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The Use of Standardized Questionnaire-survey-instruments in the Transpersonal Context

Principal Investigators: N. Kohls, Dipl. Psych.; H. Walach, PhD

Affiliations: Institut für Grenzgebiete der Psychologie und Psychohygiene (IGPP), Freiburg, Germany; University Hospital Freiburg, Department of Environmental Medicine and Hospital Epidemiology

Background: Although the importance of transpersonal concepts has increased substantially in the last years, both within academic psychology and psychotherapy, only a few sound and systematically examined research instruments presently exist within this area. In the German-speaking countries, systematic research is almost completely missing. A new diagnostic category has been introduced in the DSM IV, “Religious or Spiritual Problem“ (V62.89).

Objective of the study: The target of the project (thesis) is to develop an instrument which helps to differentiate transpersonal and religious experiences from psychotic episodes in the differential-diagnostic sense, and which asks furthermore for the subjective evaluation of such experiences.

Methods: In two preceding projects, a questionnaire assessing the occurrence and subjective evaluation of such experiences was developed and validated. The instrument was tested in a sample of 203 psychiatric and psychotherapeutic patients, and in another sample of 210 persons who were connected to a religious or spiritual environment. For the two samples, significant differences for frequency and valence of exceptional experiences could be determined. This supported the questionnaire concept as such. On the basis of these results, an improved instrument will be designed and validated. Special attention will be paid to the problems of the construct validity. In addition, suitability of the usual test control criteria for the examination of questionnaire instruments within the transpersonal realm will be discussed.