An integrative and substantive definition of spirituality in psychology

This paper presents a developing definition of spirituality as a psychological construct, which integrates contrasting lines of research. Specifically, the definition is hoped to at least partially resolve the different interpretations of spirituality between cognitive and personality perspectives in psychology. From a cognitive perspective, the current paper outlines processes that generate perceptions of phenomena, noumena, conceptual postulates, and associative patterns, and defines spirituality as the perception of agency within any of those experiences. From a personality perspective, the current paper defines spirituality as any pattern of thoughts, feelings, behaviours, and worldview beliefs that psychometrically relate to the cognitive perception of agency, and defines religiosity as a subordinate aspect of spirituality in personality that includes traits, behaviours, and worldview beliefs that are inherently interpersonal. Spirituality as a psychological construct is thus defined as: the thoughts, feelings, behaviours, and worldview beliefs that relate to perceptions or interpretations of phenomena, noumena, conceptual postulates, associative patterns, and self-concepts as agents. The current paper also outlines the potential for both positive and negative relationships between spirituality and well-being, and highlights the healthcare challenges of explicitly merging personality approaches to spirituality with evidence from cognitive psychology. The current paper also includes suggestions for quantitative and qualitative testing of the definition, and a brief discussion of the benefits and challenges of moving beyond simplistic categories regarding spirituality and religiosity