Development of Meaning in Life Measurement Tool

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to develop an instrument to measure meaning in life based on Frankl's theory of logotherapy. Data were collected from August to October, 1999 by means of questionnaires developed by researchers. The subjects were 351 adults living in Busan and Kyoung Nam province. The study was conducted as follows: 1) A conceptual framework was identified based on the extensive review of relevant literatures and interviews with adults and professionals in psychology, philosophy, theology, and nursing. 2) The 76 items, 4-points scale were developed.3) The scale was tested on 351 adults to assess the reliability and validity, and factor analysis was done. 4) 63 items were established based on this testing and ten factors were extracted. These factors were labeled as self-awareness and self-acceptance, futuristic aspiration, valuelessness, purpose in life, contentedness with life, role awareness, experience of love, love in family, commitment, self-transcendence. Cronbach`s alpha of the 63 items was .950. Comparative studies to assess construct validity and repetitive studies to heighten generalizability are needed. This tool can be utilized to measure Korean's meaning in life.

Measuring Purpose in Life: A Review

“…For example, ten of the instruments were composed rized phenomenology of purpose and meaning in life constructs. Some measures, such as Personal Mean-Measurement (MLM; Morgan & Farsides, 2009), and the Meaning in Life Measurement Tool (MLMT; Lee et al, 2002) appear to be more successful in identifying domains in their scales that assess for concepts present in the extant literature. Even so, while multidimensional scales offer the advantage of evaluating different components of purpose in life at the same time, they are limiting insofar as they only measure the dimensions designated in the instrument; the conmeasures with a more open-ended format, such as the Schedule for Meaning in Life Evaluation (SMiLE; Fegg, Kramer, L'hoste, & Borasio, 2008), Revised Youth Purpose Suvey (RYPS; Bundick et al, 2006), the Meaning Essay Document (MED; , and the Meaning in Life Depth Instrument (MiLD;, thus can give a more nuanced picture of life purpose.…”

“…The most promising measures related to purpose in life represent good methodological approaches to the development of scales that assess the purpose construct. These include the Personal Meaning Pro-Life Evaluation (SMiLE; Fegg et al, 2008), and the Meaning in Life Measurement Tool (MLMT; Lee et al, 2002). The PMP was constructed beginning with a bottom-up approach, in which lay-people's conceptions of the meaning in life construct was studied, allowing researchers to understand common beliefs -MEASURING PURPOSE IN LIFE oretical biases.…”

“…Surveys such as the Frankl Questionnaire (FQ; Frankl, 1959), the Purpose in Life Test (PIL; Crumbaugh & Maholick, 1964), The Life Purpose Questionnaire (LPQ; Hablas & Hutzell, 1982), the Life Engagement Test (LET; Scheier et al, 2006), the Existence of Purpose in Life Scale (EPIL; Law, 2012), and Ryff 's Scales of Psychological Well-being Purpose Subscale (RPWB; Ryff, 1989;Ryff & Keyes, 1995) all assess the degree to which a sense of purpose in life is present in an individual. Measures such as the Personal Meaning Index (PMI; Reker, 1992), the Personal Meaning Pro-(ML; Warner & Williams, 1987), the Meaning in Life Measurement Tool (MLMT; Lee et al, 2002), and the Meaningful Life Measure (MLM; Morgan & Farsides, 2009) assess the degree to which meaning is present in one's life. These measures are appropriate for those looking to simply evaluate the level of perceived purpose or meaning in one's life.…”