A Positive Study Of The Relationship Between External-Internal Harmony Belief In Life And Mental Health Of Chinese College Students

This paper studies the relation between external-internal harmony belief in life (EIHBL) and mental health (MH) of Chinese college students (CCS).The study adopts a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods. The processes are: lack of empirical studies on the relation between EIHBL and MH was found through literature review; theoretic foundation was then built on EIHBL thoughts from Confucianism, Taoism and transpersonal psychology; deep interviews with 26 CCS and content analysis on CCS'internet forum were performed to explore the expressions and distribution of EIHBL among CCS; through the above qualitative research, the concept of EIHBL (the belief that one can lead a harmonious life through active self adjustment into the changing situations), its operational definitions (the belief that one can cope well with various adversities through cognitive, emotional and behavioral self adjustment; that adversities originate in one's blindness to the principle of the change and reluctance in self adjustment) and the research hypothesis of the positive correlation between EIHBL and MH were constructed and raised; we then designed for quantitative measurement and tested the research hypothesis with a sample of 236 CCS.Conclusions are: EIHBL is widely adopted among CCS, embodied in their interpretations and coping attitudes towards negative experiences; grade, major, parents and residence have an influence on it; it correlates significantly with MH, positively with self esteem, self-recognition and negatively with depression and anxiety. Contributions are: population distribution of the cultural idea EIHBL is demonstrated; its positive relevance with MH tested; designed; strategies for CCS'MH education proposed.