DEVELOPMENT AND PSYCHOMETRIC PROPERTIES OF A SCALE OF NON-THEISTIC SPIRITUALITY: CONTRIBUTIONS OF SPIRITUALITY TO THE LOCUS OF CONTROL

Abstract

The present study aims to compare measures of spirituality and religiosity in the experience of the locus of control. For this purpose a scale of non-theistic spirituality (Spiritual Awareness Scale) was developed to better distinguish spirituality from religiosity. The sample included 279 participants, 86 males (30.8%) and 193 females (69.2%), aged between 17 and 69 (M = 24.42, SD = 9.463). The results showed that the Spiritual Awareness Scale has acceptable psychometric characteristics as also good convergent and practical validity. The findings revealed that spirituality and religiosity affect the perception of the locus of control in opposite ways: the greater the spirituality, the greater the feeling of personal control over life events; and the greater the religiosity, the more the feeling of lack of control. These results raise important questions about the operationalization of both concepts of spirituality and religiosity.