The Spiritual Wellness Inventory
Elliott Ingersoll
Copyright 1996 All Rights Reserved
Users may download and use this test for personal exploration. Please read the instructions and introduction first and remember, a test is only as good as the reflection that follows it. Please contact me at ingersez@att.net with any questions.
The Creation of the Spiritual Wellness Inventory
The spiritual wellness inventory began as my doctoral dissertation (Ingersoll, 1995). At the time, I was very interested in developing a vocabulary for counselors to talk about spirituality with clients that wasn't necessarily religious. Throughout my career I have been inspired by figures like Joseph Campbell, Huston Smith, Ken Wilber, and Stanislav Grof all of whom have set forth the proposition that there are core spiritual values and experiences that transcend and unite religious expressions. I believed that a vocabulary that relied on such core values and experiences would facilitate an integration of spirituality into counseling sessions and counseling literature. This goal of infusion rested on the premise that, as
The Dimensions of Spiritual Wellness
The dimensions of spiritual wellness addressed in the inventory are:
· Conception of the Absolute/Divine: This may fit into the categories of monotheistic( Judaism, Islam, Christianity), deistic (belief in God on evidence of reason and nature only), atheistic, pantheistic (God in everything), or panentheistic (God in all things and transcending all things). One's conception of the divine is expressed as a person's image or experience of divinity. With spiritual maturity, one also tends to view one's images as finite; more as symbols that point to the reality of the divine. In esoteric practices, this conception may come second to experiences with what one considers being divine. Always be alert to psychological contamination of the conception that is more related to the person’s issues than God per se.
· Meaning: This is the individual sense that life is worth living. This can become an overwhelming question in times of crisis but is not limited to crisis. Meaning can be an explicit sense of what it is that makes life meaningful or a sense of purpose. Meaning does not have to be explicit. It may be simply a sense that pervades one's experiences. Many times meaning is expressed in being at peace with the question of meaning.
· Connectedness: Connectedness can occur with other people, with God or that considered Divine, and with elements in the environment. Relationships could be thought of as a recognizing and celebrating connectedness, as could religious ritual or ecological awareness. Connectedness should not be stereotyped as extraversion or liking to socialize. It is a deeper sense, a sense of belonging. This sense of belonging may be to a community, to the universe, or as an integrated, whole person.
· Mystery: This dimension relates to how a person deals with ambiguity, the unexplained and the uncertainty of life. This may be thought of as a person's capacity for awe and wonder. In addition, this dimension should reflect a person's comfort level with awe and wonder. It is certainly a function of spiritual maturity too and may be a direct result of esoteric practices. Some exoteric paths may actually discourage mystery in practitioners.
· Spiritual Freedom: This dimension is related to one's capacity for play, experience of life and the world as "safe," a sense of freedom from fear and desire in living, and one's willingness to make a commitment. It includes the ability to "forget oneself" and all types of play like sexual play. Play and freedom are sincere but not serious. They are meaningful but not necessarily purposeful.
· Experience/Ritual: This includes rituals that are a healthy part of a person's life and the experiences that accompany the behavior of carrying out the ritual. A healthy ritual requires that the energy involved be directed toward an experience or activity. It is proactive, not passive. This is important to differentiate meditation from something like watching television. The ritual often helps the person become present-centered, reconnect with others or the divine, and forge meaning in relation to life circumstances.
· Forgiveness: This dimension reflects one's attitudes toward giving and receiving forgiveness. Forgiveness is here described as a journey one embarks on with no guaranteed products/results. In total, it is willful process engaged in from both the giving and receiving ends combined with the “magic” that heals. In this sense, the process may require considerable time.
· Hope: This is the experience that one's suffering is not in vain or going to last forever. Like one's sense of freedom, it too is an experience of, ultimately, feeling "safe" in life. Hope is also expressed as faith that there is some reality to life that allows one to endure experiences of suffering. Some people have said that loss of hope implies loss of faith in God in that the hopeless person is feigning omniscience by assuming they know that things will be bad forever and always.
· Knowledge/Learning: A person possessing spiritual well being has an interest in increasing both knowledge of self and knowledge of things perceived as external to self. This learning need not be defined by academic standards. Learning and acquiring knowledge is welcomed despite the trials that may be experienced in the process.
· Present-centeredness: Being able to be present in passing moments. This is not a state that you could be in all the time. When you are in this state, you can see what is going on around you. Ritual usually helps cultivate this. In the end, it is the ability to experience what is, to experience life (as Huston Smith says) point-blank. In contemplative traditions it is experienced as the only reality. The past is a thought, a memory and the future a thought, an anticipation. The eternal present is always, everywhere, everywhen
The Intended Use for the SWI
One dynamic I am acutely aware of is the temptation to misuse numerically scored inventories. I am always having students ask me how "spiritually well" they are based on their score. I am always tempted to say something like "Ooh, you're a 23, that's bad. If only you were a 30 or a 32 there might be hope." Obviously such an answer would be my attempt at humor but we must be careful with such humor since, in our society, people ascribe power to numerical ratings that, in many cases, the ratings simply don't have. Although I recognize that I fueled this problem by using numbers in the subscales, I want to emphasize that the scale is designed to be a starting point for dialogue around spiritual issues. I encourage people using the scale to look at the relationships between the dimensions. As with any scale, the first step is to ask yourself how well the ratings match your sense of yourself. If you were using the inventory with a client, you may find the results deviate a great deal from the client's sense of their own spiritual wellness. If that is the case it is far more productive to begin the discussion along the lines of the client's sense of self rather than how the inventory reflected that sense of self. When I have used the SWI with clients, I usually ask them "what stands out the most for you?" Most of the time they will comment on a dimension where their score is particularly low. We are usually able to dialogue a bit about what that means to them. If the client doesn’t mention the dimensions where their score is high, I will bring those up. Typically they reflect significant aspects of the client's support system that can be used throughout the counseling relationship. Following is a case summary using the SWI dimensions so readers can get a sense of how these could be used in their own explorations and, if the reader is a clinician, in exploration with clients.
Ed was a 29-year-old, single, Caucasian male seeking counseling for what appeared to be Dysthymia. Ed seems to recall always having a low-grade depression that he was more aware of since his last relationship ended with his partner calling him "a constant downer." Ed visited his primary care physician who prescribed a regimen of antidepressant medication (Paroxetine, 20mg a day) and recommended he supplement that with counseling. In our initial sessions Ed described how his life felt "cardboard" and how he rarely felt any enthusiasm. During our first three sessions Ed revealed how in college he had abandoned an early interest in philosophy for "a more pragmatic" major in business. Although Ed held a good job (managing marketing for an industrial supply firm) his heart wasn't in it (but as noted, he felt his heart wasn't in anything). Ed was also interested in theology and comparative religion. He said he had been questioning the meaning of life pretty intensely since his girlfriend left him early that year. He said if he were a religious person, he might be said to be having a crisis of faith. I recalled how Scott Peck (1978) once wrote how therapists should find out their client's religion - even if the client said they didn't have one and asked Ed if he would take the SWI. He actually showed enthusiasm for the idea and took the inventory. The first thing Ed noticed about his results is that the "meaning" and "mystery" dimensions were quite low while the others hovered around 20 points. In exploring the inventory, Ed conspicuously avoided discussing the mystery dimension and kept directing the dialogue to the meaning dimension. Toward the end of the session, I commented that I was curious about this dynamic since he had also commented on the "mystery" dimension as a low score. To this Ed became perturbed and asked if I had any expert insights he should be privy to. Sensing I had "touched a nerve" I backed off and said "no, I was just curious." In our next session Ed noted that he really was upset by the low score on "mystery." He went on to explain that all the fights with his ex-girlfriend had been because she thought he didn't take enough risks in life. He was beginning to think she was right. The next two months were spent exploring various periods of Ed's life where he had "taken the safe route" including his college major. Key to the events were the irrational thoughts Ed cultivated about himself because of the choices he had made. We realized that a great deal of his mood disturbance was fueled by these thoughts ("I'm a loser," "I'm not an alpha male - I'm an omega male"). Since Ed experienced some relief from the antidepressant, he had more energy to begin re-making his self-concept through learning how to dispute his irrational thoughts and reexamining the role of mystery and ambiguity in taking risks.
Following is the actual SWI. You may take it if you wish and self score it with the materials provided here. The demographics and descriptive statistics are included toward the end of the appendix if you wish to compare your scores to a samples' scores. Remember that the main goal of the inventory is to begin dialogue around spiritual issues with a trans-traditional vocabulary. There is still much research that needs to be done on the reliability and validity of the inventory in order to make it psychometrically sound.
The Spiritual Wellness Inventory
Elliott Ingersoll, Ph.D., PCC
Please respond to the following items choosing a number from the scale provided that indicates the degree to which you agree or disagree with each item. Mark the number you select in the blank beside each item number.
RESPONSE SCALE
Strongly Strongly
Disagree Disagree Agree Agree
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
1. I don't ever experience God's presence in my life. 1 2. The meaning of life is a question I am at peace with. 2 3. I never feel compassion for other people. 3 4. I often feel a deep appreciation of every moment. 4 5. I never experience a sense of awe about life. 5 6. I have things I do to help me feel connected to life. 6 7. There are reasons to give up hope. 7 8. I feel called on to forgive others as God forgives me. 8 9. I reject most challenges to my beliefs. 9 10. I believe all people have a role in the web of life 10 11. I feel unsafe in the world 11 12. My sense of the divine increases my sense of Connectedness to other people 12 13. I never experience my everyday life as meaningful 13 14. I feel part of at least on healthy community that is important to me and greatly affects my life. 14 15. I don't enjoy being absorbed in physical sensations 15 16. Life is about growth and change 16 17. I don't know what to do to feel God's presence 17 18. Even when situations seem hopeless, I have faith they can change for the better. 18 19. If I forgive others, it really doesn't help me 19 20. The way I live brings me to a greater knowledge of who I really am. 20 21. I am a strict person insisting on doing things as correctly as possible. 21 22. I experience playful moments daily 22 23. I never experience a strong inner sense of God's presence. 23 24. I always reflect on the meaning of my life experiences 24 25. I don't feel a part of any real community. 25 26. I often feel fully present in each passing moment. 26 27. I am afraid to question my spiritual beliefs. 27 28. I see everyday life as sacred. 28 29. I have little faith that on some level my life will work out. 29 30. I have often been forgiven by others in my life. 30 31. I don't investigate questions that arise in my life. 31 32. I have periods where it is hard to stop self-pity. 32 33. I feel coerced by images of what life should be about. 33 34. I am conscious of the divine in my daily activities 34 35. I don't get much meaning out of my life experiences 35 36. I often notice things in nature while I am riding or walking from place to place. 36 37. When I attain a goal I don't savor it before moving on to the next goal. 37 38. Ambiguity and uncertainty are healthy parts of life. 38 39. I have not developed new spiritual rituals as I have grown. 39 40. Every moment offers potential for hope. 40 41. I have resentments about past injuries 41 42. The more I learn about myself the more I have to give 42 43. I would rather mix with polite people than rebellious types. 43 44. I feel free to make strong commitments to things. 44 45. My sense of God decreases my sense of connectedness to nature. 45 46. My spirituality is very meaningful to me. 46 47. My spiritual community isn't much help in celebrating life. 47 48. I don't get tense thinking of things that lie ahead. 48 49. It is important to be in control of the sitations in which I find myself. 49 50. I have rituals that help me integrate the spiritual into my life. 50 51. I have not had difficult situations change for the better 51 52. I am able to forgive anything a person may do. 52 53. I value knowledge except when it conflicts with my beliefs. 53 54. I wait until I am sure that my views are correct before speaking up. 54 55. I feel great pressure to live up to a social image. 55
Scoring the SWI
1. Reverese the ratings for all odd-numbered items so the new numerals match the following key: 8=1, 7=2, 6=3, 5=4, 4=5, 3=6, 2=7, 1=8
Example: Your rating for an odd-numbered item is a "4." According to the key, the rating would be transformed to a "5."
2. Enter corrected odd-numbered values on the blanks next to each item on the inventory.
3. Enter all response values, even-numbered and corrected odd-numbered, on the response grid below. Next, total the numbers across each row for the dimension totals.
1. 12. 23. 34. 45. TOTAL Conception of Divinity
2. 13. 24. 35. 46. TOTAL Meaning
3. 14. 25. 36. 47. TOTAL Connectedness
4. 15. 26. 37. 48. TOTAL Present-Centeredness
5. 16. 27. 38. 49. TOTAL Mystery
6. 17. 28. 39. 50. TOTAL Ritual
7. 18. 29. 40. 51. TOTAL Hope
8. 19. 30. 41. 52. TOTAL Forgiveness
9. 20. 31. 42. 53. TOTAL Knowledge/Learning
10. 21. 32. 43. 54. TOTAL Fake Good
11. 22. 33. 44. 55 . TOTAL Spiritual Freedom
Now, using the SWI profile sheet, enter the dimension totals (row totals) on the profile sheet line matching the dimension total you are recording. There is no "total" score since the dimensions overlap quite a bit.
Spiritual Wellness Inventory
Profile Sheet
Elliott Ingersoll, Ph.D., PCC
Knowledge/Learning
Forgiveness 40 Hope
40 30
30
30 20
20
20 10
10 Mystery
30 10
20
10 10
Spiritual Freedom 30 10 10 40
40 10 Meaning
20 20
20
30 30
30
40 40
Connectedness 40
Ritual
Present-Centeredness
SPIRITUAL WELLNESS INVENTORY MEANS & DEMOGRAPHICS
(Revised)
N=515
AGE: 18-21=12%
22-26=18%
27-33=15%
34-40=13%
41-49=20%
50-59=12%
60-65=2%
70-75=2%
76 and over=1%
SPIRITUAL TRADITION
Reform Jewish 2%
Orthodox Jewish 1%
Catholic Christian 32%
Protestant Christian 34%
Other Christian 1%
Pagan 0%
Buddhist 4%
Baha'i' 1%
Latter Day Saints 2%
Transpersonal 10%
Yoga practitioner 3%
Marital Artist 3%
Dead Head 3%
Sufi/Muslim 1%
Native American 1%
CULTURAL BACKGROUND
African-American 4%
Asian-American 1%
European-American 90%
Latino/Latina 1%
Native-American 2%
EDUCATION: Highest Level Attained
High school 5%
2 year college 2%
some college 18%
bachelor's degree 40%
master's degree 28%
doctoral degree 3%
post-doctoral degree 1%
Weekly Estimated Hours of TV Watched:
0-5 37%
6-10 28%
11-15 14%
16-20 7%
21-25 2%
26-30 2%
31-35 2%
36 + 1%
DIMENSION |
Revised Mean (rounded) |
Conception of Divinity |
17 |
Meaning |
20 |
Connectedness |
19 |
Present-Centeredness |
18 |
Mystery |
22 |
Ritual |
18 |
Hope |
20 |
Forgiveness |
21 |
Knowledge/ Learning |
21 |
Spiritual Freedom |
16 |
References
Ellison, C. W. (1983). Spiritual well-being: Conceptualization and measurement. Journal of Psychology and Theology, 11 330-340.
Ellison, C. W., & Paloutzian, R. F. (1982). Loneliness, spiritual well-being, and quality of life. In L. A. Peplar & D. Perlman (Eds) Loneliness: A sourcebook of current theory, research, and therapy. New York: Wiley.
Elkins, D. N. (1986). Spiritual Orientation Inventory. Unpublished work. Irvine, CA: Pepperdine University Center.
Ingersoll, R. E. (1994). Spirituality, religion, and counseling: Dimensions and relationships. Counseling and Values, 38, 98-112.
Ingersoll, R. E. (1995). Construction and initial validation of the spiritual wellness inventory. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. Kent State University.
Ingersoll, R. E. (1998). Refining dimensions of spiritual wellness: A cross-traditional approach. Counseling and Values, 42, 156-165.
Kass, J., Friedman, R., Leserman, J., Zuttermeister, P, & Benson, H. (1991). Health outcomes and a new index of spiritual experience. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 30, 203-211.
Moberg, D. O. (1971). Spiritual well-being: Background. Washington, DC: University Press of America.
Moberg, D. O. (1984). Subjective measures of spiritual well-being. Review of Religious Research, 25, 351-364.
Reynolds, W. M. (1982). Development of reliable and valid short forms of the Marlowe-Crown social desirability scale. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 38, 119-125.
Vaughan, F. (1995). Shadows of the sacred: Seeing through spiritual illusions. Wheaton, IL: Quest.
