Spousal Religiosity is Positively Associated with the Partner's Meaning in Life

Past research has established that personal religiosity is positively associated with a sense of meaning in life. However, it has largely overlooked how religious others influence one's own life meaning. Given that a marital partner may be the most influential other in a person's everyday life, this study aims to examine how the religiosity of one's spouse is associated with the sense of meaning in life of the self, regardless of the religiosity of the self. Moreover, this study assesses whether this association differs by gender. Analysis of data from the 2006 Portraits of American Life Study reveals that spousal religiosity is positively associated with the partner's meaning in life, net of the partner's own religious commitment. However, these observed patterns do not vary by gender. Overall, these observations highlight the importance of social contexts in which others’ religious attributes are related to one's own meaning in life.     

Awe and meaning: Elucidating complex effects of awe experiences on meaning in life

Research on the experience of awe suggests that awe has positive impacts on outcomes like life satisfaction and belongingness. No published work, however, has reported effects of awe on the experience of meaning in life. We reasoned that awe might have complicated effects on meaning. On the one hand, many awe experiences likely contain a positive flavor that contributes to both awe and general positive affectivity (happiness). Positive affectivity has a robust positive effect on meaning in life, suggesting that positive awe experiences might increase meaning. At the same time, however, awe experiences lead to a diminished self that reflects feelings of smallness and insignificance, which might negatively predict meaning. We thus hypothesized that awe experiences can, in some contexts, produce competing indirect effects on judgments of meaning in life through happiness and small-self feelings. The results of five studies (N = 1,690) supported these predictions.     

高中生亲子依恋与生命意义感的关系:同伴依恋和时间洞察力的中介作用

以283名高中学生为被试,通过问卷调查的方式,探讨了亲子依恋对高中生生命意义感的影响,以及同伴依恋和时间洞察力在亲子依恋与生命意义感间的中介作用。结果表明：（1）亲子依恋、同伴依恋、时间洞察力与生命意义感两两间存在显著正相关;（2）同伴依恋与时间洞察力在亲子依恋与生命意义感之间起中介作用。即亲子依恋既可以直接影响高中生生命意义感,也可以通过时间洞察力和同伴依恋的中介作用间接影响高中生生命意义感。本研究揭示了亲子依恋与高中生生命意义感的关系及其作用机制,拓展了生命意义感的影响因素,为高中生生命教育提供了重要的理论依据。     

人际交往能力与生命意义的关系:孤独感和年级的作用

基于存在主义心理学理论,本研究采用人际交往能力问卷、孤独感量表和生命意义量表对福建省三所大学的1476名大一和大二学生进行调查,考察人际交往能力与生命意义的关系,以及孤独感的中介作用和年级的调节作用。结果表明：（1）交往能力和孤独感存在显著的性别差异。男生的交往能力显著高于女生,孤独感显著低于女生;（2）交往能力与孤独感呈显著负相关,与拥有意义和追寻意义均呈显著正相关,而孤独感与它们均呈显著负相关;（3）孤独感在交往能力与拥有生命意义之间的中介作用受到年级的调节。与大二学生相比,大一新生孤独感的中介效应更大。研究结果在一定程度上揭示了交往能力对生命意义的作用过程,为针对性提升大学新生生命意义提供方向指导和实证依据。     

情绪对职业价值观的影响——意义建构的中介作用

为了考察情绪对于职业价值观的影响,本研究采用情绪量表、意义建构量表、职业价值观量表以及社交媒体依赖程度量表等,对938名员工数据进行检验,结果表明:(1)情绪对于职业价值观具有显著的正向影响;(2)意义建构在情绪与职业价值观之间起完全中介作用;(3)社交媒体依赖程度负向调节了情感与意义建构之间的关系。情绪通过意义建构的中介作用对职业价值观产生影响,并且社交依赖在路径的前半段起调节作用。探究情绪与职业价值观关系,对于科学树立合理的职业价值观具有重要意义。     

Critical Notice: Peter Ludlow’s Living Words: Meaning Underdetermination and he Dynamic Lexicon,Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014

A provocative view has it that word meanings are underdetermined and dynamic, frustrating traditional approaches to theorizing about meaning. Peter Ludlow’s Living Words provides some of the philosophical reasons and motivations for accepting one such view, develops some of its details, and explores some of its ramifications. We critically examine some of the arguments in Living Words, paying particular attention to some of Ludlow’s views about the meanings of predicates, preservation of bivalence and the T-schema, and methods of modulating meaning.     

校正的Bootstrap方法对概化理论方差分量及其变异量估计的改善

Bootstrap方法是一种有放回的再抽样方法, 可用于概化理论的方差分量及其变异量估计。用Monte Carlo技术模拟四种分布数据, 分别是正态分布、二项分布、多项分布和偏态分布数据。基于p×i设计, 探讨校正的Bootstrap方法相对于未校正的Bootstrap方法, 是否改善了概化理论估计四种模拟分布数据的方差分量及其变异量。结果表明：跨越四种分布数据, 从整体到局部, 不论是“点估计”还是“变异量”估计, 校正的Bootstrap方法都要优于未校正的Bootstrap方法, 校正的Bootstrap方法改善了概化理论方差分量及其变异量估计。     

Genetic and environmental influences and covariance among meaning in life,religiousness, and spirituality

Meaning in life, spirituality, and religiousness have been empirically linked in previous research. This study aimed to advance knowledge of the interrelations among these variables by examining their heritable and non-heritable sources of influence, as well as the genetic and environmental contributions to their inter-relations. A sample of 343 middle-aged twins drawn from the Minnesota Twin Registry completed measures of meaning in life and spirituality. There was evidence that religiousness, spirituality, and meaning in life shared common genetic and environmental influences, suggesting that these people's attitudes concerning these variables may arise from shared factors. These results provide novel evidence of a shared genetic substrate for meaning in life, religiousness, and spirituality, and support the possibility that people's basic attitudes about the meaning of existence are commonly rooted in evolved biological factors and conjointly influenced through people's experiences with life.     

Mood over matter: can happiness be your undoing?

Existing empirical literature has typically treated meaning and purpose as identical. Based on previous theoretical propositions of these two constructs as distinct, we hypothesized that meaning (defined as a sense of comprehension and significance in life) and purpose (defined as a sense of goals, aims, and direction in life) would have different predictors and correlates. We utilized a longitudinal design and collected data from 167 cancer survivors at two time points one year apart. Although meaning and purpose were strongly correlated, they had different predictors and correlates. Regression analyses showed Time 2 meaning was predicted by Time 1 spirituality, whereas Time 2 purpose was predicted by Time 1 social support. At Time 2, meaning was positively correlated with posttraumatic growth and negatively with posttraumatic depreciation, whereas purpose was negatively correlated with intrusive thoughts pertaining to cancer. Implications of an understanding of meaning and purpose as distinct constructs are discussed.