Abstract
The paper investigates different approaches of transcendence in the sense of spiritual experience as predictors for general psychological resilience. This issue is based on the theoretical assumption that resilience does play a role for physical health. Furthermore, there is a lack of empirical evidence about the extent to which spirituality does play a role for resilience. As potential predictors for resilience, ego transcendence, spiritual transcendence, and meaning in life were measured in a sample of 265 people. The main result of a multiple regression analysis is that, in the subsample with people below 29 years, only one rather secular scale that is associated with ego transcendence predicts resilience, whereas for the older subsample of 29 years and above, spiritual transcendence gains both a positive (oneness and timelessness) and a negative (spiritual insight) relevance to psychological resilience. On the one hand, these results concur with previous studies that also found age-related differences. On the other hand, it is surprising that the MOS spiritual insight predicts psychological resilience negatively, the effect is increasing with age. One possible explanation concerns wisdom research. Here, an adaptive way of dealing with the age-related loss of control is assumed to be relevant to successful aging.
Highlights
In an overview, Seybold and Hill [1] point out that, first, there are many different dimensions which are attributed to religiousness or spirituality
It is surprising that the Mystical Orientation Scale (MOS) spiritual insight predicts psychological resilience negatively, the effect is increasing with age
The two Sources of Meaning and Meaningfulness Questionnaire (SoMe) scales and all five Volitional Component Inventory (VCI) scales show moderate to strong correlations (|.42| to |.58|) to resilience
Summary
Seybold and Hill [1] point out that, first, there are many different dimensions which are attributed to religiousness or spirituality There are both helpful and harmful effects of spirituality, but the influence is largely beneficial. This is a very general statement about the influence of spirituality. Psychological factors such as coping strategies or cognitive processes (e.g., locus of control) may mediate the relationship between spirituality and health. Seybold and Hill explicitly call for an investigation of the role of psychological factors as possible mediators in the religiousness-health connection.
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