Abstract
The Daily Spiritual Experience Scale (DSES) is a 16-item self-report measure designed to assess ordinary experiences of connection with the transcendent in daily life. It includes constructs such as awe, gratitude, mercy, sense of connection with the transcendent and compassionate love. It also includes measures of awareness of discernment/inspiration and a sense of deep inner peace. Originally developed for use in health studies, it has been increasingly used more widely in the social sciences, for program evaluation, and for examining changes in spiritual experiences over time. Also it has been used in counseling, addiction treatment settings, and religious organizations. It has been included in longitudinal health studies and in the U.S. General Social Survey which established random-sample population norms. It has publications on its psychometric validity in English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, German and Mandarin Chinese. Translations have been made into twenty languages including Hindi, Hebrew and Arabic and the scale has been effectively used in a variety of cultures. The 16-item scale does not have a psychometrically representative shorter form although a 6-item adaptation has been used. The DSES was developed using extensive qualitative testing in a variety of groups, which has helped its capacity to be useful in a variety of settings. It was constructed to reflect an overlapping circle model of spirituality/religiousness and contains items that are more specifically theistic in nature, as well as items to tap the spiritual experience of those who are not comfortable with theistic language. The scale has been used in over 70 published studies. This paper will provide an overview of the scale itself, describe why it has proved useful, and discuss some studies using the scale. See http://www.dsescale.org/ for more information on the scale.
Highlights
Introduction and BackgroundThe Daily Spiritual Experience Scale (DSES) is a sixteen-item self-report measure together with a brief introduction, designed to measure ordinary spiritual experiences
There are over 70 published studies using the DSES to date
The DSES has been included in the General Social Survey (GSS)
Summary
The Daily Spiritual Experience Scale (DSES) is a sixteen-item self-report measure together with a brief introduction, designed to measure ordinary spiritual experiences (not dramatic mystical experiences such as near death experiences or hearing voices or seeing visions) It measures experiences of relationship with, and awareness of, the divine or transcendent and how beliefs and understandings form part of moment-to-moment features of life from a spiritual or religious perspective [1,2]. (3) discuss issues of adaptation, translation and interpretation; and (4) describe some areas of study in which it has proven useful including some empirical studies using the instrument This scale drew upon the author’s pragmatic background in clinical medicine and epidemiology, where multiple ways to measure melanoma—a skin cancer—were tied to stage of diagnosis, which led to appropriately targeted efforts at education and improved early detection [6]. God’s love for me directly or through others.” These form part of the 6 item DSES referred to in the text
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