Unravelling the Mystery of the Sense of Coherence

Abstract

This study reports the validation of Antonovsky-s 29-item ‘Sense of Coherence- (SOC) scale through health criteria with the help of a representative survey of 1,400 people. The dependent variables were the score data of self-assessment of health, vegetative lability and chronic diseases, which were combined into the index of the Ease/Dis-Ease Continuum (EDEC). SOC significantly predicts place on the EDEC scale. We also found SOC predicting, in some cases, with a strength surpassing that of health criteria, the criterion data of well-being indices (cognitive satisfaction, affective happiness). Thirdly, the attitudinal and value system contents of SOC were explored through convergent validation, finding among them responsibility-taking – an element of the entrepreneurial attitude – and the integrative Maitreyan value, the proactive Promethean value and the Christian value, which fosters mutual social support. We sketch a further research task within the topic of Sense of Coherence as a group property: an examination and a project for the development of the SOC level of the Hungarian national community. For this purpose we have validated the 6-item version of the SOC scale.