The Construction of "Scale of Lao-tzu Living Attitude"(SLLA) and its Relationships with Depression and Ping-An

[[abstract]]ABSTRACT The purpose of this study is to construct an attitude scale based on Lao-tzu philosophy and investigate the what and how of Lao-tzu philosophy affecting the psychological process of Taiwan adults. The researcher proposes that the more living attitude of Lao-tzu one cultivates, the less likely he or she suffers from depression, and the more he or she feels Ping-An and at-homely. According to relevant psychological and philosophical literature review, a framework has been established, including 6 categories and 14 dimensions. 73-item pre-test inventory designed by the investigator were item-analyzed and factor-analyzed by a sample of 367 adults in Taiwan, using convenience sampling and snow-balling method, and the result was the formal “Scale of Lao-tzu Living Attitude ”（SLLA）with 34 items. Then, reliability and validity of SLLA were as the following: 1. The Cronbach’s internal reliability of consistency αequals to .95, with 5 subscales’ α ranging from .79 to .90, showing good reliability. 2. Using Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), 34-item LALS could be extracted into 5 logical and meaningful factors as the following：（1）transcendence of self,（2）ideal of life,（3）harmony of the whole,（4）wisdom of dialectic,（5）discipline of living, which could explain approximately a total variance of 56.94%, showing good construct validity. 3. the score of SLLA were negatively correlated with that of depression（r=-.47，p<.01）, and positively correlated with the score of Ping-An（r=.73，p<.01）, indicating good criteria-correlation validity. To verify the afore-mentioned proposition, a sample 1260 adults in Taiwan were collected with convenience and snow-balling sampling method. Three research instruments including SLLA, CES-D, and “Dharma Drum Cultural and Educational Foundation Ping An Scale”（abbreviated as PAS）were administered and the scores were statistically analyzed by t-test, one-way MANOVA, Pearson product-moment correlation, and canonical correlation. The results were as the following: 1.There was no statistically significant difference on the scores of SLLA among different gender and education levels. 2. There was statistically significant difference on the scores of SLLA among different age groups. Generally speaking, the age group of 45-54 year-olds was the highest, and the age group under 24 year-old the lowest. 3. There was statically significant difference on the scores of SLLA among those married ones with children and those who were not married, except for “wisdom of dialectic”. 4. There was statistically significant difference on the scores of “ transcendence of self”, “ ideal of life”, and “ discipline of living” among Buddhists or Taoists and those who claimed that they had no specific religion; furthermore, statistically significant difference had been found among Taoists and those who had no religion on the scores of “ harmony of the whole” and “ wisdom of dialectic”. 5. There was statistically significant difference on the scores of SLLA among different yearly income groups. On the scores of “transcendence of self”, those 80,000-120,000 NT yearly-incomers were statistically higher then those 40,000-80,000 NT yearly-incomers, and those 40,000-80,000 NT yearly-incomers higher then those below 40,000 NT yearly-incomers; on the scores of “ideal of life” and “discipline of living”, those 40,000-80,000 NT yearly-incomers and 80,000-120,000 NT yearly-incomers were statistically higher then those below 40,000 NT yearly-incomers; Furthermore, on the scores of “harmony of the whole” and “wisdom of the dialectics”, those 80,000-120,000 NT yearly-incomers were higher then those below 80,000 NT yearly-incomers. 6. There was statistically significant difference on the score SLLA between high CES-D scorers and low ones, and between high PAS scorers and low ones. Lastly, the investigator specifies limitations of this research and proposes recommendations about future research and its possible applications on psychological measurement, counseling, and education.