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