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Is the Search for Meaning Related to the Presence of Meaning? Moderators of the Longitudinal Relationship

  • Steven Tsun-Wai Chu
  • Helene Hoi-Lam FungEmail author
Research Paper

Abstract

Meaning in life is an important element of psychological well-being. Intuitively, the search for meaning is associated with greater presence of meaning, but whether the relationship exists is met with mixed findings in the literature. The present studies aim to investigate the moderators of this relationship. Two studies, a one-month longitudinal study (N = 166, retention rate = 100%) and a six-month longitudinal study (N = 181, retention rate = 83%) were carried out. Participants completed measures on meaning in life, personality variables, and psychological needs in the baseline survey, and meaning in life in the follow-up survey. Multiple regression analysis showed that optimism, BIS, and psychological needs emerged to be significant moderators of the longitudinal relationship. Search for meaning at baseline was positively associated with presence of meaning at follow-up only for those with greater maladaptive traits. The search for meaning in adverse circumstances appears to be more effective than in benign conditions. Deficiency search is functional.

Keywords

Existential Approach avoidance Openness to experience Optimism Selfimprovement Motivation Collective culture 

Notes

Funding

This work was supported by a General Research Fund Grant from the Research Grant Council, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China (project number 14613015) and Direct Grant from Faculty of Social Science, The Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Compliance with Ethical Standards

Conflict of interest

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Supplementary material

10902_2020_222_MOESM1_ESM.docx (230 kb)
Supplementary material 1 (DOCX 230 kb)

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Copyright information

© Springer Nature B.V. 2020

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.The Chinese University of Hong KongSha TinHong Kong

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