Chun-Shin Taylor, Marion E. Toscano, Ralph L. Piedmont, Ph.D.
A cross-cultural application of the ASPIRES: A comparative exploratory study of religion and spirituality predicting psychological outcome between the Asians and non-Asians in the U.S.
The influence of Eastern traditions into Western societies has created more complex
and intricate dynamics for understanding spirituality and religion in the global community.
Hwang (2009) contended that in order to meet the needs of diverse cultural groups,
cross-cultural psychology needs models that bridge Eastern and Western cultural traditions.
In order to capture this movement, a plethora of spiritual and religious assessment
scales have been developed and utilized. However, the non-consensual definition of
spirituality across these scales and the lack of sound psychometric properties has
created ambiguity and skepticism regarding the ability of measures to accurately capture
spiritual dimension of human functioning across cultures (Kapuscinski & Masters, 2010;
Piedmont, 2010).
Piedmont (2010) developed an empirically driven spiritual assessment, the Assessment
of Spirituality and Religious Sentiment (ASPIRES) scale that captures universal dimensions
of spirituality, which is defined as an intrinsic motivational drive to create ultimate
meaning. The ASPIRES is unique in its cross-cultural generalizability and non-denominational
application to reflect universal experience of spirituality. Cross-cultural research
using the ASPIRES in numerous cultures (e.g., in Czech Republic, Hungary, Philippines,
India, and Korea; Piedmont, 2010) has supported its ability to reflect a universal
aspect of spirituality. However, none of the studies have been performed with Asians
within the US. The purpose of this study is to add to this developing cross-cultural
literature by demonstrating the universal psychological nature of spirituality and
its ability to predict psychological outcomes between the Asian and non-Asian living
in US.
The study includes 984 participants (male =469, female=515), with an average age of
36.02 years (range 18 to 77). The sample consists of Atheist/Agnostic (N=327), Catholic
(N=182), Other Christian (N=144), Baptist (N=101), and Other Faith Groups, including
Buddhist, Jewish, Methodist, Muslim, and Mormon (N=230). For the purpose of this study,
the sample was divided into Asians (N=60) and non-Asians (N=924). Participants were
given a battery of assessments: a personality inventory IPIP 50(Goldberg, 1992), Delighted-Terrible
Scale (Andrews & Withey, 1976), Purpose in Life Test (Crumbaugh, 1968), Affect Balance
Scale (Bradburns, 1969), and the ASPIRES (Piedmont, 2010).
Results: The ASPIRES demonstrated the acceptable Alpha reliabilities, ranging from
.47 to .95 for Asians. The factor structure was recoverable within both groups with
the exception of Connectedness with Asians. The ASPIRES was useful in predicting all
outcomes with an exception of Affect Balance Scale for Asians.
Discussion: The ASPIRES scales were found to be reliable with Asians although the
factor structure was not completely recovered. This may be a function of the relatively
small sample size. Nonetheless, scores on the ASPIRES did evidence significant incremental
validity in predicting the psychosocial outcomes.
References:
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Bradburn, N.M. (1969). The structure of psychological well-being. Chicago, IL: Aldine.
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Hwang, K. (2009). The development of indigenous counseling in contemporary Confucian
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Kapuscinski, A. N., & Masters, K. S. (2010). The current status of measures of spirituality:
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