Conceptualization, Construction and Validation of the Existential Fulfilment Scale

Abstract

research articleThis study presents the development and validation of the Existential Fulfilment Scale. Following Frankl’s concepts of life meaning and existential vacuum, the authors elaborate the construct of existential fulfilment. Three basic attitudes are distinguished, viz. selfacceptance, self-actualization, and self-transcendence, all of which deal with overcoming the conflicts caused by the human existential boundaries. A new scale has been developed out of Längle’s Existence Scale, the Existential Fulfilment Scale. Its advantage is that it distinguishes psychologically unhealthy, self-alienating purposes in life from healthy ones. Well-known measures such as Purpose in Life Test, Life Regard Inventory, and Sense of Coherence, fail to do so. The Existential Fulfilment Scale has been tested among 812 Dutch individuals. The results of a confirmatory factor analysis make clear that the three basic attitudes of existential fulfilment should be interpreted as distinct dimensions