DIMENSIONS OF SPIRITUALITY AND A SENSE OF SACRED

Michal STRÍŽENEC

Institute of Experimental Psychology

Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava

[e-mail]

In regard to our previous articles on spirituality issues, spirituality’s relation to

religiosity, on spirituality scales and verification of a few selected ones (Stríženec 2001a, b,

2002, 2004, 2007) we help to clarify the contents of spirituality.

We used the familiar PSQ questionnaire for this matter (P. Říčan), which describes (its

new version has 30 items and a 5 grade scale) five dimensions of spirituality (viz. Fig. 1).

More information on the dimensions see Říčan, Jánošová, 2005.

We used the Feeling of Sacredness Scale (FSS3) to determine a detailed content of

spiritual experience, whose author is P. Socha (2006). The research subjects read the

following instruction: “A sense of sacred, sacrum (full with sacredness, sanctification of

something) is the realization that the particular phenomenon, object (object, being, idea, or

concept – not necessarily religious) contains something unusual, “something more”,

“something different”, even divine or transcending the common meaning of material

“normal” reality. Please name at least 10 objects (phenomena) that evoke a sense of sacred in

you”. Afterwards they should have written 10 objects (phenomena) that evoke the sense of

sacred in them. On the reverse side of the questionnaire the subject was asked to evaluate the

mentioned objects on a 1 – 5 scale (where 1 means low sacredness and 5 means the highest

sacredness). According to the author, a qualitative analysis of results creates a frequency order

of objects, evaluation order as well as a combined indicator of both orders.

OUR RESULTS

Our probe of 47 university students (mostly women) provided following results for the

PSQ (Fig. 1).

PSQ – average scores

Dimenzie

Stríženec

Říčan

Cohen´s d

Mysticism

18,55±5,13

16,38±5,70

0,40

Eco-spirituality

18,68±4,62

19,73±4,90

-0,22

Togetherness

23,04±4,06

21,96±4,34

0,25

Transcendental-
monotheistic

18,87±5,28

17,01±5,81

0,33

Moral involvement

20,10±4,17

21,16±4,64

-0,24

2

The results of P. Říčan’s research on the group of 408 subjects (personal notification)

are given for comparison. Comparison of our results in the individual dimensions (by Cohen’s

d – see Fig. 1) with those of P. Říčan shows that our values are higher mainly in the

dimensions Mysticism (d=0,40), Transcendental-monotheistic (d=0,33) but also in

Togetherness (d=0,25). They are lower in Eco-spirituality (d=0,22), Moral involment

(d=0,24). Our research displays also some significant correlations between the given

dimensions: Togetherness – Eco-spirituality 0.503 (xxx), Togetherness – Transcendence

0.535 (xxx), Mysticism – Transcendence 0.668 (xxx) and Mysticism – Moral involvement

0.440 (xxx). Significantly (sig in t-test .000) the average score is different in Togetherness

compared to other dimensions.

Results from the FSS3 scale submitted by 26 subjects (who at the same time

completed the PSQ questionnaire) show, that the highest frequency of all statements occurred

with objects categorized as religious field – 24.6% (i.e. cross, angel, the Bible, Jesus Christ).

Following was the field of nature (18.46% - i.e. sunset, sea, the universe). Next categories

were love (4.64%), life (2.69%), mother (2.3%) and others (family, death, art).

A certain indicator is also the frequency of objects listed on 1

st

to 10

th

place. The first

three places were dominated by religion and nature.

Regarding the evaluation of the objects of sacred, the highest values on the 5 grade

scale belonged to the mysterious beings or phenomena (4.15), life (4.00), various emotions

(3.88 – mainly love), religious field (3.78), sciences (3.75), nature (3.00) and others.

At the same time, we tried to calculate the average value of objects listed in the

individual places – it was about 3.80 points. There exists no clear trend, but the values

increased towards the end of the scale and on the 10

th

place it was 4.11 points.

Our attempt was to compare the PSQ and FSS3 results.

Fig. 2

Comparison of PSQ and the categories of sacred

PSQ dimensions

Religion

Nature

Cohen´s d

Mysticism

18,90±5,52 16,28±5,49

0,47

Eco-spirituality

20,50±3,68 16,42±3,90

0,85

Togetherness

24,10±2,72 21,57±2,37

0,99

Transcendental-monotheistic 19,50±4,03 16,57±4,27

0,70

Moral involvement

18,90±2,84 19,00±3,41

-0,03

3

Due to a low occurrence of some categories, in the process of relation determination

between PSQ dimensions and the occurrence frequency of the specific categories of sacred,

we concentrated only on two categories: religion and nature.

As presented in Fig. 2, subjects specifying predominantly religious phenomena were

different (determined by Cohen’s d) from subjects specifying natural phenomena. Differences

were in four PSQ dimensions (mainly Ecospirituality and Togetherness) – there were none in

Moral involvement.

Moreover, our research within the category of religion, or nature respectively, was

investigating whether there are differences in the PSQ categories between subjects who

mentioned and those who did not mentioned the category.

Within religion (Fig. 3) the differences were at low level. Within nature (Fig. 4) were the

differences in all PSQ dimensions clearer (at the medium level).

Fig. 3

Comparison of PSQ and the categories of sacred - religion

PSQ dimensions

mentioned

not

mentioned

Cohen´s d

Mysticism

18,90±5,52 18,56±4,84

0,06

Eco-spirituality

20,50±3,68 17,56±4,41

0,37

Togetherness

24,10±2,72 22,87±4,16

0,34

Transcendental-monotheistic 19,50±4,03 18,25±6,03

0,24

Moral involvement

18,90±2,84 19,25±4,04 -0,10

Fig. 4

Comparison of PSQ and the categories of sacred - nature

PSQ dimensions

mentioned

not

mentioned

Cohen´s d

Mysticism

16,28±5,49 19,57±4,65

-0,65

Eco-spirituality

16,42±3,90 19,52±4,26

-0,76

Togetherness

21,57±2,37 24,00±3,88

-0,75

Transcendental-monotheistic 16,57±4,27 19,52±5,52

-0,69

Moral involvement

19,00±3,41 19,15±3,71 -0,04

On the basis of the comparison of PSQ with the values of the objects of sacred, we

found nonsignificant correlations. There is only one remark – the average value correlated

negatively with Eco-spirituality, but positively with Mysticism and Transcendece.

4

Comparison of our FSS3 results with the results of the scale’s author is difficult as the

author divides the objects of sacred into 50 categories. For the comparison’s purposes we

have summed up all his categories of religion, or nature into the category religion and

category nature. The comparison of the objects’ occurrence revealed the predominance of

religious field in both researches (Stríženec – 24.6%, Socha – 20.61%). Whereas our research

had nature in the second place (18.46%), P. Socha had love (5.57%) and family (5.44%) and

only then nature (3.37%). The highest average value in our research had mysterious

phenomena (4.15) and life (4.00), in P. Socha’s research it was God (5.00), the pope (then

John Paul II. – 4.93), family (4.85) and love ( (4.41).

CONCLUSION

Although questionnaire research provides the information on the general orientation of

subjects, qualitative approaches are necessary for a deeper understanding of the individual

components of spirituality. FSS3 method type development together with half-structured

interviews will create a more detailed image of spirituality’s demonstration and role in the

individual’s life. Our research results are only an inspiration in this field of study and

encouragement to an intercultural approach.

REFERENCES

ŘÍČAN, P., JANOŠOVÁ, P., 2005, Spirituality: its psychological operationalization via
measurement of individual differences: A Czech perspective. Studia psychologica, 47, 2,
157–165.

SOCHA, P. M., 2006, Poczucie świetości jako rezultat przemiany poznawczej. In Doktór,
T. (ed.), Doświadczenie religijne. Warszawa (v tlači).

STRÍŽENEC, M., 2001a, Súčasná psychológia náboženstva. Bratislava: IRIS.

STRÍŽENEC, M., 2001b, Psychologické aspekty spirituality. Československá psychologie,
45, 2, 118-126.

STRÍŽENEC, M., 2002, Religiosity and cognitive process. Dialogue and universalism, 12,
8-10, 129-140.

STRÍŽENEC, M., 2004, Empirical approaches to spirituality. Studia psychologica, 46, 2,

73-177.

STRÍŽENEC, M., 2007, Novšie pohľady na religiozitu a spiritualitu. Bratislava: Ústav
experimentálnej psychológie SAV.