The Study Of The Formation Mechanism Of Meaning In Life And Its Effects On Mental Health

Meaning in life is an eternal topic of humankind.With the rapid development of Chinese economy,and the prevalence of materialism,consumerism and utilitarianism,meaning in life increasingly arouse people’s attention.The question of meaning of life was long ago embedded in a western metaphysical context.With the emerging and development of Existential Psychology and Positive Psychology,the question has gradually come to the vision of empirical psychology.Psychologist has mainly interested in the subjective feeling of meaning in everyday life.Most of the empirical studies of meaning in life were conducted in western culture,which had mainly explored the source of meaning in life,contributory factors of meaning in life and the influence of meaning in life on human health and well-being.Due to the difficulty in defining and measuring meaning in life,the development and integration of empirical study of meaning in life had been hindered.There are many deficiencies in previous studies.First,previous studies neither investigate the source of meaning in life in the context of Chinese culture,nor analyzed the source of meaning in life from perspective of Chinese Indigenous Psychology.Second,contributory factors of meaning in life in previous studies were restricted in individual level and cognitive level,lacking investigation into factors embedded in social and cultural level.Third,previous studies didn’t investigate the psychological mechanism of how different factors influence individuals’feelings of meaning in life.Fourth,there are many inconsistent conclusions about the relationship between presence of meaning in life and different index of mental health,and previous studies also didn’t investigate the mechanism of how presence of meaning in life affects mental health.Given the deficiencies of previous studies,we will systematically study factors influencing meaning in life at different levels such as cultural,social,interpersonal and individual.Then we will examine the mediation effect of basic psychological need satisfaction(BNS)on the relationship between influence factors and meaning in life.Finally,we will also examine the relationship among meaning in life,anxiety and depression as well as its psychological mechanism.Study 1 investigated the source of meaning in life in context of Chinese culture.Six underlying dimensions were identified through exploratory factor analysis:Relationship and family obligation,autonomy,self-development,social achievement,experiences in life and social responsibility.Study 2,Study 3 and Study 4 explored factors related with family at cultural,social,interpersonal and individual level.Study 2 Mainly examined the relationship between family obligation and presence of meaning in life.We found that family obligation positively predicted presence of meaning in life when family relationship is close,and this pattern of relationship was mediated by basic psychological need satisfaction.Study 3 explored the relationship between family social economic statuses and meaning in life.We found that family social economic status can positively predict presence of meaning in life.And this pattern of relationship was mediated by basic psychological need satisfaction.Study 4 examined the relationship between social support from family and presence of meaning in life,and the relationship between social constrain from family and presence of meaning in life.We found that social support from family can positively predict presence of meaning in life.Basic psychological need satisfaction serves as a partial mediating role between them.Social constraints from family negatively predicted presence of meaning in life.Basic psychological need satisfaction serves as a full mediating role between them.Study 5 explored the relationship between personal goal and presence of meaning in life.We found that aspiration to financial success related inversely to presence of meaning in life.Aspiration of community feeling related positively to male students’ presence of meaning in life.Intrinsic goals such as self-acceptance,affiliation and community feeling could positively predict presence of meaning in life.This pattern of relationship was fully mediated by basic psychological need satisfaction.The motivation underlying personal goal can influence the relationship between personal goal and presence of meaning in life.Specifically,intrinsic motivation of financial success positively predicted presence of meaning in life,while extrinsic motivation of financial success negatively predicted presence of meaning in life.Moreover,intrinsic motivation of community feeling could positively predict presence of meaning in life,while extrinsic motivation of community feeling could not significantly predict presence of meaning in life.In Study 6,we mainly examined the relationship among presence of meaning in life,search for meaning in life,anxiety and depression.In Sub-study 1 we used the person-oriented approach and cluster analysis to examine meaning in life profiles,and subsequent analyses identify 4 patterns according to score of presence of meaning and search for meaning,the 4 patterns was meaning achievement(high presence,low search),meaning foreclosure(high presence,low search),meaning moratorium(low presence,high search)and meaning moratorium(low presence,low search).Respondents within meaning achievement and meaning foreclosure showed lower level of depression compared with Respondents within meaning moratorium and meaning moratorium.Respondents within meaning moratorium showed the highest level of anxiety than other respondents in other three patterns.Moreover,we conducted three-way interaction analysis and found that high search-high anxiety has lower depression level than low search-high anxiety when the presence of meaning is low,which means that high anxiety caused by high search for meaning has positive influence on mental health when presence of meaning of life is lacking.In sub-study2 we found that rumination played a full mediating role between the relationship of presence of meaning in life and depression.To sum up,this series of studies found that(1)the source of meaning in life among Chinese university students shows a pattern of difference sequence from self development to family obligation and social responsibility.(2)University students’ presence of meaning in life depend on the satisfaction basic psychological needs of autonomy,competence and relatedness,external factors had through the mediation of basic psychological need satisfaction.(3)Presence of meaning in life is a main predictor of depression,presence of meaning in life affects depression by the mediating effect of rumination.Anxiety caused by search for meaning had positive effect on mental health.