Data_Sheet_1_More spiritual than religious: Concurrent and longitudinal relations with personality traits, mystical experiences, and other individual characteristics.PDF

People who self-identify as predominantly spiritual constitute a considerable and well-established part of the religious landscape in North America and Europe. Thus, further research is needed to document predictors, correlates, and outcomes associated with self-identifying primarily as a spiritual person. In the following set of studies, we contribute to some of these areas using data from German and United States adults. Study 1 (n = 3,491) used cross-sectional data to compare four religious/spiritual (R/S) self-identity groups—more religious than spiritual (MRTS), more spiritual than religious (MSTR), equally religious and spiritual (ERAS), and neither religious nor spiritual (NRNS)—on sociodemographic characteristics and a range of criterion variables (i.e., Big Five personality traits, psychological well-being, generativity, mystical experiences, religious schemata). In Study 2 (n = 751), we applied the analytic template for outcome-wide longitudinal designs to examine associations of the four R/S self-identifications with a range of subsequent outcomes (assessed approximately 3 years later) that were largely comparable to the criterion variables assessed in Study 1. The cross-sectional and longitudinal findings from these complementary studies provide further evidence of differences between these four categories of R/S self-identification, including strong evidence in both studies of an association between the MSTR self-identity and mysticism.

自我认定以精神性为主的人群，是北美与欧洲宗教格局中规模可观且地位稳固的组成部分。因此，仍需开展进一步研究，以梳理与主要自我认定为精神性个体相关的预测因素、关联变量及研究结果。在本系列研究中，我们依托德国与美国成年人的数据集，为上述部分研究方向提供实证支撑。在研究1（样本量n=3491）中，我们采用横截面数据，对四类宗教/精神性（R/S）自我认同群体展开对比分析：宗教性强于精神性（MRTS）、精神性强于宗教性（MSTR）、宗教性与精神性兼具（ERAS）以及既无宗教性也无精神性（NRNS），对比维度涵盖社会人口学特征与一系列效标变量，即大五人格特质（Big Five personality traits）、心理幸福感、生成性、神秘体验及宗教图式（religious schemata）。在研究2（样本量n=751）中，我们采用多效标纵向设计的分析框架，考察四类R/S自我认同群体与一系列后续追踪结果（约3年后完成评估）之间的关联，这些追踪变量与研究1中的效标变量大体可比。本系列互补研究的横截面与纵向研究结果，进一步证实了四类R/S自我认同群体之间存在差异，且两项研究均提供了强有力的证据，证明精神性强于宗教性（MSTR）的自我认同与神秘体验之间存在关联。