The development of the Meaning in Life Index (MILI) and its relationship with personality and religious behaviours and beliefs among UK undergraduate students

The scales available for assessing meaning in life appear to be confounded with several related constructs, including purpose in life, satisfaction with life, and goal-directed behaviour. The Meaning in Life Index (MILI), a new instrument devised as a specific measure of meaning in life, was developed from responses to a pool of 22 items rated by a sample of 501 undergraduate students in Wales. The nine-item scale demonstrated sufficient face validity, internal consistency, and scale reliability to commend the instrument for future use. With respect to personality, the MILI scores were most strongly predicted by neuroticism (negatively), and less strongly by extraversion (positively) and psychoticism (negatively). With respect to several religious behavioural variables, those who attended church at least weekly returned significantly higher MILI scores than those who attended church less frequently. Intrinsic religiosity was the only orientation to be significantly associated with the MILI scale scores, although the magnitude of the association was smaller than anticipated. These results suggest that meaning in life is associated more strongly with individual differences in personality than with specific religious behaviours and attitudes. The implications of these results are discussed in terms of individual's personal values and attitudes that might underlie their experience of a meaning in life

The relationship between priestly motivational styles and personal wellbeing in ministry : exploring the connection between religious orientation and purpose in life among Catholic priests serving in Italy

This study examines the association between priestly motivation (accessed via the psychological notion of religious orientation) and personal wellbeing (accessed via the psychological notion of purpose in life) among a sample of 155 Catholic priests serving in Italy. The data confirm a positive association between intrinsic religious orientation and purpose in life, but a negative association between quest religious orientation and purpose in life. These findings are discussed in light of the expectations placed on Catholic priests by the Church and by society

Meaning in life is associated with the psychopathology of eating disorders: differences depending on the diagnosis.

Previous studies indicated that meaning in life was inversely associated with eating behaviors and a negative attitude toward food, body satisfaction, and borderline symptoms. However, research on the association between meaning in life and eating disorder psychopathology is scarce, and there are no studies on the association between meaning in life and the eating disorder psychopathology depending on the diagnosis. The aim of the present study is to verify whether meaning in life is differentially associated with a broad range of psychopathology symptoms commonly observed in people with ED, depending on the diagnosis, in a sample of 240 ED patients. We found that meaning in life was negatively associated with eating behaviors and a negative attitude toward food, body satisfaction, borderline symptoms, and hopelessness in all types of eating disorders, regardless of the specific diagnosis. Moreover, the association with meaning in life was different depending on the type of eating disorders. Specifically in the participants with Anorexia Nervosa Restrictive, meaning in life had a higher percentage of explained variance in the eating disorders psychopathology (between 30%-65%). Therefore, these results seem to indicate that, although meaning in life is an important variable in all the eating disorders subtypes, it is especially relevant in participants with the Anorexia Nervosa Restrictive subtype

Meaning in life in the Federal Republic of Germany: results of a representative survey with the Schedule for Meaning in Life Evaluation (SMiLE)

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“Nonsense Rides Piggyback on Sensible Things”: The Past, Present, and Future of Graphology

“Nonsense rides piggyback on sensible things”, declares professional sceptic and questioned-document analyst Joe Nickell concerning graphology. This chapter examines graphology’s enduring allure and reach, despite its controversies, and considers its relationship with other types of handwriting analysis. It first asks: is it possible to metaphorically “dissect” the page of handwritten texts, to scrutinize writing as a “medical paratext” rich in information about the writer’s state of health? It then interrogates the nature of the connection between physical and mental states and handwriting. It demonstrates how academics are going “back to basics” with their enquiries into individual difference and handwriting features, and how digital methodologies are contributing to this. Thus, this chapter is an updated study of graphology, providing a wider understanding of the concept of the paratext by considering the information captured in handwriting in the context of a digital age

Psychological type and personal wellbeing among Catholic priests in Italy : a study in positive psychology

This paper explores the connection between psychological type and personal wellbeing among a sample of 95 Catholic priests serving in Italy. Personal wellbeing was assessed by two measures: the Oxford Happiness Questionnaire and the Purpose in Life Scale. Psychological type was assessed by the Francis Psychological Type Scales that draw on the development of Jung’s classic model that distinguishes between two orientations (extraversion and introversion), two perceiving functions (sensing and intuition), two judging functions (thinking and feeling), and two attitudes (judging and perceiving). The data demonstrated that lower levels of personal wellbeing were experienced by introverts than by extraverts