Sense of coherence: big five correlates, spirituality, and incremental validity
 
More details
Hide details
 
Submission date: 2014-03-11
 
 
Final revision date: 2014-05-13
 
 
Acceptance date: 2014-05-13
 
 
Online publication date: 2014-05-31
 
 
Publication date: 2014-05-31
 
 
Current Issues in Personality Psychology 2014;2(1):1-9
 
KEYWORDS
TOPICS
ABSTRACT
Background
Antonovsky (1987) developed the Sense of Coherence (SOC) scale to measure the “life orientation” that promotes an individual’s ability to recognize life stressors and then effectively utilize coping resources to adjust and maintain health. Although theoretically appealing, little empirical work has been conducted to isolate the qualities of the scale that facilitate health.
Participants and procedure
The present study examined the factor structure of the SOC scale, as well as its incremental validity over measures of personality, spirituality, and psychological meaning in the prediction of psychosocial outcomes (e.g., hope death anxiety, life satisfaction, well-being, social support, world view). Participants consisted of 298 adults living in the United States; 98 men and 195 women (5 individuals did not disclose their gender) ages 18 to 72 (mean: 36.77 years).
Results
Principal components analysis indicated that a single factor best represented the structure of the 13-item SOC scale, although this one factor explained only 31% of the total variance. The scale contained a diverse item content that was challenging to interpret personologically. The SOC scale added little explanatory variance over and above the selected covariates in the prediction of psychosocial outcomes.
Conclusions
It appears that the SOC scale represents one aspect of a larger dimension that already has other valid indicators.
REFERENCES (55)
1.
Anastasi, A. & Urbina, S. (1997). Psychological testing (7th ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
 
2.
Andrews, F.M. & Withey, S.B. (1976). Social indicators of well-being: American’s perceptions of life quality. New York: Plenum.
 
3.
Antonovsky, A. (1979). Health, Stress, and Coping: New Perspectives on Mental and Physical Well-Being. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
 
4.
Antonovsky, A. (1987). Unravelling the mystery of healthy. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
 
5.
Antonovsky, A. (1993). The structure and properties of the sense of coherence scale. Social Science Medicine, 36, 725-733.
 
6.
Bowman, B.J. (1996). Cross-cultural validation of Antonovsky’s sense of coherence scale. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 52, 547-549.
 
7.
Bradburn, N.M. (1969). The structure of psychological well-being. Chicago, IL: Aldine.
 
8.
Breer, P.E. & Locke, E.A. (1965). Task experience as a source of attitudes. Homewood, IL: Dorsey Press.
 
9.
Büchi, S., Sensky, T., Allard, S., Stoll, T., Schnyder, U., Klaghofer, R. & Buddeberg, C. (1998). Sense of coherence – a protective factor for depression in rheumatoid arthritis. Journal of Rheumatology, 25, 869-875.
 
10.
Cohen, O. & Savaya, R. (2003). Sense of coherence and adjustment to divorce among Muslim Arab citizens of Israel. European Journal of Personality, 17, 309-326.
 
11.
Costa, P.T. & McCrae, R.R. (1980). Influence of extraversion and neuroticism on subjective well-being: Happy and unhappy people. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 38, 668-678.
 
12.
Crumbaugh, J. (1968). Cross-validation of purpose-in-life test based on Frankl’s concepts. Journal of Individual Psychology, 24, 74-81.
 
13.
Delgado, C. (2007). Sense of coherence, spirituality, stress and quality of life in chronic illness. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 39, 229-234.
 
14.
DeVellis, R.F., Alfieri, W.S.A. & Bala, I. (1995). The importance of careful measurement in health education research, theory and practice. Health Education Research, 10, 1-7.
 
15.
Diener, E., Emmons, R.A., Larsen, R.J. & Griffin, S. (1985). The satisfaction with life scale. Journal of Personality Assessment, 49, 71-75.
 
16.
Dion, K.K. & Dion, K.L. (1991). Psychological individualism and romantic love. Journal of Social Behavior and Personality, 6, 17-33.
 
17.
Dudek, B. & Makowska, Z. (1993). Psychometric characteristics of the orientation to life questionnaire for measuring the sense of coherence. Polish Psychological Bulletin, 24, 309-318.
 
18.
Ebert, S.A., Tucker, D.C. & Roth, D.L. (2002). Psychological resistance factors as predictors of general health status and physical symptom reporting. Psychology, Health and Medicine, 7, 363-375.
 
19.
Eriksson, M. & Lindström, B. (2005). Validity of Antonovsky’s sense of coherence scale: A systematic review. The Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 59, 460-466.
 
20.
Feldt, T., Lintula, H., Suominen, S., Koskenvuo, M., Vahtera, J. & Kivimaki, M. (2007). Structural validity and temporal stability of the 13-item sense of coherence scale: Prospective evidence from the population-based HeSSup study. Quality of Life Research, 16, 483-493.
 
21.
Fiorentino, L.M. (1998). Sense of coherence and the stress-illness relationship among employees: a prospective study. In: H.I. McCubbin, T.E. Thompson & A.L. Thompson et al. (eds.). Stress, coping, and health in families. Sense of coherence and resiliency (pp. 91-106). Thousand Oakes, CA: Sage.
 
22.
Fisher, W.A., Byrne, D., White, L.A. & Kelley, K. (1988). Erotophobia-erotophilia as a dimension of personality. Journal of Sex Research, 25, 123-151.
 
23.
Flannery, R.B., Perry, J.C., Penk, W.E. & Flannery, G.J. (1994). Validating Antonovsky’s sense of coherence scale. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 50, 575-577.
 
24.
Frankl, V. (1959). Man’s search for meaning. Boston, MA: Beacon.
 
25.
Frenz, A.W., Carey, M.P. & Jorgensen, R.S. (1993). Psychometric evaluation of Antonovsky’s sense of coherence scale. Psychological Assessment, 5, 145-153.
 
26.
Gana, K. (2001). Is sense of coherence a mediator between adversity and psychological well-being in adults? Stress and Health, 17, 77-83.
 
27.
Germano, D., Misajon, R. & Cummins, R.A. (2001). Quality of life and sense of coherence in people with arthritis. Journal of Clinical Psychology in Medical Settings, 8, 253-261.
 
28.
Heatherton, T.F. & Polivy, J. (1991). Development and validation of a scale for measuring state self-esteem. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 60, 895-910.
 
29.
Jones, A. & Crandall, R. (1986). Validation of a short index of self-actualization. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 12, 63-73.
 
30.
Krause, N. (1999). Religious Support. Multidimensional measurement of religiousness/spirituality for use in health research. Retrieved 2012 June 27 from http://www.fetzer.org/research....
 
31.
Larsson, G. & Kallenberg, K. (1999). Dimensional analysis of sense of coherence using structural equation modelling. European Journal of Personality, 13, 51-61.
 
32.
Lazarus, R.S. & Folkman, S. (1984). Stress, Appraisal, and Coping. New York: Springer Publishing Company.
 
33.
Linton, K.E. & Marriott, R.G. (1996). Self-esteem in adolescents: Validation of the state self-esteem scale. Personality and Individual Differences, 21, 85-90.
 
34.
Matsuura, E., Ohta, A., Kanegae, F., Haruda, Y. & Ushiyama, O. (2003). Frequency and analysis of factors closely associated with the development of depressive symptoms in patients with scleroderma. Journal of Rheumatology, 30, 1782-1787.
 
35.
McCrae, R.R. & Costa, P.T., Jr. (1985). Updating Norman’s Adequate Taxonomy: Intelligence and personality dimensions in natural language questionnaires. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 49, 710-721.
 
36.
McCrae, R.R. & Costa, P.T., Jr. (1987). Validation of the five-factor model of personality across instruments and across observers. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52, 81-90.
 
37.
McDowell, I. (2010). Measures of self-perceived well- being. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 69, 69-79.
 
38.
McKnight, P.E., & Kashdan, T.B. (2009). Purpose in life as a system that creates and sustains helaht and well-being: An integrative, testable theory. Review of General Psychology, 13, 242-251.
 
39.
McMordie, W.R. (1979). Improving measurement of death anxiety. Psychological Reports, 44, 975-980.
 
40.
Melton, A.M.A. & Schulenberg, S.E. (2008). On the measurement of meaning: Logotherapy’s empirical contributions to humanistic psychology. The Humanistic Psychologist, 36, 31-44.
 
41.
Ozer, D.J. (1985). Correlation and the coefficient of determination. Psychological Bulletin, 97, 307-315.
 
42.
Pavot, W. & Diener, E. (1993). Review of the satisfaction with life scale. Psychological Assessment, 5, 164-172.
 
43.
Piedmont, R.L. (1995). Big five adjective marker scales for use with college students. Psychological Reports, 77, 371-378.
 
44.
Piedmont, R.L. (1998). The Revised NEO Personality Inventory: Clinical and Research Applications. New York: Plenum Press.
 
45.
Piedmont, R.L. (1999). Does spirituality represent the sixth factor of personality? Spiritual transcendence and the five-factor model. Journal of Personality, 67, 983-1013.
 
46.
Piedmont, R.L. (2001). Spiritual transcendence and the scientific study of spirituality. Journal of Rehabilitation, 67, 4-14.
 
47.
Piedmont, R.L. (2009). The contribution of religiousness and spirituality to subjective well-being and satisfaction with life. In: L.J. Francis (ed.). International Handbook of Education for Spirituality, Care and Well-being (pp. 89-105). New York: Springer.
 
48.
Piedmont, R.L. (2010). Assessment of Spirituality and Religious Sentiments, technical manual (2nd ed.). Timonium, MD: Author.
 
49.
Rushton, J.P., Chrisjohn, R.D. & Fekken, G.C. (1981). The altruistic personality and the self-report altruism scale. Personality and Individual Differences, 2, 293-302.
 
50.
Scheier, M.F., Carver, C.S. & Bridges, M.W. (1994). Distinguishing optimism from neuroticism (and trait anxiety, self-mastery, and self-esteem): A reevaluation of the life orientation test. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67, 1063-1078.
 
51.
Seligman, M.E.P. & Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2000). Positive psychology: An introduction. American Psychologist, 55, 5-14.
 
52.
Sharabi, A., Levi, U. & Markolat, M. (2012). Children’s loneliness, sense of coherence, family climate, and hope: Developmental risk and protective factors. The Journal of Psychology, 146, 61-83.
 
53.
Snyder, C.R., Sympson, S.C., Ybasco, F.C., Borders, T.F., Babyak, M.A. & Higgins, R.L. (1996). Development and validation of the state hope scale. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 70, 321-335.
 
54.
Templer, D.L. (1970). The construction and validation of a death anxiety scale. Journal of General Psychology, 82, 165-177.
 
55.
Zubain, M.Z. (1999). The relationship between meaning in life and mental well-being. South African Journal of Psychology, 29, 36-41.
 
Copyright: © Institute of Psychology, University of Gdansk This is an Open Access journal, all articles are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license.
eISSN:2353-561X
ISSN:2353-4192
Journals System - logo
Scroll to top