Abstract
Across three studies, we investigated whether threats to belongingness influence the tendency to use social relationships as a source of meaning in life (MIL), and in turn, perceived levels of MIL. This study builds on previous similar work in this area (e.g.; Hicks and King in J Posit Psychol 4:471–482, 2009), by explicitly measuring the tendency to base MIL on social relationships. In Study 1, we found that belongingness was positively associated with both the tendency to base MIL on social relationships and overall levels of MIL. Meanwhile, an exploratory mediation analysis was consistent with the idea that basing MIL on social relationships partially mediated the association between belongingness and MIL. In Study 2, we found that an experimental manipulation of social exclusion reduced both the importance attached to social relationships as a source of MIL and MIL levels (and a similar mediation pattern as Study 1). Moreover, participants experiencing threats to belonging tended to reaffirm MIL through autonomy in a compensation type process. In Study 3, we found that the effect of social exclusion on MIL levels and basing MIL on social relationships was attenuated when the value of social relationships was negated. Implications for future research on social relationships and compensation processes in MIL judgments are discussed.
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Notes
We originally tried to code this variable as continuous. However, we found it much more difficult to determine precisely the extent to which an individual relied on social relationships to generate MIL, than to simply decide whether or not he/she referred to social relationships as a source of MIL.
There are still other three sources of MIL in Zhang et al.'s (2016) scale: secular pursuits, experiences in life, and civilization. We did not include these dimensions in the current study because they are rarely identified in other frameworks of MIL.
The measure of state MIL showed low internal consistency probably due to the fact that it has only two items. However, if analyzed separately, both items showed significant differences across the three experimental groups, Fs(1, 88) = 3.30 and 3.57, ps = .041 and .032, respectively.
Socially excluded participants who were exposed to information on the importance of social relationships reported basing MIL on social relationships to the same extent as those in other groups. Yet, their MIL was still lower than that of other groups. This result seemed to contradict the results from Studies 1 and 2 showing that basing MIL on social relationships contributed to MIL. However, we believe that it does make sense. If need to belong is satisfied, then, individuals would use social relationships as a source of MIL. In turn, safely relying on social relationships to find meaning contributes to MIL. However, if one bases MIL on relationships but experiences social exclusions, then, the level of MIL should still be reduced.
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Acknowledgements
The authors thank Mr. Shuo Yu and Ms. Yuan Tian for their assistance in data collection. The authors are also grateful to Dr. Joshua Hicks for his valuable comments on a previous version of this article.
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This research is supported by grant from the National Natural Science Foundation of China allocated to the first author (Grant No. 31400899).
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Zhang, H., Sang, Z., Chan, D.KS. et al. Threats to belongingness and meaning in life: A test of the compensation among sources of meaning. Motiv Emot 43, 242–254 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-018-9737-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-018-9737-8