Spirituality and Well-Being: Theory, Science, and the Nature Connection

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The article, while thought provoking and insightful, does not offer much in terms of originality beyond theoretical speculation. It is unclear throughout the manuscript where the intended contribution to the literature is, as the connection between spirituality and definitive constructs in positive psychology remain far too broad and overwhelming at times. My suggestion is to anchor the theoretical speculation and descriptive discussion around MIDUS, for example, in empirical testing of one or several of the author's claims (e.g., the link between nature to nurture spirituality and well-being). While written in beautiful prose, the substantiated claims are largely supported by insightful literature review rather than original contribution or research. 

Author Response

The revised paper now makes clear that the 2nd section, which covers empirical findings from the MIDUS study (led by the author), is a review of numerous prior publications investigating links between religion and spirituality with well-being and health.  

The author respectfully disagrees that the article "does not offer much in terms of originality."  The first section, which addresses critical theoretical issues about how to conceptualize spirituality and well-being, is an original contribution provided by someone who created a theoretical model of psychological well-being (the author), which has been widely used in empirical studies (1,200+ publications).  A fundamental question in bringing spirituality into this work is to consider whether spirituality is part of well-being or an influence on it.  My examination of these issues makes clear that the two realms are largely distinct, both in terms of guiding conceptual frameworks, but also in terms of assessment procedures (i.e., measures of key constructs).

The 2nd part of the paper is also an original contribution, providing the first integrated look ever of scientific findings from a major national longitudinal study, directed by the author, that has contributed extensively to empirical knowledge linking religion and spirituality to diverse aspects of well-being and health.  This review also distills important future questions that are available to all in the scientific community, given that the MIDUS data are publicly available.

The 3rd section of the paper bringing the nature connection into research linking spirituality to psychological well-being is entirely novel.  The first part therein reviews extant scientific findings linking encounters with nature to human flourishing, while noting that this work does not address matters of spirituality.  The second part reviews examples from diverse art forms showing that nature is a longstanding source of inspiration in life.  The third part draws on Jungian writings about the soul and the sacred as well as world views from indigenous peoples to argue that it is fundamentally the spiritual aspects of nature that likely matter for our well-being and health.  These constitute critically needed future directions not only for science but also for educational and interventive realms.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

The author writes beautifully about the role of nature in spiritual experience. My primary recommendation for this manuscript is that it be made more clear at the outset that this is a conceptual review of literature. When the author indicated that the MIDUS data would be used, I expected an empirical investigation rather than a summary of what others have found with that data set. Had I been more clearly alerted to this at the beginning of the article, it would have been a more satisfying read. This is important, as it contains many useful insights and may serve as a springboard for others investigating this aspect of psychology.

 

 

A few minor things to take care of:

 

The sentence beginning on the last line of p. 7 needs to be tweaked.

 

The heading for section 4 is quite clever.

 

Line 468: Woodsworth should be Wordsworth

 

 

Author Response

The opening of the revised paper now makes clear that the paper is not a contribution of new empirical findings that require details of research design, hypotheses, analyses, etc. but rather is an overview of multiple areas.  The first pertains to core theoretical issues in the conceptualization of spirituality and psychological well-being, with a focus on the eudaimonic model contributed by the author over 30 years ago.  The 2nd section brings empirical work forward via a review of scientific findings from the MIDUS study (led by the author), which have investigated links between religion and spirituality with well-being and health.  The 3rd section brings to these preceding domains of inquiry the question of whether encounters with nature are critical for understanding both spiritual and soulful experiences as well as how they matter for eudaimonic well-being.  

All editorial input has been addressed.  

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

The author response and additional commentary throughout the manuscript are compelling, and help to make the article much clearer after this round of revisions. Thank you for addressing the concerns raised in the previous round of reviews.