Commentary critiques existing awe research and proposes an inclusive transpersonal approach.
Katz and Franz (2026) discussed the need for concept clarification within many areas of psychology, focusing on problems in conceptualizing the experience of awe. They pointed out that more than three fourths of the research they examined on awe has been based on just one theoretical approach, which we see as quite limiting despite its widespread adoption. Some flaws with this dominant approach to awe are discussed, and an alternative based on the transpersonal framework of self-expansiveness, which would be more inclusive and holistic, is proposed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).
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Friedman et al. (2026) studied this question.
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