Preliminary Analyses of Three Measures of Grace: Can They be Unified?

Grace is an interesting and potentially significant domain within positive psychology, but remains largely neglected. The present study examined the relationships among three known grace scales to evaluate the potential for creating a stronger single measure. It also explored their relationships to several other religious/spiritual measures to examine whether the three scales are measuring the same construct, to explore the implications for our understanding of grace, and to provide insights for further study. The three measures had moderately strong correlations with each other (r= .55 to .66), had similar relationships to other measures of religion/spirituality, and had distinct relationships to measures of psychological health and distress. This suggested that the three scales measure somewhat different constructs. Two grace scales showed significant negative skew, indicating ceiling problems. Differences in the underlying grace constructs, contamination by other concepts, or an underlying multidimensional structure for grace could account for these differences. Further study should better articulate the constructs underlying grace measures, address problems related to negative skew in responses, and clarify whether grace is multidimensional. ********** Half a century ago, Norman Rockwell's illustration on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post (November 24, 1951), Saying Grace, captured the interest of the American public. More recently, millions have viewed the movie Amish Grace (Thompson & Champion, 2010) that portrays the spirit of gracious forgiveness that marked the Amish community's response to the killing of Amish school-girls in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania in 2006. Yet grace has received little attention among psychologists, even within the positive psychology movement (e.g., Peterson & Seligman, 2004). The latter is a bit surprising given that interpersonal grace, such as shown by the Amish, can certainly be considered a significant human virtue. These examples reflect two dimensions to the idea of grace in Christian thought and practice. "Saying grace" is really a euphemism for thanking God for showing redemptive grace and providing food and other daily needs--it is, in that sense, a relative of gratitude. Amish Grace illustrates the human potential to enact grace to others. A number of writers have discussed grace (e.g., Dudley, 1995; Gowack, 1998; McKee, 1998; McMinn, 2008; Wahking, 1992; Watson, 1969), and it has been included as a variable in a couple of studies (e.g., Ratanasiripong, 1997; Schaefer, 1999). However, efforts to measure grace have so far been surprisingly limited. To effectively study grace a suitable measure seems essential. The following will describe the construct of grace, measures of grace, and the purpose of the present study. The Grace Construct Grace is a theme of both Old and New Testaments. The doctrine of God's grace, which is largely unique to Christian thought, draws from the unmerited kindness of "the God of all grace" (1 Peter 5:10, New American Standard Bible). Christian theological discussions of grace distinguish several types of grace. A basic distinction is between common grace and special grace (Hughes, 2001; McMinn, Ruiz, Marx, Wright, & Gilbert, 2006). Common grace includes such things as the passing of the seasons, sunshine and rain, production of food and materials for clothing and shelter, and the restraint on evil and lawlessness; these forms of grace affect all persons. "Special grace is the grace by which God redeems, sanctifies, and glorifies his people" (Hughes, 2001, p. 520). According to Hughes, special grace is further distinguished in terms of prevenient grace--the belief that God acts first in saving his people; efficacious grace-the notion that grace accomplishes the divine purpose; irresistible grace--the principle that grace cannot be refused; and sufficient grace--the idea that grace is able to save, preserve, and transform one in earthly life and successfully bring one into the heavenly kingdom. …