Daily Spiritual Experience Scale (DSES)
Daily Spiritual Experience Scale · Also known as: DSES
The DSES, developed by Underwood and Teresi in 2002, is a 16-item self-report measure designed to capture the frequency and depth of spiritual experiences that occur in everyday life. Unlike scales that measure religious affiliation or institutional participation, the DSES assesses whether and how often individuals report direct, lived spiritual experience—moments of connection to something transcendent, sacred, or divine. It has become widely used in health services research, chaplaincy, and gerontological studies to quantify spiritual well-being and predict psychological and health outcomes.
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When to use it
Use in clinical chaplaincy, palliative care, or mental health settings to assess spiritual resources and well-being. Valuable in research exploring relationships between spirituality and health outcomes (depression, anxiety, mortality, quality of life). Appropriate in gerontological assessment to identify spiritual coping strengths. Use in studies of meditation, contemplative prayer, or other spiritual practices. Less suitable for measuring religious knowledge or adherence to doctrine; for those, use the DUREL or I/E Scale.
Strengths & limitations
- Measures lived experience, not doctrine: captures the phenomenological and felt dimensions of spirituality, distinct from belief content or institutional participation.
- Psychometrically robust: demonstrated good internal consistency (Cronbach's α > .90) and validity across diverse populations, including Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and secular populations.
- Health outcomes association: strong and consistent correlations with depression, anxiety, quality of life, and mortality in large cohorts, making it useful for predicting health trajectories.
- Accessible language: items use everyday language ('peace,' 'thankfulness,' 'deep inner harmony') that transcends specific faith traditions and speaks to universal spiritual experience.
- Self-report bias: individuals may report spiritual experiences based on theological expectation or social desirability rather than genuine experience.
- Cultural variation in spiritual phenomenology: the nature and frequency of spiritual experience differ significantly across traditions; what counts as 'spiritual experience' is culturally constructed.
- Potential conflation with general well-being: high scores may reflect positive mood or life satisfaction rather than distinct spiritual experience; longitudinal studies show the relationship is bidirectional.
- No context about content: the scale measures frequency but not the theological meaning, quality, or integration of spiritual experience into identity or behavior.
Frequently asked
How should I score the reverse-scored items?
Several DSES items are reverse-scored. The most common reverse-scored items are those phrased negatively (e.g., 'I feel disconnected from spirituality'). For reverse-scored items, recode the response: 1→6, 2→5, 3→4, 4→3, 5→2, 6→1 before summing. Consult the original Underwood paper for the complete list of reverse-scored items, as different versions may vary slightly.
What does a DSES score of 50 mean?
A score of 50 (midpoint of 16–96 range; mean item score of 3.1) indicates moderate frequency of daily spiritual experience—the respondent reports occasional spiritual awareness or experiences but not consistently throughout the day. Such individuals may have spiritual experiences during prayer or meditation but less frequently during routine daily activities.
Can I use the DSES with non-religious or atheist populations?
Yes, the DSES is agnostic to faith tradition and can be administered to secular populations. However, non-religious respondents may legitimately score low if they do not experience what the scale defines as 'spiritual.' Some research suggests reframing items as 'existential' or 'transcendent' experience may improve validity in secular samples. Always ask open-ended questions about meaning and connection to supplement numerical scores.
Is a high DSES score associated with mental health problems (e.g., psychosis, delusion)?
Not necessarily. In most populations, higher DSES scores predict better mental health and resilience. However, in individuals with psychosis or delusional disorder, spiritual experiences may reflect hallucinations or false beliefs. The DSES should be interpreted within clinical context: assess whether reported spiritual experiences are distressing, reality-distorting, or consistent with the individual's stated worldview. High DSES in someone without psychotic symptoms generally indicates resilience.
Sources
- Underwood, L. G., & Teresi, J. A. (2002). The Daily Spiritual Experience Scale: Development, theoretical description, reliability, exploratory factor analysis, and preliminary construct validity using health-related data. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 24(1), 22–33. DOI: 10.1207/S15324796ABM2401_04 ↗
How to cite this page
ScholarGate. (2026, June 3). Daily Spiritual Experience Scale. ScholarGate. https://scholargate.app/en/psychology-of-religion/daily-spiritual-experience-scale
Which method?
Set this method beside its closest kin and read them side by side — the library lays the books on the table; the choice is yours.
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