Christian Life Emphasis in the Retirement Community: A Koinonia of Spiritual Awareness

ABSTRACT

Retirement Community living sponsored by groups of churches or related, in any direct sense, to a purpose that is called Christian, should, in very specific ways, demonstrate that faith in Christ is an integral part of resident life.

An organization, within the retirement community of Holly Hall in Houston, Texas, seeks to fulfill that requirement by a deliberate commitment to what is called Christian Life Emphasis. It involves a variety of bonding rituals and a ministry of resident to resident that enables spiritual awareness to permeate the continuum of care.     

Purpose,hope, and life satisfaction in three age groups

Using the Revised Youth Purpose Survey (Bundick et al., 2006 Bundick, M, Andrews, M, Jones, A, Mariano, JM, Bronk, KC and Damon, W. 2006. Revised youth purpose survey, Stanford, CA: Unpublished instrument, Stanford Center on Adolescence.  [Google Scholar]), the Trait Hope Scale (Snyder et al., 1991 Snyder, CR. 2003. March). Measuring hope in children. Paper presented at the Child Trends Indicators of Positive Development Conference. 2003, Washington, DC.  [Google Scholar]), and the Satisfaction with Life Scale (Diener, Emmons, Larsen, & Griffin, 1985 Diener, E, Emmons, RA, Larsen, RJ and Griffin, S. 1985. The Satisfaction With Life Scale. Journal of Personality Assessment, 49: 71–75. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), the present study examined the relationship among purpose, hope, and life satisfaction among 153 adolescents, 237 emerging adults, and 416 adults (N = 806). Results of this cross-sectional study revealed that having identified a purpose in life was associated with greater life satisfaction at these three stages of life. However, searching for a purpose was only associated with increased life satisfaction during adolescence and emerging adulthood. Additionally, aspects of hope mediated the relationship between purpose and life satisfaction at all three stages of life. Implications of these results for effectively fostering purpose are discussed.     

The value of life purpose: Purpose as a mediator of faith and well-being

This study investigated the relationship between faith, life purpose, and well-being, and the potential mediational effects of life purpose between faith and well-being. One hundred and three male and female college students completed a life purpose measure designed for the current study, the General Life Purpose Scale, as well as the Perceived Wellness Scale (Adams, T.B. (1995). The conceptualization and measurement of wellness (Doctoral dissertation, University of Texas at Austin, 1995). Dissertation Abstracts International, 56(6–B), 3111) and the Santa Clara Strength of Religious Faith Questionnaire (Plante, T.G., & Boccaccini, M.T. (1997). The Santa Clara Strength of Religious Faith Questionnaire. Pastoral Psychology, 45, 375–387). Results indicated that life purpose significantly mediated the relationship between faith and well-being. The importance of these findings for clinicians and educators is discussed.     

The unbearable lightness of meaning: Well-being and unstable meaning in life

Psychological theories prioritize developing enduring sources of meaning in life. As such, unstable meaning should be detrimental to well-being. Two daily experience sampling studies were conducted to test this hypothesis. Across the studies, people with greater instability of daily meaning reported lower daily levels of meaning in life, and lower global levels of life satisfaction, positive affect, social connectedness and relationship satisfaction, along with higher global levels of negative affect and depression. In addition, instability of meaning interacted with average daily levels of meaning to account for significant variance in meaning in life scores. Relative to people with more stable meaning, people with unstable meaning tended to score near the middle of the distribution of well-being, whether they reported high or low levels of daily meaning. Results are discussed with an eye toward a better understanding of meaning in life and developing interventions to stabilize and maximize well-being.     

The Sources of Meaning and Meaning in Life Questionnaire (SoMe): Relations to demographics and well-being

Shortfalls of widely used measures of meaning in life are described. Their use results in biased correlations and restriction of the complexity inherent in experiences of meaning. To qualify results, the Sources of Meaning and Meaning in Life Questionnaire (SoMe) is employed. It offers separate scales to measure a positive and a negative dimension of meaning: meaningfulness–a fundamental sense of meaning and belonging, and crisis of meaning–the evaluation of life as frustratingly empty and lacking meaning. Both intercorrelate moderately (?.38/?.35). Additionally, the SoMe assesses 26 sources of meaning. Based on a representative sample, relationships between meaningfulness, crisis of meaning, and sources of meaning with demographics are reported (Study 1). In Study 2, SoMe scales are correlated with positive (mood, satisfaction with life) and negative (neuroticism, anxiety, depression) indicators of well-being. SEM reveals that meaningfulness predicts positive well-being, but is not predictive of negative well-being. Crisis of meaning is a strong predictor for both positive and negative well-being.     

Meaning in life across the life span: Levels and correlates of meaning in life from emerging adulthood to older adulthood

Meaning in life is thought to be important to well-being throughout the human life span. We assessed the structure, levels, and correlates of the presence of meaning in life, and the search for meaning, within four life stage groups: emerging adulthood, young adulthood, middle-age adulthood, and older adulthood. Results from a sample of Internet users (N = 8756) demonstrated the structural invariance of the meaning measure used across life stages. Those at later life stages generally reported a greater presence of meaning in their lives, whereas those at earlier life stages reported higher levels of searching for meaning. Correlations revealed that the presence of meaning has similar relations to well-being across life stages, whereas searching for meaning is more strongly associated with well-being deficits at later life stages.     

Dwelling and Seeking in Late Adulthood: The Psychosocial Implications of Two Types of Religious Orientation

SUMMARY

This article summarizes quantitative findings and presents two illustrative case studies showing how religious dwelling and spiritual seeking evolve over the adult life course and relate to psychosocial functioning in late adulthood. The data come from the Institute of Human Development (IHD) longitudinal study of men and women. Religious dwellers tend to emphasize traditional forms of religious behavior whereas spiritual seekers emphasize innovative religious practices. In the IHD study, the religious involvement of the dwellers tended to be highly stable over the life course whereas spirituality gained in salience in the second half of adulthood. In late adulthood, religious dwelling was associated with maintaining close and warm relations with others and communal involvement, and during times of adversity, religiousness served as a buffer against the loss of life satisfaction. Spiritual seeking was associated with an emphasis on personal growth, creativity, and acquiring new knowledge. Spiritual growth was particularly characteristic of introspective individuals who in early adulthood experienced stressful life events.     

生命意义与主观幸福感的关系:基于中国样本的元分析

运用元分析的方法来探讨生命意义与主观幸福感的关系。纳入了符合元分析标准的文献45篇,共51个独立样本,总样本量为27291。元分析结果表明:生命意义与主观幸福感(r=0.505,p0.001),生活满意度(r=0.395,p0.001)和积极情感(r=0.325,p0.001)呈显著正相关,而与消极情感(r=-0.195,p0.1)呈显著负相关。生命意义与主观幸福感的关系受到性别和被试群体的调节,如性别能显著正向调节二者的关系。结果表明,生命意义能有效预测主观幸福感。     

The Epic of Evolution as a Framework for Human Orientation in Life

This article sketches what is required of a world picture (religious or nonreligious) that is intended to provide orientation in the world for ongoing human life today. How do we move from conceptions and theories prominent in the modern sciences—such as cosmic and biological evolution—to an overall picture or cosmology which can orient us for the effective address of today's deepest human problems? A biohistoricalconception of the human is proposed in answer to this question.