Personality systems, spirituality, and existential well-being: A person-centered perspective.

Recent research on the salutogenic benefits of spirituality and religiosity has yielded inconsistent findings. It is suggested that such discrepancies reflect individual differences in personality, but this cannot be investigated with variable-driven approaches. The present study measured the influence of personality on the relationship between spirituality and existential well-being (EWB) from the perspective of Personality Systems Interaction theory-an approach focused on functional relationships between cognitive and affective systems, using Latent Profile Analysis. Three major results emerged: First, we identified discrete Analytical, Intuitive, and Flexible personality profiles resembling closely the prototypes reported elsewhere. Second, while preferences for intuitive cognitive processing resulted in high scores on all dimensions of spirituality and EWB, the reverse was true for individuals prone to analytical information processing, replicating previous research. Third, EWB operates independently from other spirituality dimensions, and relates differentially to distinct personality profiles. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).