語言與超越觀念 An extension of Dr. Luo’s research Presented by Dr. TC Chan 21 st May at HKU

Outline 1.The issues 2.The collections of vocabulary from the new population. 3.Content analysis into categories of terms. 4.Formulate concepts of transcendence that could embrace spiritual/religious elements. 5.Modify training program.

1. The issues The spiritual well being is composed of three parts: The psychological well being (PWB), transcendence and meaning of life. PWB: harmonious relationship with self, family, others, and environment. The spiritual component mainly lies on transcendence.

Yet, due to previous finding that the language of the age is very limited, no religious/spiritual concept could be accommodated. Language is the basis of reality. Science is only a kind of linguistic activity. Because of found language limitation, only a time concept is applied for acceptance of past, active involvement of things at present. Yet not explicit about the future. The new generation of aged group has higher education. Thus a better concept of transcendence could be used so that spiritual/religious elements could be included.

2. The collection of vocabulary Rather than an interview, we could use some tools to facilitate the collection of vocabulary used by the target population. Three possible tools are: 1.Use the method of rep grid to generate a number of objects (persons) for comparison (such as the most respected person, the most disgusting person, self, etc.). During the comparison, they will give out related vocab. To generate the description of spirituality or death, we could use special objects such as religious martyr, religious leader, or even God.

2. Story telling from a series of pictures or from one picture. An example of the story telling is in the IQ test of WAIS or WISC. For telling a story about a picture, an example is the thematic apperception test. We could generate our picture for our purpose. 3. Just ask them to describe what could make them feel 喜 悅、 無憂、叻、勝利感、了不起、受歡迎、充滿意義、 滿足、超越非凡、生命充實、滿有能量 ; Pesut et al. (08) common elements: meaning, purpose, hope, connectedness, relationship, transcendence, existential experiences and power/force/energy

3. Content analysis into categories Zhang et al. (2015)

4. Fit into the def of transcendence Buck 2006: seeks to transcend self and find meaning and purpose through connection with others, nature, and/or a supreme being, which may or may not involve religious structures or traditions.“ Erikson, at last stage, integrity include not fear death. Herrick (2005) to live well, we must understand death. Select vocabulary to match with the definition. For similar levels, new vocabularies could be leant. Herrick (2005, 2007) lead a spiritual group developed together through spiritual experience, spiritual language and personal growth.

5. Training modified With the concepts of transcendence fixed, corresponding items in training would be changed. At present, the items are: Open up Minds, Spiritual Breath, Self Re-integration, Family Support, Friendship, Forgiveness, Harmonious Relationship, Round-up Session, Spiritual Reflection, and Spiritual Consolidation. New items may have to be added or old modified. I suggest besides training them how to improve relationship with others, language learning is important. The goal could include indentifying a bigger self, commit to this bigger self, to have knowledge about death in order to feel comfort with its coming.

Vivian’s response We will proceed as planned. The goal is to help aged people to enhance spiritual well being. To collect conceptual terms they possibly have for the construction of transcendence they could understand, subjects are divided into three age levels with Christians and non- Christians making up 6 groups. Helpers would work together with Vivian.