Finding a Life Worth Living: Meaning in Life and Graduation from College

Abstract

Graduation from college is an important milestone for young adults, marked by mixed emotions and poignancy, and therefore is an especially salient context for studying meaning in life. The present research used experience–sampling methodology to examine the antecedents and consequences of students‘ experience of meaning in life over the course of graduation. Participants were 74 graduating students who provided a total of 538 reports over the span of 3 days, including commencement day. Increased levels of state meaning in life during the days around commencement were linked to spending time with people in general and with family in particular, and thinking about one's years in college. Thinking about one's years in college mediated the effects of present company on state meaning in life. Graduates who experienced higher levels of state meaning in life during the days around their commencement ceremony had higher trait levels of meaning in life 1 week following commencement. We discuss how making meaning of a poignant experience has implications for healthy psychological development. Copyright © 2016 European Association of Personality Psychology

Keywords

meaning in life sociogenomic theory multilevel modelling experience-sampling methodology graduation

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Bartko

J. J.

(1976). On various intraclass correlation reliability coefficients. Psychological Bulletin, 83, 762. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.83.5.762.

Baumeister

R. F.

(1991). Meanings of life. New York, NY: Guilford Press.

Bleidorn

(2009). Linking personality states, current social roles and major life goals. European Journal of Personality, 23, 509–530.

Bleidorn

(2012). Hitting the Road to Adulthood: Short–Term Personality Development During a Major Life Transition. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 38, 1594–1608. doi:10.1177/0146167212456707.

Bleidorn

(2015). What accounts for personality maturation in early adulthood? Current Directions in Psychological Science, 24, 245–252. doi:10.1177/0963721414568662.

Bleidorn

, Klimstra

T. A.

, Denissen

J. J.

, Rentfrow

P. J.

, Potter

, & Gosling

S. D.

(2013). Personality maturation around the world: A cross–cultural examination of social investment theory. Psychological Science, 24, 2530–2540. doi:10.1177/0956797613498396.

Bryk

A. S.

, & Raudenbush

S. W.

(1992). Hierarchical linear models: Applications and data analysis methods. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.

Crumbaugh

J. C.

, & Maholick

L. T.

(1964). An experimental study in existentialism: The Psychometric approach to Frankl's concept of noogenic neurosis. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 20, 200–207. doi:10.1002/1097-4679(196404)20:2<200::AID-JCLP2270200203>3.0.CO;2-U.

Ersner–Hershfield

, Mikels

J. A.

, Sullivan

S. J.

, & Carstensen

L. L.

(2008). Poignancy: Mixed emotional experience in the face of meaningful endings. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 94, 158–167. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.94.1.158.

10.

Fraley

R. C.

, & Roberts

B. W.

(2005). Patterns of continuity: A Dynamic model for conceptualizing the stability of individual differences in psychological constructs across the life course. Psychological Review, 112, 60–74. doi:10.1037/0033-295X.112.1.60.

11.

Galambos

N. L.

, Barker

E. T.

, & Krahn

H. J.

(2006). Depression, self–esteem, and anger in emerging adulthood. Developmental Psychology, 42, 350–365. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.42.2.350.

12.

Green

A. S.

, Rafaeli

, Bolger

, Shrout

P. E.

, & Reis

H. T.

(2006). Paper or plastic? Data equivalence in paper and electronic diaries. Psychological Methods, 11, 87–105.

13.

Habermas

, & Bluck

(2000). Getting a life: The emergence of the life story in adolescence. Psychological Bulletin, 248–269. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.126.5.748.

14.

Heine

S. J.

, Proulx

, & Vohs

K. D.

(2006). The meaning maintenance model: On the coherence of social motivations. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 10, 88–110..

15.

Heintzelman

S. J.

, & King

L. A.

(2014). Life is pretty meaningful. American Psychologist, 69, 561–574. doi:10.1037/a0035049.

16.

Heller

, Perunovic

W. Q. E.

, & Reichman

(2009). The future of person–situation integration in the interface between traits and goals: A bottom–up framework. Journal of Research in Personality, 43, 171–178. doi:10.1016/j.jrp.2008.12.011.

17.

Hill

P. L.

, Burrow

A. L.

, Sumner

, & Young

R. K.

(2015). Life is pretty meaningful and/or purposeful? On conflations, contexts, and consequences. American Psychologist, 70, 574–575. doi:10.1037/a0039063.

18.

Holm

(1979). A simple sequentially rejective multiple test procedure. Scandinavian Journal of Statistics, 6, 65–70.

19.

Hutteman

, Hennecke

, Orth

, Reitz

A. K.

, & Specht

(2014). Developmental tasks as a framework to study personality development in adulthood and old age. European Journal of Personality, 28, 267–278. doi:10.1002/per.1959.

20.

Hutteman

, Nestler

, Wagner

, Egloff

, & Back

M. D.

(2015). Wherever I may roam: Processes of self–esteem development from adolescence to emerging adulthood in the context of international student exchange. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 108, 767–783. doi:10.1037/pspp0000015.

21.

King

L. A.

, & Hicks

J. A.

(2009). Detecting and constructing meaning in life events. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 4, 317–330. doi:10.1080/17439760902992316.

22.

King

L. A.

, Hicks

J. A.

, Krull

J. L.

, & Del Gaiso

A. K.

(2006). Positive affect and the experience of meaning in life. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 90, 179–196. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.90.1.179.

23.

Klinger

(1977). Meaning and void: Inner experience and the incentives in peoples lives. U of Minnesota Press.

24.

Krause

(2007). Longitudinal study of social support and meaning in life. Psychology and Aging, 22, 456–469. doi:10.1037/0882-7974.22.3.456.

25.

Krueger

R. F.

, & Johnson

(2008). Behavioral genetics and personality. In John

O. P.

, Robins

R. W.

, & Pervin

L. A.

(Eds.), Handbook of personality: Theory and research. New York, NY: Guilford Press. (pp. 287–310). .

26.

Kurtz

J. L.

(2008). Looking to the Future to Appreciate the Present: The Benefits of Perceived Temporal Scarcity. Psychological Science, 19, 1238–1241. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02231.x.

27.

Lambert

N. M.

, Stillman

T. F.

, Hicks

J. A.

, Kamble

, Baumeister

R. F.

, & Fincham

F. D.

(2013). To belong is to matter: Sense of belonging enhances meaning in life. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 39(11), 1418–1427. doi:10.1177/0146167213499186.

28.

Larsen

J. T.

, McGraw

, & Cacioppo

J. T.

(2001). Can people feel happy and sad at the same time? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81, 684–696. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.81.4.684.

29.

Luhmann

, Orth

, Specht

, Kandler

, & Lucas

R. E.

(2014). Studying changes in life circumstances and personality: It's about time. European Journal of Personality, 28, 256–266. doi:10.1002/per.1951.

30.

Mascaro

, & Rosen

D. H.

(2005). Existential meaning's role in the enhancement of hope and prevention of depressive symptoms. Journal of Personality, 73, 985–1014. doi:10.1111/j.1467-6494.2005.00336.x.

31.

McAdams

D. P.

(1996). Personality, modernity, and the storied self: A contemporary framework for studying persons. Psychological Inquiry, 7, 295–321. doi:10.1207/s15327965pli0704_1.

32.

McAdams

D. P.

(2001). The psychology of life stories. Review of General Psychology, 5, 100–122. doi:10.1037/1089-2680.5.2.100.

33.

McAdams

D. P.

(2008). Personal narratives and the life story. In Pevin

L. A.

, & John

O. P.

(Eds.), Handbook of personality: Theory and research (3 ed.). New York, NY: Guilford Press.

34.

McGregor

, & Little

B. R.

(1998). Personal projects, happiness, and meaning: On doing well and being yourself. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 494–512. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.74.2.494.

35.

McLean

K. C.

, & Fournier

M. A.

(2008). The content and processes of autobiographical reasoning in narrative identity. Journal of Research in Personality, 42, 527–545. doi:10.1016/j.jrp.2007.08.003.

36.

Molasso

(2006). Exploring Frankl's purpose in life with college students. Journal of College and Character, 7, 1–10.

37.

Morgan

, & Farsides

(2009). Measuring meaning in life. Journal of Happiness Studies, 10, 197–214. doi:10.1007/s10902-007-9075-0.

38.

Muthén

, & Asparouhov

(2011). Beyond multilevel regression modeling: Multilevel analysis in a general latent variable framework. In Hox

, & Roberts

J. K.

(Eds.), Handbook of advanced multilevel analysis (pp. 15–40). New York, NY: Taylor and Francis.

39.

Muthén

, & Muthén

(2012). Mplus: Statistical Analysis with Latent Variables: User's Guide (7^th ed.). Los Angeles, CA: Muthén & Muthén.

40.

Park

C. L.

(2013). Religion and meaning. In Paloutzian

R. F.

, & Park

C. L.

(Eds.), Handbook of the psychology of religion and spirituality (pp. 357–379). New York, NY: Guilford Press.

41.

Pinheiro

, Bates

, DebRoy

, & Sarkar

, & R Development Core Team (2013). nlme: Linear and nonlinear mixed effects models. R package version 3.1–113.

42.

Preacher

K. J.

, Zhang

, & Zyphur

M. J.

(2011). Alternative methods for assessing mediation in multilevel data: The advantages of multilevel SEM. Structural Equation Modeling, 18, 161–182. doi:10.1080/10705511.2011.557329.

43.

Preacher

K. J.

, Zyphur

M. J.

, & Zhang

(2010). A general multilevel SEM framework for assessing multilevel mediation. Psychological Methods, 15, 209. doi:10.1037/a0020141.

44.

R Development Core Team (2014). R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R foundation for statistical computing, Vienna, Austria. ISBN 3-900051-07-0, URL http://www.R–project.org.

45.

Revelle

(2014) psych: Procedures for personality and psychological research. Northwestern University: Evanston, Illinois, USA. http://CRAN.R–project.org/package=psych, Version = 1.4.8.

46.

Roberts

B. W.

(2009). Back to the future: Personality and Assessment and personality development. Journal of Research in Personality, 43, 137–145.

47.

Roberts

B. W.

, & Jackson

J. J.

(2008). Sociogenomic personality psychology. Journal of Personality, 76, 1523–1544. doi:10.1111/j.1467-6494.2008.00530.x.

48.

Roberts

B. W.

, & Mroczek

(2008). Personality trait change in adulthood. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 17, 31–35.

49.

Robins

R. W.

, Caspi

, Moffitt

T. E.

, Robins

R. W.

, & Moffitt

T. E.

(2002). It's not just who you're with, it's who you are: Personality and relationship experiences across multiple relationships. Journal of Personality, 70, 925–964. doi:10.1111/1467-6494.05028.

50.

Roberts

R. W.

, Wood

, & Caspi

(2008). The Development of Personality Traits in Adulthood. Handbook of personality: Theory and research (3^rd ed.). New York, NY: Guilford Press.

51.

Roisman

G. I.

, Masten

A. S.

, Coatsworth

J. D.

, & Tellegen

(2004). Salient and emerging developmental tasks in the transition to adulthood. Child Development, 75, 123–133. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2004.00658.x.

52.

Routledge

, Arndt

, Wildschut

, Sedikides

, Hart

C. M.

, Juhl

,… Schlotz

(2011). The past makes the present meaningful: Nostalgia as an existential resource. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 101, 638–652. doi:10.1037/a0024292

53.

Scherbaum

C. A.

, & Ferreter

J. M.

(2009). Estimating statistical power and required sample sizes for organizational research using multilevel modeling. Organizational Research Methods, 12, 347–367. doi:101177/1094428107308906

54.

Schlegel

R. J.

, Hicks

J. A.

, King

L. A.

, & Arndt

(2011). Feeling like you know who you are: Perceived true self–knowledge and meaning in life. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 37, 745–756. doi:10.1177/0146167211400424.

55.

Schulenberg

, Schnetzer

, & Buchanan

(2011). The Purpose in Life Test–Short Form: Development and Psychometric Support. Journal of Happiness Studies, 12(5), 861–876. doi:10.1007/s10902-010-9231-9.

56.

Shrout

P. E.

, & Fleiss

J. L.

(1979). Intraclass correlations: Uses in assessing rater reliability. Psychological Bulletin, 86, 420–428.

57.

Steger

M. F.

, Frazier

, Oishi

, & Kaler

(2006). The meaning in life questionnaire: Assessing the presence of and search for meaning in life. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 53(1), 80–93. doi:10.1037/0022-0167.53.1.80.

58.

Steger

M. F.

, Kashdan

T. B.

, & Oishi

(2008). Being good by doing good: Daily eudaimonic activity and well–being. Journal of Research in Personality 42: 22–42. doi: 10.1016/j.jrp.2007.03.004.

59.

Steger

M. F.

, Kawabata

, Shimai

, & Otake

(2008). The meaningful life in Japan and the United States: Levels and correlates of meaning in life. Journal of Research in Personality 42: 660–678. doi: 10.1016/j.jrp.2007.09.003.

60.

Steger

M. F.

, Oishi

, & Kashdan

T. B.

(2009). Meaning in life across the life span: Levels and correlates of meaning in life from emerging adulthood to older adulthood. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 4, 43–52. doi:10.1080/17439760802303127.

61.

Wilt

, Condon

D. M.

, & Revelle

(2011). Telemetrics and online data collection: Collecting data at a distance. New York: Guildford Press.

62.

Wood

, & Roberts

B. W.

(2006). Cross–sectional and longitudinal tests of the personality and role identity structural model (PRISM). Journal of Personality, 74(3), 779–810. doi:10.1111/j.1467-6494.2006.00392.x.

63.

Zhang

, & Fung

H. H.

(2009). Does graduation give rise to increased poignancy? Moderation roles of university identity and emotion regulation. Personality and Individual Differences, 47, 722–727. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2009.06.010.