Logotherapy, Meaning, Confirmatory factor analysis, Purpose in Life test, Short form,

Meaningful living is a central focus of several humanistic theories and therapies. Measurement of life meaning meets many obstacles, including pragmatic concerns, such as measuring subjective experiences, and theoretical objections often offered by humanistic psychologists. The purpose of this article is to summarize empirical efforts related to logotherapy, a humanistic-existential paradigm, to illustrate the utility of assessment within the larger context of humanistic psychology. An overview of five logotherapeutic measures of meaning is provided. These measures include the Purpose in Life test (PIL), the Life Purpose Questionnaire (LPQ), the Seeking of Noetic Goals test (SONG), the Meaning in Suffering Test (MIST), and the Life Attitude Profile Revised (LAP-R). Directions for use of such measures in future research are also offered.

Logotherapy is based on the meaning-focused existential philosophy of Viktor E. Frankl (1905-1997). Numerous mental health professionals have been inspired by his most popular book, Man's Search for Meaning; however, many are unfamiliar with the depth of Frankl's work. The purpose of this article is to discuss the tenets of logotherapy, including fundamental concepts, applicability and techniques, roles of the therapist, and assessment tools and new research findings. Logotherapy can readily be integrated with techniques that mental health professionals frequently use, and thus it has much to offer mental health professionals regardless of their theoretical orientation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved).

Logotherapy, Meaning, Purpose in life, PIL, Confirmatory factor analysis,

The purpose of this study was to systematically examine the psychometric properties of the 14-item Resilience Scale (RS-14; Wagnild, 2009a). Exploratory and confirmatory factor-analytic methods were employed, including an analysis of measurement invariance models by sex and race/ethnicity. Descriptive statistics, reliability, and validity data were also calculated. Analyses were based on 2 samples, one made up of individuals seeking mental health services following the 2010 Gulf oil spill (N = 1,032) and the other made up of university students (N = 1,765). For both samples, all items loaded (>.30) onto 1 factor, indicating cohesive structure for a 1-factor model explaining 53.2% of the variance in the clinical sample and 67.6% of the variance in the undergraduate sample. Further, the examination of measurement invariance indicated that the RS-14 was similarly structured for sex and race/ethnicity. Reliability coefficients exceeded.90 for both samples and also when data were examined by comparison groups. The RS-14 correlated significantly and as expected with measures of positive concepts (such as perceived meaning in life and satisfaction with life) and indexes of psychological distress (such as depression, anxiety, stress, and posttraumatic stress). These data support the utility of the RS-14 with clinical and undergraduate student samples. Implications for these data are discussed.