Vachon Mélanie, Fillion Lise, Achille Marie
Department of Psychology, University of Montreal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
J Palliat Med. 2009 Jan;12(1):53-9. doi: 10.1089/jpm.2008.0189.
The definition of spirituality is the subject of endless debates in the empirical literature. This content analysis sought to: (1) exhaustively review the empirical literature on end-of-life spirituality to extract definitional elements of this concept and (2) elaborate on these definitional elements to create an integrative and inclusive definition of end-of-life spirituality based on the items retrieved. A search of the literature on spirituality published in the last 10 years was conducted via the the PsychINFO and MEDLINE databases. Seventy-one articles were selected based on specific inclusion criteria. A qualitative thematic analysis yielded 11 dimensions for the concept of end-of-life spirituality, namely: (1) meaning and purpose in life, (2) self-transcendence, (3) transcendence with a higher being, (4) feelings of communion and mutuality, (5) beliefs and faith, (6) hope, (7) attitude toward death, (8) appreciation of life, (9) reflection upon fundamental values, (10) the developmental nature of spirituality, and (11) its conscious aspect. The definition derived from this concept analysis, after being tested empirically, may be useful in informing the development of new measures of spirituality and new protocols to assess spirituality in clinical settings.
灵性的定义是实证文献中无休止争论的主题。本内容分析旨在：（1）详尽回顾关于临终灵性的实证文献，以提取该概念的定义要素；（2）详细阐述这些定义要素，以便根据检索到的条目创建一个关于临终灵性的综合且包容的定义。通过PsychINFO和MEDLINE数据库对过去10年发表的关于灵性的文献进行了检索。根据特定的纳入标准选择了71篇文章。定性主题分析得出了临终灵性概念的11个维度，即：（1）生命的意义和目的；（2）自我超越；（3）与更高存在的超越；（4）共融和相互性的感受；（5）信仰和信念；（6）希望；（7）对死亡的态度；（8）对生命的欣赏；（9）对基本价值观的反思；（10）灵性的发展本质；（11）其意识层面。经过实证检验后，从这一概念分析得出的定义可能有助于为开发新的灵性测量方法和在临床环境中评估灵性的新方案提供信息。
