中華心理衛生協會

Purpose: Western control belief theory depends on a holistic view based on dichotomy- control refers either to control of the outside world or the individual self. While in traditional Chinese cosmology, the subject is seen as an inseparable part of nature, which is composed of three concepts: heaven, earth, and person. The interaction between and among the three is understood to be interrelated with analogical effects. This heaven-human analogy and polytheistic religious belief form the basis of Chinese control belief. Based on previous qualitative analysis of in-depth interviews, we classified 7 types of Chinese control belief. This study aims to verify the Chinese control belief framework proposed by the authors. Methods: We constructed the Chinese Marital Control Beliefs Scale and asked 378 married adults (mean age = 41.9) to fill out the scale. Results: Confirmatory factor analysis verified the seven control types. Gender, age, and religious differences in adopting different control beliefs when responding to marital problems were also found. Conclusions: The results support the multidimensionality of Chinese control belief. Future directions for theoretical elaborations are discussed.