College Students' Perceptions of Spiritual People and Religious People

Abstract

There is great variation regarding the concepts of religiosity and spirituality in the psychology of religion literature. In an attempt to clarify these constructs in the general population, 16 college students were recruited for a task of concept mapping to elicit their perceptions of what the designations spiritual person and religious person mean. Many positive character traits were used to describe both religious and spiritual people. However, participants described spiritual people with an emphasis on intellectual activities and inner peace, placing less emphasis on external, physical characteristics than their descriptions of religious people. Broader dimensions underlying participants' descriptions are also discussed.