Abstract
A review of the literature investigating the relationship between religion and spirituality and broad personality traits reveals methodological limitations. The present study sought to contribute to the present literature by investigating differences on personality traits among men and women who identified as either religious only (R), spiritual only (S), both spiritual and religious (B), or neither spiritual nor religious (N). One thousand thirty-seven (1037) adults (M age = 36.34, SD = 12.62) participated online via Amazon’s Mechanical Turk as part of a larger study and completed the IPIP-NEO-120, Spiritual Transcendence Scale, Duke University Religion Index, and demographic information. Results revealed that men were more likely to identify as R and N than women, and women were more likely to identify as B than men. Women showed more significant differences among Big Five traits than men. Compared to other women, R-women reported the lowest levels of Openness, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism, and highest levels of Extraversion. N-women reported the highest levels of Neuroticism, while S-women reported highest Openness. Among men, R-men reported the lowest Openness, and S-men reported the highest Openness. B-men reported higher Extraversion than N-men. Additionally, Big Five traits appeared to account for significantly more variance in self-reported religiousness for women than men. Implications of these findings and recommendations for future research are provided and discussed.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abdel-Khalek, A. M. (2010). Religiosity, subjective well-being, and neuroticism. Mental Health, Religion & Culture,13(1), 67–79. https://doi.org/10.1080/13674670903154167.
Arditte, K. A., Çek, D., Shaw, A. M., & Timpano, K. R. (2016). The importance of assessing clinical phenomena in Mechanical Turk research. Psychological Assessment,28(6), 684–691. https://doi.org/10.1037/pas0000217.
Barrick, M. R., & Mount, M. K. (1991). The big five personality dimensions and job performance: A meta-analysis. Personnel Psychology,44(1), 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.1991.tb00688.x.
Bergin, A. E. (1983). Religiosity and mental health: A critical reevaluation and meta-analysis. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice,14(2), 170–184. https://doi.org/10.1037/0735-7028.14.2.170.
Bonelli, R. M., & Koenig, H. G. (2013). Mental disorders, religion and spirituality 1990 to 2010: A systematic evidence-based review. Journal of Religion and Health,52(2), 657–673. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-013-9691-4.
Buhrmester, M., Kwang, T., & Gosling, S. D. (2011). Amazon’s Mechanical Turk: A new source of inexpensive, yet high-quality, data? Perspectives on Psychological Science,6(1), 3–5. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691610393980.
Buhrmester, M. D., Talaifar, S., & Gosling, S. D. (2018). An evaluation of Amazon’s mechanical turk, its rapid rise, and its effective use. Perspectives on Psychological Science,13(2), 149–154. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691617706516.
Casler, K., Bickel, L., & Hackett, E. (2013). Separate but equal? A comparison of participants and data gathered via Amazon’s MTurk, social media, and face-to-face behavioral testing. Computers in Human Behavior,29(6), 2156–2160. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2013.05.009.
Cobb-Clark, D. A., & Schurer, S. (2012). The stability of big-five personality traits. Economics Letters,115(1), 11–15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econlet.2011.11.015.
Cohen, A. B., Mazza, G. L., Johnson, K. A., Enders, C. K., Warner, C. M., Pasek, M. H., et al. (2017). Theorizing and measuring religiosity across cultures. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin,43(12), 1724–1736. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167217727732.
Costa, P. T., & McCrae, R. R. (1992). Normal personality assessment in clinical practice: The NEO Personality Inventory. Psychological Assessment,4(1), 5.
Costa, P. T., Jr., Terracciano, A., & McCrae, R. R. (2001). Gender differences in personality traits across cultures: Robust and surprising findings. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,81(2), 322–331. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.81.2.322.
de Vaus, D., & McAllister, I. (1987). Gender differences in religion: A test of the structural location theory. American Sociological Review,52(4), 472–481. https://doi.org/10.2307/2095292.
Delaney, D. G. (2016). Secular but not superficial: An overlooked nonreligious/nonspiritual identity. Master’s Thesis, University of Louisville.
DeYoung, C. G., & Gray, J. R. (2009). Personality neuroscience: Explaining individual differences in affect, behavior, and cognition. In P. J. Corr & G. Matthews (Eds.), Cambridge handbook of personality (pp. 323–346). New York: Cambridge University Press.
DeYoung, C. G., Quilty, L. C., & Peterson, J. B. (2007). Between facets and domains: 10 aspects of the Big Five. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,93(5), 880–896. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.93.5.880.
Difallah, D. E., Catasta, M., Demartini, G., Ipeirotis, P. G., & Cudre-Mauroux. (2015). The dynamics of micro-task crowdsourcing: The case of Amazon MTurk. Paper presented at the proceedings of the 24th international conference on world wide web, Florence, Italy.
Dochtermann, N. A., Schwab, T., & Sih, A. (2015). The contribution of additive genetic variation to personality variation: Heritability of personality. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences,282(1798), 20142201. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2014.2201.
Feingold, A. (1994). Gender differences in personality: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin,116(3), 429–456. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.116.3.429.
Francis, L. J. (1997). The psychology of gender differences in religion: A review of empirical research. Religion,27(1), 81–96. https://doi.org/10.1006/reli.1996.0066.
Francis, L. J., & Penny, G. (2014). Gender differences in religion, personality, and social behavior (pp. 313–337). New York, NY: Psychology Press.
Fuller, R. C., Fuller, P. R. S. R. C., & Press, O. U. (2001). Spiritual, but not religious: Understanding unchurched America. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Galen, L. W., & Kloet, J. D. (2011). Mental well-being in the religious and the non-religious: Evidence for a curvilinear relationship. Mental Health, Religion & Culture,14(7), 673–689. https://doi.org/10.1080/13674676.2010.510829.
Goldberg, L. R. (1990). An alternative ‘description of personality’: The Big-Five factor structure. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,59(6), 1216–1229. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.59.6.1216.
Goldberg, L. R. (1999). A broad-bandwidth, public domain, personality inventory measuring the lower-level facets of several five-factor models. Personality psychology in Europe,7(1), 7–28.
Handal, P. J., Creech, C. A., Schwendeman, M. G., Pashak, T. J., Perez, E. J., & Caver, L. (2017). Distinguishing between self-classified religious and spiritual groups of emerging adult males: Conceptual and psychometric challenges. Journal of Religion and Health,56(6), 1971–1980.
Harris, K. A., Howell, D. S., & Spurgeon, D. W. (2018). Faith concepts in psychology: Three 30-year definitional content analyses. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality,10(1), 1–29. https://doi.org/10.1037/rel0000134.
Henningsgaard, J. M., & Arnau, R. C. (2008). Relationships between religiosity, spirituality, and personality: A multivariate analysis. Personality and Individual Differences,45(8), 703–708. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2008.07.004.
Hill, P. C., & Pargament, K. I. (2008). Advances in the conceptualization and measurement of religion and spirituality: Implications for physical and mental health research. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality,S(1), 3–17. https://doi.org/10.1037/1941-1022.s.1.3.
Hill, P. C., Pargament, K. I., Hood, R. W., McCullough, J. M. E., Swyers, J. P., Larson, D. B., et al. (2000). Conceptualizing religion and spirituality: Points of commonality, points of departure. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour,30(1), 51–77. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-5914.00119.
Idler, E. L. (1987). Religious involvment and the health of the elderly: Some hypotheses and an initial test. Social Forces,66(1), 226–238. https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/66.1.226.
Ivtzan, I., Chan, C. P. L., Gardner, H. E., & Prashar, K. (2013). Linking religion and spirituality with psychological well-being: Examining self-actualisation, meaning in life, and personal growth initiative. Journal of Religion and Health,52(3), 915–929. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-011-9540-2.
Jang, K. L., Livesley, W. J., Angleitner, A., Riemann, R., & Vernon, P. A. (2002). Genetic and environmental influences on the covariance of facets defining the domains of the five-factor model of personality. Personality and Individual Differences,33(1), 83–101. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0191-8869(01)00137-4.
John, O. P., & Srivastava, S. (1999). The Big Five Trait taxonomy: History, measurement, and theoretical perspectives. Handbook of personality: Theory and research (2nd ed., pp. 102–138). New York, NY: Guilford Press.
Johnson, J. A. (2014). Measuring thirty facets of the Five Factor Model with a 120-item public domain inventory: Development of the IPIP-NEO-120. Journal of Research in Personality,51(Supplement C), 78–89. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2014.05.003.
Kajonius, P. (2017). Cross-cultural personality differences between East Asia and Northern Europe in IPIP-NEO. International Journal of Personality Psychology,3(1), 1–7.
Kajonius, P., & Mac Giolla, E. (2017). Personality traits across countries: Support for similarities rather than differences. PLoS ONE,12(6), e0179646. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0179646.
Koenig, H., Parkerson, G. R., Jr., & Meador, K. G. (1997). Religion index for psychiatric research. The American Journal of Psychiatry,154(6), 885–886. https://doi.org/10.1176/ajp.154.6.885b.
Koenig, H. G., & Büssing, A. (2010). The Duke University Religion Index (DUREL-IR): A five-item measure for use in epidemological studies. Religions,1(1), 78–85. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel1010078.
Koenig, H. G., King, D., & Carson, V. B. (2012). Handbook of religion and health (2nd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Labbé, E. E., & Fobes, A. (2010). Evaluating the interplay between spirituality, personality and stress. Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback,35(2), 141–146. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10484-009-9119-9.
Lace, J. W., Haeberlein, K. A., & Handal, P. J. (2018). Religious integration and psychological distress: Different patterns in emerging adult males and females. Journal of Religion and Health,57(6), 2378–2388. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-018-0608-0.
Lace, J. W., & Handal, P. J. (2017). Psychometric properties of the daily spiritual experiences scale: Support for a two-factor solution, concurrent validity, and its relationship with clinical psychological distress in university students. Religions,8(7), 123. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel8070123.
Lace, J. W., & Handal, P. J. (2018a). Identifying an empirically-derived 10-item religiousness measure from Lipsmeyer’s Personal Religious Inventory: Psychometric properties of the PRI-10. Pastoral Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11089-018-0852-y.
Lace, J. W., & Handal, P. J. (2018b). Confirming the tripartite structure of the Duke University Religion Index: A methodological approach. Journal of Religion and Health,57(2), 704–716. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-017-0556-0.
Lenhard, W. & Lenhard, A. (2014). Hypothesis tests for comparing correlations. https://www.psychometrica.de/correlation.html. Bibergau (Germany): Psychometrica. https://doi.org/10.13140/rg.2.1.2954.1367.
Levin, J. (2010). Religion and mental health: Theory and research. International Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies,7(2), 102–115. https://doi.org/10.1002/aps.240.
MacDonald, D. A. (2000). Spirituality: Description, measurement, and relation to the five factor model of personality. Journal of Personality,68(1), 153–197. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-6494.t01-1-00094.
Maples, J. L., Guan, L., Carter, N. T., & Miller, J. D. (2014). A test of the International Personality Item Pool representation of the Revised NEO Personality Inventory and development of a 120-item IPIP-based measure of the five-factor model. Psychological Assessment,26(4), 1070–1084. https://doi.org/10.1037/pas0000004.
Marler, P. L., & Hadaway, C. K. (2002). “Being religious” or “being spiritual” in America: A zero-sum proposition? Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion,41(2), 289–300. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-5906.00117.
Maselko, J., & Kubzansky, L. D. (2006). Gender differences in religious practices, spiritual experiences and health: Results from the US General Social Survey. Social Science and Medicine,62(11), 2848–2860. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2005.11.008.
McAdams, D. P., & Pals, J. L. (2006). A new Big Five: Fundamental principles for an integrative science of personality. American Psychologist,61(3), 204–217. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.61.3.204.
McCrae, R. R. (2010). The place of the FFM in personality psychology. Psychological Inquiry,21(1), 57–64.
McCrae, R. R., & Costa, P. T., Jr. (1997). Personality trait structure as a human universal. American Psychologist,52(5), 509–516. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.52.5.509.
McCrae, R. R., Martin, T. A., & Costa, P. J. (2005). Age trends and age norms for the NEO personality inventory-3 in adolescents and adults. Assessment,12(4), 363–373.
McCullough, M. E., Tsang, J.-A., & Brion, S. (2003). Personality traits in adolescence as predictors of religiousness in early adulthood: Findings from the Terman Longitudinal Study. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin,29(8), 980–991. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167203253210.
McCullough, M. E., & Willoughby, B. L. B. (2009). Religion, self-regulation, and self-control: Associations, explanations, and implications. Psychological Bulletin,135(1), 69–93. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0014213.
Miller, W. R., & Thoresen, C. E. (2003). Spirituality, religion, and health: An emerging research field. American Psychologist,58(1), 24–35. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.58.1.24.
Paolacci, G., & Chandler, J. (2014). Inside the Turk: Understanding Mechanical Turk as a participant pool. Current Directions in Psychological Science,23(3), 184–188. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721414531598.
Peterson, J. B. (2002). Maps of meaning: The architecture of belief. London: Routledge.
Piedmont, R. L. (1999). Does spirituality represent the sixth factor of personality? Spiritual transcendence and the five-factor model. Journal of Personality,67(6), 985–1013. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-6494.00080.
Piedmont, R. L. (2001). Spiritual transcendence and the scientific study of spirituality. Journal of Rehabilitation,67(1), 4–14.
Piedmont, R. L. (2007). Cross-cultural generalizability of the Spiritual Transcendence Scale to the Philippines: Spirituality as a human universal. Mental Health, Religion & Culture,10(2), 89–107. https://doi.org/10.1080/13694670500275494.
Piedmont, R. L., & Leach, M. M. (2002). Cross-cultural generalizability of the Spiritual Transcendence Scale in India. American Behavioral Scientist,45(12), 1888–1901. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764202045012011.
Piedmont, R. L., Sherman, N. C., Williams, J. E. G., Kennedy, M. C., & Sherman, M. F. (2008). A psychometric evaluation of the Assessment of Spirituality And Religious Sentiments (Aspires) Scale: Short form. Research in the Social Scientific Study of Religion. https://doi.org/10.1163/ej.9789004166462.i-299.55.
Plante, T. G., Vallaeys, C. L., Sherman, A. C., & Wallston, K. A. (2002). The development of a brief version of the Santa Clara Strength of Religious Faith Questionnaire. Pastoral Psychology,50(5), 359–368. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1014413720710.
Rican, P., Lukavsky, J., Janosova, P., & Stochl, J. (2010). Spirituality of American and Czech students—A cross-cultural comparison. Studia Psychologica,52(3), 243–251.
Roccas, S., Sagiv, L., Schwartz, S. H., & Knafo, A. (2002). The big five personality factors and personal values. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin,28(6), 789–801. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167202289008.
Rolland, J.-P. (2002). The cross-cultural generalizability of the five-factor model of personality (pp. 7–28). New York, NY: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers.
Roof, W. C., Patrick, A. E., Grimes, R. L., & Leonard, B. J. (1999). Forum: American spirituality. Religion and American Culture: A Journal of Interpretation,9(2), 131–157. https://doi.org/10.2307/1123861.
Saroglou, V. (2002). Religion and the five factors of personality: A meta-analytic review. Personality and Individual Differences,32(1), 15–25. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0191-8869(00)00233-6.
Saroglou, V. (2009). Religiousness as a cultural adaptation of basic traits: A five-factor model perspective. Personality and Social Psychology Review,14(1), 108–125. https://doi.org/10.1177/1088868309352322.
Saroglou, V., & Muñoz-García, A. (2008). Individual differences in religion and spirituality: An issue of personality traits and/or values. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion,47(1), 83–101. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-5906.2008.00393.x.
Schnabel, L. (2015). How religious are American women and men? Gender differences and similarities. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion,54(3), 616–622. https://doi.org/10.1111/jssr.12214.
Schnell, T. (2012). Spirituality with and without religion—Differential relationships with personality. Archive for the Psychology of Religion,34(1), 33–61. https://doi.org/10.1163/157361212X644495.
Schreiber, J. A., & Brockopp, D. Y. (2012). Twenty-five years later—What do we know about religion/spirituality and psychological well-being among breast cancer survivors? A systematic review. J Cancer Surviv,6(1), 82–94. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11764-011-0193-7.
Soto, C. J., & John, O. P. (2017). The next Big Five Inventory (BFI-2): Developing and assessing a hierarchical model with 15 facets to enhance bandwidth, fidelity, and predictive power. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,113(1), 117–143. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000096.
Sprouse, J. (2011). A validation of Amazon Mechanical Turk for the collection of acceptability judgments in linguistic theory. Behavior Research Methods,43(1), 155–167. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-010-0039-7.
Storch, E. A., Roberti, J. W., Heidgerken, A. D., Storch, J. B., Lewin, A. B., Killiany, E. M., et al. (2004). The Duke Religion Index: A psychometric investigation. Pastoral Psychology,53(2), 175–181. https://doi.org/10.1023/b:pasp.0000046828.94211.53.
Streib, H., Klein, C., & Hood, R. W. (2016). Personality dimensions and versions of “spirituality”. In H. Streib & R. W. Hood (Eds.), Semantics and psychology of “spirituality”. A cross-cultural analysis (pp. 189–203). Cham, Heidelberg, New York, Dordrecht: Springer.
Taylor, A., & MacDonald, D. A. (1999). Religion and the five factor model of personality: An exploratory investigation using a Canadian university sample. Personality and Individual Differences,27(6), 1243–1259. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0191-8869(99)00068-9.
Thouless, R. H. (1971). An introduction to the psychology of religion. Cambridge: CUP Archive.
Trapnell, P. D. (1994). Openness versus intellect: A lexical left turn. European Journal of Personality,8(4), 273–290. https://doi.org/10.1002/per.2410080405.
Underwood, L. G. (2011). The daily spiritual experience scale: Overview and results. Religions,2(4), 29–50. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel2010029.
Unterrainer, H. F., Lewis, A. J., & Fink, A. (2014). Religious/spiritual well-being, personality and mental health: A review of results and conceptual issues. Journal of Religion and Health,53(2), 382–392. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-012-9642-5.
Womble, M. N., Labbé, E. E., & Cochran, C. R. (2013). Spirituality and personality: Understanding their relationship to health resilience. Psychological Reports,112(3), 706–715. https://doi.org/10.2466/02.07.PR0.112.3.706-715.
Wood, W., & Eagly, A. H. (2002). A cross-cultural analysis of the behavior of women and men: Implications for the origins of sex differences. Psychological Bulletin,128(5), 699–727. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.128.5.699.
Yarhouse, M. A., Butman, R. E., & McRay, B. W. (2016). Modern psychopathologies: A comprehensive christian appraisal. Westmont: InterVarsity Press. https://www.ivpress.com/modernpsychopathologies.
Zinnbauer, B. J., Pargament, K. I., Cole, B., Rye, M. S., Butter, E. M., Belavich, T. G., et al. (1997). Religion and spirituality: Unfuzzying the fuzzy. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion,36(4), 549–564. https://doi.org/10.2307/1387689.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
All authors declare they have no conflicts of interest.
Ethical Approval
This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors. All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
Informed Consent
Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Lace, J.W., Evans, L.N., Merz, Z.C. et al. Five-Factor Model Personality Traits and Self-Classified Religiousness and Spirituality. J Relig Health 59, 1344–1369 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-019-00847-1
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-019-00847-1