Assessment of Spirituality and Religious Sentiments Scale

The ASPIRES is the first measure to understand  spirituality as a personality trait. Using the Five Factor Model (FFM) of personality as the organizing conceptual and empirical scaffolding, the constructs contained in this measure were selected because they were found to be independent of the domains of the FFM. As such, spirituality is considered to be a sixth dimension of personality. The information from the ASPIRES complements information from traditional personality scales and augments and extends insights into respondents concerning their levels of engagement with existential issues. While not considered a personality trait, the ASPIRES also captures religious sentiments relating to both involvement with the more ritualistic aspects of religious involvement as well as identifies feelings of estrangement from ones’ religious communities as well as disturbances in ones’ relationship with the God of their understanding.

FEATURES AND BENEFITS

• Relative brief scale (35 items) that provides useful insights across three aspects of spirituality (Universality, Prayer Fulfillment, and Connectedness) and two aspects of religious sentiments (Religious Involvement and Religious Crisis).
• Has a validated observer-rating version that allows for the collection of informant data that can be useful for validating self-report profiles and for work with couples.
• Validated self and observer short forms are also available when time constraints prohibit the administration of the long forms.
• An easy to use Excel-based computer scoring program, with unlimited usage, is available that produces a four page interpretive report that transforms raw scores into norm-based T-scores that control for gender and age. Interpretive insights are provided that are based on patterns of responses and suggestions for further inquiries into a client’s spiritual and religious perspectives.
• The ASPIRES has a large normative sample and there is a large validity literature that documents the personological and clinical predictive value of scores. Scores do not top out when used with clergy or other highly religious groups.
• The ASPIRES has been translated into over a dozen different languages and shown valid across languages, cultures, and religious affiliations. Scores have also been shown to be useful with Atheists and Agnostics. The qualities underlying the Spiritual dimension are universal aspects of human psychological functioning.
• ASPIRES scores have been found useful in predicting a number of important psychosocial outcomes, such as emotional dysphoria, characterological impairment, response to outpatient substance abuse treatment, coping styles, well-being, and vocational choice, among other outcomes.
• Comprehensive manual includes suggestions for using the ASPIRES in research contexts, including cross-cultural, clinical, and personological. Manual includes SPSS programs for scoring the scale as well as other programs useful in evaluating the psychometric qualities of the instrument in new samples.

Licensing agreements are possible for using the ASPIRES scales in online surveys. Contact Dr. Ralph Piedmont for information.