ISSN 1671-3710
CN 11-4766/R

Advances in Psychological Science ›› 2017, Vol. 25 ›› Issue (2): 275-289.doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1042.2017.00275

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Spiritual well-Being: Concept, measurement, related variables and intervention

XU Xiaobo1; SUN Chao1; WANG Fengyan2   

  1. (1 School of Humanities & Social Sciences, Anhui Agricultural University, Hefei 230036, China) (2 School of Psychology, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210097, China)
  • Received:2016-05-10 Online:2017-02-15 Published:2017-02-15
  • Contact: WANG Fengyan, E-mail: fywangjx8069@163.com

Abstract:

Two breakthroughs have been achieved in research of wellbeing: in the vertical aspect, subjective well-being (SWB) has been developed deeper into psychological well-being (PWB) and then spiritual well-being (SpWB); in the horizontal aspect, SpWB derived from Christianity religion has been expanded into that derived from a detached well-being on the basis of self-awareness and comprehension. It shows that scholars has obtained a more overall understanding of wellbeing with the view of the relationship between Chinese & Western culture and SpWB. Measuring tools of SpWB are developed by western scholars, such as Spiritual Well-being Questionnaire developed by Ellison and Fisher. Meanwhile, the relationship between SpWB and its relevant variables (gender, age, personality and other factors) has been studied, the function and intervention measures of SpWB have been discussed in recent years. However, Chinese researchers hold the point that SpWB is not necessarily derived from religious beliefs, it can be achieved by continuous improvement in personal morality. Therefore, the focuses of future studies should be on comparing Chinese and Western SpWB, broading the study contents and methods of SpWB, and strengthening the research on Chinization of SpWB.

Key words: spiritual well-being, deep well-being, positive psychology, Chinese spiritual well-being