Is There a General Factor of Spiritual Intelligence? Factorial Validity of the Polish Adaptation of Spiritual Intelligence Self-Report Inventory

Abstract

In recent years, spirituality and the meaning of life are becoming increasingly important variables in the study of well-being, health, and happiness. The concept of spiritual intelligence (SI) was suggested as a potentially significant construct expanding our understanding of psychological determinants of human functioning. The aim of this paper was to investigate the factorial validity of the Spiritual Intelligence Self-Report Inventory (SISRI; King, 2008) in the context of research on a general factor of spiritual intelligence as a psychological construct. The SISRI was administered to 833 adults in Poland. A four-factor solution with one second-order factor of spiritual intelligence provided an inadequate solution. A four-factor solution with correlated factors and a reduced number of items provided an adequate fit to the data. It is concluded that so far, no data are supporting a single factor of SI measured by SISRI-24, and previous studies, including the original study, show that the measurement with this scale is highly problematic. Without a strong theory and proper measurement, the development of this highly promising area of research may be hindered.

The Potential Values of Riyadhoh Improving the Quality of Learning of Students

“…Students as young generations and as national assets must have intellectual, emotional, and spiritual intelligence to protect the nation's diversity from threats. Spiritual intelligence can help students solve the various challenges they face in real life after graduation (Atroszko et al, 2021). It is in line with the national educational goals that aim to improve the life of the nation and develop the Indonesian people as a whole, i.e.…”

Is Spiritual Intelligence (SQ) or Spiritual Quotient an Intelligence? Howard Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences Analyzed

“…Even if Tirri and Nokelainen (2011) prefer the term sensitivity, I believe that spiritual intelligence is a valid intelligence such as demonstrated above. As noted by Zappalà (2021), spiritual intelligence is "the cognitive ability to find higher meaning, value, and purpose in life through transcending rational intelligence" but we need more empirical and theoric works (Atroszko , Skrzypińska and Balcerowska, 2021) to sustain this emerging paradigm and build a solid instrument of it measure (Ahmad Peerzadah, Mufti and Ahmed Nazir, 2018) such as SISRI 24 in the Polish context (Skrzypińska and Atroszko, 2016). Momenia and Vatankhah (2013) did similar experience among some students without a conclude result.…”

The Intelligence of Spiritual Intelligence: Making the Case

“…Recent calls to validate SI as a construct and congruent with an "intelligence" (e.g., Atroszko et al 2021; have raised questions about one of the most used measures of SI, and, indeed have suggested that "it is possible that SI is not a generable ability but rather that what is conceptualized currently as a particular component of SI are unique and correlated variables" (Atroszko et al 2021, p. 3601). However, the failure of one model to stand up to rigorous testing does not necessarily invalidate others.…”

“…However, recently Atroszko et al (2021) attempted to determine whether a "general factor of spiritual intelligence" could be identified as a psychological construct by administering the SISRI to a large (N = 833) sample of Polish adults. Their assumptions were that the SISRI-24 model has a hierarchical structuring, with 4 first-order factors (critical existential thinking, personal meaning production, transcendental awareness, and conscious state expansion, the original four factors of King and DeCicco's (2009) model loading onto a single second-order factor, "general SI" pp.…”

“…In addition, a number of items measured more than one factor and were later removed, though King (2008) claimed that the four-factor structure was "very well-supported" in the original 84-item pool (p. 129). Atroszko et al (2021) further criticized the process of creating the original item pool and its shaping, showing that "the measurement is not fully derived from the theory but is molded ad hoc based on data" and that the theory never showed that the four-factor model measures a single higher-order factor of SI (p. 3595). They asserted that subsequent adaptations of the SISRI reflect these developmental problems, and that their testing of King's hypothesis gave an inadmissible solution, leading Atorszko, et al to conclude that "to date, no data support a single factor of SI measured by SISRI-24 .…”