Scale of Spiritual Transcendence

Abstract

The Scale of Spiritual Transcendence (SST), developed by Katarzyna Skrzypińska, Jarosław Piotrowski, and Magdalena Żemojtel-Piotrowska (2013), is a 40-item self-report psychometric instrument designed to assess spirituality as an independent dimension of human personality and psychological functioning. Grounded in the broader theoretical tradition of self-transcendence and spiritual personality frameworks—most notably the foundational conceptualizations advanced by Ralph L. Piedmont—the SST provides a culturally nuanced and psychometrically refined operationalization of spiritual engagement. The instrument captures two principal, complementary second-order dimensions: Transcendence Proper (encompassing personal meditative/prayerful experiences, feelings of universal interconnectedness, and adherence to transpersonal causes) and Spiritual Openness (reflecting non-judgmental acceptance, cognitive flexibility toward existential paradoxes, mindfulness, and appreciation for the gift of life). Responses are recorded on a 4-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 4 (strongly agree). Empirical validation studies demonstrate robust psychometric properties, including high internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha values typically ranging from .82 to .91 across subscales and total score), stable test-retest reliability, and well-substantiated construct validity. Confirmatory factor analyses support its hierarchical and multidimensional factorial architecture, establishing that spiritual transcendence operates beyond the domain of the classic Five-Factor Model of personality. The SST serves as an invaluable tool for clinical psychology, health psychology, positive psychology, and the empirical psychology of religion and spirituality.

Keywords

Scale of Spiritual Transcendence, SST, spirituality, self-transcendence, psychometrics, personality assessment, Ralph Piedmont, Transcendence Proper, Spiritual Openness, meaning in life

Authors

The Scale of Spiritual Transcendence was constructed and psychometrically validated by:

• Katarzyna Skrzypińska, Ph.D. – Institute of Psychology, University of Gdańsk, Gdańsk, Poland. Primary contact: [email protected].
• Jarosław Piotrowski, Ph.D. – Institute of Psychology, SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Poznań / Warsaw, Poland.
• Magdalena Żemojtel-Piotrowska, Ph.D., Habil. – Institute of Psychology, Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw, Poland.

Purpose

The primary objective behind the development of the Scale of Spiritual Transcendence (SST) was to establish a conceptually broad, non-denominational, and structurally valid measurement tool capable of evaluating spiritual functioning across religious, non-theistic, and secular populations. For decades, the psychological investigation of spirituality remained conflated with conventional institutional religiosity, ritual observance, and doctrinal orthodoxy. This conceptual blurring limited the capacity of psychometric instruments to assess spiritual phenomena among individuals who identify as “spiritual but not religious,” agnostic, or philosophically humanist.

Skrzypińska and colleagues (2013) developed the SST to overcome these methodological limitations by differentiating spirituality as an intrinsic human capacity from formalized theological dogmatism. The tool systematically examines how individuals cultivate a subjective connection to a transcendent reality, perceive an underlying cosmic order, experience existential gratitude, and adopt an open, non-judgmental stance toward other beings and the complexities of life. By decoupling spiritual assessment from specific denominational vocabularies (e.g., exclusively Judeo-Christian terms for the divine), the SST enables cross-cultural research into the existential dimensions of human flourishing.

In clinical and counseling settings, the SST provides practitioners with diagnostic clarity regarding a client’s existential coping resources. Contemporary health psychology and psycho-oncology widely recognize that spiritual well-being acts as a formidable buffer against existential despair, demoralization, and chronic pain perception. Clinicians utilize the SST to identify intrinsic spiritual strengths that can be integrated into meaning-centered therapies, acceptance-based interventions, and palliative supportive care. Conversely, the instrument can pinpoint existential alienation or spiritual distress, characterized by an inability to experience universal interconnectedness or life satisfaction, thereby guiding targeted psychological interventions.

In academic research, the SST facilitates empirical inquiries into the intersections between personality psychology, cognitive flexibility, and subjective well-being. It provides researchers with an empirical platform to test hypotheses regarding how spiritual transcendence interfaces with prosocial behavior, altruism, resilience against burnout, and ecological attitudes. The tool’s clear division into distinct yet correlated facets allows investigators to determine whether psychological outcomes (such as emotional stability or life satisfaction) are driven primarily by direct contemplative practices (Transcendence Proper) or by cognitive-existential acceptance and tolerance (Spiritual Openness).

Psychological Construct

The psychological construct assessed by the SST is spiritual transcendence, conceptualized as a universal motivational and cognitive capacity to perceive oneself within a broader, meaningful, and interconnected cosmic or transpersonal context. Drawing upon the theoretical legacy of Ralph L. Piedmont while expanding upon the cognitive and affective dimensions of human spirituality, Skrzypińska and Piotrowski delineated spiritual transcendence into two broad second-order components, which subsume several interrelated existential facets:

1. Transcendence Proper

Transcendence Proper captures the vertical and transpersonal aspects of spirituality—the direct phenomenological experience of rising above the immediate physical and temporal self to connect with a higher plane of consciousness, a transcendent order, or humanity as an organic whole. Within this component, several sub-themes operate:

• Prayer and Meditative Fulfillment: The subjective attainment of inner peace, joy, and focused mental absorption through contemplative, meditative, or prayerful practices, wherein physical sensations and earthly distractions temporarily fade (e.g., Item 1: “I experienced deep satisfaction and joy through prayer or meditation”; Item 10: “When I pray or meditate, I forget about the events of this world”).
• Universal Interconnectedness: The intuitive conviction that all human beings share a fundamental spiritual bond and that individual existence is harmonically embedded within the collective life of humanity (e.g., Item 6: “I believe that at a certain level my life is closely tied with the whole humanity”; Item 12: “I feel that at a certain level all of us share a common bond”).
• Devotion to Transpersonal Causes: The personal willingness to subordinate individual egoistic desires to ideals, causes, and collective missions larger than oneself, which imparts enduring meaning to human mortality (e.g., Item 11: “I feel that I am a part of a bigger cause, exceeding me”; Item 16: “It is worthwhile to subordinate your entire life to a really important cause”).
• Trans-generational Continuity: The recognition of the self as a link in a historical and ancestral chain, preserving enduring emotional ties with deceased predecessors and projecting concern toward future generations (e.g., Item 15: “I am a link in a chain of my family’s heritage, a bridge between the past and the future”; Item 35: “I am concerned about those who will come after me”).

2. Spiritual Openness

Spiritual Openness represents the horizontal, cognitive-existential dimension of spirituality, characterized by a receptive, non-defensive orientation toward the unfolding of life, appreciation for existence, and an embracing of diversity and ambiguity. This construct includes:

• Existential Wonder and Gratitude: The profound perception of life as an unearned, astonishing gift and miracle, leading to pervasive feelings of thankfulness regardless of circumstantial challenges (e.g., Item 25: “I feel that my life is a special miracle”; Item 28: “My life is the most beautiful gift”).
• Acceptance of Complexity and Paradox: Cognitive flexibility that welcomes the contradictions, uncertainties, and multifaceted nature of reality without ideological dogmatism or rigid cognitive closure (e.g., Item 31: “I appreciate that life is full of paradoxes”; Item 33: “World is interesting thanks to including plenty of contradictions”).
• Non-Judgmental Tolerance: An ethical and psychosocial attitude characterized by unconditional acceptance of other individuals and a conscious refusal to pass evaluative moral judgment upon their lives (e.g., Item 38: “I believe I do not have the right to judge other people’s actions”; Item 40: “I accept other people as they are”).

Theoretical Framework

The construction of the Scale of Spiritual Transcendence rests upon the intersection of trait psychology, humanistic-existential models of personality, and transpersonal psychology. The central theoretical foundation derives from the work of Ralph L. Piedmont (1999, 2001, 2004, 2010), who posited that spirituality constitutes a universal human capacity that can be psychometrically captured as a potential “sixth factor” of personality, operating independently of the conventional Five-Factor Model (Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness to Experience, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness).

Piedmont defined spiritual transcendence as the ability of individuals to step outside of their immediate sense of time and place and to view life from a larger, more objective, and interconnected perspective. In his logoplex model, Piedmont organized spiritual transcendence into three fundamental facets: Universality (the belief in a unitive nature of life), Prayer Fulfillment (a feeling of personal connection with a transcendent reality through prayer or meditation), and Connectedness (a belief in one’s ongoing role within a multigenerational web of existence). Skrzypińska and colleagues (2013) adopted this logoplex baseline but observed that cultural, linguistic, and existential nuances required an expanded framework that explicitly models both the vertical phenomenological experiences of the sacred and the horizontal, cognitive attitudes toward existence.

To ground this expansion, the authors integrated Viktor Frankl’s existential logotherapy, which asserts that the primary motivational force in human beings is the “will to meaning.” Frankl maintained that authentic self-actualization is impossible through direct self-absorption; rather, human existence points beyond itself toward something or someone other than oneself—be it a cause to serve, a person to love, or an existential mystery to embrace. The SST operationalizes this Franklian tenet through items addressing the subordination of life to overarching causes and the transformative potential found in confronting existential adversity (e.g., Item 24: “I feel that fighting with difficulties really enriches me”).

Furthermore, the SST draws upon cognitive openness theories (such as Costa and McCrae’s Openness to Experience domain) while isolating its specifically spiritual manifestations. While general psychological openness involves aesthetic sensitivity, intellectual curiosity, and unconventionality, Spiritual Openness within the SST specifically captures existential tolerance, non-judgmental acceptance of others, and an openness to ontological mystery and paradox. This theoretical synthesis creates a balanced instrument capturing both deep contemplative immersion and compassionate existential tolerance.

Validity

The construct validity of the Scale of Spiritual Transcendence has been established through empirical research demonstrating convergent, discriminant, and criterion-related validity across community, student, and clinical cohorts.

Convergent Validity

During its initial psychometric validation, Skrzypińska et al. (2013) administered the SST alongside established measures of spirituality, religiosity, and subjective well-being. Transcendence Proper exhibited moderate-to-strong positive correlations with Piedmont’s Spiritual Transcendence Scale (STS) subscales, particularly Prayer Fulfillment ($r = .58$ to $.72$) and Universality ($r = .52$ to $.65$). The SST also correlates significantly with measures of meaning in life, notably the Presence of Meaning subscale of the Meaning in Life Questionnaire (MLQ; Steger et al., 2006), yielding correlation coefficients typically ranging from $.45$ to $.60$. Individuals scoring high on the SST consistently report higher levels of existential purpose, life satisfaction (as measured by the Satisfaction with Life Scale; SWLS), and psychological well-being (Ryff’s Scales of Psychological Well-Being).

Discriminant Validity

A critical psychometric hurdle in spirituality measurement is demonstrating divergence from social desirability bias and standard personality traits. Validation studies conducted by Skrzypińska and Piotrowski demonstrated that SST total and subscale scores correlate only weakly to negligibly with the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale ($r < .20$), indicating that endorsement of spiritual items is not merely an artifact of favorable self-presentation.

When evaluated against the Five-Factor Model using the NEO-FFI, the SST showed notable theoretical independence. While Spiritual Openness exhibited modest positive correlations with NEO Openness to Experience ($r \approx .35$) and Agreeableness ($r \approx .30$), these values confirm that the SST captures unique psychological variance beyond classic traits. Transcendence Proper demonstrated near-zero correlations with Neuroticism and Extraversion, affirming Piedmont’s original theoretical assertion that spiritual transcendence is not redundant with the traditional Big Five domain space.

Criterion and Predictive Validity

The SST has demonstrated predictive utility in studies examining stress resilience, coping with chronic medical conditions, and prosocial attitudes. High scores on Transcendence Proper and Spiritual Openness predict adaptive coping strategies, lower burnout scores among human services professionals, and elevated levels of altruistic behavior and intercultural empathy.

Reliability

The Scale of Spiritual Transcendence displays strong internal consistency across diverse empirical samples:

• Internal Consistency: In the validation studies reported by Skrzypińska, Piotrowski, and Żemojtel-Piotrowska (2013), the overall 40-item scale demonstrated high internal consistency, with a total scale Cronbach’s alpha coefficient exceeding $\alpha = .90$ (typically reported between $.91$ and $.93$). The two primary subscales exhibit robust reliability metrics: the Transcendence Proper dimension demonstrates alpha coefficients ranging between $.87$ and $.90$, while the Spiritual Openness dimension yields coefficients ranging between $.82$ and $.86$. Mean inter-item correlations remain within the recommended range of $.20$ to $.40$, indicating solid coherence without excessive item redundancy.
• Test-Retest Stability: Temporal stability assessments conducted across a four-to-six-week test-retest interval among adult samples revealed stability coefficients ranging from $r_{tt} = .78$ to $.85$ for the total SST score, and above $.75$ for both subscales. These metrics confirm that the SST measures enduring dispositional orientations toward spiritual life rather than transient mood states.

Factor Analysis

The structural dimensionality of the SST was rigorously assessed through sequential Exploratory Factor Analyses (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analyses (CFA):

Exploratory Factor Analysis

During initial item development, an initial pool of over 60 candidate items was subjected to principal axis factoring with oblimin (oblique) rotation to account for expected correlations among spiritual dimensions. Scree plot analyses, Kaiser-Guttman eigenvalues (> 1.0), and parallel analysis supported a robust two-factor higher-order structure, leading to the selection of the final 40 items. Factor 1, accounting for the largest share of variance (approximately 28–32%), clearly unified statements addressing prayer/meditation, universal human bonds, and devotion to transpersonal causes (Transcendence Proper). Factor 2, accounting for an additional 10–14% of common variance, clustered items capturing gratitude, acceptance of paradox, and non-judgmental acceptance of others (Spiritual Openness). Factor loadings for retained items exceeded .40, with the vast majority falling between .48 and .76.

Confirmatory Factor Analysis

Confirmatory factor analytic modeling supported the proposed two-factor oblique structure over alternative single-factor models. Goodness-of-fit indices for the two-factor model demonstrated satisfactory alignment with empirical data:

• $\chi^2 / \text{df}$ ratio: typically between $2.1$ and $2.8$, well within the acceptable threshold (< 3.0).
• Comparative Fit Index (CFI): $ge .90$.
• Tucker-Lewis Index (TLI): $ge .89$.
• Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA): between $.048$ and $.058$ ($90%\text{ CI } [.042, .063]$), indicating close model fit.
• Standardized Root Mean Square Residual (SRMR): $le .060$.

Hierarchical CFA formulations also indicate that a bi-factor or second-order model—where a general Spiritual Transcendence factor accounts for common variance while two sub-factors account for domain-specific nuances—provides an equally plausible fit, substantiating the use of both subscale scores and a composite overall index.

Instrument / Measurement Tool

• Tool Name: Scale of Spiritual Transcendence (SST)
• Alternative Name: Skala Transcendencji Duchowej (STD)
• Authors: Katarzyna Skrzypińska, Jarosław Piotrowski, and Magdalena Żemojtel-Piotrowska (2013)
• Administration Format: Self-report paper-and-pencil or computerized questionnaire
• Completion Time: Approximately 8 to 12 minutes
• Number of Items: 40 items
• Response Scale: 4-point Likert-type scale:
  • 1 = Strongly disagree
  • 2 = Rather disagree / Disagree
  • 3 = Rather agree / Agree
  • 4 = Strongly agree
• Dimensions / Subscales:
  • Transcendence Proper: Reflects vertical contemplative experience, universal interconnectedness, trans-generational continuity, and devotion to transcendent causes (Items 1–18, 20).
  • Spiritual Openness: Reflects existential gratitude, appreciation of mystery/paradox, mindfulness, and non-judgmental acceptance of others (Items 19, 21–40).
• Scoring Instructions:
  • All 40 items are positively keyed; there are no reverse-scored items in the standard inventory.
  • Subscale scores are obtained by calculating the sum or mean of the corresponding items for Transcendence Proper and Spiritual Openness.
  • A total Spiritual Transcendence score can be derived by summing all 40 items (ranging from 40 to 160) or calculating the overall mean (ranging from 1.0 to 4.0), where higher scores denote higher spiritual transcendence.

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

The Scale of Spiritual Transcendence was officially published in 2013 in Roczniki Psychologiczne / Annals of Psychology. The instrument was developed within an academic research context and is available for non-commercial scientific, educational, and clinical research use free of charge. Researchers and practitioners wishing to administer the SST are requested to cite the original validation publication appropriately. For permission regarding commercial applications, organizational adaptations, or cross-cultural translations, inquiries should be directed to the primary author, Dr. Katarzyna Skrzypińska, at the Institute of Psychology, University of Gdańsk ([email protected]).

References

• Piedmont, R. L. (1999). Does spirituality represent the sixth factor of personality? Spiritual transcendence and the Five-Factor Model. Journal of Personality, 67(6), 985–1013. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-6494.00080
• Piedmont, R. L. (2001). Spiritual transcendence and the scientific study of spirituality. Journal of Rehabilitation, 67(1), 4–14.
• Piedmont, R. L. (2004). The Logoplex as a paradigm for understanding spiritual transcendence. Research in the Social Scientific Study of Religion, 15, 262–284. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789047406327_014
• Piedmont, R. L. (2007). Cross-cultural generalizability of the Spiritual Transcendence Scale to the Philippines: Spirituality as a human universal. Mental Health, Religion & Culture, 10(2), 89–107. https://doi.org/10.1080/13674670500418588
• Piedmont, R. L. (2010). Assessment of spirituality and religious sentiments: Technical manual (2nd ed.). Author.
• Piedmont, R. L., Ciarrochi, J. W., Dy-Liacco, G. S., & Williams, J. E. G. (2009). The empirical and conceptual value of the Spiritual Transcendence and Religious Involvement Scales for personality research. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, 1(3), 162–179. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0015883
• Skrzypińska, K., Piotrowski, J., & Żemojtel-Piotrowska, M. (2013). The Scale of Spiritual Transcendence construction and validation. Roczniki Psychologiczne / Annals of Psychology, 16(3), 469–485.
• Steger, M. F., Frazier, P., Oishi, S., & Kaler, M. (2006). The Meaning in Life Questionnaire: Assessing the presence of and search for meaning in life. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 53(1), 80–93. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0167.53.1.80

Items of the Scale