DOI:10.6129/CJP.202306_65(2).0002

中華心理學刊 民 112，65 卷，2 期，109-126
Chinese Journal of Psychology 2023, Vol.65, No.2, 109-126

Jen-Ho Chang(Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica; Department of Psychology, National Taiwan University); Yi-Hong Lin(Department of Psychology, National Taiwan University); Kuan-Ju Huang(Graduate School of Human and Environmental Studies, Kyoto University)

Abstract

The current study aimed to investigate how attitudes toward fate influence the mental health of individuals and whether there were preferences and trends of attitudes toward fate in Taiwan. Based on the 2015 and 2020 Taiwan Social Change Survey, we found three attitudes toward fate: (1) traditional fate behaviors, (2) negotiable fate, and (3) fate control. In addition, individuals tend to prefer negotiable fate to the other two attitudes, and fate control declined from 1984 to 2020. Furthermore, the positive relationship between negotiable fate and mental health can be mediated via three basic psychological needs fulfillment (autonomy, relatedness, and competence). On the other hand, the results revealed that social class moderated the relationship between negotiable fate and mental health. For those with lower social class, negotiable fate was positively correlated with mental health, whereas for those with higher social class, negotiable fate was not correlated with mental health. These findings provide insights that may build a bridge between negotiable fate and mental health in current Chinese society. Implications and limitations are discussed.

Keywords: fate control, mental health, negotiable fate, social class, traditional fate behaviors