Indian Journal of Positive Psychology

Reese Hui ¹, Rhett Diessner ¹

Affiliations
1 Department of Psychology, Lewis-Clark State College, Lewiston, US

Abstract

The Engagement with Beauty Scale 2.0 (EBS2), designed from the philosophical works of Kant, Hegel, and Aquinas, and the psychological work of Jonathan Haidt was translated into Cantonese and administered, by snowball method, to 106 Cantonese speakers in Hong Kong. Results showed strong internal consistency for the measure, and typical of samples from around the world, women scored slightly higher than men in their engagement with beauty. Contrary to non-Asian samples, but similar to a sample from India, no developmental pattern was found (i.e., there was no significant positive correlations between age and levels of engagement with beauty). Also, contrary to most international samples, the factor structure of the EBS2 was monolithic for this Chinese sample, with most of the variance loading on one factor, rather than the emergence of the anticipated four factors (natural beauty, artistic beauty, moral beauty, and beautiful ideas). This implies that, at least for this sample of Chinese people, their view beauty is considerably different than non-Chinese, and more holistic.

Keywords

Natural Beauty, Artistic Beauty, Moral Beauty.

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Rhett Diessner ¹, Phillip Steiner ²

Affiliations
1 Lewis-Clark State College, Social Science Division, Lewiston, US
2 Lewis-Clark State College, Lewiston, US

Abstract

In a 12-week long action research quasi-experimental design, aimed at increasing trait levels of appreciation of beauty, a quasi-experimental group participated in a three credit senior undergraduate college course focused on providing participants with experiences of beauty: natural beauty, artistic beauty, moral beauty, and beautiful ideas. Results indicated that the members of the quasi-experimental group significantly (p=.002) increased their levels of the trait of appreciation beauty compared to a comparison group, and with a large effect size (d=.85). Only one other empirical study demonstrating overall trait changes in appreciation of beauty, possibly due to intentional intervention, has been published. This is the first study to report an intervention that may have significantly (p=.05) increased the trait of appreciation of artistic beauty (medium effect size, d=.53) and the trait of appreciation of beautiful ideas (p = .05, medium effect sized = .76).

Keywords

Natural Beauty, Artistic Beauty, Moral Beauty, Beautiful Ideas, Trait Appreciation of Beauty, Elders.

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