Self-transcendence

Self-transcendence is a personality trait associated with experiencing spiritual ideas such as considering oneself an integral part of the universe. It is one of the "character" dimensions of personality assessed in Cloninger's Temperament and Character Inventory. Self-transcendence is distinctive as the first trait concept of a spiritual nature to be incorporated into a major theory of personality. High self-transcendence has been linked to psychotic tendencies, such as schizotypy and mania, particularly in individuals low in both self-directedness and cooperativeness. Although there has not been a great deal of research into the validity of self-transcendence as a measure of spirituality, one study found that self-transcendence was significantly related to a number of areas of belief and experience that have been traditionally considered "spiritual".

In Cloninger's seven-dimensional model of personality, there are four temperament dimensions that have a strong biological basis, and three learned character dimensions that are believed to be concept-based. Self-transcendence is a character trait considered to relate to the experience of spiritual aspects of the self. The concept was influenced by theories of personality development in humanistic and transpersonal psychology. Self-transcendence refers to an identification of the self with the universe conceived as a unitive whole. According to Cloninger, this "may be described as acceptance, identification, or spiritual union with nature and its source."

Self-transcendence as assessed in the Temperament and Character Inventory originally had three subscales, but two more were later added:

An independent study found that the five subscales proposed by Cloninger were difficult to replicate using factor analysis and suggested that the self-transcendence scale of the Temperament and Character Inventory is better represented by four sub-dimensions:

A study relating the Temperament and Character Inventory to the Five factor model personality traits found that self-transcendence was most strongly related to openness to experience and to a lesser extent extraversion. Self-transcendence is largely unrelated to traits in Zuckerman's "Alternative five" model and Eysenck's model which do not include an equivalent to openness to experience. Self-transcendence is strongly related to absorption.

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