This research explores the “higher goods” as indicators of self-transcendent well-being. The higher goods are here conceptualized as consisting of both contents and modalities. The contents are the classical transcendentals unity, truth, goodness, and beauty; the modalities are encounter, enlightenment, and transmission. Despite millennia of interest in philosophical and theological literatures, researchers have largely overlooked the intrinsic link between modality and content within empirical psychology. This thesis (a) develops and validates an empirical measure of the higher goods using matrix modeling techniques borrowed from multitrait-multimethod (MTMM) confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), (b) evaluates the correlation of the Big Five personality traits and their respective aspects with the higher goods, and (c) examines the higher goods within the broader self-transcendent well-being conceptual space. By formally conceptualizing, operationalizing, and measuring these constructs within the psychological domain, this thesis paves the way for continued examination and elaboration of higher goods as indicators of self-transcendent well-being.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:wm.edu/oai:scholarworks.wm.edu:etd-7235 |
| Date | 01 January 2021 |
| Creators | Varga, Peter Joseph |
| Publisher | W&M ScholarWorks |
| Source Sets | William and Mary |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects |
| Rights | © The Author, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
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