scholarly journals The Emergence of Meaning From Meaningful Moments in Life

2020 ◽  
pp. 002216782096777
Author(s):  
Jacky van de Goor ◽  
Anneke M. Sools ◽  
Gerben J. Westerhof

Meaningful moments are specific events in life that are felt to be of great value and significance. This empirical study presents a framework on the way a sense of meaning emerges from these moments. Out of an existing data set of narratives of meaningful moments, a purposeful sample of nine narratives was chosen from different participants, all middle-aged, higher educated, and with an interest or profession in personal development. Interviews were conducted about the way these moments were experienced to be meaningful. A holistic content analysis led to the distinction of five main themes in the process of meaning emergence. The study showed how meaning discovery may lead to meaning creation, which in turn may lead to retrospective meaning discovery. Results highlighted the crucial role of the awareness of contrasts and letting go. Finally, the study showed a variety of ways in which meaningful moments have a lasting impact on life. The value of the developed framework lies in its focus on meaning as a process, integrating the concepts of coherence, purpose, significance and self-transcendence, and illustrating how meaning emerges through forward acts and discoveries as well as in retrospect.

After a quick reminder of this project's main objectives and their outcomes, this chapter considers the impact of a cross-disciplinary approach on education, arguing that it is not only a fruitful pedagogical method, but also a deeply enriching path for personal development, in the same way that mentoring and international journeys are. We also consider what we have learned about the way in which science, philosophy, and narratives are intricately connected. We make recommendations for further research, especially on the role of narratives and philosophy in other cross-disciplinary fields, such as culture, psychotherapy, and the challenges currently posed by technology. We encourage further exploration of the ways in which narratives may be abused to advance particular interests in various fields of public life. We end with a reminder of the prolific role of both stories and practical philosophy in the process of formative education (or personal development in general). Here, mentors and journeys have a key role, equivalent to that of internships in formal education.


2019 ◽  
pp. 135910531987166
Author(s):  
Maria Leonora (Nori) Comello ◽  
Diane B Francis ◽  
Laurie Hursting ◽  
Elizabeth Swarner ◽  
Laura H Marshall

Value-affirming activities have been linked to positive health outcomes and improved ability to cope. For cancer survivors who regularly play video games, might the games have potential to affirm values? We surveyed gameplaying survivors and included an open-ended question asking about values and the extent to which they perceived gameplaying as supporting values. A content analysis of responses ( N = 533) using Schwartz’s value typology revealed that a majority perceived gameplaying as supporting values or offering other benefits. Self-transcendence followed by openness to change were the most frequently coded higher-order categories. The results contribute to a richer understanding of survivors who gameplay.


1997 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 306-307 ◽  
Author(s):  
Willem P. De Jong ◽  
Gerard P. Van Galen

Notwithstanding its overwhelming descriptive power for existing data, it is not clear whether the kinematic theory of Plamondon & Alimi could generate new insights into biomechanical constraints and psychological processes underlying the way organisms trade off speed for accuracy. The kinematic model should elaborate on the role of neuromotor noise and on biomechanical strategies for reducing endpoint variability related to such noise.


Author(s):  
Nunzia Carbonara

Crowdfunding is a relatively new phenomenon, which disrupted the classic way to fund a venture. It consists in retrieving the capital needed to start an entrepreneurial activity drawing funds from a large base of small investors – generally common people – rather than from the traditional financial sources. Although many studies have been conducted on this topic, little focus has been put on the geography of this phenomenon. This article addresses this issue analysing whether regions characterized by the presence of geographical clusters are able to raise the probability of a successful crowdfunding campaign for projects located there. Drawing on a data set of 792 crowdfunded projects, we conduct an empirical study aimed at studying the role played by geographical clusters in fostering the crowdfunding of new entrepreneurial ventures. The results offer insights into the phenomenon of crowdfunding and shed light on the role of geographical clusters in the success of reward-based crowdfunding campaigns of early-stage entrepreneurial projects.


Target ◽  
1993 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregory M. Shreve ◽  
Christina Schäffner ◽  
Joseph H. Danks ◽  
Jennifer Griffin

Abstract The role of reading in translation is rarely discussed in the literature. Translation has mainly been discussed within a product-oriented framework. The more process-oriented approaches of recent years have taken notice of reading as a component activity of the translation process. However, few empirical studies have been completed which address the role of reading in translation. The way a person reads, and the result of that reading (some sort of mental representation of the text or text segment), will depend on the reader's purposes and motivations. The present empirical study indicates that while the translator's reading of a text may be to some extent more thorough and deliberate than that of an ordinary reader, it is not likely to be markedly so. The study also indicates a significant variability in the way translators "read for translation". This suggests the existence of alternate strategies in this kind of reading.


2017 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 415-442 ◽  
Author(s):  
Birte Fähnrich ◽  
Corinna Lüthje

This article examines the visibility of social scientists in the context of crisis media reporting by using the example of the German populist radical right movement PEGIDA. Based on previous research, a role typology was developed to serve as a framework for the empirical study. A content analysis of German newspapers demonstrates that social scientists are quite visible in the media coverage of PEGIDA and are presented mainly in the role of intellectuals. At the same time, new roles for social scientists are also discernible. Based on these findings, an extended role typology was developed to provide points of reference for further research.


Author(s):  
Peter Moser

Our relationships to places, people, and our physical and metaphysical environment drive our personal journeys. Our identity develops from birth through this complex web of relationships where skills, creativity, and personality grow in unique pathways. A sense of place is about this personal development as well as the way communities grow in response to their constituents in a symbiotic process of sympathetic exchange. This chapter will examine how music and culture articulate these changes and through examining forms of practice in historic and geographic contexts I will also investigate aspects of the role of the artist, educator, and facilitator. Over thirty years I have created work inspired by the towns and countryside of Morecambe Bay in the North West of England. Through detailed examination of this work in this chapter, I introduce themes of cultural creativity, vernacular art, and civic and personal celebration that are at the heart of the work of a community musician.


2014 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 191-218 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erika Alpert

I examine data from my fieldwork with Japanese professional matchmakers and their attitude towards new, “less masculine” masculinities. Matchmakers’ ideologies of conversation show that they understand “good partners” as having personality traits that are not particularly ascribed to any gender. Consequently, they allow for flexibility in gendered behavior, as long as their clients can be brought within the heterosexual institution of marriage. As in previous work in the field of language and sexuality, I focus on the way that genders and sexualities are performed through language. However, by focusing on matchmakers, I aim to examine the institutional structures and language ideologies that constrain the process of self-fashioning. Like other recent work on topics such as “personal development”, I treat “self-fashioning” as a multiparty process by addressing the role of the expert in constructing the advice by which clients are supposed to (re)fashion themselves.


2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 250-262 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carbonara Nunzia

This article studies whether some salient characteristics of the geographical area in which a crowdfunding campaign is launched affect its success. Drawing on a data set of 792 crowdfunded projects, we conduct an empirical study aimed at studying the role played by geographical clusters (GCs) in fostering the crowdfunding of new entrepreneurial ventures. The results offer insights into the phenomenon of crowdfunding and shed light on the role of GCs in the success of reward-based crowdfunding campaigns of early-stage entrepreneurial projects.


2020 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 327-350 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeannette Paschen ◽  
Matthew Wilson ◽  
Karen Robson

Purpose This study aims to investigate motivations and human values of everyday consumers who participate in the annual day of consumption restraint known as Buy Nothing Day (BND). In addition, this study demonstrates a hybrid content analysis method in which artificial intelligence and human contributions are used in the data analysis. Design/methodology/approach This research uses a hybrid method of content analysis of a large Twitter data set spanning three years. Findings Consumer motivations are categorized as relating to consumerism, personal welfare, wastefulness, environment, inequality, anti-capitalism, financial responsibility, financial necessity, health, ethics and resistance to American culture. Of these, consumerism and personal welfare are the most common. Moreover, human values related to “openness to change” and “self-transcendence” were prominent in the BND tweets. Research limitations/implications This research demonstrates the effectiveness of a hybrid content analysis methodology and uncovers the motivations and human values that average consumers (as opposed to consumer activists) have to restrain their consumption. This research also provides insight for firms wishing to better understand and respond to consumption restraint. Practical implications This research provides insight for firms wishing to better understand and respond to consumption restraint. Originality/value The question of why everyday consumers engage in consumption restraint has received little attention in the scholarly discourse; this research provides insight into “everyday” consumer motivations for engaging in restraint using a hybrid content analysis of a large data set spanning over three years.


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