Spanish The Concept of Spirituality: Critical Perspectives on Its Utility in Psychology
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.37226/rcp.v10i1.18399Keywords:
religion, spirituality, tautological, measurement, sacrednessAbstract
In the last four decades the concept of spirituality has taken prominence within the field of psychology. This is demonstrated by a sustained increase in books, articles and research. However, enthusiasm for the term spirituality has had a controversial, confusing, and problematic trajectory. In this article I make an empirical, theoretical and conceptual critique of the use of this term in various psychological publications. First, the extreme ambiguity of the term is pointed out in detail, which has created an intellectual environment full of contradictions, disjointed results and an uncertain panorama about how ostensibly this concept should be measured. Secondly, various researchers have accurately documented that a substantial number of scales and instruments that aim to measure the concept of spirituality, what they are actually measuring are variables of happiness, well-being and growth, which causes the term spirituality to be often redundant and tautological. Finally, four alternatives are proposed that in a certain way could contribute to the concept of spirituality having some kind of empirical protection and theoretical credibility.
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