Many studies discuss the positive correlation between spirituality and health and some highlight the fact that the psychologists' spirituality is significantly lower than that of the population. This study aimed to analyze the level of spirituality of 1,064 psychology students (672 freshmen and 392 senior students) from all universities in the State of Rio Grande do Sul. The instruments used included a sociodemographic questionnaire, a questionnaire covering spiritual and religious aspects and values, the Spiritual Well-Being Scale, and the Spirituality, Religiousness and Personal Beliefs Sub-scale of the World Health Organization Quality of Life -100 instrument. The results revealed that the senior students had significantly lower levels of spiritual well-being (t = 3.769; p < 0.001). They believed in God, a superior being and/or energy, significantly less frequently than the freshmen (χ2 = 10.03; p < 0.001). Likewise, for the senior students the importance of spirituality in the psychological practice and in coping with day-to-day situations was always indicated as significantly lower than for the freshmen (p < 0.001). These data indicate that the undergraduation in psychology possibly contributes to a decline in spirituality among its students, highlighting the need to reassess how spirituality is being approached in the undergraduate psychology courses.
Spiritual well-being; Spirituality; Academic education; Transpersonal psychology
