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Article Excerpt
Researchers developing multidimensional models of relational quality have largely neglected to consider the potential role of relational spirituality in their models. Recent relational spirituality models have emerged predominantly from a psychodynamic framework. The current study of 385 Christian adults was designed to expand the understanding of the associations between spiritual and relational dimensions. A principal components analysis of 10 measures of spirituality produced two components accounting for just over 50% of the variance. The components were labeled Positive Relationship with God and Instrumental Relationship with God. A second principal components analysis of 7 relationship scales resulted in a single component accounting for 55% of the variance and seemed to measure negative relational quality. This component was labeled Negative Relationships with Others. Using component scores, a multiple regression analysis was then conducted in which the two spirituality components were used to predict relational quality. The two spirituality components accounted for approximately 35% of the variance in the relational component. Theoretical and practical considerations are discussed and areas for further research are recommended.
Despite the longstanding interest in dimensions of interpersonal relationships and the more recent, though profound, emerging interest in spirituality, surprisingly little attention has been directed toward the relationship between these two important domains. The inherently relational nature of spirituality has been largely neglected in model development. It seems reasonable, even likely, that relational dimensions present in horizontal (interpersonal) relationships (e.g., trust, intimacy, attachment, etc.) may also he meaningfully applied to vertical (spiritual) relationships. At the present time, very little is known about associations between religiousness/spirituality' and relational functioning.
Relationship Functioning and Connections with Spirituality and Religion
Many people throughout history have claimed to have a relationship with God, and this is evident across many religions and in both historical and contemporary religious doctrine. Hill and Pargament (2003) stated: "to know God is, according to many traditions, the central function of religion. Systems of religious belief, practice, and relationships are designed to help bring people closer to the transcendent, however the transcendence may be defined" (p. 67). Hill and Hall (2002) argued that people live fundamentally within the context of relationship and reasoned that the quest for the transcendent or sacred involves a search for relationship. Thus, it seems to some that horizontal relationships might be connected in some way to a vertical relationship (with the Divine). Hill and Pargament illustrated this principle by stating "the primacy of human relationships is articulated by most of the world's religions through some variant of the Golden Rule (e.g., caring, love, compassion), and the vehicle for enacting these relationships within most religions is the religious congregation" (p. 69).
In this same context, Hill and Pargament (2003) highlighted philosopher Martin Buber's (1970) belief that "the relation to a human being is the proper metaphor for the relation to God" (p. 151). Buber further commented that both the concept of God and the concept of self are relational. Philosopher Dallas Willard (1999) has suggested that people are designed for communication with God. This notion of a relational connection between humanity and the Divine is not new to people of various religious backgrounds. In fact, Willard argued that, from a Christian perspective, an intimate friendship is as available with God as it is in other close personal relationships. Hill and Hall (2002) emphasized that, in the Judeo-Christian tradition, people are perceived as capable of establishing and maintaining a relationship with the Divine. Psychologist David Benncr (1998) argued such capability is intrinsic and stated:
we do not have a part of personality that relates to God or yearns to be in such relationship. The totality of our being yearns for and responds to such a relationship. Furthermore, our relationship with Cod is mediated by the same psycholog ical process and mechanisms as those involved in relation ships with other people Psychological and spiritual aspects of human functioning are inextricably interconnected. ... Efforts to separate the spiritual, psychological, and physical aspects of persons inevitably result in a trivialization of each [italics added], (p. 62)
Hall (2004) noted that these psychological and spiritual processes are likely automatic and outside of consciousness. These suppositions seem supported by Simpson, Newman, and Fuqua (2007), who found dimensions of the five factor model of personality significantly related to both a positive and negative relationship with God (based on a factor analysis of several widely used spirituality scales). Specifically, they found that Extraversion, Agreeablencss, and Conscientiousness correlated positively with a component labeled Positive Relationship with God, and Neuroti-cism correlated negatively with the same component. Conversely, a second component labeled Negative Relationship with God was positively related to Neu-roricism and negatively related to Agreeableness and Conscientiousness. These findings are generally supported by other research examining spirituality and the five factor model of personality (c.f. MacDonald, 2000; Maltby & Day, 2001a & b; Piedmont, 1999; Rahanaiah, Rielage, & Sharpe, 2001; Saroglou, 2002). In concordance with Benner's perspective, Hall (2004) asserted that Christians and people of many other religious traditions do not view mental health as an end in itself. Hall argued that, for Christians, mental health must be integrated into a model of spirituality and mental health that "articulate[s] spiritual health/maturity as an end in itself (p. 67). This stance seems sensible if spirituality is viewed as an intrinsic aspect of oneself that is related to the depths of personality. Accordingly, and as noted by Hall (2004), it is appropriate to expect internalized relational patterns to reliably and predictably influence spiritual functioning and development.
Over the previous 20 years, and despite Gor-such's (1984) caution against further development of instruments measuring religious/spiritual constructs, research has continued to examine the psychometric properties of existing religious/spiritual instruments. Hill and Hood's (1999) compendium of religious and spirituality measures catalogs many of these efforts. In an effort to explore the potentially interactive nature of a relationship with God, Hall and Edwards (1996, 2002) developed the Spiritual Assessment Inventory (SAI) based on a relational mode! of spiritual maturity that is founded on the premise that people possess a capacity for awareness of God and that people have the capacity to be in relationship with God. Hall and Edwards utilized an object relations framework to compare three...
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