Finding a Life Worth Living: Meaning in Life and Graduation from College |
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| Authors: | Joshua Wilt Wiebke Bleidorn William Revelle |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Department of Psychological Sciences, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA;2. Department of Psychology, University of California, Davis, CA, USA;3. Department of Developmental Psychology, Tilburg University, The Netherlands;4. Department of Psychology, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA |
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| Abstract: | Graduation from college is an important milestone for young adults, marked by mixed emotions and poignancy, and therefore is an especially salient context for studying meaning in life. The present research used experience‐sampling methodology to examine the antecedents and consequences of students' experience of meaning in life over the course of graduation. Participants were 74 graduating students who provided a total of 538 reports over the span of 3 days, including commencement day. Increased levels of state meaning in life during the days around commencement were linked to spending time with people in general and with family in particular, and thinking about one's years in college. Thinking about one's years in college mediated the effects of present company on state meaning in life. Graduates who experienced higher levels of state meaning in life during the days around their commencement ceremony had higher trait levels of meaning in life 1 week following commencement. We discuss how making meaning of a poignant experience has implications for healthy psychological development. Copyright © 2016 European Association of Personality Psychology |
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| Keywords: | meaning in life sociogenomic theory multilevel modelling experience‐sampling methodology graduation |
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