The Relationship of Personality and Spirituality to Empathy

Abstract

This empirical study sought to explore the relationship of personality, spirituality and empathy. Specifically, the possible additional predictive ability of spirituality for empathy when also including personality was examined. Multidimensional measures of spirituality (Spiritual Involvement and Beliefs Scale) and personality (Big Five Inventory) were utilized with a sample of both undergraduate, graduate students and practitioners from two disciplines. Data was collected from several sites, including three universities. Results demonstrated that most spiritual dimensions were not significantly correlated with empathy. One spirituality dimension (Spiritual Perspective) however added significantly to a regression model that also included personality dimensions.