How Giving Birth Makes Sense: A Questionnaire Study on Existential Meaning-Making Among Mothers Giving Birth Preterm or at Term

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Line Bruun Hansen ◽  
Niels Christian Hvidt ◽  
Katrine Ernst Mortensen ◽  
Chunsen Wu ◽  
Christina Prinds
Keyword(s):  
Meaning Making ◽  
Questionnaire Study ◽  
Existential Meaning ◽  
Birth Preterm

Older people with incurable cancer: Existential meaning-making from a life-span perspective

2015 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sigrid Helene Kjørven Haug ◽  
Lars J. Danbolt ◽  
Kari Kvigne ◽  
Valerie DeMarinis
Keyword(s):  
Palliative Care ◽  
Older People ◽  
Life Span ◽  
Daily Living ◽  
Developmental Psychology ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Adaptive Strategies ◽  
Growth Potential ◽  
Incurable Cancer ◽  
Existential Meaning

ABSTRACTObjective:An increasing number of older people in Western countries are living with incurable cancer, receiving palliative care from specialized healthcare contexts. The aim of our article was to understand how they experience the existential meaning-making function in daily living from a life-span perspective.Method:Some 21 participants (12 men and 9 women), aged 70–88, were interviewed in a semistructured framework. They were recruited from somatic hospitals in southeastern Norway. We applied the model of selective optimization with compensation (SOC) from life-span developmental psychology in a deductive manner to explore the participants' life-oriented adaptive strategies. A meaning component was added to the SOC model.Results:The participants experienced the existential meaning-making function on two levels. On a superordinate level, it was an important component for interpreting and coordinating the adaptive strategies of SOC for reaching the most important goals in daily living. The existential meaning-making framework provided for a comprehensive understanding of resilience, allowing for both restoration and growth components to be identified. The second level was related to strategy, in that the existential meaning-making function was involved in a complex interaction with behavioral resources and resilience, leading to continuation of goals and more realistic goal adjustments. A few experienced existential meaning-making dysfunction.Significance of results:The modified SOC model was seen as applicable for palliative care in specialized healthcare contexts. Employing the existential meaning-making framework with its complementary understanding of resilience as growth potential to the SOC model's restoration potential can help older people to identify how they make meaning and how this influences their adaptation process to being incurably sick.

Religie als bron van zingeving en sociale binding. Godsdienstpsychologische reflecties bij Gijs Dingemans’ In vredesnaam

2010 ◽  
Vol 64 (2) ◽  
pp. 91-107
Author(s):  
Hetty Zock
Keyword(s):  
Meaning Making ◽  
Church Leaders ◽  
The Other ◽  
Stereotyped Behaviour ◽  
Existential Meaning ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Psychological Theories ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Group Identities ◽  
The One

The author argues that individual usage and appropriation of religious traditions has become increasingly important. Therefore, church leaders and pastors should pay more attention to the psychological functions of religion. On the one hand religion serves as a source of existential meaning-making and on the other hand as a powerful glue of group identities. By discussing the psychological theories of Erik H. Erikson, Hubert Hermans and James W. Jones, the Janus face of religion is highlighted. Religion may lead to intolerance and stereotyped behaviour (when it is only used to reduce identity anxiety and narcissistic problems), but it may also stimulate empathy and dialogical capacities.

How older people with incurable cancer experience daily living: A qualitative study from Norway

2014 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 1037-1048 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sigrid Helene Kjørven Haug ◽  
Lars J. Danbolt ◽  
Kari Kvigne ◽  
Valerie Demarinis
Keyword(s):  
Palliative Care ◽  
Older People ◽  
Daily Living ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Phenomenological Approach ◽  
Incurable Cancer ◽  
Existential Meaning ◽  
Strongly Connected ◽  
Sociocultural Resources ◽  
Cancer Experience

AbstractObjective:An increasing number of older people are living with incurable cancer as a chronic disease, requiring palliative care from specialized healthcare for shorter or longer periods of time. The aim of our study was to describe how they experience daily living while receiving palliative care in specialized healthcare contexts.Method:We conducted a qualitative research study with a phenomenological approach called “systematic text condensation.” A total of 21 participants, 12 men and 9 women, aged 70–88, took part in semistructured interviews. They were recruited from two somatic hospitals in southeastern Norway.Results:The participants experienced a strong link to life in terms of four subthemes: to acknowledge the need for close relationships; to maintain activities of normal daily life; to provide space for existential meaning-making and to name and handle decline and loss. In addition, they reported that specialized healthcare contexts strengthened the link to life by prioritizing and providing person-centered palliative care.Significance of results:Older people with incurable cancer are still strongly connected to life in their daily living. The knowledge that the potential for resilience remains despite aging and serious decline in health is considered a source of comfort for older people living with this disease. Insights into the processes of existential meaning-making and resilience are seen as useful in order to increase our understanding of how older people adapt to adversity, and how their responses may help to protect them from some of the difficulties inherent to aging. Healthcare professionals can make use of this information in treatment planning and for identification of psychosocial and sociocultural resources to support older people and to strengthen patients' life resources.

scholarly journals Illuminating Existential Meaning: A New Approach in the Study of Retirement

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 196-214
Author(s):  
Mattias Bengtsson ◽  
Marita Flisbäck
Keyword(s):  
Meaning Making ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Working Life ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Social Condition ◽  
Life Transition ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Life Course Transitions ◽  
Existential Meaning ◽  
Existential Sociology

Current discussions on the importance of retirement are largely built on statistical analyses of longitudinal data showing that well-being seldom changes from before to after entering retirement, but is rather mainly dependent on the individual’s social resource position. In contrast, qualitatively oriented researchers underline that the retirement process is a complex life transition that needs to be further illuminated. To do this, however, we need to advance new theoretical and methodological perspectives. In this article, an existential sociology approach is outlined, emphasizing the multifaceted spectra of lived experiences and meaning-making in the retirement process. The phenomenological approaches of existential sociology allow us to consider how the exit from working life is created in the processes of motion rather than as expressions of static positions. A merit of this approach is that retirement as an empirical case may say something general about being in transition as a basic social condition. In the article, we discuss how a socio-biographical methodology, based on longitudinal qualitative interviews, helps us capture how existential meaning is formed and reformed in the ambiguous situations which arise in similar life-course transitions. Theoretically, we especially draw on concepts from the existential anthropologist Jackson and the phenomenological tradition of existential philosophers such as Arendt and Heidegger.

scholarly journals Processes of Value Co-creation at a Tourist Accommodation

2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anette Oxenswardh
Keyword(s):  
Customer Satisfaction ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Tourism Industry ◽  
Questionnaire Study ◽  
Positive Experience ◽  
Creation Process ◽  
Common Culture ◽  
Bed And Breakfast ◽  
Tourist Accommodation

<p><strong>Purpose: </strong>This paper aims to study how a pair of hosts for one bed and breakfast establishment and their guests create value for the visit by communicating and interacting with each other on the island of Gotland.</p><p><strong>Methodology/Approach: </strong>A case study was conducted on one single Bed and Breakfast (BnB) accommodation. An interview and a Questionnaire study were performed.</p><p><strong>Findings: </strong>The study shows that there are several processes involved in the co-creation of values between visitors and hosts. Co-creation processes begin already when visitors are planning their visits to the island. Their expectations are created while choosing their accommodation type, often done online on different websites. Pre-information about the chosen BnB accommodation contributes to visitors’ expectations and image of the object, which can be seen as a part of their identities. In the physical meeting with the accommodation and the hosts and other guests, the co-creation process is strengthened. There are processes of participation, communication, creation of meaning for the stay, processes of trust and responsibilities which all together create a common culture which in turn contributes to co-creation of values for both parties. These processes also take place between guests. The processes are furthermore dependent on meaning-making and sensemaking processes. This all together generate knowledge about the destination and the values that enhance the positive experience of the visits. It also creates knowledge for the hosts about how they can develop their service to achieve increased customer satisfaction. Finally, these skills can be valuable for the continued planning and development of the tourism industry.</p><p><strong>Research Limitation/implication: </strong>The study is limited to a one single BnB accommodation with its hosts on the island of Gotland in Sweden.</p><p><strong>Originality/Value of paper: </strong>The study makes a contribution to the knowledge of processes of co-creation values by exploring how some visitors and their hosts experienced visits to the island. The study can help bridging the gap in the views and actions on co-creation of values among visitors and those who are visited.</p>

scholarly journals Reconstructing Disruptive Life Events Using the RE-LIFE Questionnaire: Further Validation of the ‘Narrative Meaning Making of Life Events’ Model Using Multiple Mediation Analysis

2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 251-280
Author(s):  
Iris D. Hartog ◽  
Michael Scherer-Rath ◽  
Tom H. Oreel ◽  
Justine E. Netjes ◽  
José P.S. Henriques ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Theoretical Model ◽  
Life Events ◽  
Mediation Analysis ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Life Goals ◽  
Multiple Mediation ◽  
Existential Meaning

Abstract The theoretical model: ‘Narrative meaning making and integration of life events’ hypothesizes that life events such as falling ill may result in an ‘experience of contingency’. Through narrative meaning making, this experience may be eventually integrated into patients’ life stories, which, in turn, may enhance their quality of life. To contribute to our understanding of this existential dimension of falling ill and to further validate the theoretical model, we examined the relationships among the concepts assessed with the RE-LIFE questionnaire. Two hypothesized mediation models were assessed using regression-based serial multiple mediation analysis. Model 1, assessing the influence of ‘experience of contingency’ on ‘acknowledging’, was significant and showed partial mediation by indirect influences through ‘negative impact on life goals’ and ‘existential meaning’. Model 2, assessing the influence of ‘experience of contingency’ on ‘quality of life’, was also significant, with a full mediation by the variables ‘negative impact on life goals’, ‘existential meaning’ and ‘acknowledging’. In conclusion, several hypothesized relationships within the theoretical model were confirmed. Narrative meaning making and integration significantly influence people’s self-evaluation of their quality of life.

scholarly journals Spiritual and Secular Existential Meaning-Making Coping Methods among Japanese Cancer Patients

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (6) ◽  
pp. 109
Author(s):  
Fereshteh Ahmadi ◽  
Mohammad Rabbani ◽  
Xiaohe Yi ◽  
Hiroko Kase ◽  
Nader Ahmadi
Keyword(s):  
Social Context ◽  
Cancer Patients ◽  
Present Article ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
International Project ◽  
Sociological Perspective ◽  
Existential Meaning ◽  
Coping Methods ◽  
The Impact

The present article is written on the basis of a sociological international project on meaning-making coping. The aim of the project has been to understand the role of culture in meaning-making coping. The project embarrasses studies among cancer patients in 10 countries. The present article is confined to the results obtained in the study in japan. The main aim was to investigate the impact of culture from a sociological perspective on the choice of coping methods. Twelve participants with various kinds of cancer were interviewed.Several meaning-making coping methods are found in the present study. This study underlines the importance of investigating cultural and social context when investigating into the use of the meaning-making coping methods in different countries.

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