Science Daily is touting this trumped-up study again. It was posted by a student in my current online Human Development class. Happily, I still had Jim Clark's sleuthing, posted below the current URL,Beth Benoit Granite State College New Hampshire
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090108082904.htm Hi I received the manuscript from the author, Mark Holder. Here is for me the major difficulty with the way in which results are being reported, a problem that I do not attribute particularly to Holder. The researchers (among others) used a Spiritual Well-Being Questionnaire, based on a conception of Spiritual Well-Being (SWB) developed by Fisher. For the questionnaire, see Gomez, Rapson; Fisher, John W.; Personality and Individual Differences, Vol 39(8), Dec 2005. pp. 1383-1393. [Journal Article] Here's the rub, for me. They identify 4 components of SWB, each assessed by 5 items, but only one of the 4 scales in my mind actually merits the label "spiritual." The four factors are Personal, Communal, Environmental, and Transcendent. In Holder's study it was Pers and Comm that predicted children's happiness. Personal items measure sense of identity, self-awareness, joy in one's life, inner peace, and meaning, without any mention of anything explicitly "spiritual." Communal items measure love of other people, forgiveness toward others, trust, respect for others, and kindness. Is there any reason to infer "spirituality" to explain people's ratings of such items or why they would correlate with children's happiness? I don't see it. Only the transcendent was explicitly spiritual (e.g., personal relationship with God) and that did not appear to predict happiness. So I do not think that the widespread use of "spiritual" to describe this study (and presumably others with this measure) is appropriate ... at least not without a full description of the special way that the word is being used. I suspect many (including Beth's student?) are coming away with an inaccurate conception of what was actually done and found. Take care Jim James M. Clark Professor of Psychology 204-786-9757 204-774-4134 Fax [email protected] Department of Psychology University of Winnipeg Winnipeg, Manitoba R3B 2E9 CANADA -- "We will not learn how to live in peace by killing each other's children." - Jimmy Carter "Are our children more precious than theirs?" --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([email protected])
