The Relationship of Dialectical Thinking and Empathy with Spiritual Well-being

In recent years, interest in the study of spiritual well-being has increased and the identification of cognitive and emotional factors affecting it has become important. Post-formal theories regard dialectical thinking as a condition for empathy and spiritual well-being. Therefore, the main purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship of dialectical thinking and empathy with adults’ spiritual well-being.

This is a cross-sectional study with a descriptive-correlational design. The statistical population included all the individuals in the age range of 20-60 in Isfahan in 2017, out of whom 450 were selected by convenience sampling method and considering the fact that the purpose of the study was evolutionary comparison, they were divided into four age groups of 20-29, 30-39, 40-49, and 50-60. The measures used in this study included the Spiritual Well-Being Questionnaire, Social Paradigm Belief Inventory and the Interpersonal Reactivity Index. The data were analyzed using multiple regression and analysis of variance. In this study, all ethical considerations were observed and no conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

The findings showed that there was a positive relationship between dialectical thinking and empathy with spiritual well-being. Dialectical thinking plays a more important role in predicting spiritual well-being than empathy and level of religiosity. The results of analysis of variance indicated that age and religiosity levels have significant differences in spiritual well-being.

Dialectical thinking and empathy, along with religiosity, play an important role in improving our relationship with God and others or spiritual well-being. As the level of religiosity increases, spiritual well-being increases. Adulthood is the time when spiritual growth is completed.