Measuring Religiosity/Spirituality: Theoretical Differentiations and Categorization of Instruments

There is a multitude of instruments for measuring religiosity/spirituality. Many of these questionnaires are used or even were developed in the context of studies about the connection between religiosity/spirituality and health. Thus, it seems crucial to note that measures can focus on quite differe...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Zwingmann, Christian 1963- (Author) ; Klein, Constantin 1977- (Author) ; Büssing, Arndt 1962- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: MDPI [2011]
In: Religions
Year: 2011, Volume: 2, Issue: 3, Pages: 345-357
Further subjects:B Spirituality
B Questionnaires
B Categorization
B Religiosity
Online Access: Presumably Free Access
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Summary:There is a multitude of instruments for measuring religiosity/spirituality. Many of these questionnaires are used or even were developed in the context of studies about the connection between religiosity/spirituality and health. Thus, it seems crucial to note that measures can focus on quite different components along a hypothetical path between stressors and health. We present an instructive model which helps to identify these different components and allows the categorization of instruments of religiosity/spirituality according to their primary measurement intention: intensity/centrality, resources, needs, coping, and quality of life/well-being. Furthermore, we point out possibilities as to how religiosity and spirituality can be differentiated. We argue that the distinction between religiosity and spirituality is important in countries with a more secular background where a growing number of people identify themselves as “spiritual, but not religious”.
ISSN:2077-1444
Contains:Enthalten in: Religions
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.3390/rel2030345