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Need for Meaning, Meaning Confusion, Meaning Anxiety, and Meaning Avoidance: Additional Dimensions of Meaning in Life

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Abstract

Two aspects of meaning in life have drawn much attention in previous research: presence of meaning and search for meaning. We proposed four additional aspects concerning individuals’ thoughts and feelings about meaning in life: need for meaning, meaning confusion, meaning avoidance, and meaning anxiety. We developed items to measure these dimensions. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis indicated that the data fit the factors well. Convergent and discriminant validities of the four dimensions were demonstrated though their distinct patterns of correlations with other variables, such as personality traits, need satisfaction, personal aspirations, life satisfaction, anxiety and depression. Moreover, cluster analysis revealed that individuals could be divided into meaningful groups according to these dimensions, with each group demonstrating unique psychological features. Implications for future studies on meaning in life are discussed.

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Notes

  1. There were six meaning dimensions, which could yield 15 two-way interaction terms. Moreover, we had also a large number of dependent variables. It was unrealistic to report all the significant results in the text. In addition to the results we reported, we also found significant interactions between meaning confusion and meaning avoidance on presence of meaning, need for meaning, aspirations for financial success and fame, life satisfaction, and positive/negative affect, significant interactions between meaning confusion and search for meaning on presence of meaning, meaning anxiety, and depression, significant interactions between meaning confusion and presence of meaning on meaning avoidance, search for meaning, need for meaning, aspirations for self-acceptance, self-esteem, optimism and depression, significant interactions between meaning confusion and meaning anxiety on search for meaning, presence of meaning, need for meaning, aspirations for fame and community feelings, optimism, positive/negative affect, and life satisfaction, significant interactions between meaning avoidance and meaning anxiety on presence of meaning, aspirations for financial success, fame and appearance, positive/negative affect, anxiety and depression, significant interactions between meaning avoidance and presence of meaning on search for meaning, aspirations for appearance and community feelings, self-esteem, optimism, and significant interactions between presence of meaning and meaning anxiety on need for meaning and search for meaning, optimism and depression. Details of these results can be obtained from the first author.

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Acknowledgements

This research is supported by Grant from the National Natural Science Foundation of China allocated to the first author (Grant No. 31400899). The authors thank Dr. Rebecca Schlegel for her valuable comments on a previous version of this article.

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  1. Department of Psychology, School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210053, China

    Hong Zhang, Zhiqin Sang, Changkai Chen, Jiawei Zhu & Weijing Deng

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  1. Hong Zhang
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Zhang, H., Sang, Z., Chen, C. et al. Need for Meaning, Meaning Confusion, Meaning Anxiety, and Meaning Avoidance: Additional Dimensions of Meaning in Life. J Happiness Stud 19, 191–212 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-016-9815-0

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