Awakened Awareness and Transcendent Character Strengths: A Latent Profile Analysis on a Multinational Population

Rationale/Aim: We aimed to identify potential latent profiles and factor structures that may reflect characterological differences in how transcendence is experienced and expressed in individuals and investigate the nature and structure of transcendence as a character virtue rooted in Awakened Awareness (as a tendency towards spiritual perception). Methods: Two studies were conducted on a multinational sample of 11,595 participants. Study 1 applied latent profile analysis (LPA) to the indicator variables Awakened Awareness, Achieving Awareness, Appreciation of Beauty and Excellence, Hope, Gratitude, Humor, Spirituality, Interbeing, and Absorption; ANOVA was then used to compare profile means for authentic living, self-alienation, spiritual quest, and speciesism. Study 2 used exploratory factor analysis (principal component analysis, principal axis factoring, and maximum likelihood) to investigate Awakened Awareness, Achieving Awareness, Appreciation of Beauty and Excellence, Hope, Gratitude, Humor, Spirituality, Interbeing, and Absorption. Results: Study 1 generated a best-fitting solution with four significant and distinct profiles, which we labeled Integrated, Embodied, Disembodied, and Low Transcendence (BLRT-p < 0.01). The Integrated Transcendence profile scored the highest on positive authenticity (M = 25.07; SD = 0.292) and spiritual quest (M = 57.46; SD = 6.51) and lowest on self-alienation (M = 9.93; SD = 6.44) and speciesism (M = 2.25; SD = 1.10). Study 2 generated a two-factor solution of Embodied Transcendence and Disembodied Transcendence factors in each exploratory factor analytic technique we utilized. Implication: These results suggest that transcendence is experienced and expressed in varied ways. It appears that individuals may either score highly in all transcendence-related strengths or low in all transcendence-related strengths, or exhibit a proclivity toward Disembodied Transcendence (i.e., relatively high Interbeing, Absorption, and Appreciation of Beauty and Excellence) or Embodied Transcendence (i.e., relatively high Gratitude, Hope, and relational Spirituality). These findings may encourage people to respect those who experience and express spiritual transcendence in different ways and cultures.