Transformational Spirituality, Transcendence, and Awe/Gratitude: Examining Their Influence on Prosocial and Pro-Environmental Behavior in Pakistan

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

As the authors point out there are ‘very few studies have been conducted on the influence of religious and spiritual beliefs on the attitudes of Muslims in Pakistan’. To that extent this study is a welcome in breaking new ground with a few cautious conclusions, especially the extent to which results were gendered: with men scoring lower than women with regard to religious practice. Students also scored higher than teachers vis a vis religious practices and awe/gratitude. The authors also realise some of the limitation of the study, e.g. the need for in-depth qualitative interviews to complement such a qualitative survey, and they wisely point out that ‘self-report studies are prone to socially desirable answers, and thus the observational behavioural studies’ need to be incorporated. They also are aware that ‘participants with different socioeconomic backgrounds may have different perceptions’.

I would like to see the researchers do a follow up piece of research amongst Urdu medium colleges in Pakistan. Th e present research necessarily assumes a good knowledge of English, as well as largely involving students in ‘behavioural and social sciences’ and ‘arts and humanities’ (75% of all respondents) as against, for example, only 4% in ‘law, Islamic Studies and Oriental Learning’.  Fluency in English and social sciences students meant many would already be familiar with terms such as ‘spirituality’, central to the construction of the research. I am not clear such terminology would translate easily into Pakistan’s lingua franca, Urdu.

I was unclear of the extent to which the difference between students and teachers was also gendered i.e. to what extent were the majority of teachers male, and were the female teachers more aligned with  attitudes of the female students (circa two thirds of whom were female). We were not told what percentage of the teachers were male and whether this skewed the results. Further did the gender of the researcher(s) impact the research – I assume because so many of the respondents were female that the researcher was female….If so did this matter? (There was nothing in the research about the positionality of the researcher – Muslim or Christian? Male or female? Bi-lingual (Urdu and English etc).

The larger problem I have is with the language and conceptuality of the research. The author acknowledge that the body of research they draw on to frame the  aims of the present study ‘may also depend on cultural and religious differences’. The reality is, of course, that the research draws heavily on Christian terminology, priorities and explicitly on a “Franciscan inspired Spirituality Questionnaire’. The very term ‘spirituality’ and how the various categories are illustrated , for example, ‘I listen to God’s word in me’, ‘ meditation’ as part of religious practices, the language of ‘liberal’ and ‘fundamentalist’ religion are all drawn largely from western categories and have been developed, initially, by western academics working within Christianised cultures. I would have expected some engagement with shari’ah, maybe sufism (tasawwuf), an attempt to ascertain whether among the pillars of Islam, zakat, for example might translate into care for the needy and disadvantaged.  

This is why it would have been interesting to know what Islamic Studies students made of the categories, questions and priorities embedded in the research design.  

 

 

Author Response

Summary
Thank you very much for taking the time to review this manuscript. Please find the detailed responses below and the corresponding revisions/corrections highlighted/in track changes in the re-submitted files.
Point-by-point response to Comments and Suggestions for Authors
Comment 1: As the authors point out there are ‘very few studies have been conducted on the influence of religious and spiritual beliefs on the attitudes of Muslims in Pakistan’. To that extent this study is a welcome in breaking new ground with a few cautious conclusions, especially the extent to which results were gendered: with men scoring lower than women with regard to religious practice. Students also scored higher than teachers vis a vis religious practices and awe/gratitude. The authors also realise some of the limitation of the study, e.g. the need for in-depth qualitative interviews to complement such a qualitative survey, and they wisely point out that ‘self-report studies are prone to socially desirable answers, and thus the observational behavioural studies’ need to be incorporated. They also are aware that ‘participants with different socioeconomic backgrounds may have different perceptions.
Response 1: Thank you for pointing this out. We sincerely appreciate the reviewer’s thoughtful engagement with our study and their recognition of its contributions to an underexplored area.
Comment 2: I would like to see the researchers do a follow up piece of research amongst Urdu medium colleges in Pakistan. Th e present research necessarily assumes a good knowledge of English, as well as largely involving students in ‘behavioural and social sciences’ and ‘arts and humanities’ (75% of all respondents) as against, for example, only 4% in ‘law, Islamic Studies and Oriental Learning’.  Fluency in English and social sciences students meant many would already be familiar with terms such as ‘spirituality’, central to the construction of the research. I am not clear such terminology would translate easily into Pakistan’s lingua franca, Urdu.
Response 2: We sincerely appreciate the reviewer's insightful suggestion regarding a follow-up study among Urdu-medium college students in Pakistan. We acknowledge that participants with proficiency in English, may have influenced their familiarity with key concepts such as ‘spirituality,’ which could differ significantly in Urdu-medium institutions. We recognize the importance of exploring how such terminologies translate into Pakistan’s lingua franca, Urdu, and how students from diverse academic backgrounds, including law, Islamic Studies, and Oriental Learning, conceptualize religious and spiritual beliefs. Conducting further research with a more linguistically and academically diverse sample would indeed help assess whether similar patterns emerge and whether the constructs used in this study resonate across different educational contexts. However, at least we started with such studies in Pakistan and hope that this paper will stimulated further research.
Comment 3: I was unclear of the extent to which the difference between students and teachers was also gendered i.e. to what extent were the majority of teachers male, and were the female teachers more aligned with attitudes of the female students (circa two thirds of whom were female). We were not told what percentage of the teachers were male and whether this skewed the results. Further did the gender of the researcher(s) impact the research – I assume because so many of the respondents were female that the researcher was female….If so did this matter? (There was nothing in the research about the positionality of the researcher – Muslim or Christian? Male or female? Bi-lingual (Urdu and English etc).
Response 3: We appreciate the reviewer’s thoughtful observations regarding the gender composition of the teacher and student groups, as well as the potential influence of researcher positionality. In our study, the majority of teachers were male, while the majority of students were female. However, we acknowledge that we did not explicitly analyze whether female teachers aligned more closely with female students in their attitudes. This is an important consideration and one that we could explore in future research. However, so far we have no evidence for this hypothesis. Regarding researcher positionality, we recognize the importance of reflexivity in social research. While we did not include a detailed discussion of the researchers’ identities in the manuscript, we acknowledge that factors such as gender, religious background, and language proficiency may shape both data collection and interpretation. Among all of three researchers, two researchers belong to Muslim community (from different sects) while one research belongs to Christian tradition. All the researchers are male, two from Pakistan and one from Germany. We assume that we have tried to describe the data as unbiased as possible  – from different perspectives (culturally and religiously) – and were free to interpret the data without external obligations.
Comment 4: The larger problem I have is with the language and conceptuality of the research. The author acknowledge that the body of research they draw on to frame the  aims of the present study ‘may also depend on cultural and religious differences’. The reality is, of course, that the research draws heavily on Christian terminology, priorities and explicitly on a “Franciscan inspired Spirituality Questionnaire’. The very term ‘spirituality’ and how the various categories are illustrated , for example, ‘I listen to God’s word in me’, ‘ meditation’ as part of religious practices, the language of ‘liberal’ and ‘fundamentalist’ religion are all drawn largely from western categories and have been developed, initially, by western academics working within Christianised cultures. I would have expected some engagement with shari’ah, maybe sufism (tasawwuf), an attempt to ascertain whether among the pillars of Islam, zakat, for example might translate into care for the needy and disadvantaged.
Response 4: We sincerely appreciate the reviewer’s critical engagement with the conceptual framework of our study, particularly the reliance on Western constructs of spirituality. Empirically speaking, much of the existing research on spirituality, including the measures we utilized, originates from Christianized contexts and academic traditions. While we sought to adapt these frameworks to a Muslim-majority context, we recognize that certain concepts—such as ‘listening to God’s word within,’ ‘meditation,’ and categorizations like ‘liberal’ and ‘fundamentalist’—may not fully capture the nuances of Islamic spirituality as understood in Pakistan. Before we employed these scales, we conducted a pretesting in which huge majority of respondents understood the terms correctly and found no difficulty. Even in Muslim beliefs, listening to God’s word within is experienced by Muslim believers. We take seriously the suggestion that a more culturally embedded approach could indeed offer a more holistic and contextually relevant understanding of spirituality in this setting. We will consider incorporating Islamic frameworks and terminology more explicitly in future research. Nevertheless, to make data culturally comparable one has to rely on similar concepts and measures.  Otherwise, we would create cultural niches that no longer allow any comparisons because they are too exclusive.

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

You need to improve the title of your research, as it does not align with the measures. Additionally, you should incorporate research from Pakistani contexts, specifically related to their findings on spirituality and well-being. Your discussion needs to be expressed clearly to help readers easily understand your findings.

Comments on the Quality of English Language

Your work is commendable as you have focused on grammar and text. However, your writing style needs more flow to connect the reader with your research.

Author Response

Comment 1: You need to improve the title of your research, as it does not align with the measures. Additionally, you should incorporate research from Pakistani contexts, specifically related to their findings on spirituality and well-being. Your discussion needs to be expressed clearly to help readers easily understand your findings.

Response 1: On the reviewer’s advice, we have improved and aligned our research title with the measures used in the study. We also acknowledge the importance of incorporating more studies from the Pakistani context – but unfortunately, we couldn’t find ample work examining spirituality and well-being. Finally, we recognize the need for greater clarity in our discussion section. We have tried to refine our discussion to present our findings more coherently, making them more accessible to readers.

 

Comment 2: Your work is commendable as you have focused on grammar and text. However, your writing style needs more flow to connect the reader with your research.

Response 2: We hope it reads better now.

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The paper explores an interesting and relevant topic – the connection between spirituality, pro-social behavior, and pro-environmental behavior within a specific cultural context (Pakistan). The research aims to contribute to a better understanding of how transformational aspects of spirituality can influence positive social and environmental actions, which is worthwhile. The introduction effectively sets the stage by highlighting the existing literature and identifying the gap this study aims to fill.

Some suggestion for improvement:

• The paper mentions using a "convenient sample." This is a significant limitation. The authors should acknowledge the potential for bias and discuss how this might affect the generalizability of the findings. Consider addressing the limitations of convenience sampling and suggesting avenues for future research using more robust sampling techniques.

• More detailed demographic information about the participants would be valuable. Information, such as age, gender, education level, socio-economic status, and religious affiliation (Sunni, Shia, etc.), could provide a richer understanding of the sample and allow for more nuanced analyses.

• While the paper acknowledges the importance of cultural context, it could benefit from a more in-depth discussion of the specific cultural and religious norms in Pakistan that might influence the relationship between spirituality and behavior.

• While the choice of variables seems reasonable, a stronger theoretical justification for including each variable would enhance the paper. Explain why each variable is crucial for addressing the research question.

• Ethical Considerations: While ethical approval was obtained, it would be helpful to briefly mention how participant anonymity and confidentiality were ensured.

• The abstract could be more specific about the key findings of the study.

Comments on the Quality of English Language

Proofread the paper carefully to correct any grammatical errors or typos.

Author Response

Comment 1: The paper mentions using a "convenient sample." This is a significant limitation. The authors should acknowledge the potential for bias and discuss how this might affect the generalizability of the findings. Consider addressing the limitations of convenience sampling and suggesting avenues for future research using more robust sampling techniques.

Response 1: We acknowledge that using a convenience sample is a limitation of our study. We have revised the limitation to explicitly acknowledge this limitation and discuss its potential impact on the study's conclusions, page 7, paragraph 1. However, there ae not too many options on such specific topic instead to rely on volunteers who provide their data anonymously. Other procedures would involve costs that we could not easily afford.

Comment 2:  More detailed demographic information about the participants would be valuable. Information, such as age, gender, education level, socio-economic status, and religious affiliation (Sunni, Shia, etc.), could provide a richer understanding of the sample and allow for more nuanced analyses.

Response 2: Please look at table 1 where the available data are already described. As they are all university students or teachers, we are not sure what more on their education level should be described. More specific information such as Sunni, Shia, etc. were not recorded as it was not our aim to compare these groups!  

 

Comment 3: While the paper acknowledges the importance of cultural context, it could benefit from a more in-depth discussion of the specific cultural and religious norms in Pakistan that might influence the relationship between spirituality and behavior.

Response 3: Thank you for your insightful suggestion. In response, we have modified our discussion in accordance with your comment, page 6, paragraph 2 of Discussion.

Comment 4: While the choice of variables seems reasonable, a stronger theoretical justification for including each variable would enhance the paper. Explain why each variable is crucial for addressing the research question.

Response 4: We added the following at the end of the Introduction, as the scales were described in details in the Measures section later n:

For that purpose, we referred to a multilayered concept of spirituality (Büssing et al., 2017; Büssing 2019) that involves experiential aspects of spirituality (i.e., Transcendence perception and Awe/Gratitude), related attitudes and convictions (Living from the Faith) and subsequent transformative behaviors (i.e. Peaceful attitude / Respectful treatment, and Commitment to Disadvantaged and Creation) and frequency of religious practices. A further, non-religious aspect of spirituality was addressed by enjoying nature and moments of silence which was of relevance to cope with the outcomes of the pandemic (Büssing et al., 2020). These different layers of spirituality were addressed independently and related to participants´ life satisfaction.

 

Comment 5: Ethical Considerations: While ethical approval was obtained, it would be helpful to briefly mention how participant anonymity and confidentiality were ensured.

Response 5: We acknowledge the importance of clarifying the measures taken to ensure participant anonymity and confidentiality. In response, we have added a brief explanation on page 3, paragraph 1 of Methods.

Comment 6: The abstract could be more specific about the key findings of the study.

Response 6: Unfortunately, the JORH has very strict word limit that does not allow to add to much specific information.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx