Free-lance spiritual seekers: self-growth or compensatory motives?

Abstract

People attending various spirituality and self-development conferences outside the framework of organised religious groups (N = 204) were compared to norms from the general population and to members of New Religious Movements (NRMs) on the following measures: attachment to parents in childhood, adult attachment, need for closure, need for cognition, openness to experience, and quest religious orientation. Results indicated that these people, in comparison to the general population, share with NRM members similar cognitive (need for closure) and affective (insecure attachment in childhood) needs that seem to be addressed by spirituality. However, in comparison to NRM members, participants scored higher on measures reflecting self-growth, that is openness to experience and quest religious orientation, and lower on need for closure. These findings may be interpreted as indicating a desire to seek spirituality but to preserve autonomy. These people were called free-lance spiritual seekers.

Keywords:

• spirituality
• attachment
• need for closure
• quest religious orientation
• openness to experience

Notes

Note

1. We refer, in this paper, to both religion and spirituality. These two constructs share many features but are not identical (Saucier & Skrzypińska, 2006; Zinnbauer & Pargament, 2005). There is some consensus that the two constructs share (a) the inclusion of the dimension of the sacred in life, and (b) the experience of being interconnected with other people in the community or the world as a whole. However, whereas religion places greater emphasis on specific religious traditions and institutions, including a specific God, modern spirituality reflects, to some extent, independence from religious traditions and institutions, includes a sense of transcendence, and constitutes an individualized approach to religious, existential, and ethical issues.