Psychological Science ›› 2013, Vol. 36 ›› Issue (2): 489-495.

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Structure and Functions of Industriousness of Yogacara Buddhism: Exemplified by Effects on Subjective Well-being

  

  • Received:2013-01-15 Revised:2013-02-21 Online:2013-03-20 Published:2013-03-20
  • Contact: Li AI

唯识精进的结构与功能――以对主观幸福感的影响为例

李庆安1,艾力2,定明3,李远红1,张龙萍1   

  1. 1. 北京师范大学发展心理研究所
    2. 发展心理研究所 北京师范大学
    3. 北京佛教文化研究所
  • 通讯作者: 艾力

Abstract: Since its foundation, Western psychology is characterized by its drawbacks of attending to one aspect and losing sight of other ones. For instance, Skinner’s radical behaviorism investigated behavior, but neither studied consciousness, nor studied unconsciousness. Freud's psychoanalysis eventually studied unconsciousness, but exaggerated functions of unconsciousness, and belittled roles of consciousness, moreover, they attended to the evil elements in the unconsciousness whereas neglected the good ones in it. The same is true with such schools as Gestalt psychology, humanistic psychology, cognitive psychology, all of them had drawbacks of attending to one aspect and losing sight of other ones. Unlike Western psychology, Yogacara Buddhism or vij?apti-matra philosophy studied not only behavior, but also consciousness and unconsciousness. Yogacara Buddhism is the most precise one in Buddhist schools. As a starting point, Yogacara Buddhism divided the mental structure into two classes: kings of mind and subordinates of mind. Just as the terms implied, similar to the kings of the kingdoms, kings of mind play the ruling roles; like the ministers of the kingdoms, subordinates of mind play the subsidiary roles. Kings of mind include visual cognition, auditory cognition, olfactory cognition, gustatory cognition, tactual cognition, cognition ⅵ (manovijnanam), cognition ⅶ (saptamvijnanam) and cognition ⅷ (alayavijnanam). Subordinates of mind includes fifty-one members grouped into six families. The former five cognitions have covered perceptions in psychology; cognition ⅵ has covered such concepts as self-esteem, self-concept, self-consciousness, self-efficacy, self-regulation, meta-cognition in psychology; cognition ⅷ has covered the unconsciousness in psychology. However, it should be noted that the unconsciousness in psychology is just a tiny portion of cognition ⅷ, rather than its whole portion. As a matter of fact, cognition ⅷ has even covered such concepts as genetic genes, biological bases, schemes. Such psychological concepts as self-esteem are just a tiny portion of cognition ⅶ. Perceptions or consciousness in psychology are far from the whole portion of former five cognitions or cognition ⅵ. Obviously, Yogacara Buddhism is characterized with giving simultaneous consideration to genetic genes, biological bases, behavior, consciousness and unconsciousness, and it must be a precious reference for Western psychology to overcome its drawbacks of attending to one aspect and losing sight of other ones. For this reason, authors of this paper advanced the project for integration of Yogacara Buddhism with psychology. Many books or journal articles have been published on psychology of Buddhism which includes psychology of Yogacara Buddhism, however, all of them were based on speculative methodology rather than empirical methodology. Authors of this paper are supposed to employ empirical methodology in their project for integration of Yogacara Buddhism with psychology. Yogacara Buddhism is characterized with extensive knowledge and profound scholarship, the project for integration of Yogacara Buddhism with psychology should be a huge and complex one. It is impossible for one or several papers to complete the whole project. The main objectives of current studies are selecting industriousness concept, one of fifty-one members from subordinates of mind, as a starting-point, employing 588 high school students as subjects, adopting the Industriousness in Vijnapti-matra Questionnaire, the Satisfaction With Life Scale, and the Scale of Positive and Negative Experience as instruments, investigating structure of industriousness as first step, then investigating functions of industriousness, exemplified by its effects on subjective well-being. The following results were obtained: (1) The structure of Industriousness consists of seven factors; (2) Industriousness with non-inferiority and Industriousness in armour were largest positive predictors for satisfaction with life and positive affect; (3) Industriousness in armour and Industriousness with more actions were weak negative predictors for negative affect. Current studies explored the structure and functions of Industriousness with empirical methodology, and they are innovative trials of empirical studies on psychology of Yogacara Buddhism and psychology of Buddhism as a whole, and they should generate positive effects on promoting integration of Yogacara Buddhism with psychology, on constructing psychology with Chinese features, on exporting Chinese psychology to international community.

Key words: Vijnapti-matra, Industriousness, coping, effort, subjective well-being

摘要: 以588名高中生为被试,以《精进问卷》、《生活满意度量表》和《积极与消极情感量表》为工具,先考察唯识精进的结构,然后,以精进对主观幸福感的影响为例,考察精进的功能。结果表明:(1)精进是七因素的结构;(2)对于生活满意度和积极情感而言,最有力的正向预测变量是无下和披甲精进;(3)对于消极情感而言,披甲和加行精进有微弱的负向预测作用。本研究突破了唯识心理学乃至佛教心理学偏重思辨研究而忽略实证研究的局限。

关键词: 唯识, 精进, 应对, 努力, 主观幸福感