Date of Graduation
1996
Document Type
Dissertation/Thesis
Abstract
The mental state, physical being and social/emotional portion of the learner has been part of the education process since 427 B.C. Although the spiritual dimension has not received much attention in the education literature, it seems as if more and more educators are becoming interested in the phenomenon as we head into the 21st century. Educators seemingly enjoy talking about the dimension and wish to include such a perspective in the curricula, but this researcher did not discovered a spirituality measurement in the field of education existing in the literature. Related scales that existed correlated spirituality with religiosity. The purpose of this study was to construct and validate a reliable attitude scale toward a spiritual perspective. The scale was intended to measure the individual's spiritual perspective with the highest possible reliability and validity. After adhering to rigorous standards from four curriculum, psychological, and spiritual specialists during the construction of a Preliminary "Spiritual Perspective" Attitude Scale, it was distributed to 246 educators and students from a small eastern Liberal Arts institution and a large eastern Research I institution. Following criteria which included coefficient correlations at the.05 level, reliability greater than.80, analysis of eigenvalues, and factor item analysis near or above.60, the results clearly indicated a uni-dimensional measurement existed. All 12 items correlated above the.05 level, a Cronbach's alpha test indicated reliability at.42, with a test-retest score at.90. Scoring for the final "Spiritual Perspective Scale" is additive in nature, with all 12 positively stated items yielding a mean of 46.6 and a standard deviation of 6.9. Those who score greater than or equal to 53 have a high spiritual perspective; those scoring in the 40-52 range have a moderate spiritual perspective; and those scoring lesser than or equal to 34 have a low spiritual perspective.
Recommended Citation
Neupauer, Nicholas Charles, "The construction and validation of a scale to measure a spiritual perspective." (1996). Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports. 9500.
https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd/9500