Exploring the Relation between Karma, Qi, Spirituality, and Subjective Well-Being among People in Taiwan

In addition to recognizing well-being as a multidimensional construct, the potential indicators of well-being also have been recognized as multivariate. Specifically, some recent studies have suggested that various indices of social beliefs, religious attitudes and spiritual practices have been said to be robustly associated with well-being. Therefore, given the overwhelming need for promoting well-being and an increasing recognition of the multivariate indicators of well-being, this research project attempted to evaluate the relation of Qi, karma, transcendental experiences, and spiritual practices with the subjective well-being of people in Taiwan. The relevant data from the national sample of 1,933 participants were subjected to factor analysis to extract relevant factors, which included social and religious attitudes of karma and Qi, spiritual indicators of transcendental experiences and spiritual practices, and positive indicators of subjective well-being. In addition to significant intercorrelations, the hierarchical regression analyses after controlling for demographics suggested that Qi had the highest contribution to subjective well-being, followed by spiritual practices, karma, and transcendental experiences. These results are discussed, their implications are elucidated, and the directions for future research are suggested.