Psychological Strength and the Report of Intense Religious Experience
Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion March 1, 1974 DOI: 10.2307/1384801 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Observational cohort Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Citations | 63 |
| Key findings | Intense religious experience is not associated with psychological weakness when measures are independent of religious content, and such experiences are more common among those with low psychic inadequacy. |
Abstract
A measure of intense religious experience was related to measures of psychological strength in two studies. In the first study a significant negative correlation was found between intense religious experience and Barron's (1953) measure of ego-strength. However, this correlation was reduced to insignificance when the religion subscale was removed from Barron's total EgoStrength Scale. In the second study intense religious experience was more frequent among persons classified as low on Stark's (1971) Index of Psychic Inadequacy than among persons classified as high. The importance of assessing the relationship between intense religious experiences and psychological health by independently operationalized measures is stressed. Also, the possibility of nonpathological evaluations of intense religious experiences commonly labeled mystical, peak, or ecstatic is discussed.