This study was designed to develop meaning-in-life categories which have adequate interrater reliability and stability over time. Also of interest were the categories which college students endorsed and the number of students who reported no meaning in life. A pilot study was used to develop appropriate categories. 100 students from a State University class were asked to write about the three most meaningful things in their lives and then ranked their written meanings in order of importance to them. Eight categories had adequate interrater reliability and stability over a 3-mo. period. The "relationship" category was most often chosen followed by "service," "growrh," "belief," "existential-hedonistic," "obtaining," "expression," and "understanding." Only 5% of our sample claimed life to have no meaning.Although many personality theorists have referred to the importance of meaning or its lack in one's life, surprisingly little empirical research has dealt directly with this concept. Crumbaugh and Maholick (1969) have developed a Purpose in Life Test to assess Frankl's approach to meaning in life, but it measures only intensity of meaning, ignoring the type or content of meanings reported. Allport-Vernon-Lindzey's Study of Values ( 195 1) was the only. empirical approach relevant to categorization of the content of meaning, but, among other problems, this scale had the drawbacks of not indicating if the person felt a lack of meaning in his life and not being appropriate for potential future investigation of the depth of the meanings reported. In light of these limitations we eschewed these approaches and instead chose to use a free-response essay question format. Our initial concerns were primarily methodological: to see if adequate interrater reliability of the categorizations could be achieved and to determine the stability of the subjects' meanings over time. Given adequate reliability and stability, we felt that the meaning content categories college students endorsed versus those they did not would be of interest. Finally, we were interested in what percentage of this group reported lack of meaning. METHOD Szrbject~Subjects were 106 undergraduate volunteers from an introductory psychology class. The mean age of the 76 females was 18 yr. and of the 30 males was 19 yr. Less than 10% were psychology majors. Detailed demographic data were not gathered but the state university's population is almost entirely white middle-class. In the preliminary snldy approximately 100 undergraduate scudents from an earlier comparable introductory psychology class were tested.
Past research on peoples' self-reports of their meaning in life has not included those below college age. In contrast, the present study focused on such reports by 116 young adolescents. We found that the percentage seeming to understand what meaning in life was and able coherently to discuss their own was just as high as that found in older groups. Second, the types of meaning reported differed sufficiently from those of college students and other older subjects to require three new categories. A summary of results in relation to the maturity of the adolescents' meaning compared to that of the older samples yielded no solid conclusion.
Essay statements were gathered from 36 active married seniors about the strongest meaning in their lives. These golden anniversary couples most often reported the category of relationships (within the family) as central, followed by health and pleasure. A chi-square analysis showed a significant difference between the type of meanings of seniors and those of younger adults. The results were similar to those of McCarthy's (1983) study of convalescent home seniors with the exception that the latter group more strongly emphasized belief and deemphasized pleasure. The importance of relationships over the lifespan and this study's implication for Cumming and Henry's (1961) disengagement theory is discussed. In addition, the proposition that our age lacks meaning as put forth by such theorists as Frankl was examined and again questioned from a phenomenological data-gathering perspective.
The present study, by using 96 subjects ranging in age from 30 to 80 yr., set out to extend knowledge about meaning in life content areas of college students to the entire adult life span. The subjects were asked to write about, rank in order, and give an example of each of the three strongest meanings in their life. High interrater reliability (91% agreement) was achieved in categorizing the essays on meaning. Only 3% reported no meaning. The category of Relationships was most often reported followed by Belief, Health, Growth, Life Work, Service, and Understanding. The accompanying revisions, as well as suggested modifications, appear to be appropriate for describing categories of meaning across the adult life span.
To discover if elderly people have developed a deeper meaning in life than younger individuals, a sample of active married elderly people was compared to a group of younger adults. Two dimensions of meaning in life depth were investigated. The first was a self-suitability measure indicating comfort with one's own meaning, measured by Crumbaugh and Maholick's (1969) Purpose in Life Test. The second was an external validation measure derived from a statement about their own strongest meaning in life, written by the participants and rated for depth by two outside judges. The older group scored significantly higher than the younger adults on the self-suitability measure and significantly lower on the external validation measure. Such results could mean that toward the end of life we are better able to appreciate life's beauty though less able to communicate our depth of appreciation to others. An alternative interpretation of the results is that the elderly participants were engaging in self-deception.
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