Self-development inquiry (SDi) scale: a process-oriented measure of psychological integration in an...

Psychological integration has been theorized across humanistic, neuroscientific, phenomenological, and complexity-based traditions as a multi-level process of experiential coordination, yet empirical operationalizations of integration as a structured organizational architecture remain limited. The present study introduces and validates the Self-Development Inquiry (SDi), a multidimensional instrument grounded in an organismic-transpersonal framework that models psychological functioning across structural resources (Q2), integration processes (Q1), and dysregulation-related signals (Q3).

A community sample (N = 441) was analyzed under ordinal-appropriate estimation (WLSMV with polychoric correlations) using a 50/50 split-sample design (N = 220 exploratory; N = 221 confirmatory). Analyses comprised exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, structural equation modeling with bootstrapped mediation, complementary network analysis of the dysregulation indicators, and convergent validity analysis against established benchmarks in a subsample (N = 76).

EFA and CFA supported a differentiated first-order structure with good approximate fit (CFI = 0.943, TLI = 0.933, RMSEA = 0.065, SRMR = 0.053), satisfactory composite reliability, and preserved discriminant validity. SEM identified a partially mediated hierarchical structure consistent with the theoretical architecture: physical-cognitive organization was strongly associated with external coherence (β = 0.82), which was in turn the dominant proximal correlate of both physical (β = -0.65) and mental disharmonies (β = -0.68). Bootstrapped mediation indicated robust indirect effects from structural resources to dysregulation via integration pathways, strongest through enacted congruence, while energetic organization retained additional direct regulatory effects. The model explained substantial variance in dysregulation outcomes (R ² = 0.71-0.72), with acceptable multicollinearity (all VIFs < 3) and stable estimates across split-sample validation. Network analysis of disharmonies revealed a densely interconnected, stable structure (CS-coefficient: strength = 0.52, expected influence = 0.67) with identifiable bridge nodes linking somatic and cognitive-existential indicators, consistent with conditional interdependence rather than reflective outputs of a single latent factor. Convergent validity analyses (N = 76) showed the four SDi LV2 composites correlated substantially and in predicted directions with the WHO-5 Wellbeing Index, the DASS-21, and the DERS, with all 24 primary correlations significant after Benjamini-Hochberg correction (|r| range = 0.39-0.82); the strongest associations fell on the most theoretically proximal benchmarks (wellbeing, depression), and facet-level analyses showed selective convergence (notably DERS Clarity, five facets at |r| ≥ 0.70) alongside near-zero correlations for theoretically distal pairs. Hierarchical regressions showed that integration and disharmonies blocks contributed robustly to predicting external scales, with the emotional resources facet adding substantial incremental variance to emotion-regulation prediction (ΔR ² = 0.078, p < 0.001).

Collectively, findings are consistent with conceptualizing psychological integration as a hierarchically organized system in which embodied structural capacities are associated with integrative coherence, which is in turn associated with reduced dysregulation. Because the design is cross-sectional, these associations do not permit inference about temporal direction. The convergent evidence supports the SDi as a theoretically coherent operationalization of integration that is empirically distinguishable from generalized affective distress while remaining substantively related to established wellbeing and emotion-regulation benchmarks. By integrating latent structural modeling with network psychometrics and convergent validity analysis, the SDi advances the empirical investigation of integration as a measurable organizational construct rather than a unidimensional wellbeing indicator.