East meets West: cross-cultural generalizability of the numinous motivation inventory in Poland and Vietnam.

BACKGROUND

The motivations to find durability to our mortal existence (i.e., infinitude), coherence in the midst of otherwise chaotic experiences (i.e., meaning), and a sense that our lives are worthy in the unfolding story of our species (i.e., worthiness), are powerful psychological qualities that, in part, comprise the uniqueness of our humanity. The psychological dimension hypothesized to encapsulate these qualities is referred to as The Numinous.

METHODS

This study tested competing measurement models to ascertain how universal numinous motivations are across two culturally distinct people groups: Polish (N = 328) and Vietnamese (N = 307) citizens. In addition, it tested if these motivations help to explain psychological qualities including spiritual bypass, psychological dysphoria, and help-seeking over and above the Five Factor Model (FFM) of Personality.

RESULTS

The findings showed that despite cultural differences in the two samples, the Numinous remained structurally similar across both cultures, was discriminant from personality, and predicted psychological qualities independently from the FFM.

DISCUSSION: The findings supported the hypothesis that numinous motivations are a universal quality of human psychology, that they are independent of personality, and predict unique pathways of psychological distress and help-seeking strategies.