ABSTRACT. The aim of the study is to present theoratical ground related to the subject looking at the meaning of life, which is not subject sufficiently in the studies in our country, in philosophical and psychological perspectives and is to get attention that finding life meaningful is one of the psychological needs and is to get attention to its importance in education and psychological counseling and guidance services taking the results of psychometric studies and research into consideration. Basically in the research, modern people's search of meaning, which have been observed more clearly from the beginning of 20th century to date, is being discussed based on pyschologocial and philosophical bases and it is being attracted attention to one of the most important need which lays the base for many psychological problems and it is being opened discussion what educators did and what will they do after that.
Keywords:Meaning, the meaning of life, search for meaning. * Phd., Ankara University, Faculty of Educational Sciences, Department of Psychological Services in Education, Ankara, Turkey. E-mail: sszr2002@yahoo.com
Sevgi SEZER
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SUMMARYHuman, who is being different from other creatures, asks questions, make inquires and "Why" question is the most basic question. Human searches for a ground. He envisage himself and life based on this ground. This envisaging maintains his attachment to life. Because of this, the biggest fear for human is being without ground, which is meaningles. Giant industrial and technological advances, which have occured in last century, have made big changes in daily life and communication and it may be that human inquires his meaning of live more than all other times does. Studies show that those who have hopes, solve their problems, overcome stress and losses find their lives meaningful and those who find their lives meaningful have high well-being (Sappington et al., 1990; Phillps, 1980; Robat &Griffin, 2000;Feldman ve Snyder, 2005). This and same data show that finding life meaningful is a basic psychological need. It seems that discussing contributions to today's human's meaning problem via education system and in this context, contributions to it via guidance services and making projects for it are among their first priority responsibilities for educators. The aim of the study is to present theoratical ground related to the subject looking at the meaning of life, which is not subject sufficiently in the studies in our country, in philosophical and psychological perspectives and is to get attention that finding life meaningful is one of the psychological needs and is to get attention to its importance in education and psychological counseling and guidance services taking the results of psychometric studies and research into consideration.The data of study was obtained from articles which were taken from educational and psychological databases and books about the subject. Basically in the research, modern people's search of meaning, which have been observed more clearly from the begi...