Measuring Religiosity/Spirituality: Theoretical Differentiations and Categorization of Instruments

By C. Zwingmann, C. Klein, A. Büssing. 2011

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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”.

Subfields: Health, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/f82bb172c0359e46e9a4e0d6811d612439ca79d1