Universality and Particularity: Reflections on Glicksman's Critique of the Study of Religion and Spirituality Among Older Persons

摘要

This article responds to Glicksman's critique that researchers studying older adults' religiousness and spirituality employ measuring instruments that fail to recognize the theological, cultural, and historical factors affecting scale development. Reflections on the ways psychologists of religion have conceptualized and measured intrinsic and extrinsic religiosity offers additional insight into the unacknowledged tacit assumptions underlying many research tools used to study religion, spirituality, and aging. Especially problematic are efforts to measure so-called universal aspects of religiousness and spirituality without reference to the particularities of religious traditions and spiritual practices.