Factors of Buddhist Psychology Causally Related to Efficiency of Meditation Practice and Relationship Between Meditation and Emotional Intelligence with Self-regulation as Moderator

Abstract

This research aimed to study the causal relationships between factors of Buddhist psychology and the efficiency of meditation practice and the role of self-regulation in the relationship between meditation and emotional intelligence. The study employed an exploratory sequential mixed methods design (qual->QUAN). The population consisted of meditation practitioners at the Willpower Institute. Phase 1 was qualitative research designed to explore and gain an in-depth understanding of the factors influencing the efficiency of meditation practice. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with 19 key informants, comprising 6 Buddhist scholars, 6 Buddhist psychology academics, and 7 program administrators, as well as through a focus group discussion with 10 branch heads of the Willpower Institute. Phase 2 was quantitative research conducted to study the statistical relationships among variables using Jamovi and SPSS. The researcher developed questionnaires and assessed their quality through a pilot study with a sample of 45 practitioners, yielding CITC values ranging from 0.320 to 0.793 and Cronbach’s alpha coefficients between 0.837 and 0.943. Data collection was then carried out with 558 participants, based on a ratio of 20 samples per 1 observed variable (Hair et al.). A two-stage sampling procedure was used; firstly, six out of thirty branch clusters were randomly selected, followed by volunteer sampling within each branch, resulting in 504 valid responses.

The findings revealed that: The factors of Buddhist psychology causally related to the efficiency of meditation practice comprise Faith, Expectancy, 4 Iddhipãdas (Four Paths of Accomplishment), and Attitudes during meditation practice. The proposed model demonstrated a good fit (CFI = 0.975, RMSEA = 0.060, SRMR = 0.032) and all path coefficients were statistically significant (p < .001). Meditation was found to be positively and significantly correlated with emotional intelligence (r = 0.722, p < .001). Both meditation and self-regulation significantly predicted emotional intelligence (R² = 71.6%). However, the interaction test indicated that self-regulation did not function as a moderator. Thus, meditation directly enhances emotional intelligence without requiring the self-regulation.