Measuring Spiritual Outcomes in Counseling

The Theistic Spirituality Outcome Scale (TSOS) has potential as a useful outcome measure.








Recently, a group of us completed a study of clients who saw Christian counselors. We assessed their current well-being using two measures: The Schwartz Outcome Scale (SOS) and the Theistic Outcome Scale (TSOS). (See references below.)


The TSOS was designed by Richards (2005) as a measure of well-being for people associated with a theistic religion like Christianity, Judaism or Islam. We used the 17-item version, which uses a 5-point response format from 1 = never to 5 = almost always to rate each item (e.g., “I felt spiritually alive.”).


Reliability

We only calculated coefficient alpha, which was strong at .95.

Validity

The TSOS was significantly correlated with ratings of satisfaction with Christian counseling (.65) and likelihood of returning to Christian counseling (.62).

It was significantly correlated with the SOS measure of general well-being (.84).

Other significant correlations were:

TIPI (a Big 5 measure; Gosling et al., 2003)

Extraversion .34

Agreeableness .50

Neuroticism .51

Conscientiousness .39

Snyder's Hope Scale .72 (Snyder et al., 2010)

Attachment to God Inventory (Beck & McDonald, 2004)

  Avoidant  -.55

  Anxious   -.40

Religious Practices Index  .41 (See Sutton et al., 2016)

Intratextual Fundamentalism Scale .56 (See Williamson et al., 2010)

Counselors, read more about reliability and validity of test scores in APPLIED STATISTICS: CONCEPTS FOR COUNSELORS

References

Beck, R., & McDonald, A. (2004). Attachment to God: The Attachment to God Inventory, tests of working model correspondence, and an exploration of faith group differences. Journal of Psychology and Theology, 32, 92-103. doi:10.1037/t46035-000

Gosling, S. D., Rentfrow, P. J., & Swann, Jr., W. B. (2003). A very brief measure of the big-five personality domains. Journal of Research in Personality, 37, 504-528. doi:10.1016/s0092-6566(03)00046-1

Richards, P. S., Smith, T. B., Schowalter, M., Richard, M., Berrett, M. E., & Hardman, R. K. (2005). Development and validation of the Theistic Spiritual Outcome Survey. Psychotherapy Research, 15, 457-469. doi:10.1080/10503300500091405

Snyder, C. R., Harris, C., Anderson, J. R., Holleran, S. A., Irving, L. M., Sigmon, S. T., Yoshinoba, L., Gibb, J., Langelle, C., & Harney, P. (1991). The will and the ways: Development and validation of an individual-differences measure of hope. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 60, 570-585. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.60.4.570

Sutton, G. W., Arnzen, C. A., & Kelly, H. L. (2016). Christian counseling and psychotherapy: Components of clinician spirituality that predict type of Christian intervention. Journal of Psychology and Christianity, 35, 204-214.

Sutton, G. W., Kelly, H., Worthington, E. L. Jr., Griffin, B. J., & Dinwiddie, C. (in press) Satisfaction with Christian Psychotherapy and Well-being: Contributions of Hope, Personality, and Spirituality. Spirituality in Clinical Practice.

Williamson, W. P., Hood, R. W. Jr., Ahmad, A., Sadiq, M., Hill, P. C. (2010). The Intratextual Fundamentalism Scale: Cross-cultural application, validity evidence, and relationship with religious orientation and the big 5 factor markers. Mental Health, Religion & Culture, 13, 721-747. doi:10.1080/13674670802643047

Read more about validity of surveys and tests in CREATING SURVEYS