DIMENSIONS OF SPIRITUALITY AND A SENSE OF SACRED
Michal STRÍŽENEC
Institute of Experimental Psychology
Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava
expshor@savba.sk
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.