One hundred seventy-one subjects were administered Crumbaugh and Maholick's (1981) Purpose in Life Test as a measure of meaninglessness versus existential meaning; Beck, Weissman, Lester, and Trexler's (1974) Hopelessness Scale as a measure of hopelessness versus hope; and Farmer and Sundberg's (1986) Boredom Proneness Scale as a measure of boredom versus interest. Four findings emerged. First, either hope alone or interest alone was sufficient to elevate existential meaning. Second, interest alone was associated with a level of meaning statistically equivalent to the levels associated with hope alone and with hope and interest combined. Third, loss of hope was associated with suicidal ideation, but loss of interest was not. Fourth, compared to subjects identifying with no religion, those identifying with a religion exhibited significantly greater hopefulness, but not significantly greater interest. The clinical implications of these findings are discussed.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
BeckA. T.WeishárM. E. (1990). Suicide risk assessment and prediction. Crisis: The Journal of Crisis Intervention and Suicide Prevention, 11, 22–30.
2.
BeckA. T.WeissmanA.LesterD.TrexlerL. (1974). The measurement of pessimism: The Hopelessness Scale. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 42, 861–865.
3.
BeckerE. (1973). The denial of death. New York: Free Press.
4.
BrechtB. (1966). Galileo. (LaughtonC., Trans.; BentleyE., Ed.). New York: Grove Press.
5.
BrookingsJ. B.SerratelliA. J. (2006). Positive illusions: Positively correlated with subjective well-being, negatively correlated with a measure of personal growth. Psychological Reports, 98, 407–413.
6.
ConnorK. R.DubersteinP. R.ConwellY.SeidlitzL.CaineE. D. (2001). Psychological vulnerability to completed suicide: A review of empirical studies. Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, 31, 367–385.
7.
CrumbaughJ. C.MaholickL. T. (1964). An experimental study in existentialism: The psychometric approach to Frankl's noogenic neurosis. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 20, 200–207.
8.
CrumbaughJ. C. (1968). Cross-validation of Purpose-in-Life Test based on Frankl's concepts. Journal of Individual Psychology, 24, 74–81.
9.
CrumbaughJ. C.MaholickL. T. (1981). Manual of instruction for the Purpose in Life Test. Huntsville, AL: Psychometric Affiliates.
10.
EllenbergerH. F. (1958). A clinical introduction to psychiatric phenomenology and existential analysis. In MayR.AngelE.EllenbergerH. F. (Eds.), Existence: A new dimension in psychiatry and psychology (pp. 92–124). New York: Basic Books.
11.
FarmerR.SundbergN. D. (1986). Boredom proneness—The development and correlates of a new scale. Journal of Personality Assessment, 50, 4–17.
12.
FranklV. E. (1967). Collective neuroses of the present day. In FranklV. E. (Ed.), Psychotherapy and existentialism. Selected papers on logotherapy (pp. 113–131). New York: Washington Square Press.
13.
HátainenK. M., TanskanenA., KylmäJ., AntikainenR., HintikkaJ., HonkalampiK., Koivumá-HonkanenH., ViinamakiH. (2003). Life events are important in the course of hopelessness: A 2-year follow-up study in a general population. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 38, 436–441.
14.
KassS. J.VodanovichS. J.CallenderA. (2001). State-trait boredom: Relationship to absenteeism, tenure, and job satisfaction. Journal of Business and Psychology, 16, 317–327.
15.
KeenS. (1974, April). The heroics of everyday life: A theorist of death confronts his own end—A conversation with Ernest Becker. Psychology Today, 7(11), 71–80.
16.
KunzendorfR. G. (2000). Individual differences in self-conscious source monitoring: Theoretical, experimental, and clinical considerations. In KunzendorfR. G.WallaceB. (Eds.), Individual differences in conscious experience (pp. 375–390). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
17.
LazarusA. A. (1980). Toward delineating some causes of change in psychotherapy. Professional Psychology, 11, 863–870.
18.
MayR. (1958). Contributions of existential psychotherapy. In MayR.AngelE.EllenbergerH. F. (Eds.), Existence: A new dimension in psychiatry and psychology (pp. 37–91). New York: Basic Books.
19.
MeissnerW. W. (1973). Notes on the psychology of hope. Journal of Religion and Health, 12, 120–139.
20.
NairJ.NairS. S.KashaniJ. H.ReidJ. C.MistryS. I.VargasV. G. (1999). Analysis of the symptoms of depression: A neural network approach. Psychiatry Research, 87, 193–201.
21.
ReuterK.RaugustS.BengelJ.HärterM. (2004). Depressive symptom patterns and their consequences for diagnosis of affective disorders in cancer patients. Supportive Care in Cancer: Official Journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer, 12, 864–870.
22.
SilviaP. J. (2006). Exploring the psychology of interest. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.
23.
TaylorS. E. (1989). Positive illusions: Creative self-deception and the healthy mind. New York: Basic Books.
24.
TillichP. (1957). The dynamics of faith. New York: Harper & Row.
