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Exploring Dispositional Awe and Its Relationship with Spiritual Intelligence: Measuring Dispositional Awe as a Multidimensional Construct
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Experiences of awe mark significant moments in life and the phenomenon of awe is of interest to researchers in existential, humanistic, and transpersonal psychology. Yet relatively little work has been done to elucidate the factors underlying the propensity to experience awe and how these factors might relate to constructs such as spirituality. Dispositional awe was conceptualized as a multidimensional construct. It was proposed that dispositional awe is related to spiritual intelligence. In order to investigate the concept of dispositional awe as a multidimensional construct and the relationship between this construct and spiritual intelligence 342 participants were recruited through snowball sampling and asked to complete an online survey. The survey incorporated extant measures of dispositional awe, spiritual intelligence, openness, and items created using scale development techniques. Analyses of the responses indicated that the newly created items constitute a scale of dispositional awe with good reliability (α = .940) and initial validity as indicated by positive correlations with measures of dispositional awe ( r = .667, rs = .667) and openness (r = .459, rs = .439). Structural equation modeling software was used to conduct a confirmatory factor analysis of a10-factor model specified a-priori. The analysis failed to converge on an admissible solution. Correlational analyses between a measure of spiritual intelligence and both the newly created items ( r = .816, r s = .813) and the existing measure of dispositional awe ( r = .631, rs = .647) indicated that the two constructs are related (p < .001). Recommendations are discussed including refinement of multidimensional measures of dispositional awe, exploration of the relationship between awe and spirituality, and incorporation of findings into clinical practice.
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... Awe can theoretically promote spiritual experience and thus promote the spiritual intelligence of an individual (Green and Noble, 2010). A study by Bonner (2015) shows that awe could positively predict spiritual intelligence, and it indicates the possibility that awe could improve spiritual intelligence. Vaughan (2002) believed that spiritual intelligence is related to awe in two ways as follows: (1) spiritual intelligence is usually related to the improvement of aesthetic sensitivity and (2) spiritual intelligence helps to explore existing uncertainty and reduces the demand for certainty. ...
... This finding that awe enables change in the mental model of primary school teachers is consistent with previous studies. Awe can positively predict spiritual intelligence (Bonner, 2015). Spiritual intelligence is the ability to find meaning, purpose, and value in life, connecting our actions and lives to a wider and richer context of giving meaning (Wolman, 2001;Alex and Ajawani, 2011). ...
Based on the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions, this study explored the mediating effect of spiritual intelligence between awe and life satisfaction among Chinese primary school teachers and whether this effect was moderated by ethnicity. Participants comprised 569 teachers from 24 primary schools in southwestern China, where many of the ethnic minority groups of China reside. Awe and spiritual intelligence were found to positively predict life satisfaction among primary school teachers, while awe also indirectly influenced life satisfaction through the partial mediation of spiritual intelligence. Ethnicity was also found to moderate the relation between awe and life satisfaction, i.e., when compared with the Han teachers, there is a more significant and positive relation between awe and life satisfaction in ethnic minority teachers. These findings not only indicate the critical role of awe in promoting life satisfaction of primary school teachers but also especially show that awe embodied in the traditional cultural activities makes it easier to breed life satisfaction in ethnic minority teachers.
... These two features prompt individuals to explore the environment, seek new information, and find new ways of resolving problems (Shiota et al., 2006). Dispositional awe has been linked to extraversion, a need for cognitive closure, and agreeableness (McCrae et al., 2007;Bonner, 2015;Razavi et al., 2016), which are precursors of employee creativity. ...
... Recalling previous accomplishments boosts an employee's positive affect and creative self-efficacy. Ultimately, dispositional awe can induce higher spiritual intelligence (Bonner, 2015) and an increased grasp of the meaning of life (Moon et al., 2018). It can also promote a spontaneous self-distancing (Le et al., 2019), which positively influences an individual's psychological state and substantially increases feelings of self-efficacy (Moon et al., 2018). ...
The study examined the responses of employees to supervisors who exhibited abusive behavior and invoked dispositional awe to influence their followers. The proposition is that two divergent predictors of supervisor effectiveness interact to affect the behavior of subordinates. The purpose of this study was to examine the interactive effect of perceived abusive supervisory behavior and perceived supervisor dispositional awe on employee creative self-efficacy and creativity. To test the proposed model, we collected cross-sectional data from 196 working professionals pursuing their Masters of Business Administration (MBA) at a large university in China. Our findings confirmed that perceived abusive supervisory behavior and perceived supervisor dispositional awe were predictors of employee creativity. Also, perceived supervisor dispositional awe moderated the relationship between perceived abusive supervisory behavior and employee creative self-efficacy. The theoretical and practical implications for leaders and organizations were discussed.
... However, despite awe's profoundness and polarity that have been of value and interest to various humanistic fields, it has not been able to focus much of scientific attention in psychology. Up until recently, the psychology of awe was not at all a 5 common or recognized theme and it still remains a fairly new and undiscovered subject of research (as cited in Bonner, 2015). ...
... First instances of awe were present in works focused on states and feelings connected with religion. They recognized awe as negative in valence and constructed of a combination of fear, wonder and humility in response to God (as cited in Bonner, 2015). However, until the beginning of the XXI century the story of scientific awe has not evolved much further. ...
What is it that makes people have an experience of being stunned, touched and
contemplative? What is it that challenges them and inspires to search for new meanings in life? Can we experience it all? In reference to a number of international researchers, this
paper is dedicated to present awe in psychological terms and to validate it as a scientific
concept. Additionally, it will include empirical studies of instances of awe affecting the
perception of self, the outside, consequently made decisions, preferences and the influence on well-being. The paper will finalize with recommendations of possible usage of its findings in everyday life and end with suggestions for future developments and further research.
... First, researchers focused on the use of videos and images to study awe's self-transcendent nature. Several studies explored the pro-social function of awe as a proof of its self-transcendent essence (Akın et al. 2014;Bonner 2015) at the state and dispositional level Piff et al. 2015;Stegemoeller 2016;Stellar et al. 2017;Zhang et al. 2014). Awe served a pro-social function since it could enhance generosity and supportive behaviors even towards unknown people (Prade and Saroglou 2016). ...
Action research is an approach to research which aims at both taking action and creating knowledge or theory about that action as the action unfolds. It starts with everyday experience and is concerned with the development of living knowledge. Its characteristics are that it generates practical knowledge in the pursuit of worthwhile purposes; it is participative and democratic as its participants work together in the present tense in defining the questions they wish to explore, the methodology for that exploration, and its application through cycles of action and reflection. In this vein they are agents of change and coresearchers in knowledge generation and not merely passive subjects as in traditional research. In this vein, action research can be understood as a social science of the possible as the collective action is focused on creating a desired future in whatever context the action research is located.
... Openness to experience, affect tolerance and creativity are fulfilled by the expansion of consciousness states. In the literature, there are empirical studies that have found a correlation between a disposition to experience awe and creativity and openness (Bonner, 2015;Shiota, Keltner, & John, 2006). Another significant characteristic of eliciting awe in transpersonal therapy is the emphasis on spirituality as a component of holistic psychotherapy. ...
Dijitalleşme, modern yaşam ve gelişmelere olan yoğun bağımlılığın bir sonucu olarak insan hayatı, insanlıkla ve maneviyatla bağlarını kaybetme tehlikesiyle karşı karşıyadır. Bunun muhtemel bir çözümü, Büyük Kanyon’un enginliğine veya yüzlerce yıldızla dolu bir gökyüzüne tanık olmak veya mistik bir deneyim yaşamak gibi örneklerle açıklanabilecek, hayret ve hayranlığın duygusal bir algısı olan awe duygusunun beslenmesidir. Bu çalışmada öncelikle alan yazın titizlikle taranmış ve awe üzerine yapılan araştırmalar bu duygunun ne olduğu, formülasyonu, felsefesi çerçevesinde derlenmiştir. Daha sonra awenin Varoluşçu ve Transpersonel psikolojideki kullanım alanları verilmiş ve ayrıca hastalarda bu duyguyu güçlendirebilecek terapi önerileri de sunulmuştur. Sonuç olarak awenin halk sağlığının yükseltilmesi ve yaşam doyumunun yükseltilmesine yönelik tedavilerde daha fazla kullanılması gerektiğine inanıyoruz.
... It refers to a disposition toward global awe, which arises from a perception of vastness and a need to accommodate the perception into existing mental schemas (Keltner and Haidt, 2003). Dispositional awe is a central emotional experience of religion, politics, nature, and art (Bonner, 2015). It also mixes respect with wonder, admiration, appreciation, and sometimes fear and anxiety (Schneider, 2017). ...
Dispositional awe has a positive effect on prosociality. However, it has not been tested whether this disposition appears in online altruism. Using a large sample of 3,080 Chinese undergraduates, this study tested a moderated mediating model that takes self-transcendent meaning in life (STML) as a mediator and subjective socioeconomic status (SSES) as a moderator. As predicted, dispositional awe was positively correlated with online altruism, partly via the indirect effect of STML. SSES moderated both the direct and indirect effects. Specifically, the predictive effects of dispositional awe on both online prosocial behavior and STML were greater for lower rather than higher SSES. This study extends the prosociality of dispositional awe to cyberspace. Other implications are also discussed herein.
... Specifically, empirical studies on this emotion evidenced that awe can affect people by unfolding from a physiological or neurophysiological level, through a psychological one, to an existential one (Schneider, 2009(Schneider, , 2017Stellar et al., 2015Stellar et al., , 2018Gordon et al., 2016;Hoeldtke, 2016;Bai et al., 2017;Hu et al., 2017). Awe can then act as both a contingent moderately intense phenomenon (Silvia et al., 2015) and a really intense punctual emotion (Chirico et al., 2018a,b) or as a frequent emotional state occurring several times (Shiota et al., 2006;Bonner, 2015;Zhao et al., 2019;Chirico et al., 2021). The more awe involves increasingly sophisticated changes, the more it evolves toward more complex forms. ...
Recently, interest in the unique pathways linking discrete positive emotions to specific health outcomes has gained increasing attention, but the role of awe is yet to be elucidated. Awe is a complex and transformative emotion that can restructure individuals' mental frames so deeply that it could be considered a therapeutic asset for major mental health major issues, including depression. Despite sparse evidence showing a potential connection between depression and awe, this link has not been combined into a proposal resulting in specific intervention guidelines. The aim of this perspective was three-fold: (i) to provide a new unifying model of awe's functioning—the Matryoshka model; (ii) to show systematic and explicit connections between this emotion and depression; and (iii) to suggest specific guidelines of intervention utilizing the potential therapeutic role of awe for mental health, specifically for depression. This theoretical endeavor in its entirety has been framed within the health domain.
... First, researchers focused on the use of videos and images to study awe's self-transcendent nature. Several studies explored the pro-social function of awe as a proof of its self-transcendent essence (Akın et al. 2014;Bonner 2015) at the state and dispositional level (Li et al. 2019;Piff et al. 2015;Stegemoeller 2016;Stellar et al. 2017;Zhang et al. 2014). Awe served a pro-social function since it could enhance generosity and supportive behaviors even towards unknown people (Prade and Saroglou 2016). ...
If experiences of profound transformation have a core moment, that can be awe, an emotion able to maximize the possibility to change especially through its self-transcendent nature. Awe arises from stimuli so vast to prompt people to go beyond their current schema. Awe would drag people into a deep moment of uncertainty in which assimilation process fails, but accommodation has not successfully taken place yet. In this middle-suspended moment of extreme potential, everything might occur. This entry started with the current psychological definition of awe; then, it summarizes main researches in this field. Finally, I outlined the transformative nature of this phenomenon
– as a self-transcendent emotion – and a new perspective to frame it in relation to
a sense of possibility to change.
This paper focuses on exploring various models of spiritual development. It first addresses philosophical dilemmas underpinning the concept of spiritual development by questioning whether these can be addressed without metaphysical assumptions embedded in religious
worldviews and thus understood in any consensual way across different historical and cultural contexts. Traditional models of spiritual development are then reviewed, drawing from indigenous, Eastern, and Western cultures. Integrative-philosophical and scientific models, including those from the psychology of religion, transpersonal psychology, and neurobiology, are then presented. The chapter concludes by noting the complexities involved in understanding spiritual development accompanied by suggestions on future directions
for these models by highlighting their commonalities and differences and by providing some evaluative perspectives for thinking critically about them.
This chapter provides an overview of the tools and techniques available for gathering primary research data using the Internet. Both obtrusive (surveys, experiments, interviews, observation) and unobtrusive (observation, document analysis) methods are considered. Emphasis is on elucidating the range of design choices available, offering general principles of good design practice, and considering how design decisions should be made in relation to the aims and goals of a research study. Choices between offline and online implementations are considered, as well as decisions concerning the particular procedures to adopt online. The chapter raises a range of issues, including levels of sample bias and sampling techniques online, levels of control in implementing primary Internet research procedures, effects of the online communication medium, and ethical considerations. These are considered within a design framework, focusing on how to maximize the trustworthiness, reliability, and validity of Internet-based primary research studies.
The Gifford Lectures were established in 1885 at the universities of St Andrews, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Edinburgh to promote the discussion of 'Natural Theology in the widest sense of the term - in other words, the knowledge of God', and some of the world's most influential thinkers have delivered them. The 1901–2 lectures given in Edinburgh by American philosopher William James (1842–1910) are considered by many to be the greatest in the series. The lectures were published in book form in 1902 and have been reprinted many times. James, who was educated in the United States and Europe, and spent much of his career teaching philosophy at Harvard, was very influential in the development of modern psychology, and in these twenty lectures he explores the personal experience of religion. Some of the topics include religion and neurology, 'the sick soul', saintliness, and mysticism.
Transpersonal psychology (TP) emerged in the United States during the 1960s, a turbulent time when psychedelic experimentation and the rediscovery of mysticism, primarily from Eastern and indigenous traditions, caused much deep reflection. It grew from the growing discontent by some humanistic psychologists who questioned the limitations of a solely human-based psychology that paid scant attention to consciousness and spirituality. Although TP had many earlier roots, its formal birth is generally linked to the debut of the Journal of Transpersonal Psychology. The lead article in this journal's first issue was written by one of TP's founders, Abraham Maslow (1969), who had played a key role in developing humanistic psychology and then refocused his attention on developing a psychology centered on human connections to the cosmos. Among other notable TP founding figures are Stanislav Grof (1985) and Charles Tart (1975).