Development of Meaning in Life Measurement Tool

A question like “Does life have meaning?” is a comprehensive question about our life and value. This inquiry changes into “How do we have to live our life?” or “If there are purposes in our life, what are we aiming for?”(Nielsen, 1980). The query of meaning in life is often evoked by the incident and experiences in the world and arises when we encounter various failure, misfortune, woe, suffering, disease, and death. Since the beginning of the 21st century, all sorts of things have been changing because the rapid progress of scientific civilization and social condition. The traditional points of view are not the guidepost in our life any more. Many people in the contemporary world have lost the definite value of life and have been suffering from existential vacuum, without meeting with one’s true inner self. This experience of existential vacuum has made the moderns long for a new outlook on the world that can fill the emptiness. And it raise essential questions such as “What is all of this for?” and “Where will all of this go?”. Frankl (1963) observed that the most difficult and urgent psychological problem of the moderns is existential vacuum, that is, the loss of meaning in life. He proposed logotherapy as the treatment. The logotherapy makes people discover meaning in life by means of understanding and actualizing of human essence. The most important goal of life is to discover purpose and meaning in life that give not only the identity as a human being but also the direction of life. The Frankl’s theory accords with holistic nursing model that helps people to accomplish human essence in suffering. Dossey et al.(2000), Development of Meaning in Life Measurement Tool