The Core of Me Is That Which Observes: A Mixed-Methods Study of Trait-Level Sense of Self

Abstract

This study examines trait-level sense of self in 32 participants with varying meditation experience, with a special focus on the sense of self-boundaries and the sense of being a subject of experience, what is here referred to as perspectival ownership of experience. Results from qualitative and quantitative analyses of in-depth phenomenological interviews suggested a quadratic relation between self-boundaries and perspectival ownership of experience, so that participants with either a strong or weak sense of self-boundaries reported little or no sense of perspectival ownership of experience, while participants in the middle range mentioned a salient sense in their everyday life. This is in contrast to the expected linear relation between these two aspects of the sense of self. We additionally highlight issues with self-report measures of trait self-transcendence and recommend the use of an ungraded visual analogue scale as a quick and reliable measure of the sense of self-boundaries.

Keywords

self-boundaries; perspectival ownership of experience; spatial self-location; phenomenological interview; mixed-methods

Published in

Psychology of consciousness
2023

SLU Authors

• Stålhammar, Sanna

  • Department of Landscape Architecture, Planning and Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

UKÄ Subject classification

Psychology (excluding Applied Psychology)

Publication identifier

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/cns0000377

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/127278