Ecospirituality Scale

Abstract

The Ecospirituality Scale (Billet et al., 2023) was developed as a psychometric instrument to quantitatively assess an individual’s perception of nature’s spiritual qualities and the human-nature spiritual connection. The development phase commenced with an exhaustive pool of 38 items formulated around four core themes: spiritual meaning attributed to nature, direct spiritual experiences in nature, generalized connectedness to the natural world, and the anthropomorphism of nature. Following rigorous statistical analysis, including a parallel factor analysis on an American sample, the scale was refined to a concise eight-item, two-factor structure. Comprehensive validation studies across eight international samples (including participants from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Singapore) established the scale’s strong reliability, validity, and measurement invariance.

Keywords

Ecology, Environmental Attitudes, Ecospirituality, Spirituality, Environmental Measures, Appraisal of Nature’s Spiritual Qualities, Experiences of Nature’s Spiritual Qualities, Known-Groups Validity.

Authors

Billet, Matthew I., Baimel, Adam, Sahakari, Sakshi S., Schaller, Mark, Norenzayan, Ara.

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Purpose

The primary purpose of the Ecospirituality Scale is to provide researchers with a robust, quantitative tool capable of measuring an individual’s spiritual conception and deeply felt perception of the natural world. It aims to capture the psychological dimension of reverence and spiritual attachment to the environment.

Construct

The instrument is specifically designed to measure the psychological construct of Ecospirituality. This construct encompasses both the cognitive appraisal of nature as spiritually meaningful and the affective experiences of spirituality elicited by engagement with the natural environment.

Validity

The scale demonstrates strong evidence across multiple facets of validity, supporting its use as a measure of environmental spirituality.

Known-Groups Validity: Known-groups validity was established by comparing scores between groups expected to differ significantly. Members of nature clubs scored significantly higher on the scale (M = 5.78, SD = 0.96) than members of other types of clubs (M = 5.49, SD = 1.02). This difference was observed in both the Appraisal (Mdiff = 0.37) and Experiences (Mdiff = 0.21) subscales, confirming the scale’s ability to discriminate between groups with varying levels of environmental spiritual engagement.

Convergent/Discriminant Validity: Correlation estimates for convergent and discriminant validity showed minimal variation across the diverse international samples tested. The study reported the mean correlation estimate and the mean 95% confidence interval range to confirm that the scale relates appropriately to theoretically similar constructs while remaining distinct from unrelated constructs.

Predictive Validity: Analyses confirmed that Ecospirituality served as a unique predictor of moral expansiveness concerning nature (β = 0.16 [0.11, 0.20]). This predictive power was independent of other related variables, such as environmentalist identity (β = 0.19) and general environmental attitudes (β = 0.15).

Reliability

The Ecospirituality Scale exhibits high levels of internal consistency and temporal stability across diverse populations.

Internal Consistency: The scale demonstrated robust internal reliability across all tested samples, showing minimal variability. The mean Cronbach’s alpha coefficient averaged 0.89 across all eight samples, with the lowest recorded estimate being 0.87 (Sample 4) and the highest being 0.92 (Sample 2). These values indicate excellent internal coherence among the eight items.

Test-Retest Reliability: Temporal stability was assessed over a four-month interval (September 2020 to January 2021). The resulting test-retest correlation was strong and highly significant, measuring r = 0.77 [95% CI 0.74, 0.79], confirming the stability of the measure over time.

Factor Analysis

The structure of the scale was determined through a combination of exploratory and confirmatory Factor Analysis (FA), resulting in a parsimonious two-factor model.

Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA): Initial EFA utilizing an oblimin rotation suggested a preliminary three-factor structure for the pool of items developed during the pilot phase.

Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA): A subsequent CFA confirmed that the final eight items were best represented by a two-factor model. This model provided an adequate fit to the data (RMSEA = 0.048; RMSR = 0.02; TLI = 0.99) and successfully accounted for 66% of the total variance in the scores.

Measurement Invariance: Crucially for cross-cultural research, the analysis of measurement invariance demonstrated that the factor structure was consistent across key groups, including between American and Singaporean samples, and across five different religious denominations within the Singaporean sample. Furthermore, scalar invariance was established, which is essential for making meaningful, direct comparisons of mean scores between different populations.

Instrument

Test Type: Original inventory/questionnaire

Format: Respondents rate their agreement with statements using a 7-point Likert scale, ranging from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree.”

Language Available: English

Population Group: Human populations (males and females)

Age Group: Adults (aged 18 years and older)

Population Details: The scale was validated using diverse samples, including university students and members of the Green Party, sourced from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Singapore.

Test Methodology: The development process included comprehensive psychometric evaluation, covering Test Validity, Convergent Validity, Discriminant Validity, Predictive Validity, Test Reliability, Internal Consistency, Test-Retest Reliability, Factor Analysis, Confirmatory Factor Analysis, Exploratory Factor Analysis, and Measurement Invariance.

Keywords

Environmental Psychology, Psychometric Scale, Nature Appreciation, Spiritual Experience, Reliability, Validity, Cross-Cultural Comparison.

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Authors

Matthew I. Billet (Corresponding Author)

Author ORCID Identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5768-574X

Affiliation Email addresses: [email protected] (Matthew I. Billet)

Correspondence Address: University of British Columbia, Department of Psychology, 2136 West Mall, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, V6T 1Z4

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

• Permissions: The scale may be used freely for research and teaching purposes.

• Fee: There is no fee associated with the use of this scale.

• Commercial Use: This scale is not permitted for commercial use.

• Test Year: 2023

Reference’s

Billet, M. I., Baimel, A., Sahakari, S. S., Schaller, M., & Norenzayan, A. (2023). Ecospirituality: The psychology of moral concern for nature. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 87, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2023.102001

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Items of the Ecospirituality Scale

IMPORTANT: The following scale items must be preserved in their original language and must not be changed in any way.

This is an 8-item measure divided into two factors or subscales:

• Appraisal of Nature’s Spiritual Qualities (Appr)

• Experience of Nature’s Spiritual Qualities (Exp)

Note. Items 1-4 = Appraisal of nature’s spiritual qualities. Items 5-8 = Experience of nature’s spiritual qualities. Items are rated on a 7-point scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree.