Identity and Spirituality: Conventional and Transpersonal Perspectives

Though the relation of spirituality to self has long been recognized in established spiritual and religious systems, serious scientific interest in spirituality and its relation to identity has only started to grow in the past 20 years. This paper overviews the literature on spirituality and identity. Particular attention is given to describing and critiquing conventional and transpersonal perspectives with emphasis given to empirically testable theories. Using MacDonald’s (1997, 2000) five dimensional model of spirituality, a structural model of spirituality is proposed as is a model of spiritual identity formation.