Carleton University.
Cornell University.
Am Psychol. 2015 Sep;70(6):574-5. doi: 10.1037/a0039063.
Comments on the original article "Life is pretty meaningful," by S. J. Heintzelman and L. A. King (see record 2014-03265-001). Heintzelman and King condense descriptive data from numerous studies to conclude that individuals tend to see life as meaningful, because average scores on the meaning and purpose in life assessments fall above the midpoint. However, in so doing, they make two contentious assumptions. The first is the expectation that scale midpoints actually reflect an average score on that construct. However, one should not interpret this metric to suggest that people generally live meaningful lives without great caution and consideration of the second assumption: the conflation of purpose and meaning in life. In response, the current authors address this second assumption and the need to develop better questions and measures for both meaning and purpose.
对 S. J. 海因策尔曼和 L. A. 金（见记录 2014-03265-001）的原始文章“生活是非常有意义的”的评论。海因策尔曼和金压缩了来自众多研究的描述性数据，得出结论认为个人倾向于认为生活是有意义的，因为生活意义和目的评估的平均分高于中间值。然而，他们这样做的同时，提出了两个有争议的假设。第一个假设是，量表的中间值实际上反映了该结构的平均得分。然而，人们不应该仅仅从这个指标来推断，人们普遍过着有意义的生活，而无需谨慎考虑第二个假设：将生活的目的和意义混为一谈。作为回应，作者目前处理了第二个假设，以及需要为意义和目的制定更好的问题和衡量标准。
