Unit 9 Assignment

Charlie Lao

Purdue Global University

 This is a 10-question inventory to determine how an individual feels about themselves

spiritually and psychologically, as well as help guide them towards what they would like to do

going forward after the interview. For the interview, I have decided to interview my wife for ease

and to determine where she stands currently.

The first question that I have is “Where do you think you stand in your spirituality and

psychological health?”. The reason for this is to understand how the individual thinks about

herself initially and to see how she would define her own spirituality. This question was put first

intentionally to set the tone as well as learn more about the individual and prepare her about what

is to come. Her answer to this question is as follows: “I don’t really know where I stand

spiritually, but psychologically I am pretty drained. It just seems like there is so much things to

do like taking care of my daughter, going to work, doing homework. It just seems like there is no

end so I feel like I am constantly moving.”. To this, I responded with, “Do you have anything to

say about your spirituality?”. She responded with, “I am not sure but that must mean there’s

some kind of disconnect right?”.

The next question I chose to ask was “How do you feel mentally, emotionally, physically,

and spiritually overall?”. Looking back, this question may have been similar to the first one but

just a little more in depth. The reason for this question was to understand how she feels rather

than how she thinks. I really wanted to be detailed with this and see how she feels to get a better

understanding of her. Her response to this question was, “Mentally, I feel drained like I said

before. Some days are better than others though. Emotionally, I feel fine. I’m happy where I am

at but sometimes it can be better. Physically I just feel fat *laugh. But my body feels fine,

nothing to complain about. Spiritually, again I am not sure. I feel a little lost I guess?”.
 After that, I asked her, “What does spirituality mean to you?”. The reason for this

question was to see how she would define spirituality, and whether or not she was already

experiencing it without knowing. Sometimes we may be doing something and just not know that

we are doing it. This was a hopeful way of seeing if that were true. She responded with, “I don’t

know. Maybe how one feels connected to something? I mean we talk about our spirituality when

we talk about our relationship with God, so maybe something like that?”. I responded and told

her that it was close enough.

The next question I asked her was “Explain how you think that the environment around

you can affect your spirituality and psychological health?”. I asked her this to see help her

understand that the environment is an important factor but also not the only factor that can affect

it. She responded with, “I think the environment is super important. Just like how I answered the

other questions, our daughter and my work and school make it pretty rough on me.”. I also

followed this up with “What else do you think affects your spirituality and psychological

health?”. She stood by her answer of the environment around her, and then I reminded her that

maybe her own mental state as well as how she thinks can also have an affect too.

After that question, I asked her, “How are you feeding yourself spiritually?”. This was to see if

she was taking any steps towards her own spirituality. After her answer though, maybe this

question was a little confusing as she herself did not really understand spirituality fully yet. She

responded by saying, “I’m not really sure. I read the Bible and I pray. Does that count?”. I told

her that it somewhat counts and as long as she feels that it helps.

Following that, I asked her, “What do you think is a barrier to your growth pertaining to

your spirituality?”. I feel like this was one of the most important questions I can ask her as

barriers are what stops a person from taking that first step. Identifying barriers can be such a
strong weapon and I believe everyone should take that step into identifying their own barriers.

She responded to the question by saying, “Well I guess one barrier could be my lack of

information or education of this topic. I feel like if I knew more, I would be able to give more

solid answers. Also, another barrier would just be my lack of time. I don’t feel like I have

enough time in the day to take that time to even understand this.”. I did not respond to this

question but just gave her affirmation.

The next question was, “Do you perform or participate in any activities that would help

you spiritually?”. Again, this question was a bit too much as she was not exactly sure what

spirituality was. I believe this question was solid though because it helps me understand more

about the steps, she takes to help herself. Even though she did not give me much, I still believe

that a little is better than nothing and although this question did not work with her, I am sure that

it will work with some. Her response was, “It’s kinda hard to answer because I don’t really

understand spirituality fully. But I try to take time out of the day to have for myself. Like when I

drive to work or when I drive back. I like to think about these kinds of things when I am doing

things that don’t require too much thinking.”.

I then asked her, “What is something that makes you feel at ease?”, and I actually really

love this question as it identifies things that help her without thinking too much into the

spirituality of it. Also, I feel like it was a good break from asking about spirituality directly and

focusing on her as a person instead. Her response to this question was, “I think spending time

with you and my daughter doing nothing but relaxing together is one of the things I love the

most. It’s almost like there are no worries but that moment there with each other. It’s both

relaxing and almost euphoric.”. I absolutely loved her response to this as I feel the exact same

way and thought it was interesting as the answer was in my mind before she even spoke it.
 The next question was, “How far have you grown spiritually in the past year?”. This

question was not particularly useful for this interview as it did not really pertain to her. Although

maybe in a year we could conduct this interview again and see how it goes. I do feel that this

question has a place in this interview to really get her thinking about how she could change her

mindset about this topic. She responded to this question by saying, “I don’t think I can answer

this question? But if I were to guess, then not much.”.

The last question I asked her was, “What do you think you can do to grow spiritually and

psychologically?”. I believe this question was a great question to end off of as it gave her

something to think about after the interview would end. The question is geared towards goal

setting rather than being a straight forward question. Her response was, “I think I can learn more

about spirituality first off. I think I somewhat know what it is, but having a deeper understanding

of it would help me form a better answer.”.

Overall, the questions that I asked her were not bad, but there were some that did not give

a solid enough answer because of her lack of understanding of spirituality. I don’t think that I

would switch those questions out but I think giving her a sense of spirituality before starting

would have helped her a little more. She seemed like she was learning as she was going which is

not bad either.