Measuring the parameters of a person’s spiritual sphere and using this knowledge in psychological support has been an unattainable goal for centuries, limited solely to phenomenological exploration. However, a significant advance in psychology is the combination of qualitative and quantitative approaches. The aim of this project is to identify three theoretically and empirically relevant perspectives from which spirituality should be analyzed in a psychological context. The analysis utilizes an adaptation of MacDonald’s (2000) Expressions of Spirituality Inventory-Revised (ESI-R) and examples illustrating its practical application. Research on a Polish sample of N=2.002 (Skrzypińska, Jurek, Brewczynski, MacDonald, 2026) demonstrated the identical presence of five basic factors consistent with Skrzypińska’s (2014, 2022) Threefold Nature of Spirituality (TNS) model. On this basis, we point out the universality of measuring spirituality using the ESI-R and the possibility of using this cross-cultural result in psychological help. Finally, I provide specific examples illustrating the content of spirituality presented from three perspectives: cognitive, emotional-motivational-experiential, and behavioral. Probably it would be easier for practitioners to conduct therapy taking them into account, both among clients or patients experiencing existential emptiness and difficult boundary situations.
Theory and Empirics on the Nature of Spirituality – the Role of Three Perspectives in Psychological Help