Ranst N V, Marcoen A
Centrum voor Ontwikkelingspsychologie, KU Leuven, België.
Tijdschr Gerontol Geriatr. 1996 Feb;27(1):5-13.
There are many different ways to experience one's life and aging as meaningful. The present study looks for different patterns of personal meaning in the elderly. Respondents were 376 older adults (221 women and 155 men), their mean age was 65.9 years. They completed several standardized questionnaires including measures of sources of meaning (SOMP), ultimate meaning (PMI), life satisfaction (LSIA), depression (SRDS), anxiety (STAI), coping orientations (COAP), and death attitudes (DAP-R). A cluster analysis performed on the sources of meaning revealed three groups each with a different pattern of meaning. The smallest group I (n=23) found most meaning in values that indicate self-preoccupation. Self-transcendent sources of meaning were on the top of the hierarchy of values of the second group II (n=123). The third and largest group III (n=230) valued self-transcendent sources of meaning as well as sources of meaning that indicate self-realisation. The three clusters also differed with regard to ultimate meaning (group I having the highest and group III the lowest score), well-being (group I reporting more depressive feelings and more feelings of anxiety than group II and group III), coping with aging (group III reporting most instrumental coping), and death attitude (group II having the most positive attitude).
有许多不同的方式可以让人们体验到有意义的生活和衰老过程。本研究探寻老年人个人意义的不同模式。研究对象为376名老年人（221名女性和155名男性），他们的平均年龄为65.9岁。他们完成了几份标准化问卷，包括意义来源量表（SOMP）、终极意义量表（PMI）、生活满意度量表（LSIA）、抑郁量表（SRDS）、焦虑量表（STAI）、应对取向量表（COAP）和死亡态度量表（DAP-R）。对意义来源进行的聚类分析揭示了三组不同意义模式的人群。最小的第一组（n = 23）在表明自我关注的价值观中找到了最多的意义。第二组（n = 123）中，自我超越的意义来源处于价值观层次的顶端。第三组也是人数最多的一组（n = 230），既重视自我超越的意义来源，也重视表明自我实现的意义来源。这三个聚类在终极意义方面也存在差异（第一组得分最高，第三组得分最低）、幸福感方面（第一组报告的抑郁情绪和焦虑情绪比第二组和第三组更多）、应对衰老方面（第三组报告的工具性应对方式最多）以及死亡态度方面（第二组态度最为积极）。
