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Friendship alienation is a common dilemma experienced by many Chinese people in life. It especially has negative impacts on the mental health of the alienated party, which cannot be ignored. The role of “yuanfen” ( 緣分 ) in adapting to relationship dilemmas has already been put forward and yuanfen has recently been subdivided into beliefs in “yuan” (緣) and “fen” (分). However, yuan and fen beliefs were for the most part hypothesized in the past to have respective effects on psychological adaptation. This paper first proposes the hypothesis that yuan and fen belief can work together (interact) to buffer the negative effects of friendship alienation on mental health. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to explore the roles of the yuan and fen beliefs following friendship alienation, including the effect of “friendship alienation” on “mental health” and the moderating role of yuan and fen beliefs. In this study, adults aged 18 and above were adopted as subjects. Data was collected through online questionnaires. Participants were requested to fill out assessment scales measuring friendship alienation experiences, their yuan and fen beliefs, sense of loneliness, satisfaction with life, subjective happiness, etc. The results show that compared with those without experiences of friendship alienation, people who had experienced estrangement from their friends within two years indeed showed poorer mental health. The research results with greater significance show that 1) If the yuan and fen beliefs operate simultaneously, they play a buffering role on the negative impacts of alienation experience on mental health. If they both operate independently however, they do not have a buffering effect on the negative impacts of the alienation experience on mental health; and 2) It is worth noting that in situations where belief in yuan is low, and the belief in fen is higher, the more likely an experience of alienation would jeopardize subjective happiness and satisfaction with life. Overall, the joint operation of the beliefs in yuan and fen may play a buffering role in the negative effects of friendship alienation. Nevertheless, it is also worth noting that under specific circumstances, yuan and fen do not always have positive effects on negative relationships as mentioned in the preceding literature. Finally, the research results were targeted for further discussion. The research limitations and directions were also indicated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Looking back at the development of psychology in Taiwan, we can review the progress in various fields from three dimensions. The one is to explore the issues in universality and specific dimension, such as through the holistic concept dominant in the discipline or the topic of specific issues. The other is the temporal dimension, such as the review and outlook through the axis of the historical articulation and futuristic guidance. The third is the spatial dimension, such as the dialectical debate between the globalization and localization involved in the progress of various fields of psychology. Back to the progress of clinical psychology in Taiwan, we pay more attention to the link the science and application to solve the separation crisis between theory and practice. In this paper, literature review method is applied to inquire into the discussion of clinical psychology in Taiwan. It is not based on diachronic review, but on the combination of specific and universal themes, as well as the characteristics of local research outcome through the sampling approach and sign approach of the dual strategies to explore. First, it is discussed from the representative sample specific study topic covering three levels of psychopathology, psychological assessment and psychotherapy, including autism, sleep psychology, breast cancer psychological growth, and cardiac psychology research. Second, it is to discuss the characteristics of neuropsychological and rehabilitation psychology and the development of humanistic clinical psychology with the sign approach. Through the sampling and sign approach review, it shows that the research and development of clinical psychology in Taiwan is the reflective outcomes of the training process of both scientists and practitioners. Finally, under the retrospective results and exposition of the depth, localization and ethical act, we put forward the reflection on clinical practice through research and development, and towards the agenda that has yet to be deepened in further situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]