Abstract
The study examined a common sense understanding of spirituality and
its conceptual boundary with religiosity. Twenty one older (M=74.3,
SD=9.0) and 29 younger middle-aged adults (M=43.0, SD=8.7)
with various ethnic and educational backgrounds were interviewed regarding
their religious involvement and conceptualization of spirituality. The
transcripts were then rated by two independent raters to determine the
degree to which one's religiosity was associated with the implicit definitions
of spirituality. The results suggested that one's religious involvement
was significantly related to how spirituality was understood. However,
the content analysis also revealed, across age groups, several common themes
underlying spirituality regardless of religiosity (e.g., Interpersonal
Virtue, Transcendence). Further, the age differences were also found that
older adults were more likely than the younger cohort to view religious
education as a path to spirituality, identify religious professionals as
spiritual people, and associate religious descriptors with the concept
of spirituality. Based on these findings, the future research directions
are also discussed.