Journal of Psychological Science ›› 2024, Vol. 47 ›› Issue (4): 902-909.DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240417

• Social, Personality & Organizational Psychology • Previous Articles     Next Articles

The Different Effects of Eudaimonic and Hedonic Motives on Spiritual Well-Being

Xu Wentao, Zhang Kaili, Wang Fengyan   

  1. Institute of Moral Education, Nanjing Normal University; School of Psychology, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, 210097
  • Online:2024-07-20 Published:2024-07-17

美德与享乐动机对精神幸福感的不同作用*

许文涛, 张凯丽, 汪凤炎**   

  1. 南京师范大学道德教育研究所,南京师范大学心理学院,南京,210097
  • 通讯作者: ** 汪凤炎,E-mail: fywangjx8069@163.com
  • 基金资助:
    *本研究得到国家自然科学基金面上项目(31971014)的资助

Abstract: Why did Yan Hui enjoy his life while being poor? Where did happiness come from? Since the Northern Song Dynasty, the reason why Confucius and Yan Hui could be so satisfied has been a widely concerned Confucian case. From its source and specific content, this happiness comes from the pursuit of Confucian “Tao”, which is reflected in three aspects: the joy of keeping the Tao, the joy of learning the Tao and the joy of practicing the Tao. From the perspective of positive psychology, happiness is not only different from the sense of pleasure and satisfaction that is generated once the material life is satisfied, but is also different from the sense of value and control experienced after self-realization. It is embodied as a spiritual well-being that goes deep into the spiritual level of life and forgets both things and me.
Different from western spiritual well-being, which attaches importance to religious experience, Chinese spiritual well-being is deeply influenced by traditional culture, especially Confucian tradition. It is mostly produced in individual self-cultivation and life practice, full of the color of moral and emotional joy. In ancient times, Hui could keep his mind on ren for three months without lapse. Today, many contemporary Chinese feel great spiritual well-being on the road of practicing the core socialist values and striving to realize the Chinese dream of great rejuvenation. In addition to the “three pleasures for those who benefit” such as moral pleasure, the Confucian tradition also emphasizes the need to avoid the “three pleasures for those who lose” of indulgence in pleasure, leisure and entertainment and excessive banquets, and holds that gentlemen should “eat simple and live in peace”. These discussions and viewpoints suggest that the life goal of self moral cultivation or the pursuit of virtue can help people obtain spiritual happiness, and the relaxed life of blindly seeking pleasure may damage people's spiritual prosperity.
In order to explore the relationship between eudaimonic and hedonic motives and spiritual well-being, and to investigate the mediating role of self-transcendence and self-alienation, 691 subjects were measured by Hedonic and Eudaimonic Motives for the Activities Scale, the Spiritual Index of Well-being, and the Adult Self-Transcendence Inventory. The results showed that: (1) Eudaimonic motive significantly positively predicted people's spiritual well-being, in which self-transcendence and self-alienation played different mediating roles. (2) Hedonic motive negatively predicted people's spiritual well-being, in which self-alienation played an intermediary role. These results suggest that the motivation of pursuing virtue contributes to people's positive self-development and spiritual well-being, while the hedonic life goal is related to self-alienation and lack of spiritual well-being. If you want to obtain the positive self-efficacy and sense of life significance of life, you need to appropriately restrain your hedonic motivation, and strengthen the life goal of pursuing virtue and positive self-development.

Key words: eudaimonic motive, hedonic motive, spiritual well-being, self-transcendence, alienation

摘要: 为探索美德与享乐动机和精神幸福感的关系,同时考察自我超越和自我迷失在其中的中介作用,采用美德与享乐动机量表、精神幸福感指数量表和成人自我超越问卷对691名被试进行施测。结果发现:(1)美德动机显著正向预测人们的精神幸福感,自我超越和自我迷失在其中起到不同中介作用;(2)享乐动机显著负向预测人们的精神幸福感,自我迷失在其中起到中介作用。这些结果表明,追求美德的动机有助于人们的积极自我发展和精神幸福感获得,而享乐型人生目标则与自我迷失和精神幸福感缺失相关。

关键词: 美德动机, 享乐动机, 精神幸福感, 自我超越, 自我迷失