Intuition is a way of perceiving the world that is fast, automatic, associative, and emotionally driven. In its most extreme form intuition is psychic ability, a sixth sense. Intuitive persons prefer to use intuition across many situations and do so consistently over time. Prior research links intuition with spirituality, yet fails to define a causal pathway. This dissertation aims at determining a causal connection through Structural Equation Modeling that shows that intuition influences spiritual experience, then spiritual belief or religious belief, or religious belief through spiritual belief, and then finally religious fundamentalism. It also tests a causal connection from intuition to schizotypy (mild, non-clinical schizophrenia-like symtpoms).A first model shows how intuition leads to spiritual experience, then to spiritual belief, then to religiousness, and finally to religious fundamentalism. The relationship between intuition and schizotypy proved not significant, yet not trivial. A second model, developed to account for more of the data and to use more generally accepted statistical procedures that are not "data based", shows similar relationships (intuition leads to spiritual experience and spiritual experience leads to spiritual belief) with some minor variations and more detail about the mediating factors involved in these relationships. And it shows how a new factor, contemplative, mediates the relationship between intuition and spiritual experiences, intuition and religiousness, openness and religiousness, and openness and spiritual experiences. In this second model the path from intuition to schizotypy is significant. Intuition in both models, although defined by different constructs, leads to spiritual experience. The type of spiritual belief and experience determined by intuition is decidedly spiritual, not just unusual experiences which one could interpret as spiritual.We created a new intuition scale, the Attig Intuition Scale, for this research. It proved to be reliable and valid. Intuition in both models, although defined by different constructs, leads to spiritual experience. The type of spiritual belief and experience determined by intuition is decidedly spiritual, not just unusual experiences which one could interpret as spiritual.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:arizona.edu/oai:arizona.openrepository.com:10150/196059 |
| Date | January 2010 |
| Creators | Attig, Sheryl Adrienne |
| Contributors | Schwartz, Gary E., Schwartz, Gary E., Figueredo, Aurelio Jose, Jacobs, W. Jake |
| Publisher | The University of Arizona. |
| Source Sets | University of Arizona |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text, Electronic Dissertation |
| Rights | Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. |
Page generated in 0.0018 seconds