Lay beliefs about meaning in life: Examinations across targets,time, and countries

We examined how lay beliefs about meaning in life relate to experiences of personal meaning. In Study 1 (N = 406) meaning in life was perceived to be a common experience, but one that requires effort to attain, and these beliefs related to levels of meaning in life. Participants viewed their own lives as more meaningful than the average person’s, and technology as both creating challenges and providing supports for meaning. Study 2 (N = 1719) showed cross-country variation in levels of and beliefs about meaning across eight countries. However, social relationships and happiness were identified as the strongest sources of meaning in life consistently across countries. We discuss the value of lay beliefs for understanding meaning in life both within and across cultures.     

生命意义感对大学新生日常烦心事和心理适应的影响

为验证日常烦心事对个体心理适应的作用过程,并探讨生命意义感是否在烦心事知觉与心理适应之间起调节作用。研究采用纵向追踪方式对153名大学新生进行新近生活经历问卷、压力知觉量表、生命意义感量表和心理适应的测量。结果显示压力知觉在日常烦心事与心理适应之间起完全中介作用;拥有意义在烦心事知觉与心理适应之间起调节作用,但追求意义的调节作用不显著。这说明日常烦心事会通过压力知觉影响个体心理适应,拥有意义对个体心理适应具有调节作用。     

Spanish validation of the Parental Acceptance Questionnaire (6-PAQ)

Background/ObjectivePsychological flexibility is an ability with positive effects in health, also in the field parenting. The aim of this study is to validate the Parental Acceptance Questionnaire (6-PAQ) in Spanish sample.MethodA total of 426 parents (96.3% female), with an average age of 38.25 years (SD = 5.76) and with at least one child between 3 and 16 years old participated. Participants completed the 6PAQ and other instruments assessing experiential avoidance, thought suppression, satisfaction with life and symptoms of anxiety and depression.ResultsIn comparison with the original model, the three-factor structural solution with 16 items obtained a better adjustment (CFI = .996; GFI = .998; TLI = .995; RMSE = .016) that refer to response styles related to psychological flexibility (open, aware and active). The 6-PAQ adaptation has shown good internal consistency, with a Cronbach alpha of .81 and a McDonald's omega of .86 for the scale, and evidence of convergent validity with significant correlations with measure of avoidance, thought suppression, satisfaction with life and anxiety.ConclusionsThe Spanish version of the 6-PAQ with the three-factor structure presents psychometric property to be considered a reliable measure and a valid instrument for the evaluation of parental psychological flexibility.     

The role of meaning in gastric cancer patients: relationships among meaning structures,coping, and psychological well-being

ABSTRACT

Background and Objectives: Research demonstrates that the experience of cancer invariably violates patients’ meaning structures, prompting them to use coping strategies to alleviate stress and enhance well-being. The current study aimed to examine the mediating effects of coping strategies in the relationship between global and situational meaning and psychological well-being in gastric cancer patients.

Design and Method: One hundred eighty-seven patients (96 women and 91 men) with gastric cancer completed questionnaires measuring meaning in life, changes of beliefs and goals, coping, and psychological well-being. Participants were between 27 and 82 years of age. They were diagnosed with gastric cancer from 1 to 3.2 years ago. Using Structural Equation Modeling, both the direct and indirect associations between meaning structures, coping, and psychological well-being were examined.

Results: Meaning in life exerted significant indirect effects on psychological well-being through three coping strategies: problem-, emotion-, and meaning-focused. The relationship between changes of beliefs and goals and psychological well-being was also mediated by coping.

Conclusions: Findings suggest that coping strategies are mediators in the relationship between global and situational meaning and psychological well-being. They also provide empirical evidence that in severe cancer-related stress conditions both meaning structures and coping strategies influence patients’ psychological well-being.     

Need for Meaning,Meaning Confusion,Meaning Anxiety,and Meaning Avoidance: Additional Dimensions of Meaning in Life

Two aspects of meaning in life have drawn much attention in previous research: presence of meaning and search for meaning. We proposed four additional aspects concerning individuals’ thoughts and feelings about meaning in life: need for meaning, meaning confusion, meaning avoidance, and meaning anxiety. We developed items to measure these dimensions. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis indicated that the data fit the factors well. Convergent and discriminant validities of the four dimensions were demonstrated though their distinct patterns of correlations with other variables, such as personality traits, need satisfaction, personal aspirations, life satisfaction, anxiety and depression. Moreover, cluster analysis revealed that individuals could be divided into meaningful groups according to these dimensions, with each group demonstrating unique psychological features. Implications for future studies on meaning in life are discussed.     

Measuring Meaning in Life

The present studies addressed the need for a comprehensive, economical, and psychometrically adequate measure of existential meaning. In Study 1, principal-axis factor analysis of participants’ responses to popular meaning measures identified five latent constructs underlying them, labelled purposeful life, principled life, valued life, exciting life, and accomplished life. These dimensions resonate with the meaning in life concept as understood by Frankl (1963. Man’s search for meaning. (Revised Ed.) London: Hodder & Stoughton) and the panoply of subsequent theoretical definitions (e.g. Battista and Almond. (1973). Psychiatry, 36, 409–427; 2000. Exploring existential meaning: Optimising human development across the life span (pp. 39–55). USA: Sage; 1998. The human quest for meaning: A handbook of psychological research and clinical applications (pp. 11–140). Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum). Study 2 used these results as a foundation for developing a psychometrically satisfactory self-report questionnaire of each of these aspects of meaning in life. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) validated a five-factor structure, with each factor loading on a common second-order factor. Study 3 provided evidence for this new measure’s convergent validity and economic property. The final Meaningful Life Measure is reported and provides comprehensive but differentiated measurement of the meaning in life construct.     

Susceptibilidad a la sugestión en función de los factores de personalidad

Resumen

Se presentó a los sujetos un informe estándar sobre su personalidad para estudiar hasta qué punto lo acaptaban como adecuado para describirlos a ellos mismos. Se predecía que el grado de aceptación de estos informes variaría en función de las características de personalidad de los sujetos. De acuerdo con Eysenck (1967), los sujetos con valores máximos en E y N a la vez (NE y CI) serían los menos sugestionables, mientras que los sujetos con valores altos en una dimensión y bajos en la otra (NI y CE) serían los más sugestionables. Los resultados apoyan ligeramente esta hipótesis. No obstante se cuestiona el que las predicciones se deriven realmente del modelo de Eysenk y no sean formulaciones «ad hoc».     

Actions,Feelings, and Values: Foundations of Meaning and Personhood in Dementia

SUMMARY

Viktor Frankl's writings on the sources of meaning in human life are compared to emergent views on personhood in older individuals with dementing illnesses. An ethnomethodological study of a CBRF (community based residential facility) with two sections, each housing about 10 persons, revealed meaning in residents' actions, feelings, and expressions of values. These individuals showed it is possible to retain what Frankl called “tragic optimism” despite cognitive deterioration. Through active engagement with their environments and with one another, a wide range of expressed emotions including happiness and humor, and caring sensitivity toward others, these elders showed that given a supportive environment, dementia does not destroy meaning. These observations form the basis of suggestions for pastoral care and ministry with people with dementia.     

High goal conflict and low goal meaning are associated with an increased likelihood of subsequent religious transformation in adolescents

Adolescence is one of the most common periods during which people report religious transformations (Regnerus & Uecker, 2006), but few studies have examined what variables might precipitate a transformation during this time. Based on early writings of James (1902) and Starbuck (1911), we tested the hypotheses that adolescents are more likely to experience a religious transformation when they have (a) lower global meaning, (b) lower goal meaning, and (c) higher goal conflict. Participants (N = 137) were adolescents living in Western Europe involved in a service trip with Young Life, an evangelical Christian organization. Participants with lower strivings meaning and higher strivings conflict before the trip were more likely to experience a religious transformation during the trip.     

Changes in psychological well-being among older Lithuanian city dwellers: Results from a cohort study

Background/Objective: The purpose of this study is to evaluate changes of psychological well-being (PWB) in older Lithuanian city dwellers during ten years of follow-up, and to establish factors associated with it. Method: 7,115 men and women of age 45-72 years participated in the initial survey in 2006-2008. In 2016 the follow-up survey was performed among all 6,210 participants who survived. 4,266 individuals responded to postal questionnaires. PWB was evaluated by using CASP-12 questionnaire. Depressive symptoms were evaluated by CES-D-10 scale. Quality of life, self-rated health, and social activity were evaluated.Socio-demographic, socio-economic factors were included into standard questionnaire. Results: PWB deteriorated in all age groups during 10-years follow-up. Poor quality of life, poor self-rated health, having depressive symptoms, and not being member of social organization are associated with lower PWB after 10 years in men and women. Employed-retired, retired, and not socially active women have higher possibility to have lower PWB over 10 years. Conclusions: PWB in older Lithuanian city dwellers deteriorates as many other socio-economic and psychosocial indicators during ten-year follow-up. Mostly psychosocial factors, but not the socio-demographic, and socio-economic ones predict PWB over 10 years. It is crucial to understand and promote predictors of PWB in older age.     

Meaning gained versus meaning lost: The effects of meaning salience on anxiety and depression during the coronavirus pandemic

People who have meaningful lives generally experience less anxiety and depression. Meaning salience, or the awareness of the meaning in one's life, is believed to partially explain this relationship. However, in times of isolation, what might be most salient to people are the meaningful aspects of their lives that have disappeared. This study seeks to understand how making gained versus lost meaning salient affects anxiety and depression. Participants either wrote for 5 minutes about how their life gained meaning (n = 29) or lost meaning (n = 30) due to the coronavirus restrictions, or about music (i.e., the control condition; n = 32). Those who wrote about gained meaning experienced less momentary anxiety than those who wrote about lost meaning. In addition, meaning salience moderated the relationship between meaning and both anxiety and depression. Those who wrote about gained meaning appeared to exhibit a positive relationship between meaning in life (MIL) and both anxiety and depression, while those who wrote about lost meaning exhibited negative relationships. In all, this suggests that meaning salience is not always positive and that researchers and practitioners should consider how making positive meaning salient may be more beneficial than a general focus on MIL.     

El tiempo del reloj y el tiempo de la acción. Introducción al número monográfico sobre Tiempo y Explicación Psicológica

Resumen

Este artículo examina los fundamentos de la percepción de la simultaneidad y la sucesión, del movimiento y del cambio, considerándolos como las bases sobre las que se construye la noción de tiempo. El tiempo no se percibe de forma directa, sino que su presencia es consecuencia de la constitución mutua de las nociones de permanencia y cambio. Sin la función simbólica resulta imposible concebir las nociones de pasado, presente y futuro, y el tiempo de la larga duración y de la historia. Es la acción, mediada instrumental y semióticamente, la que crea las unidades de medida que permiten conectar el tiempo vivido con el tiempo medido.     

Psychometric Evaluation of the Meaningful Life Measure

The 23-item Meaningful Life Measure (Morgan and Farsides 2008) comprises five subscales, each designed to assess a distinct component of personal meaning: purposeful life; valued life; accomplished life; principled life; and exciting life. In addition to providing a comprehensive composite meaning measure, this instrument presents the possibility of measuring these components separately in future research applications. To demonstrate the utility of their separate measurement, the present study therefore aimed to show differential patterns of correlation between these five subscales and meaning correlates identified in the literature. The MLM’s factor structure and internal reliability were replicated on the present sample. Evidence was then provided for the MLM’s convergent validity, and it was demonstrated that its five subscales were indeed differently predicted by the meaning correlates from the literature. Findings attest to the practical utility of a five-factor conceptualisation of meaning in life. In addition to identifying people who score low and high on different factors of meaning in life, the MLM facilitates the further investigation of specific antecedents and consequences of different meaning components.

The psychologically rich life questionnaire

Psychologists have thought of a good life in terms of its happiness or meaning. We propose that psychological richness is another, neglected aspect of a good life. In Study 1, we administered an initial questionnaire to a student sample, testing 2-week test-retest stability, convergent validity using informant reports. We conducted further tests of the scale’s factor structure, its correlations with personality and demographic variables, and the generalizability of this psychological richness measure in a non-student American sample (Study 2), a nationally-representative probability sample of Americans (Study 3) and in a sample from India (Study 4). In all 4 studies, a psychologically rich life was predicted by openness to experience, extraversion, and lower levels of neuroticism.     

Exploring the place of financial status in the good life: Income and meaning in life

Abstract

Two studies examined the association between income and meaning in life (MIL). Study 1 (N = 781) demonstrated that income and other measures of financial status are positively associated with MIL and other aspects of well-being. The association between income and MIL was partially explained by autonomy, competence, and perceptions of control. Study 2 (N = 123) examined people’s forecasts of how financial status would affect their future well-being. Having a middle class or upper-middle class income in the future was expected to result in higher MIL, happiness, and need satisfaction than a life with a low income, showing that people perceive income as tied to meaning. These studies demonstrate how financial status can contribute to actual and expected MIL.     

Presence and search for meaning in sport: Initial construct validation

According to Frankl (1959), the will to meaning is a fundamental human motive. Perceiving life as meaningful is associated with a number of sources and positive outcomes. Similar findings emerged when looking at domain-specific meaning, such as work. Surprisingly, sport-specific meaning is yet to be empirically investigated or measured. Therefore, the purpose of this two-study project was to examine the psychometric properties of the Meaning in Sport Questionnaire (MSQ), a sport-specific meaning measure. Survey responses (n = 329) from Study 1 were used to assess factorial validity and measurement invariance for the MSQ. Results from Study 2 with a different sample (n = 402) supported initial convergent validity for the two subscales of presence and search for meaning in sport. The MSQ is a new measure that can be used to investigate the extent to which athletes perceive their sport to be meaningful and search for such meaning.     

Struggle with ultimate meaning: Nuanced associations with search for meaning,presence of meaning,and mental health

Struggle with ultimate meaning reflects concerns about whether one’s life has a deeper meaning or purpose. We examined whether this construct could be distinguished from presence of meaning in life and search for meaning. In two US samples – a web-based sample (N = 1047) and an undergraduate sample (N = 3978) – confirmatory factor analyses showed that struggle with ultimate meaning loaded on a factor that was distinct from but related to presence (negatively) and search (positively). Moderated regression analyses showed that people with low levels of presence combined with high levels of search for meaning were particularly likely to struggle with ultimate meaning. Additionally, when compared to presence and search, struggle with ultimate meaning related more strongly to depressive symptoms than presence or search. These results suggest that struggle with ultimate meaning represents a distinct component of how people grapple with meaning that has implications for mental health.     

Individual differences in meaning-making: Considering the variety of sources of meaning, their density and diversity

By employing a multi-dimensional inventory of sources of meaning (SoMe), individual differences in meaning-making are analysed. Sources of meaning as well as their density and diversity are related to experienced meaningfulness. It is hypothesised that sources of meaning are not functionally equivalent. Density and diversity are expected to relate positively to experienced meaningfulness. Drawing on a representative sample (N = 603), functional equivalence of sources of meaning is indeed refuted. Generativity is established as the most powerful predictor of meaningfulness. Meaningfulness increases significantly with density and diversity of sources of meaning; the relationship between density and meaningfulness is largely mediated by diversity. Findings indicate that commitment to numerous, diverse, and, especially, selftranscendent sources of meaning enhances the probability of living a meaningful life.     

Synergistic Paths to Happiness: Findings from Seven Countries

Four individual profiles of ways toward happiness were found on a Slovene sample: Full, Empty, Pleasurable, and Meaningful life types. The present study aimed to validate these four types in samples from seven different countries (N = 3690) utilising four different languages. Participants completed the Orientation towards Happiness Scale and measures of hedonic and eudaimonic well-being, and ill-being. A two-step cluster analysis was performed with each of the seven country samples. A highly congruent, highly internally replicable four-cluster solution was found in all seven samples. Full and Empty life individuals have high and low scores on all three orientations to happiness, respectively. Pleasurable and Meaningful types reflect two traditional philosophic orientations: Pleasurable life individuals scored high on pleasure, average on engagement and low on meaning orientation, while Meaningful life individuals had high scores on meaning, average on engagement, and low scores on pleasure orientation. The four types differed in subjective happiness and psychological well-being with full life type characterized by the highest scores on subjective happiness and psychological well-being, and Empty life by the lowest scores. On the other hand, depressive symptoms were likely to be the lowest in the Full life type and the highest in the Empty life type. Meaningful and Pleasurable life types were characterized by moderate well- and ill-being, but the two types tended not to differ from each other on the measures used.     

The relationship between childhood abuse and depression in a sample of Chinese people who use methamphetamine

Background/ObjectivePrevious studies have shown that childhood abuse is associated with symptoms of depression. This study aims to examine the prevalence of childhood abuse or neglect and its correlation with depression among a sample of Chinese people who use methamphetamine.MethodPeople who use methamphetamine (MA) (N = 1,173) were recruited from government-operated drug rehabilitation centres in Anhui province, China. Participants were assessed using the short form of Childhood Trauma Questionnaire and the Beck Depression Inventory-II for childhood abuse or neglect and depression symptoms.ResultsA total of 44.6% of people who use MA reported moderate/severe childhood abuse or neglect, and 56.9% of this sample were diagnosed with depression. Emotional abuse, sexual abuse, emotional neglect and physical neglect were revealed to increase the risk of depression. Multivariable regression analyses showed that depression scores were significantly predicted by gender, duration of drug use, sexual abuse and emotional neglect (model R² = .08, p < .001). The interaction between emotional neglect and duration of drug use on the depression was statistically significant.ConclusionsThese analyses indicate that sexual abuse and emotional neglect increase the severity of depression in individuals who use MA in drug rehabilitation centres of China.