The Daily Spiritual Experience Scale: Overview and Results
January 12, 2011 L. Underwood
The Daily Spiritual Experience Scale (DSES) is a 16-item self-report measure that assesses ordinary experiences of connection with the transcendent, including awe, gratitude, mercy, and deep inner peace. Originally developed for health studies, it has been adopted in social sciences, program evaluation, counseling, addiction treatment, and religious organizations. It has been included in longitudinal health studies and the U.S. General Social Survey, establishing population norms. The scale shows psychometric validity in multiple languages and cultures, with translations into twenty languages. It was developed through qualitative testing and reflects an overlapping circle model of spirituality and religiousness, including theistic and non-theistic items. The paper provides an overview of the scale, its utility, and discusses studies using it.