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Fraser Watts

2 papers in the library · 9 citations · publishing 2018-2023

Papers

Is There ‘Spiritual Intelligence’? An Evaluation of Strong and Weak Proposals

Religions February 24, 2023 Fraser Watts, Marius Dorobantu 9 citations

The debate over whether spiritual intelligence exists as a distinct cognitive ability is clarified by distinguishing strong and weak versions. The strong version, which posits a separate spiritual intelligence meeting Howard Gardner's multiple intelligences criteria, lacks support from neuroscience, evolutionary psychology, cognitive psychology, developmental psychology, individual differences, experimental tasks, and psychometrics. The weak version, where general intelligence is deployed distinctively in spiritual contexts, is supported by evidence. Six key marks of spiritual intelligence are identified: ineffability, embodiment, open-minded attention, pattern-seeking meaning-making, participation, and relationality. This approach uses the Interacting Cognitive Subsystems (ICS) framework, useful for modeling spiritual practices, and should be integrated with psychometric and experimental research.

DOI: 10.3390/rel14020265 (opens in new tab) Full text (opens in new tab) Spiritual intelligence Howard gardner Interacting cognitive subsystems Embodied cognition +2

Psychology, religion and the transpersonal

Transpersonal Psychology Review January 1, 2018 Fraser Watts

The relationships among psychology, religion, and the transpersonal are muddled by unclear definitions. Religion is too varied to have a single essence, and the transpersonal is often defined by what it transcends rather than its own nature. Interest in the transpersonal has moved outside religion and remains a quasi-religion. Psychology faces an ambiguity in whether to observe religion, spirituality, and the transpersonal from a distance or to participate in them. The author argues that psychology should do both and integrate them, not choose one approach over the other.

DOI: 10.53841/bpstran.2018.20.1.15 (opens in new tab)