Abstract
Background: Awe, a complex emotion, arises in response to perceptually and conceptually vast stimuli that transcend one’s current frames of reference, which is associated with subjective psychological phenomena, such as a sense of self and consciousness. This study aimed to develop a Japanese version of the Awe Experience Scale (AWE-S), a widely used questionnaire that robustly measured the state of awe, and simultaneously investigated how the multiple facets of awe related to the narrative representations of awe experiences. Methods: The Japanese AWE-S was created via back-translation and its factor structure and validity was investigated through an online survey in Japan. Results: The results revealed that the Japanese AWE-S consisted of the same six factors as the original (i.e., time, self-loss, connectedness, vastness, physiological, and accommodation) and had sufficient internal consistency, test-retest reliability, construct validity, and also Japan-specific characteristics. The structured topic modeling generated seven potential topics of the descriptions of awe experiences, which were differently associated with each factor of the Japanese AWE-S. Conclusions: Our findings contribute to a deeper understanding of awe and reveal the constructs of awe in Japan through cross-cultural comparisons. Furthermore, this study provides conceptual and methodological implications regarding studies on awe.
Funder
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
Subject
General Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics,General Immunology and Microbiology,General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology,General Medicine
Reference50 articles.
1. Awe, the diminished self, and collective engagement: Universals and cultural variations in the small self.;Y Bai;J. Pers. Soc. Psychol.,2017
2. Awe, daily stress, and elevated life satisfaction.;Y Bai;J. Pers. Soc. Psychol.,2021
3. G*Power 3: a flexible statistical power analysis program for the social, behavioral, and biomedical sciences.;F Faul;Behav. Res. Methods.,2007
4. Evaluating Effect Size in Psychological Research: Sense and Nonsense.;D Funder;Adv. Methods Pract. Psychol. Sci.,2019
5. Interpersonal awe: Exploring the social domain of awe elicitors.;M Graziosi;J. Posit. Psychol.,2021