The Relationships Between Meaning, Hope, and Psychological Development

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-1-2010

School

Psychology

Abstract

Existential psychology is concerned with enhancing psychological well-being through the awareness of Frankl’s concepts on meaning and purpose in life. Positive psychology supports this view and emphasizes that both meaning and hope are essential to mental health. Similarly, successful resolution of Eriksonian psychosocial issues promotes healthy growth and development. This study investigated the relationships between meaning in life, hope, and psychosocial development. Subjects were asked to complete measures of personal meaning, psychosocial development, and two measures of hope. Correlational analyses revealed noteworthy correlations between meaning, level of psychosocial development, and hope. Although comparisons of scores on all four measures generated statistically significant correlations, the Herth Hope Scale consistently produced higher correlations with the two other measures than the scores from the Snyder Hope Scale. These results suggest that the Herth Hope Scale, which contains a spiritual component, may relate better to constructs of meaning and successful psychosocial development, which also reflects a sense of integrity. Given the large number of statistically significant correlations between meaning and psychosocial development, these relationships were also examined at a multivariate level using canonical correlation analysis.

Publication Title

International Journal of Existenial Psychology & Psychotherapy

Volume

3

Issue

1

First Page

1

Last Page

12

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