I dont believe but I pray: spirituality, instrumentality, or

paranormal belief?
Yung-Jong Shiah
1
, France Chang
2
, Wai-Cheong Carl Tam
3
, Shen-Fa Chuang
4
, Lun-Chang Yeh
5
1
National Kaohsiung Normal University
2
Chienkuo Technology University
3
Chung Yuan Christian University
4
Kaohsiung Medical University
5
National Changhua University of Education
Correspondence concerning this article should
be addressed to Yung-Jong Shiah, Graduate
Institute of Counseling Psychology and
Rehabilitation Counseling of National
Kaohsiung Normal University, No. 116, Heping
1st Rd., Lingya District, Kaohsiung City 80201,
Taiwan. E-mail: shiah@nknu.edu.tw
doi: 10.1111/jasp.12125
Abstract
These three studies are among the rst to systematically compare ve Chinese reli-
gious groups on intrinsic (spiritual) and extrinsic (instrumental and paranormal)
orientation. In Study 1, a Chinese version of the Index of Core Spiritual Experiences
was developed. In Studies 2 and 3, spirituality and religious involvement was found
to be greatest among Christians, followed in order by Buddhists, Taoists, traditional
nones, and other nones. An instrumental purpose for religious activities and para-
normal belief was found to be highest among Taoists, followed in order by Bud-
dhists, traditional nones, other nones, and Christians. The results are consistent with
the conclusionthat Christianity offers the least support for anextrinsic religious ori-
entation and the most support for an intrinsic religious orientation.
Although the combined study of psychology and religion has
a long history beginning with William James (1902/1982),
20th century psychologists for the most part have ignored
religion. On the other hand, interest in the scientic study of
religion among other scholars has increased exponentially in
the past fewyears (Levin, 2009; Pargament &Saunders, 2007;
Sedikides, 2010). Psychologists neglect of religion is espe-
cially unfortunate because religionplays a central role inmost
peoples psychological processes, moral decisionmaking, and
subjective well-being (Sedikides, 2010). There is also substan-
tial evidence that some aspects of religiosity are important
for health (Hill & Pargament, 2003; James & Wells, 2003;
Koenig, 2009; Pargament & Saunders, 2007; Park, 2007;
Powell, Shahabi, & Thoresen, 2003; Seybold, 2007; Weaver,
Pargament, Flannelly, &Oppenheimer, 2006), although there
are dissenting views (Sloan, Bagiella, & Powell, 1999).
Although the denitions of religion and spirituality are
changing (Aarnio & Lindeman, 2005; Hill & Pargament,
2003; Hill et al., 2000; Schlehofer, Omoto, &Adelman, 2008),
it has been suggested that the two concepts are not polar
opposites. Religion is a xed system of ideas or ideological
commitment (Hill & Pargament, 2003, p. 64) that can be
characterizedas being associated witha sense of community,
as fostering connections with others, and as a source of
personal identity (Schlehofer et al., 2008, p. 422). Spiritual-
ity, on the other hand, is the personal, subjective side of reli-
gious experience (Hill & Pargament, 2003, p. 64). Religious
involvement is usually assessed by determining participants
religious beliefs and activities (Hill & Pargament, 2003;
James & Wells, 2003; Miller & Thoresen, 2003; Prado et al.,
2004). Spirituality has been equated with spiritual experi-
ence, which is often dened as feeling connected to or close to
God (Kass, Friedman, Leserman, Zuttermeister, & Benson,
1991). Nonetheless, a number of studies have shown a
positive relationship between religiosity and spirituality
(Aarnio & Lindeman, 2005; Hill & Pargament, 2003; Hill
et al., 2000; Schlehofer et al., 2008).
However, very fewresearchers have examined the relation-
ship between religion and spirituality in non-Western cul-
tures, including Chinese culture. A cross-cultural approach
would contribute to a better understanding of how cultural
differences in religion and spirituality manifest, especially
whether these differences are symptoms of a deeper psycho-
logical similarity in motivation (Lehman, Chiu, & Schaller,
2004). (Note that in this paper we denereligious groupsas
including nonbelievers.)
Despite the obvious positive impact of religion on health,
research has yielded conicting results (Sloan et al., 1999).
Moreover, the sampling has been too heavily focused on Cau-
casians, especiallyChristiancollegestudents(Shreve-Neiger&
Edelstein, 2004) in Western countries (Hill & Pargament,
2003; Sedikides &Gebauer, 2010), primarily the UnitedStates
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2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Journal of Applied Social Psychology 2013, 43, pp. 17041716
(Yeager et al., 2006). This pattern might reect a publication
bias (Chida, Steptoe, & Powell, 2009; Sedikides & Gebauer,
2010; Yeager et al., 2006), which, inturn, couldbe attributable
in part to journal policies favoring the exclusive publishing of
positive results (Sedikides & Gebauer, 2010). Even worse,
authors sometimes use positive results to support their own
religious views (Kier & Davenport, 2004) or to impose these
religious views on others (Miller & Thoresen, 2003). To date,
fewstudies have examinedextensively the link betweendiffer-
ent religious groups and psychological processes at a given
time. Broadening ones sample to include people frommulti-
ple religious groups, including nonbelievers, would increase
the generalizability of the ndings. This broader approach
wouldallowus toaskanother important questionarediffer-
ent religious activities reective of different psychological
processes?
Because Chinese society incorporates a relatively large
number of religious groups, it is well suited for exploring
religious group differences as a way to explain complex,
multidetermined religious phenomena such as spiritual and
instrumental motivation (Sedikides, 2010). Thus, the rst
goal of the research reported in this article was to determine
whether religious groups differ in their spirituality, instru-
mental orientation, and belief in the paranormal.
Because religion can be conceptualized as culture (Lam,
2006), religious differences can be considered cultural differ-
ences (Cohen & Hill, 2007). Culture provides normative
beliefs and sanctions particular actions for attaining both
individual and collective goals (Lehman et al., 2004). More
specically, a religion can be considered a culture that inu-
ences the psychological processes of its adherents. Some
studies have indicated that religion plays an important role in
shaping psychological and social processes by, for example,
creating meaning (Park, 2007), increasing self-enhancement
(Sedikides & Gebauer, 2010), satisfying attachment needs
(Granqvist, Mikulincer, & Shaver, 2010), and decreasing
death anxiety (Vail et al., 2010).
An important religious motivation is reected by Allports
theoretical distinction between an intrinsic and an extrinsic
religious orientation (Allport &Ross, 1967). An extrinsic ori-
entation means that the believer freely chooses and willfully
endorses the religion, which is a means in itself, whereas an
intrinsic orientation is self-centered, self-interested, and
adopted as a means to an end (Sedikides & Gebauer, 2010).
Thus, a second major aim of the current study was to carry
out a cross-cultural comparison of religious motivation
dened in terms of intrinsic versus extrinsic religious orien-
tation. Specically, we compared various Chinese religions
with Christianity.
The research questions were addressed in the context of
contemporary Chinese society. The two major religions in
this society are religious Taoism and Buddhism (Soong & Li,
1988). Although both these religions can be traced back to
ancient times (Overmyer et al., 1995), they developed in par-
allel, and, despite a few exceptions (Mollier, 2006), they
embrace similar concepts. Religious Taoism is mainly a
mixture of philosophical Taoism and Buddhism. (From here
on, we will refer to religious Taoism simply as Taoism.)
In contrast to the Abrahamic religions, whose adherents
worship only one God, it is estimated that Taoism has incor-
porated more than 500 different gods at various times since
its establishment in A.D. 25 by the Eastern Han dynasty (Ma,
2001; Overmyer et al., 1995). Most of the names of these gods
were borrowed from historians writing about heroes and
folklore that were part of the local culture in which the god
was embedded. Taoists worship their ancestors, but they also
worship the local gods to solve their life problems. For
example, if a woman wants to become pregnant, she worships
the god in charge of pregnancy. Other common gods are in
charge of wealth, health, passing exams, the environment, and
the kitchen. Most of the gods in Buddhism are also gods in
Taoism, but the gods in Taoism are not necessarily gods in
Buddhism.
Chinese society canbe characterizedas a Confuciansociety
that values collectivism over the individualism emphasized
in the West (Caldwell-Harris & Aycicegi, 2006; Oyserman,
Coon, & Kemmelmeier, 2002). Thus, social relationships are
important in Chinese society (Hwang, 1987). In Confucian
societies, ordinary people devote themselves to maintaining
harmonious social relationships, and they use self-cultivation
to make these relationships satisfying and to fulll the corre-
sponding role obligations (Hwang & Chang, 2009). Within
Christianity, Protestantism is considered to be most strongly
related division toAmerican culture and, more specically, to
American individualism (Cohen & Hill, 2007; Oyserman
et al., 2002).
Cohen and Hill (2007) proposed that cultures differ in
the individualistic and collectivistic aspects of religiosity
and spirituality. Individualistic religious cultures tend
toward an intrinsic religious orientation, and collectivistic
religious cultures tend toward an extrinsic religious orienta-
tion. In fact, both the Bible and the key apologetic works
enjoin Christians to love God unreservedly, and they suggest
that being a good citizen and a valuable person means
rejecting extrinsic religiosity (Sedikides & Gebauer, 2010).
Based on this theory, it is reasonable to assume that Chinese
religions represent a collectivistic religious culture in which
spiritual behavior is tightly regulated through ritual and tra-
dition, and spiritual experience is seen as reecting a unique
relationship between an individual and God. Thus, based on
the theory of Cohen and Hill (2007), we hypothesized that
Christianity offers the least support for an extrinsic orienta-
tion and the most support for an intrinsic orientation; on
the contrary, traditional Chinese religion offers the least
support for an intrinsic orientation and the most support
for an extrinsic orientation.
Shiah et al. 1705
2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Journal of Applied Social Psychology 2013, 43, pp. 17041716
Because our studies included an examination of paranor-
mal belief, we need to introduce some relevant terminology.
Paranormalmeans violating the basic principles of physical
science (Broad, 1953). Psi is an umbrella term encompass-
ing extrasensory perception (ESP), the acquisition of infor-
mation by means other than the conventional sensory
processes of sight, sound, touch, smell, and taste, and psycho-
kinesis (PK), the ability to inuence the environment by
intention or other mental activity alone, without motoric
intervention (Irwin & Watt, 2007).
In Taoism, the customary vehicle for ostensible psi is
healing prayer performed at a ceremony (Tuan, 2007). This
prayer serves as an instrument for solving lifes problems, and
this is what we mean by instrumentality in the paper. It is
reasonable to infer that, as is the case with most Christians
(Hergovich, Schott, &Arendasy, 2005; Rice, 2003), Taoists are
inclined to focus more on prayer (as a way to achieve practi-
cal, instrumental objectives) than on spirituality, religious
beliefs, or ceremonial activities per se.
Although Buddhists believe in general psi abilities and
reincarnation (Dalai Lama XIV, 2005), ESP and healing by
prayer (a form of PK) are emphasized less in Buddhist rituals
than in Taoist rituals. In fact, Buddhist teachings stress reli-
gious beliefs and spiritual searching (Dalai Lama XIV, 2005;
Rinpoche, 1992) more than Taoism does. Accordingly, it is
reasonable to infer that Taoists have less spiritual motivation
than Buddhists, in the sense that their religious activities have
a more practical or instrumental orientation and purpose.
On the other hand, Buddhists exhibit this instrumental ori-
entation more than Christians.
In Chinese society, local religions supplement the major
religions as a major cultural inuence on peoples psycho-
logical processes. Many adherents of these local gods are
nones (Eshleman, 2005), people who reject theistic meta-
physics; they do not believe in God. The characteristics of
these invisible religions have spread broadly throughout
Chinese culture, but they have done so informally rather than
through religious institutions (Luckmann, 1967). Traditional
Chinese religions are considered to be invisible in the
Chinese socioreligious context (Soong & Li, 1988). The
beliefs and practices of invisible religions are part of their
adherents identities, which suggests that traditional Chinese
religious beliefs are rooted in the mind. Given this premise, it
is reasonable to assume that nones sometimes engage in reli-
gious practices such as ritual worship. Thus, we assumed that
most nones in Chinese society adhere to the core beliefs and
practices of the traditional Chinese religions. This led us to
hypothesize that these nones have less spiritual motivation
than Taoists, as reected in their religious beliefs and activ-
ities, and that their religious objectives are more instrumental
than those of Christians.
The practice of witchcraft, which is widespread in the
Chinese socioreligious context (Soong & Li, 1988), is a very
complex phenomenon in Chinese culture. For example,
adherents to Chinese witchcraft believe that an activity can
have a fortuitous outcome if one conducts it on ones lunar
birthday, and that the particular date and time of ones lunar
birth can affect ones destiny. Other beliefs are that divination
in the form of throwing lots can steer ones life in a positive
direction, and that one can apply the laws of astronomy and
geography to draw positive energy and thus improve ones
fortune and well-being; this is referred to in Chinese as
fengshui (Soong & Li, 1988).
Because Chinese witchcraft serves a primarily instrumen-
tal purpose, it has obvious links to paranormal beliefs. Such
beliefs are often a characteristic of religions (Orenstein, 2002;
Rice, 2003; Wain & Spinella, 2007), suggesting that religious
and paranormal beliefs may be positively associated. On the
other hand, some researchers (Hergovich, Willinger, &
Arendasy, 2005) maintain that religiosity and paranormal
beliefs are negatively correlated. Specically, it has been
shown that greater religious involvement, as dened by
churchattendance (Orenstein, 2002) or a Christianafliation
(Hergovich, Schott, et al., 2005), is strongly associated with
lower paranormal belief. Thus, we conclude that greater
involvement with Christianity does not necessarily lead to
belief inthe paranormal (Rice, 2003; Weeks, Weeks, &Daniel,
2008), and that the direction of the correlation likely depends
on whether or not the religion one practices is Christianity
(Mencken, Bader, & Kim, 2009).
To sumup so far, we have hypothesized that the practice of
traditional Chinese religion is associated with a disconnect
between instrumentality and paranormal belief. We also
hypothesized that Christians are less likely to be involved in
Chinese witchcraft and to have paranormal beliefs than
members of other religious groups, including nones.
We conclude this section of the paper with a discussion of
the currently available measures of the main constructs dis-
cussed above. A valid and reliable measure of religiosity and
Chinese witchcraft is the Personal Religiosity Scale (PRS),
which was developed in Chinese (Soong & Li, 1988). A
measure of paranormal belief has also been developed in
Chinese (Shiah, Tam, Wu, & Chang, 2010). However, there
is no comparable measure of spirituality in Chinese. Four
scales have been developed to measure spiritual experience
in English: the Index of Core Spiritual Experiences, or
INSPIRIT (Kass et al., 1991), the Religious Problem-Solving
Scale (Pargament, 1988), the Spiritual Assessment Inventory
(Hall & Edwards, 1996), and the Spiritual Support Scale
(Maton, 1989). As the most sophisticated of these is argu-
ably the INSPIRIT, we decided that a good way to begin
exploring the relation between religiosity and spiritual
experiences in Chinese culture would be to develop a
Chinese version of the INSPIRIT. This effort is reported
below, along with a discussion of the Chinese scales psycho-
metric properties.
1706 Spirituality, instrumentality, paranormal
2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Journal of Applied Social Psychology 2013, 43, pp. 17041716
Overview of Studies 13
We conducted three studies to explore the constructs dis-
cussed above and their interrelationships. In Study 1, a
Chinese version of the INSPIRIT was developed and its reli-
ability and validity tested. In Study 2, we explored whether
most of the nones who reject the existence of Chinese gods
nonetheless seek peace of mind by practicing traditional
Chinese prayer. Specically, we examined spirituality and
instrumentality among Christians, Buddhists, Taoists, nones
holding traditional Chinese religious beliefs (hereaftertradi-
tional nones), and other nones. In Study 3, we examined
whether these religious groups differ in paranormal belief.
To eliminate possible recording errors, in all the studies
two assistants checked the data records against the responses
on the original questionnaires. All the studies were approved
by the Ethics Committee of the Psychology Department of
Chuan Yuan Christian University. In none of the studies did
participants receive compensation.
Study 1
Study 1 was designed to test the psychometric properties of
the Chinese version of the INSPIRIT, including its validity
and reliability. To examine concurrent validity, we computed
correlations between scores on the Chinese INSPIRIT and
the religious belief and religious activities subscales of the
Chinese PRS. Construct validity was examined via a principal
components analysis. The internal consistency of the
INSPIRIT was tested by computing Cronbachs alpha.
Method
A convenience sample of 296 participants (109 men and 186
women, and one with a missing response for sex) ranging
in age from 22 to 73 years (M = 34.26, SD = 11.03) was
recruited from the city of Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Religious
leaders from Christian churches and Buddhist and Taoist
temples in Kaohsiung were asked to distribute questionnaires
to their congregants. A researcher assistant distributed the
same questionnaires to people in three department stores in
Kaohsiung.
The education level of the respondents was distributed as
follows: 1%elementary school (n = 3), 2%junior high school
(n = 7), 35% high school (n = 103), 42% college (n = 125),
and 17%graduate school (n = 50). The remaining 8 respond-
ents (3%) did not answer the education level question.
Religious belief was distributed as follows: 9% Christians
(n = 26), 26% Buddhists (n = 78), 26% Taoists (n = 76), and
36% nones (n = 106). The remaining 10 respondents (3%)
did not answer the religious belief question. The proportion
of Christians is similar to the 5.6% found in a previous study
employing stratied random sampling of a Chinese society
(Soong & Li, 1988). Twenty-one were Protestants and ve
were Catholics.
Measures
Index of Core Spiritual Experiences
The original English version of the INSPIRIT consists of
seven items measuring experiences that can persuade a
person of the existence of a supreme being and cause that
person to feel close to this supreme being (J. D. Kass & Kass,
2000; J. D. Kass et al., 1991). Each item is scored from 1 to 4.
Item 7 has 13 subitems, A through M. If any one of these
subitems is scored 4, item 7 is scored 4. If any one of them is
scored 3 but none are scored 4, then item 7 is scored 3, and so
forth. With permission from Jared D. Kass, the original scale
was translated into Chinese. Comparability of content was
veried through back translation, a rigorous procedure
endorsed by cross-cultural researchers (Cha, Kim, & Erlen,
2007; Sperber, 2004; Wang, Lee, & Fetzer, 2006). For cultural
reasons, minor wording changes, including the addition of
the terms gods and Buddha, were made to items 4, 5, 6,
7(F) and 7(G), but original meanings were preserved.
Personal Religiosity Scale
The PRS, an instrument constructed in Chinese (Soong & Li,
1988), consists of 37 items in 8 subscales. Responses are rec-
orded on a 7-point scale ranging from agree not at all to agree
very much. The eight subscales are as follows: (a) religious
beliefbelieves in the validity of the religions teachings; (b)
religious activitiesengages inreligious practices andrituals;
(c) Chinese witchcraftbelieves that an activity can have a
fortuitous outcome if one conducts it onones lunar birthday,
believes that the particular date and time of ones lunar birth
affects ones destiny, practices divination in the form of
throwing lots to steer ones life in a positive direction, and
believes that by applying the laws of astronomy and geogra-
phy one can draw positive energy to improve ones fortune
and well-being; (d) good vs. evilbelieves that God or the
gods will reward good and punish evil; (e) happiness
experiences a happy and productive life; (f) afterlife
believes insurvival of deathandreincarnation; (g) traditional
medicinebelieves that various physical substances have
qualities that affect health; and (h) pregnancy Godbelieves
there is a God in charge of pregnancy.
Procedure
The experimenter informed participants of the nature of the
research and gave assurances of condentiality. Each partici-
pant received a booklet that included the two questionnaires
(PRS rst) preceded by the demographic items (age, sex, reli-
gious afliation, and education).
Shiah et al. 1707
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Results and discussion
The reliability of the Chinese version of the INSPIRIT, com-
puted on the present data, was satisfactory (Cronbachs
= 0.84). As can be seen in Table 1, the concurrent validity of
the INSPIRITwas supported by a signicant positive correla-
tion with the PRS and its subscales, most notably religious
belief, r(294) = .61, p < .001, and religious activities,
r(294) = .65, p < .001. Not surprisingly, the witchcraft and
pregnancy God factors of the PRS were not signicantly cor-
related with the INSPIRIT. It is also not surprising that the
happiness, r(294) = .16, p < . 01, afterlife, r(294) = .27, p < .
001, and good vs. evil, r(294) = .32, p < . 001, factors of the
PRS had low to moderate correlations with the INSPIRIT.
Some of the items on the INSPIRIT can be considered rel-
evant to alternative medicine, such as item7F: An experience
of Gods (Buddhas) energy or presence and item 7H:
Healing of your body or mind (or witnessed such a
healing). As expected, the traditional medicine factor of the
PRS was signicantly and positively correlated with the
INSPIRIT, r(294) = .20, p < . 01.
Giventhat the INSPIRIThas nosubscales, a principal com-
ponents analysis was usedtoexamine its construct validity. As
can be seen in Table 2, only one factor was extracted, which
accounts for 52.78% of the total variance. The eigenvalue of
the rst unrotated principal component (3.70) is more than
four times greater thanthe eigenvalue of the next largest com-
ponent (0.80). All items on the INSPIRIT had positive load-
ings on the rst unrotated principal component.
In short, the Chinese INSPIRIT was shown to be a valid
and reliable measure of spirituality. This result is consistent
with previous studies showing a positive relation between
religiosity and spirituality (Aarnio & Lindeman, 2005; Hill &
Pargament, 2003; Hill et al., 2000; Schlehofer et al., 2008).
Study 2
In Study 2, we tested two general propositions: (a) that tradi-
tional Chinese religious beliefs are present inmost nones; and
(b) that spirituality and instrumentality differ between reli-
gious people and nones. Thus, we proposed the following
four specic hypotheses for the Chinese sociocultural
context. Hypothesis 1 was that most nones and Christians
adhere to traditional Chinese religious beliefs and practices.
Hypothesis 2 was that the religious groups fall in the follow-
ing order for spirituality (highest to lowest): (a) Christians;
(b) Buddhists; (c) Taoists; (d) traditional nones; and (e) other
nones. Hypothesis 3 was that the religious groups fall in the
following order for religious involvement (highest to lowest):
(a) Christians; (b) Buddhists; (c) Taoists; (d) traditional
nones; and (e) other nones. Hypothesis 4 was that the reli-
gious groups fall inthe following order for instrumental moti-
vation for religious activities (highest to lowest): (a) Taoists;
(b) Buddhists; (c) traditional nones; (d) other nones; and (e)
Christians.
Method
A convenience sample of 451 participants (150 men and 300
women, and one with no response to the sex item) ranging in
age from 17 to 73 years (M = 28.9, SD = 11.53) was recruited
in Taiwan. The sample came from two sources. The rst
subsample, consisting of 155 participants (41 men and 114
Table 1 Correlations between the Subscales of the PRS and the Chinese Version of the INSPIRIT (N = 296)
Variable M SD 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
PRS
1. Religious belief 32.73 9.47
2. Religious activities 25.46 9.46 .74***
3. Chinese witchcraft 25.20 7.85 .21*** .17**
4. Good vs. evil 30.45 6.99 .40*** .39*** .53***
5. Happiness 15.37 4.03 .19** .16** .00 .20**
6. Afterlife 15.00 5.09 .26*** .26*** .32*** .47*** .18**
7. Traditional medicine 13.10 4.96 .18*** .21*** .31*** .27*** .13* .23***
8. Pregnancy God 6.95 2.84 .20*** .23*** .71*** .47*** .01 .31*** .34***
INSPIRIT 16.31 4.16 .61*** .65*** .02 .32*** .16** .27*** .20** .07
PRS = Personal Religiosity Scale.
*p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001. (All two tailed).
Table 2 Principal Component Loadings for the Chinese Version of the
INSPIRIT
Item Loadings
4 .82
1 .78
2 .77
5 .73
7 .69
3 .68
6 .61
Eigenvalue 3.70
% variance explained 52.78
1708 Spirituality, instrumentality, paranormal
2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Journal of Applied Social Psychology 2013, 43, pp. 17041716
women) ranging in age from 17 to 22 years (M = 18.94,
SD = 1.19), was recruited from Kaohsiung Medical Univer-
sity in the same way as for Study 1. The overwhelming major-
ity (N = 153) were undergraduate students, with the other
two being graduate students. The second subsample, consist-
ing of 296 participants (109 men and 186 women, one
missing sex datum) ranging in age from 22 to 73 years
(M = 34.26, SD = 11.03), was recruited from the city of
Kaohsiung in the same way as for Study 1 sample. The educa-
tion level of the city sample was distributed as follows: 1%
elementary school (n = 3), 2% junior high school (n = 7),
35% high school (n = 103), 42% college (n = 125), and 17%
graduate school (n = 50). The remaining 8 respondents (3%)
did not answer the education level question.
Religious belief for the university subsample was distrib-
uted as follows: 12% Christians (n = 19), 7% Buddhists
(n = 11), 24% Taoists (n = 37), and 56% nones (n = 86). Two
respondents did not answer the religious belief question. All
19 Christians were Protestants. Religious belief for the city
subsample was distributed as follows: 9%Christians (n = 26),
26% Buddhists (n = 78), 26% Taoists (n = 76), and 36%
nones (n = 106). The remaining 10 respondents (3%) did not
answer the religious belief question. Among the Christians,
21 were Protestants and 5 were Catholics.
Measures
As in Study 1, the INSPIRIT and PRS were used to measure
spiritual experiences and religiosity, respectively. Some addi-
tional description of the PRS is necessary for the report of
this study. Item 7 on the religious belief subscale (Burning
incense, worshipping the Buddha and other gods, offering
burnt paper money to the gods, and using Taoist magic spells
can create peace of mind) reects both a core belief and the
most common prayer ritual in traditional Chinese religion.
Therefore, individuals were classied as traditional nones if
they gave a rating between 5 and 7 on more than half of the
subitems of this item. As witchcraft is commonly practiced by
adherents to traditional Chinese religions (Soong &Li, 1988)
and is performed primarily for instrumental purposes, the
Chinese witchcraft subscale of the PRS was used as the
measure of instrumental purpose. The religious belief, reli-
gious activities, and Chinese witchcraft factors of the PRS are
related to religious involvement, so these three factors were
used to measure this variable.
Procedure
The procedure was the same as for Study 1.
Results and discussion
Item 7 of the PRS, used to identify traditional nones as
described above, was endorsed by 107 (44 university and 63
city) of the 192 nones (58%): 44 of the 86 nones (51%) in the
university subsample and 63 of the 106 nones (59%) in the
city subsample. This result supports Hypothesis 1 that most
nones hold traditional Chinese religious beliefs.
Descriptive statistics and age differences on the INSPIRIT
and the religious belief, religious activities, and Chinese
witchcraft factors of the PRS for each religious group are
shown in Table 3. Most of the age differences on the
INSPIRIT and the factors of the PRS for each religious group
were not signicant, with only two exceptions: Buddhists in
the city subsample scored signicantly higher than Buddhists
in the university subsample on the religious activities factor
of the PRS, andtraditional nones inthe city subsample scored
signicantly higher than traditional nones in the university
subsample on the religious belief factor of the PRS. As these
ndings represent 10% of the 20 paired t tests, they are prob-
ably due to random error. Thus, the university and city
subsamples were combined for further analysis.
Correlations between the religious belief, religious activ-
ities, and Chinese witchcraft factors of the PRS and the
Chinese INSPIRIT are shown in Table 4. Consistent with the
results of Study 1, the INSPIRIT had signicant positive cor-
relations with both PRS religious belief and PRS religious
activities. As expected, the INSPIRIT was not signicantly
correlated with PRS witchcraft.
An analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed signicant
between-group differences on the INSPIRIT, F(4,438) =
31.32, p < .001;
2
= 0.17. Results of the t-test comparisons
for the different groups are shown in Table 4. Christians
scored signicantly higher than Buddhists, Taoists, tradi-
tional nones, and other nones. The difference between Bud-
dhists and Taoists was not signicant, but Buddhists and
Taoists both scored signicantly higher than traditional
nones and other nones. Traditional nones scored signicantly
higher than other nones. These results generally support
Hypothesis 2 that Christians are the highest group on spiritu-
ality followed in order by Buddhists, Taoists, traditional
nones, and other nones.
A second ANOVA revealed a signicant between-group
difference on religious belief, F(4,438) = 65.37, p < .001;

2
= 0.38. As for the t-test comparisons, Christians scored sig-
nicantly higher than Taoists, traditional nones, and other
nones. ThedifferencebetweenChristians andBuddhists is not
signicant. Buddhists scoredsignicantly higher thanTaoists,
traditional nones, and other nones, and Taoists scored signi-
cantly higher than traditional nones and other nones. Tradi-
tional nones scoredsignicantly higher thanother nones.
A third ANOVA revealed a signicant between-group dif-
ference on religious activities, F(4,438) = 50.79, p < .001;

2
= 0.12. As for the t-test comparisons, Christians scored sig-
nicantly higher than Buddhists, Taoists, traditional nones,
and other nones. Buddhists scored signicantly higher than
Taoists, traditional nones, andother nones. Taoists scoredsig-
nicantly higher than traditional nones and other nones,
Shiah et al. 1709
2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Journal of Applied Social Psychology 2013, 43, pp. 17041716
and traditional nones scored signicantly higher than other
nones. Thus, the results generally support Hypothesis 3 that
Christians are the highest group in religious involvement fol-
lowed in order by Buddhists, Taoists, traditional nones, and
other nones.
There were signicant between-group differences on the
Chinese witchcraft subscale of the PRS, F(4,438) = 29.25,
p < .001;
2
= 0.21. As for the t-test comparisons (Table 4),
Taoists scored signicantly higher thanBuddhists, traditional
nones, other nones, and Christians. Buddhists scored signi-
cantly higher than traditional nones, other nones, and Chris-
tians. Traditional nones scoredsignicantly higher thanother
nones and Christians, and other nones scored signicantly
higher than Christians. Thus, the results support Hypothesis
4 that Taoists have the highest instrumental motivation for
religious activities, followed in order by Buddhists, tradi-
tional nones, other nones, and Christians.
The data indicate that Taoists have less spiritual motiva-
tion, as reected by their religious beliefs and activities, than
Buddhists and Christians, in the sense that their religious
activities are more motivated by instrumental factors. Partici-
pants representing the two major Chinese religions, Taoism
and Buddhism, reported more instrumental purpose and less
spiritual motivation than did the Christians. These results are
consistent with Cohen and Hills theory that religious cul-
tures differ in the individualistic and collectivistic aspects of
religiosity and spirituality, and that individualistic religious
cultures tend toward an intrinsic religious orientation
whereas collectivistic religious cultures tend toward an
extrinsic religious orientation. One explanation for this
nding is that religious group differences act as cultural dif-
ferences in shaping religious motives. For example, Taoisms
emphasis on instrumental purposes could be the result of
how the religion developed culturally. An equally plausible
explanation is that the differences are the result of national
differences (Cohen & Hill, 2007); Christianity and the two
major Chinese religions developed in different countries in
different parts of the world.
The data suggest that most nones in Taiwan pray in the tra-
ditional Chinese manner. But how then can we explain the
nding that most of the nones in our sample adhered to the T
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Table 4 Correlations between the Religious Belief, Religious Activities,
and Chinese Witchcraft Factors of the PRS and the Chinese Version of the
INSPIRIT (N = 451)
Factor M SD 1 2 3
1. Religious belief 31.38 9.42
2. Religious activities 24.49 9.46 .75***
3. Chinese witchcraft 24.55 8.13 .22*** .14**
4. INSPIRIT 16.33 3.98 .61*** .63*** .05
PRS = Personal Religiosity Scale.
*p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001. (All two tailed).
1710 Spirituality, instrumentality, paranormal
2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Journal of Applied Social Psychology 2013, 43, pp. 17041716
traditional Chinese practice of burning incense while wor-
shipping the Buddha and other gods, including offering the
gods burnt paper money and using Taoist magic spells? The
nones in our sample who have adopted these rituals have
more beliefs than the other nones in the tenets of traditional
Chinese religion. They pray to traditional Chinese gods even
though they do not believe in them! They seem to rationally
choose to live as if these gods existed, while at the same time
denying their existence. One explanation for this odd behav-
ior appeals to Luckmanns (1967) concept of invisible reli-
gion described earlier. According to this perspective, nones in
Taiwan both believe in traditional Chinese religion and
engage in traditional Chinese religious practices. However,
they do the latter for instrumental purposes, probably with a
realistic hope of solving their life problems. More studies are
needed to explore this possibility.
Finally, the present data support our hypothesis that
even though Christianity does little to encourage a belief
in Chinese witchcraft, it enhances spirituality. The greater
involvement of practitioners of traditional Chinese religions
in activities that emphasize their instrumental purpose seems
to be a major factor in their greater belief and practice of
Chinese witchcraft, especially as comparedtoChristians. This
result supports the conclusion that Christianity offers the
least support for an extrinsic religious orientation, but the
most support for an intrinsic orientation.
Study 3
We hadthree mainobjectives for Study 3. One was toreplicate
the nding from Study 2 that traditional Chinese religious
beliefs are present in most nones. The second objective was to
replicate the nding from Study 2 that religious involvement
differs between religious people and nones. The third objec-
tive was to test our assumption that belief in the paranormal
differs between religious people and nones. Specically,
we tested the following three hypotheses in the context of
Chinese society: Hypothesis 1 was that most nones and
Christians adhere to traditional Chinese religious beliefs and
practices. Hypothesis 2 was that the groups fall in the follow-
ing order for religious involvement (highest to lowest): (a)
Christians; (b) Buddhists; (c) Taoists; (d) traditional nones;
and (e) other nones; Hypothesis 3 was that the groups fall in
the following order for belief in paranormal religious activities
(highest to lowest): (a) Taoists; (b) Buddhists; (c) traditional
nones; (d) other nones; and (e) Christians.
Method
A convenience sample of 322 participants (134 men, 187
women, one with no response to the sex item) ranging in age
from 17 to 31 years (M = 18.57, SD = 1.66) was recruited
from a local church in Taipei, Chienkuo Technology Univer-
sity, Chung Yuan Christian University, the Nanya Institute of
Technology, the National Tsing Hua University, and the
Takming University of Science and Technology, all in Taiwan.
A religious leader from the Christian church and class lectur-
ers at the universities were asked to distribute questionnaires
to the congregants and their students. The subsample from
the church consisted of 12 participants (4 men, 7 women, one
with no response to the sex item). As for educationlevel, there
were two college students and the ten college (all citizens).
The student sample was all undergraduate students. Religious
belief was distributed as follows: 9% Christians (N = 29),
20% Buddhists (N = 66), 20% Taoists (N = 63), and 51%
nones (N = 164). All the Christians were Protestants.
Measures
Personal Religiosity Scale
As in Study 2, Item 7 on the religious belief subscale of the
PRS (Burning incense, worshipping the Buddha and other
gods, offering burnt paper money to the gods, and using
Taoist magic spells can create peace of mind) was used to
identify nones holding core beliefs corresponding to tradi-
tional Chinese religion. Again, individuals were classied as
traditional nones if they gave a rating between 5 and 7 on
more than half of the subitems of Item 7.
Revised Paranormal Belief Scale
Paranormal belief was measured by the Chinese version of
the Revised Paranormal Belief Scale (RPBS; Shiah et al.,
2010), which was adapted from Tobacyks (1988) original
RPBS. Tobacyk proposed a seven-factor solution as optimal
for the 26-item revised scale, which employs a 7-point rating
scale (1: strongly disagree; 7: strongly agree). The seven factors
are traditional religious belief, psi, witchcraft, superstition,
spiritualism, extraordinary life forms, and precognition. The
Chinese version of the RPBS has good reliability and validity
(Shiah et al., 2010). We used the traditional religious belief
factor to measure religious involvement. However, there is an
overlap problembecause several items on the traditional reli-
gious belief factor concern paranormal belief, a variable we
planned to correlate with traditional religious belief. Exam-
ples are Item 5 (Your mind or soul can leave your body and
travel), Item 19 (Reincarnation does occur), and Item 25
(It is possible to communicate with the dead). Thus, to
avoid confounding our religiosity and paranormal belief
measures, scores on traditional religious belief were omitted
from the RPBS measure of paranormal belief, which ordi-
narily includes these scores.
Procedure
The procedure for Study 3 was the same as for Studies 1
and 2.
Shiah et al. 1711
2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Journal of Applied Social Psychology 2013, 43, pp. 17041716
Results and discussion
Item 7 of the PRS was endorsed by 127 of the 164 nones
(77%). This result supports Hypothesis 1 that most nones
hold traditional Chinese religious beliefs.
As expected, there was a signicant positive correlation
between the traditional religious belief factor and total scores
on the Chinese RPBS (see Table 5). An ANOVA revealed sig-
nicant between-group differences on the traditional reli-
gious belief factor of the RPBS, F(4,321) = 19.23, p < .001;

2
= 0.20. Results of the t-test comparisons are shown in
Table 6. Christians scored signicantly higher than Bud-
dhists, Taoists, traditional nones, and other nones. Buddhists
scored signicantly higher than traditional nones and other
nones. The difference between Buddhists and Taoists is not
signicant. Taoists scored signicantly higher than tradi-
tional nones and other nones, and traditional nones scored
signicantly higher than other nones. These results generally
support Hypothesis 2 that Christians have the highest
religious involvement followedinorder by Buddhists, Taoists,
traditional nones, and other nones.
A second ANOVA revealed signicant between-group
differences on the total Chinese RPBS, F(4,321) = 10.02,
p < .001;
2
= 0.11. Results for the t-test comparisons are
shown in Table 7. Taoists scored signicantly higher than tra-
ditional nones, other nones, and Christians. The difference
between Taoists and Buddhists is not signicant, but Bud-
dhists scoredsignicantly higher thanother nones andChris-
tians. The difference between Buddhists and traditional
nones is not signicant, but traditional nones scored signi-
cantly higher than other nones and Christians. The difference
between other nones and Christians is not signicant. The
results generally support Hypothesis 3 that Taoists have the
greatest belief in the paranormal, followed in order by Bud-
dhists, traditional nones, other nones, and Christians.
On the whole, the results of Study 3 are consistent with the
conclusion that traditional Chinese religions help shape basic
traditional beliefs, as well as the conclusion that Christians
are less prone to endorse paranormal beliefs than the other
sampledgroups. The latter result is also consistent withprevi-
ous studies (Hergovich, Schott, et al., 2005; Mencken et al.,
2009; Orenstein, 2002; Rice, 2003; Shiah et al., 2010; Weeks
et al., 2008). As in Study 2, the Study 3 results support Cohen
and Hills theory. The greater involvement of practitioners of
traditional Chinese religions in activities emphasizing the
development of paranormal abilities might be a major factor
in the prevalence of their paranormal beliefs, especially as
compared to Christians.
Table 5 Correlations between the Traditional Religious Belief Factor
and the Chinese Version of the Total RPBS (N = 451)
Factor M SD 1
1. Traditional religious belief 20.00 9.42
2. Total RPBS 89.51 16.69 .48***
Note. The total RPBS excluded the traditional religious belief factor.
RPBS = Revised Paranormal Belief Scale.
***p < .001, two tailed.
Table 6 Means, Standard Deviations, 95% Condence Intervals, t Values, and Cohens d Comparing Groups on the Traditional Religious Belief Factor
and the Chinese Version of the Total RPBS
Group Buddhists Taoists Traditional nones Other nones
Measure M SD 95% CI t d t d t d t d
Christians (n = 29)
Traditional religious belief 23.59 5.61 21.45, 25.72 2.16* 0.45 2.40* 0.50 5.54*** 0.97 5.75*** 1.42
Total RPBS 77.31 16.50 71.03, 83.59 4.34*** .98 5.10*** 0.99 4.03*** 0.79 .94 0.23
Buddhists (n = 66)
Traditional religious belief 21.42 3.90 20.46, 22.38 .43 0.07 4.28*** 0.64 6.07*** 1.20
Total RPBS 94.15 17.79 89.77, 98.53 .26 0.05 1.90 0.28 3.52*** 0.72
Taoists (n = 63)
Traditional religious belief 21.13 4.00 20.12, 22.13 4.47*** 0.55 6.33*** 1.12
Total RPBS 94.89 14.82 91.16, 98.62 2.34* 0.36 4.11*** 0.83
Traditional nones (n = 127)
Traditional religious belief 19.05 3.50 18.43, 19.67 4.02*** 0.70
Total RPBS 89.62 14.47 87.08, 92.16 2.92** 0.51
Other nones (n = 37)
Traditional religious belief 15.97 5.11 14.27, 17.68
Total RPBS 81.32 17.67 75.43, 87.21
Note. The total RPBS excluded the traditional religious belief factor.
RPBS = Revised Paranormal Belief Scale.
*p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001. (All two tailed).
1712 Spirituality, instrumentality, paranormal
2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Journal of Applied Social Psychology 2013, 43, pp. 17041716
General discussion
This paper reports three studies investigating the relations of
spirituality, instrumentality, and paranormal beliefs in ve
religious groups in Chinese society, as well as the develop-
ment of a Chinese version of the INSPIRIT and a test of its
psychometric properties. The reliability and validity of the
Chinese INSPIRITwere satisfactory. The religious beliefs and
practices of adherents of invisible traditional Chinese reli-
gions are important parts of their lives and arguably serve
instrumental purposes for them. Christian believers had
higher scores than the other religious groups on spiritual
experiences and religious involvement. This nding supports
Cohens theory (Cohen &Hill, 2007) that individualistic reli-
gious cultures tend to have an intrinsic religious orientation,
and collectivistic religious cultures tend to have an extrinsic
religious orientation. To our knowledge, we have produced
the rst clear evidence that the greater involvement of practi-
tioners of traditional Chinese religion in activities emphasiz-
ing Chinese witchcraft and paranormal experiences leads to
their greater instrumental orientation and paranormal belief,
especially as compared to the minority Christian group. Our
results can thus be seen as evidence that religious group dif-
ferences can be understood as differences in culture.
Limitations and directions for
future research
It would be particularly benecial in future research to use
random sampling rather than the convenience sampling
employedinthis study. Another limitationof our study is that
we did not ask the Abrahamic religious groups about their
denomination. It was found in a previous study that different
Abrahamic religious groups, such as Jews, Catholics, and
Protestants, scored differently on a measure of spirituality
(Cohen & Hill, 2007). There are 15 traditional Chinese
Table 7 Means, Standard Deviations, 95% Condence Intervals, t Values, and Cohens d Comparing Groups on the Chinese Version of the INSPIRIT,
and the Religious Belief, Religious Activities, and Chinese Witchcraft Factors of the PRS
Group Buddhists Taoists Traditional nones Other nones
Measure M SD 95% CI t d t d t d t d
Christians (n = 45)
INSPIRIT 19.93 4.02 18.73, 21.14 2.95** 0.53 4.65*** 0.79 8.30*** 1.38 9.01*** 1.62
PRS
Religious belief 39.20 6.39 37.28 41.12 0.97 0.19 4.57*** 0.82 10.07*** 1.81 11.70*** 2.13
Religious activities 34.22 9.11 31.49 36.96 2.94** 0.53 5.76*** 0.53 9.67*** 1.65 11.71*** 2.06
Chinese witchcraft 15.49 10.28 12.40 29.34 7.34*** 1.25 9.60*** 1.50 6.50*** 1.07 3.90*** 0.68
Buddhists (n = 89)
INSPIRIT 17.81 3.90 16.99 18.63 1.63 0.23 5.67*** 0.80 7.11*** 1.08
PRS
Religious belief 37.74 9.01 35.84 39.64 3.54** 0.49 9.30*** 1.32 11.34*** 1.72
Religious activities 29.56 8.42 27.78 31.33 3.23** 0.46 8.07*** 1.15 10.23*** 1.55
Chinese witchcraft 26.35 6.68 24.94 27.76 2.06* 0.29 1.27 0.18 4.37*** 0.66
Taoists (n = 113)
INSPIRIT 16.96 3.46 16.31 17.60 4.47*** 0.60 6.33*** 0.91
PRS
Religious belief 33.81 6.81 32.28 41.12 7.17*** 0.97 10.18*** 1.45
Religious activities 25.85 7.87 24.38 27.32 5.32*** 0.72 7.67*** 1.11
Chinese witchcraft 28.20 6.09 27.07 27.76 3.47** 0.46 6.79*** 0.96
Traditional nones (n = 107)
INSPIRIT 15.00 3.03 14.42 15.58 2.54* 0.37
PRS
Religious belief 27.22 6.81 25.92 28.53 3.87*** 0.56
Religious activities 20.27 7.68 18.80 21.74 2.45* 0.36
Chinese witchcraft 25.07 7.32 23.66 26.47 3.18** 0.46
Other nones (n = 85)
INSPIRIT 13.80 3.51 13.04 14.56
PRS
Religious belief 23.09 7.97 21.37 24.81
Religious activities 17.67 6.79 16.21 19.13
Chinese witchcraft 21.65 7.49 20.03 23.26
PRS = Personal Religiosity Scale.
*p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001. (All two tailed).
Shiah et al. 1713
2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Journal of Applied Social Psychology 2013, 43, pp. 17041716
religions (Department of Civil Affairs of the Taiwan Ministry
of the Interior, 2003) that may differ in spiritual motivation.
Christianity offers the least support for an extrinsic orienta-
tion and the greatest support for an intrinsic orientation to
religion; this relationship is in the opposite direction for tra-
ditional Chinese religions.
More research is needed to conrm that religious group
differences can be conceptualized as cultural differences that
shape the personal andsocial aspects of religious andspiritual
motivation. One future direction of interest would be to
compare Western and Chinese Christians in terms of their
paranormal beliefs and spirituality. In interpreting the differ-
ence in paranormal beliefs between the Christian minority
and believers in traditional Chinese religions, it is important
to note that convincing data-based explanations of why, in
general, believers in traditional Chinese religions have greater
paranormal beliefs thanWesterners (as well as Chinese Chris-
tians) in Chinese society is lacking. More cross-cultural
research examining the possible interactions among religious
belief, religious practices, and paranormal beliefs is thus war-
ranted. A second possibility is that religious differences inu-
ence psychological processes at the national level (Cohen &
Hill, 2007). A third possibility is a causal reversal of the
second: Psychological processes inuence religious differ-
ences at the national level (Lehman et al., 2004). Studies are
warranted to exam all three of these theoretical approaches.
Our nding that members of different religious groups
seemed to differ in their psychological processes is another
worthwhile topic for future research on the relation of reli-
gionto culture. For example, different aspects of extrinsic and
intrinsic religiosity might lead to different levels of self-
enhancement (Sedikides & Gebauer, 2010). Believers in the
paranormal tend to score higher than nonbelievers on meas-
ures of psychological traits such as absorption (French &
Wilson, 2006; Kennedy, 2005), fantasy proneness (Kennedy,
2005; Wiseman & Watt, 2006), hypnotic suggestibility
(French & Wilson, 2006), and traumatic childhood experi-
ences (Perkins & Allen, 2006), but they score lower than
nonbelievers on perceived locus of control in childhood
(Watt, Watson, & Wilson, 2007). Likewise, it is reasonable to
assume that there is an interaction between psychological
processes and culture, as both evolve over time. Additionally,
one might ask whether these different psychological processes
in different religious groups lead to differences in health.
Conclusions
The data from the present study support the Chinese version
of the INSPIRITas a useful instrument for assessing spiritual-
ity in Chinese samples. The investigation of spirituality,
instrumentality, and paranormal belief with religiosity in this
context creates new opportunities for understanding how
these variables are related to one another. Different religious
groups have different levels of spiritual and instrumental
motivation. The results are consistent with the conclusion
that Christianity offers the least support for an extrinsic ori-
entation but the most support for an intrinsic orientation.
Our data also support the conclusion that religious beliefs
and practices are important parts of the lives of adherents to
invisible traditional Chinese religions and arguably serve
instrumental purposes for them. The research provides a
crucial rst step toward understanding how Christianity and
the Eastern religions reect different levels of spirituality,
instrumentality, and paranormal belief. Future studies of
religiosity and spirituality should take account of cultural dif-
ferences in further exploring the various theoretical perspec-
tives addressed in this paper.
Acknowledgment
The authors thank Dr. Jared Kass for the permission to trans-
late the Index of Core Spiritual Experiences into Chinese.
This study was supported by a research grant received from
the Kaohsiung Medical University (Q0990033). The authors
are grateful to Dr. John Palmer, the Editor, and anonymous
referees for their helpful comments.
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