SPIRITUAL GIFTS - A PSYCHOMETRIC EXTENSION

Spiritual gifts inventories appear to be constructed in a scientific m anner, but they are often technically inadequate. The current study ex amined the psychometric properties of the Objective Questionnaire Test ing set of the Motivational Spiritual Gifts Inventory (MGI). Analyses of the questionnaire data indicated that despite the apparent strength of the spiritual gifts subscales' content validity, reliability fell only in the poor to moderate range. Construct validity was also tenuou s. Interscale factor analysis using an oblique rotation supported a th ree-factor rather than a seven-factor solution. Furthermore, 37% of th e items correlated more highly with a subscale other than intended. Th ese three findings cast doubt on this instrument's ability to assess s even separate sets of personality and behavioral characteristics. Stre ngths and weakness of spiritual gifts inventories and recommendations for their future use are discussed.