A total of 1,661 respondents contributed to the development of the , which includes 23 items across two subscales.
The Psychological Insight Questionnaire features two subscales: Avoidance and Maladaptive Patterns Insights, and Goals and Adaptive Patterns Insights.
Strong correlations were found between the Psychological Insight Questionnaire scores and the insight subscale of the Session Impacts Scale.
Weak-to-moderate correlations were observed with the Mystical Experiences and Challenging Experiences Questionnaires.
Scores on the Psychological Insight Questionnaire were moderately-to-strongly associated with reported increases in psychological flexibility and life satisfaction following a psychedelic experience.
Incremental validity was demonstrated, showing that the questionnaire predicts unique changes in psychological flexibility and well-being beyond existing measures of mystical-type and challenging effects.
Simplified
BACKGROUND: Several measures have been developed to examine acute psychedelic effects (e.g. mystical-type and challenging experiences), but no measure assesses acute psychologically insightful experiences that may occur during psychedelic experiences.
AIM: The purpose of this study was to develop and examine the psychometric properties of the .
METHOD: A cross-sectional survey study among psilocybin and LSD users. Respondents (=1661;=22.9, standard deviation=8.5; Caucasian/White=83%; non-Hispanic=91%; men=72%; United States resident=66%) completed an Internet-based survey. n M age
RESULTS: The Psychological Insight Questionnaire consists of 23 items with two subscales: (a) Avoidance and Maladaptive Patterns Insights and (b) Goals and Adaptive Patterns Insights. Construct validity of the Psychological Insight Questionnaire was supported by strong correlations of the Psychological Insight Questionnaire (and Avoidance and Maladaptive Patterns Insights and Goals and Adaptive Patterns Insights subscales) scores with the insight subscale of the Session Impacts Scale, and weak-to-moderate correlations with the Mystical Experiences and Challenging Experiences Questionnaires. Furthermore, Psychological Insight Questionnaire (and Avoidance and Maladaptive Patterns Insights and Goals and Adaptive Patterns Insights subscales) scores were moderately-to-strongly correlated with retrospectively reported increases in psychological flexibility, and well-being/life satisfaction that were attributed to a memorable psychedelic experience. Lastly, incremental validity was established showing that the Psychological Insight Questionnaire (and Avoidance and Maladaptive Patterns Insights subscale) scores predict unique variance in changes in psychological flexibility, and Psychological Insight Questionnaire (and Avoidance and Maladaptive Patterns Insights and Goals and Adaptive Patterns Insights subscales) scores predict changes in well-being and life satisfaction, beyond measures of acute mystical-type and challenging effects.
CONCLUSIONS: The Psychological Insight Questionnaire has the potential to extend the understanding of the acute and enduring effects of psychedelics. Further longitudinal research is necessary to determine the long-term predictive validity of the Psychological Insight Questionnaire and to examine the role of psychological insight in predicting therapeutic outcomes.
Key numbers
1661
Sample Size
Total respondents who completed the survey
α=0.93
Internal Consistency ()
Cronbach’s alpha for the scale
0.56
Correlation with Psychological Flexibility
Correlation between scores and changes in psychological flexibility
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Declaration of conflicting interests: The author(s) declared the following potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: RR Griffiths is a board member of Heffter Research Institute and AK Davis is a board member of Source Research Foundation. Neither organization was involved in the design/execution of this study or the interpretation or communication of findings.
