Perceiving sacredness in life: Correlates and predictors

Abstract

Building on research demonstrating relationships between well being and perceptions of aspects of life as sacred, this study describes the rationale for and development of a scale measuring perceiving sacredness in life. It then explores associations between perceptions of sacredness in life and these four domains: religious/spiritual (intrinsic/extrinsic religiosity, quest, mysticism, religious/spiritual history, worship attendance, frequency of prayer, importance of religion/spirituality), personal (purpose in life, commitment to empiricism, narcissism, self esteem, relational attachment), social (community service attitude and helping, social support, imagination tutoring), and situational (enjoyment and frequency of everyday pleasant events, impact of negative events, positive childhood recollections). Participants (n = 113) responded to a mailing to a national random sample within the United States, completing 16 scales pertaining to the religious/spiritual, personal, social, and situational domains. While many variables were correlated with perceiving sacredness in life, there were three overall predictors: intrinsic religiosity, mysticism, and community service attitude. © 2009 Brill.