A number of theoretical perspectives suggest that expectancy violations (EVs) threaten a person's sense of meaning and prompt efforts to reinstate meaning. Yet, little to no research has explicitly examined whether EVs predict actual efforts to search for meaning. The current research redresses this gap in the literature among a sample of breast cancer survivors. The results revealed that EVs, ...

As far as we know humans are the only meaning-seeking species on the planet. Meaning-making is an activity that is distinctly human, a function of how the human brain is organized. The many ways in which humans conceptualize, create, and search for meaning has become a recent focus of behavioral science research on quality of life and subjective well-being. This chapter will review the recent l...

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES To examine the effects of spirituality (meaning in life and prayer) on a sense of well-being among women who have had breast cancer. DESIGN Descriptive, correlational, cross-sectional. SETTING Rural and urban communities in central Texas. SAMPLE Convenience sample of 84 women, 34-80 years of age diagnosed less than one year previously (36%), within the previous one to f...

The psychosocial model of mental health posits that late-life depression arises from the loss of self-esteem, loss of meaningful roles, loss of significant others, and diminished social contacts. This study examined the unique, combined, and interactive contribution of existential variables (personal meaning, choice/responsibleness, optimism) and traditional measures (social resources, physical...

The purpose of this paper is to explore whether and how workers in a crisis resolution home treatment (CRHT) team experience the relationship between their personal history and professional role. This paper is based on 13 in-depth interviews with health professionals working in CRHT. The interviews were analysed using a hermeneutic-phenomenological approach. Participants expressed that there is...

The exposition of this topic continues with a reprise of early theoretical considerations of biofeedback, the meaning and value of theta brain rhythms in human thought, creativity, and "trans personal psychology." This selection makes clear the foct that the Greens saw self-regulation by means of biofeedback not so much as an end in itself as a gateway to approaching personal development ofa mu...

The Medical Humanities provide an interdisciplinary approach to investigating the profound effects of illness on individuals and the social worlds in which they live and work. Humanities in medical education may offer significant potential benefits to personal future physicians and to the medical community as a whole. The meaning of medical humanities in medical education, reasons, benefits, wa...