This article discusses the pertinence of philosophical Taoism to psychological research by examining the Taoist ideas about conflict resolution in human interaction. According to Taoism, the ultimate goals of people consist of realizing harmony with one another and achieving consonance with nature. People can attain interpersonal harmony by understanding the significance of Tao and how human behavior is regulated by the interaction of three systems at the universal, interpersonal, and intrapersonal levels.
The significance of the issueTaoism, along with Confucianism, is one of the two major native philosophical traditions that have shaped and permeated Chinese culture, and all Asian cultures affected by China (e.g., Japan, Korea, and Vietnam) for more than 2,000 years. In addition to its profound impact on the Eastern sciences, medicine, literature, and arts, philosophical Taoism has immensely influenced people's understanding about interpersonal actions and perceptions. Some scholars in the West have explored the implications of Taoism for psychological research. For example, Taoism has been construed as a work of metaphysical psychology, delineating how the fundamental forces of the cosmos itself are mirrored in our own individual inner structure (Needleman, 1989). There have been some attempts to apply Taoist thought to psychotherapy (Ehrlich, 1986), holistic therapy (Kelly & McFarlane, 1991), and discussion of the self-actualization theories of Rogers and Maslow (Chang & Page, 1991).The psychological (in particular the social psychological) research in the West, however, has paid little attention to Taoist thought concerning social interactions and perceptions, which postulates that one of the two paramount goals for human beings involves achieving harmony with one another (in addition to achieving consonance with This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.