Jean-Louis Pernin, 2022. "Intention to support the existence of paranormal phenomena: exploratory comparisons between a psychosociological versus marketing approach [Intention de soutenir l’existence de phénomènes paranorma," Working Papers hal-03544450, HAL.
    3. Kurt, Yusuf & Sinkovics, Noemi & Sinkovics, Rudolf R. & Yamin, Mo, 2020. "The role of spirituality in Islamic business networks: The case of internationalizing Turkish SMEs," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 55(1).
    4. Alina Deluga & Beata Dobrowolska & Krzysztof Jurek & Barbara Ślusarska & Grzegorz Nowicki & Alvisa Palese, 2020. "Nurses’ spiritual attitudes and involvement—Validation of the Polish version of the Spiritual Attitude and Involvement List," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(9), pages 1-16, September.

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