 33. Personality and Religion  717
spiritual transformation may be one of the 
few life events recognized to engender sub -
stantial and dramatic personality change.
However, spiritual transformation is not 
always dramatic and complete, as is often 
typified by classical conversion paradigms. 
The extravagant and dramatic transfor -
mation of the individual’s entire meaning 
system, goals, and ultimate concerns, re -
ferred to as “quantum change” (Miller & 
C’deBaca, 2001), is distinguishable from 
other forms of conversions or spiritual trans -
formations. Paloutzian (2005) identifies a 
bevy of changes in personality that may re -
sult from a spiritual transformation, ranging 
from an increase or decrease in adherence to 
the same religion to a change in a specific 
element within a person’s worldview, or to a 
complete overhaul of ultimate concerns and 
life purpose. Other researchers have also il -
luminated the diversity of experiences that 
may be labeled spiritual transformations or 
religious conversions. Given the plethora of 
conceptualizations, what are the defining 
aspects of religious conversion and spiritual 
transformation?
Religious conversion and spiritual trans -
formation are both separable from learning, 
developmental, and maturational processes, 
in that transformative experiences display a 
distinctiveness of change whereby the con -
vert can identify a time before  which he or 
she held a different array of spiritual beliefs 
and goals than those held after  the transfor -
mative experience (Paloutzian, 2005). This 
is not to say that transformative experiences 
must be sudden or acute; they may take vari -
able amounts of time, ranging from seconds 
to years. Instead, distinctiveness is a key 
identifying theme of conversion and trans -
formation.
Paloutzian (2005) models spiritual trans -
formation and religious conversion as mean -
ing system change. Paloutzian, Richardson, 
and Rambo (1999) maintain that spiritual 
transformation leads to changes in charac -
teristic adaptations and narrative identity 
rather than basic traits based on findings 
from studies showing that conversion has 
no effect on converts traits but does effect 
values, goals, meaning, and self-  narratives. 
For example, an atheist who becomes a Prot -
estant, may accumulate new strivings such 
as “obey God” or “read my Bible” (see Em -mons, 1999, for examples of spiritual striv -
ings), or he may change his strivings so that 
he no longer desires to become an actor but 
instead strives to become an evangelist. Sim -
ilarly, a recent convert may reframe her life 
narrative, utilizing a new redemption para -
digm, to provide personal meaning. Thus, 
Paloutzian (2005) conceptualizes spiritual 
transformation as a reorganization of an in -
dividual’s goals and meaning system. Other 
researchers would also add that spiritual 
transformation is not only a reorganization 
but also a reorientation of the individual to -
ward the sacred (Mahoney & Pargament, 
2004) and transcendent (Piedmont, 1999). 
Apparently, James (1902) was not far from 
modern conceptualizations when he de -
scribed conversion as the movement of re -
ligious ideas from the periphery of one’s 
consciousness to the more central “habitual 
centre of energy.”
Researchers have produced some empiri -
cal work examining spiritual transforma -
tions and religious conversions, although 
several methodological limitations have re -
stricted interpretation of the data. A large 
proportion of studies utilize retrospective re -
ports of preconversion personality and mea -
sure the convert’s perceived change instead 
of actual change. For example, in their study 
of religious change among college under -
graduates, Zinnbauer and Pargament (1998) 
simply ask participants if they have expe -
rienced a conversion over the past 2 years, 
then ask them to retrospectively report their 
pre- and postconversion experiences. Al -
though this is an acceptable launching point 
to commence inquiry into the topic, such 
retrospective reports pose serious limita -
tions. It is unclear whether participants are 
able to accurately contrast their pre- and 
postconversion personality and experiences. 
Converts’ retrospective reports are quite 
subjective and tend to overemphasize the 
negative past in contrast to the positive post -
conversion state as they narrate their own 
life stories to fit “scripts” provided by their 
religious traditions (Beckford, 1978). Retro -
spective reports may also be contaminated 
by stereotypical views of how spiritual con -
versions are “supposed” to change person -
ality. Therefore, it seems quite imperative 
for researchers to adopt more longitudinal 
methods that utilize multiple measures be -