Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The God Mysticism Scale: a Brief Version

Pastoral Psychology volume 68, pages 345–356 (2019)Cite this article

Abstract

This paper presents two studies concerned with developing a brief version of the 32-item God Mysticism Scale (GMS; Hood Jr. and Williamson Journal of Psychology and Christianity, 19(3), 232–244, 2000). Study 1 submitted 12 representative items from the GMS to an exploratory factor analysis and found a two-factor solution (Interpretation, 6 items; Experience, 6 items) that was used to constitute the God Mysticism Scale-Brief (GMS-B). Study 2 examined the construct validity of the GMS-B through a confirmatory factor analysis. The two-factor solution was confirmed, and fit indices revealed a good fit of the model to the data. Other analyses of the GMS-B found sufficient internal consistency (Study 1, Interpretation, α = .94, Experience, α = .86; Study 2, Interpretation, α = .93, Experience, α = .84) and preliminary evidence for criterion validity with religious and spirituality measures. The two studies together indicate that the GMS-B is well grounded in theory, psychometrically sound, and useful as an economic measure of mysticism in God language.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.

Access options

Buy single article

Instant access to the full article PDF.

USD 39.95

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Caird, D. (1988). The structure of Hood’s mysticism scale: A factor analytic study. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 27, 122–126.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gorsuch, R. L., & McPherson, S. E. (1989). Intrinsic/extrinsic measurement: I/E-revised and single-item scales. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 28, 348–354.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Guo, Y., Kopec, J. A., Cibere, J., Li, L. C., & Goldsmith, C. H. (2016). Population survey features and response rates: A randomized experiment. American Journal of Public Health, 106, 1422–1426.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Hood, R. W., Jr. (1975). The construction and preliminary validation of a measure of reported mysticism experience. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 14, 29–41.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hood, R. W., Jr., & Williamson, W. P. (2000). An empirical test of the unity thesis: The structure of mystical descriptors in various faith samples. Journal of Psychology and Christianity, 19(3), 232–244.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hood, R. W., Jr., Ghorbani, N., Watson, P. J., Ghramaleki, A. F., Bing, M. N., Davison, H. K., et al. (2001). Dimensions of the mysticism scale: Confirming the three-factor structure in the United States and Iran. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 40, 691–705.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hood, R. W., Jr., Hill, P. C., & Spilka, B. (2009). The psychology of religion: An empirical approach (4th ed.). New York: Guilford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • James, W. (1982). The varieties of religious experience. New York: Penguin Books. (Original work published in 1902).

  • Kelloway, E. K. (1998). Using LISREL for structural equation modeling. Thousand Oaks: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Peytchev, A., & Peytcheva, E. (2017). Reduction of measurement error due to survey length: Evaluation of the split questionnaire design approach. Survey Research Methods, 11, 361–368.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stace, W. T. (1960). Mysticism and philosophy. Philadelphia: Lippincott.

    Google Scholar 

  • Streib, H., & Hood, R. W. (Eds.). (2016). Semantics and psychology of spirituality. A cross-cultural analysis. Cham: Springer International Publishing Switzerland.

    Google Scholar 

  • Streib, H., Klein, C., Keller, B., & Hood, R. W. (forthcoming). The mysticism scale as measure for subjective spirituality: New results with Hood’s M-scale and the development of a short form. In A. L. Ai, K. A. Harris, & P. Wink (Eds.), Assessing spirituality and religion in a diversified world: Beyond the mainstream perspective (pp. 1–30). Cham: Springer International Publishing Switzerland.

  • Williamson, W. P., & Hood, R. W., Jr. (2012). The Lazarus project: A longitudinal study of spiritual transformation among substance abusers. Mental Health, Religion, and Culture, 15, 611–635.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Williamson, W. P., & Hood, R. W., Jr. (2016). Psychology and spiritual transformation in a substance abuse program: The Lazarus project. Lanham: Lexington Books.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Henderson State University, Arkadelphia, AR, USA

    W. Paul Williamson

  2. University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, Chattanooga, TN, USA

    Ralph W. Hood Jr

  3. Department of Psychology, Clemson University, 418 Brackett Hall, Clemson, SC, 29634, USA

    Zhuo Job Chen

Authors
  1. W. Paul Williamson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Ralph W. Hood Jr
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Zhuo Job Chen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Zhuo Job Chen.

Additional information

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Appendix

Appendix

figure a

* Contrait item to be reversed scored

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Paul Williamson, W., Hood, R.W. & Chen, Z.J. The God Mysticism Scale: a Brief Version. Pastoral Psychol 68, 345–356 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11089-018-0856-7

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11089-018-0856-7

Keywords

search

Navigation