This article describes the concept of posttraumnatic growth, its conceptual founda tions, and supporting empirical evidence. Posttraumatic growth is the experience of positive change that occurs as a result of the struggle with highly challenging life cri ses. It is nmanifested in a variety of ways, including an increased appreciation for life in general, more meaningful interpersonal relationships, an increased sense ofpersonal strength, changed priorities, and a richer existential and spiritual life. Although the term is new, the idea thatgreatgood can comefrom great suffering is ancient. We pro pose a modelfor understanding the process ofposttraumatic growth in which individ ual characteristics, support and disclosure, and niore centrally, significant cognitive processing involving cognitive structures threatened or nullified by the trauniatic events, play an important role. It is also suggested that posttraumatic growth mutually interacts with life wisdom and the development of the life narrative, and that it is an on going process, not a static outcome.

Posttraumatic Growth: Conceptual Foundations and Empirical Evidence

Counseling psychologists often work with clients to increase their well-being as well as to decrease their distress. One important aspect of well-being, highlighted particularly in humanistic theories of the counseling process, is perceived meaning in life. However, poor measurement has hampered research on meaning in life. In 3 studies, evidence is provided for the internal consistency, temporal stability, factor structure, and validity of the Meaning in Life Questionnaire (MLQ), a new 10-item measure of the presence of, and the search for, meaning in life. A multitrait-multimethod matrix demonstrates the convergent and discriminant validity of the MLQ subscales across time and informants, in comparison with 2 other meaning scales. The MLQ offers several improvements over current meaning in life measures, including no item overlap with distress measures, a stable factor structure, better discriminant validity, a briefer format, and the ability to measure the search for meaning.

/pdf/the-meaning-in-life-questionnaire-assessing-the-presence-of-3lxbz4o2cd.pdf

The Meaning in Life Questionnaire: Assessing the Presence of and Search for Meaning in Life

The authors developed and meta-analytically examined hypotheses designed to test and extend work design theory by integrating motivational, social, and work context characteristics. Results from a summary of 259 studies and 219,625 participants showed that 14 work characteristics explained, on average, 43% of the variance in the 19 worker attitudes and behaviors examined. For example, motivational characteristics explained 25% of the variance in subjective performance, 2% in turnover perceptions, 34% in job satisfaction, 24% in organizational commitment, and 26% in role perception outcomes. Beyond motivational characteristics, social characteristics explained incremental variances of 9% of the variance in subjective performance, 24% in turnover intentions, 17% in job satisfaction, 40% in organizational commitment, and 18% in role perception outcomes. Finally, beyond both motivational and social characteristics, work context characteristics explained incremental variances of 4% in job satisfaction and 16% in stress. The results of this study suggest numerous opportunities for the continued development of work design theory and practice.

/pdf/integrating-motivational-social-and-contextual-work-design-2jvoaedpg3.pdf

Integrating Motivational, Social, and Contextual Work Design Features: A Meta-Analytic Summary and Theoretical Extension of the Work Design Literature

Although theoretical and empirical work on topics related to meaning and meaning making proliferate, careful evaluation and integration of this area have not been carried out. Toward this end, this...

Meaning in the context of stress and coping

A Consensus Conference sponsored by the Archstone Foundation of Long Beach, California, was held February 17–18, 2009, in Pasadena, California. The Conference was based on the belief that spiritual care is a fundamental component of quality palliative care. This document and the conference recommendations it includes builds upon prior literature, the National Consensus Project Guidelines, and the National Quality Forum Preferred Practices and Conference proceedings.

https://growthhouse.org/spirit/files/spiritual_care_consensus_report.pdf

Improving the Quality of Spiritual Care as a Dimension of Palliative Care: The Report of the Consensus Conference

insistent quest for the meaning of things. The question is one that faces "everyman" from the child's first awareness of the mystery of life to the adult's apprehension of the mystery of death. As one existential writer put it, "I know only two things?one, that I will be dead someday, two, that I am not dead now. The only question is what shall I do be tween those two points." Does nihilistic literature and philosophy have the answer?wallowing in nothingness? Are the Madison Avenue thought controllers right in their claim that the time for the individual has passed and that we should conform to collectivities because there is safety in numbers? Shall we follow the "beat generation" and the "angry young men" who say we should conform to non-conformity in the name of pure rebelliousness and non-constructive creativity? Or should we just capitu late with the "positive thinkers" who say that all this concern about what things mean is too nerve-wracking, and that the problems of life can best be met by taking existential tranquilizers in the form of sugar coated mottos? The way in which contemporary man is clutching at straws in his search for meaning is symptomatic both of the depth of his concern and of the inadequacy of the answers which are emerging. In the material which follows, I will develop this theme primarily by elaboration of relevant material on the problems of reality and value, and the psy chology of perception and personality. Since the search for meaning ultimately implies an effort to arrive at something irreducible, it seems reasonable to open the inquiry with the question of knowledge and reality.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/27827428.pdf

Joseph R. Royce

Papers

The search for meaning.