Role-Identity Salience, Purpose and Meaning in Life, and Well-Being among Volunteers

2012 ◽  
Vol 75 (4) ◽  
pp. 360-384 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peggy A. Thoits
Keyword(s):  
Meaning In Life ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Role Identity ◽  
Identity Salience

scholarly journals Role Identity, Dissonance, and Distress among Paramedics

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justin Mausz ◽  
Elizabeth Anne Donnelly ◽  
Sandra Moll ◽  
Sheila Harms ◽  
Meghan McConnell
Keyword(s):  
Meaning In Life ◽  
Sense Of Self ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Role Identity ◽  
Workplace Stress ◽  
Modest Contribution ◽  
Public Safety Personnel ◽  
Identity Disruption ◽  
Role Identity Theory ◽  
Health And Well Being

Role identity theory describes the purpose and meaning in life that comes, in part, from occupying social roles. While robustly linked to health and well-being, this may become, however, when an individual is unable to fulfil the perceived requirements of an especially salient role in the way that they believe they should. Amid high rates of mental illness among public safety personnel, we interviewed a purposely selected sample of 21 paramedics from a single service in Ontario, Canada to explore incongruence between an espoused and able-to-enact paramedic role identity. Situated in an interpretivist epistemology, and using successive rounds of thematic analysis, we developed a framework for role identity dissonance wherein chronic, identity-relevant disruptive events cause emotional and psychological distress. While some participants were able to recalibrate their sense of self and understanding of the role, for others, this dissonance was irreconcilable, contributing to disability and lost time from work. In addition to contributing a novel perspective on paramedic mental health and well-being, our work also offers a modest contribution to the theory in using the paramedic context as an example to consider identity disruption through chronic workplace stress.

Foundations From Quantum Physics for a Normative Theory of Administration and Governance

Public Voices ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 35
Author(s):  
R. Philip Brown
Keyword(s):  
Public Administration ◽  
Meaning In Life ◽  
Quantum Physics ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Normative Theory ◽  
The People ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
Prime Meridian ◽  
Organizational Purpose ◽  
Organizing Principles

The modem American ethos is a brand of Lockean individualism gone wrong that now embraces rapacious self-interest as its prime meridian. A new ethicalmodel is necessary to combat this radical, soulless, and excessively particularistic form of individualism. The author proposes a journeyman philosophy of organization and governance for citizen and administrative practitioner alike based upon concepts from quantum theory. This normative model of administration, called authentic individualism, has certain ramifications for a more reflexive, creative and unorthodox approach to public administration. All institutions and organizations are systems guided by general organizing principles that should discard the humans as a resource model, make employee well-being an organizational purpose, encourage humans toward a sense of moral meaning in life and work, recognize legitimate leadership as emerging from the people who make up the organization, and fulfill obligations to the community that supports them and makes them successful.

scholarly journals Using the Life Story Book With Mentally Alert Residents of Nursing Homes

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 487-487
Author(s):  
Theresa Chrisman
Keyword(s):  
Depressive Symptoms ◽  
Nursing Homes ◽  
Meaning In Life ◽  
Life Story ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Post Intervention ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Wilks Lambda ◽  
Potential Benefits ◽  
Hispanic White

Abstract Depression and lack of meaning in life (MIL) are common among residents of nursing homes (NHs) and contribute to a reduction in overall health and well-being. Life Story Book (LSB), a reminiscence intervention, is designed to provide a person with the opportunity to review their past and capture their life stories and photographs into a book. LSB has demonstrated positive outcomes for residents of NHs with dementia, yet little is known for residents without dementia. A switching replication design was used to examine the effects of LSB among 21 mentally alert residents from two NHs (NH-A and NH-B) in Houston, Texas. Participants in NH-A received three weeks of the LSB intervention, while NH-B received three weeks of care-as-usual; the intervention was then switched. The GDS-12R and the MIL questionnaire (MLQ) were used to measure depressive symptoms and MIL respectively. Participants from NH-A (n =11) and NH-B (n = 10) had a mean age of 75 years (SD =11.34); 81% female; 52% non-Hispanic white and 33% African American. Results from a one-way MANCOVA found no statistically significant difference on the GDS-12R and MLQ (F(3, 14) = 2.50, p = .102; Wilks’ Lambda = .652; η2 = .35). Further analyses comparing the pre-intervention and post-intervention scores for the entire sample (N =21) found a significant reduction in depressive symptoms (M = 2.67; SD = 2.52) and (M =1.67, SD = 2.29); (t (20) = 2.21, p = 0.039). The potential benefits of LSB for mentally alert residents of NHs warrants further research.

scholarly journals The Congregational Character Questionnaire: An Initial Empirical Examination of the Significance of Collective Church Character Traits

2021 ◽  
pp. 009164712110219
Author(s):  
T. Ryan Byerly ◽  
Keith J. Edwards ◽  
Peter C. Hill
Keyword(s):  
Meaning In Life ◽  
Satisfaction With Life ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Character Traits ◽  
Academic Disciplines ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Religious Congregations ◽  
Empirical Examination ◽  
Christian Churches

Researchers in several academic disciplines have begun to take an interest in group character traits, including the character traits of religious congregations. This article reports the first empirical studies of congregational virtues. The Congregational Character Questionnaire was developed for measuring 12 different virtues of Christian churches: clinging to apostolic teaching, honoring teachers, prayerfulness, hopefulness, discipleship, emotional supportiveness, material supportiveness, spiritual equality, unity, submission, peace with the world, and spreading the faith. The instrument was then used with an online sample ( N = 530) to study how congregants’ perceptions of their congregation’s virtuousness related to congregants’ evaluations of their congregation, participation in their congregation, as well as congregants’ satisfaction with life, presence of meaning in life, and religious well-being. Results indicated that congregants’ overall perceptions of congregational virtuousness were significantly positively related to all of these dependent variables. These results help to reveal the important role that congregational character may play in the experience of congregants. Directions for future research in this area are outlined.

scholarly journals Meaning of Life and Well-Being: Preliminary Results of the Successful Aging Study

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 112-112
Author(s):  
Zvi Gellis ◽  
Kim McClive-Reed ◽  
Bonnie Kenaley ◽  
Eunhae Kim
Keyword(s):  
Meaning In Life ◽  
Successful Aging ◽  
Older Persons ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Community Dwelling ◽  
Life Questionnaire ◽  
Presence Of Meaning ◽  
Aging Study ◽  
Proxy Measure ◽  
Health And Well Being

Abstract Meaning in life for older persons has become a focal research point, with findings that a greater sense of meaning is associated with better outcomes on a range of health and well-being factors. Our study examined relationships between scores on several personality scales, including the Meaning in Life Questionnaire (Steger et al., 2009) and the WHO-5 Well-Being Index, a proxy measure of mood/depression. Community-dwelling members (N=535) of Osher Lifelong Learning Institutes aged 50 and up (mean age 71.4, SD = 6.93) at 3 U.S. sites completed surveys. Higher wellness levels were significantly correlated with increased resilience, optimism, life satisfaction, and presence of meaning in life, while lower levels were associated with greater searching for meaning in life. A multivariate linear regression model (F = 55.597, df = 4, p = .000, R = .566, R2 = .320) showed that wellness scores increased with higher scores in optimism (ß = .348, p =.000), resilience (ß = .183, p = .000), and presence of meaning in life (ß = .106, p = .019). However, searching for meaning in life significantly predicted decreases in wellness scores (ß = -.084, p=.019). These results support those of previous studies, suggesting that for older persons, an ongoing search for meaning in life is linked to negative outcomes than a perception of existing meaning in life. A variety of available interventions aimed at increasing meaning and purpose in life (Guerrero-Torelles et al., 2017) may contribute to better health and well-being in older adults.

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