Meddin J R
Curtin University of Technology.
Int J Aging Hum Dev. 1998;47(3):163-75. doi: 10.2190/1LXA-K5TN-BGY4-FAXV.
This study examines how ten prominent older Australians--seven male and three female--impart a sense of spiritual meaning to their lives. The study is a secondary analysis of published interviews conducted by Caroline Jones on the Australian Broadcast Corporation's radio program, "The Search for Meaning." The interviews explicitly address issues of personal meaning. The findings reported in this article focus mainly upon non routine or "spiritual" aspects of meaning. The topics addressed are: global sense of meaning, altruistic behavior, transcendent experiences, life review, and wisdom. Acquiring knowledge emerges as a global life purpose; altruistic behavior is prevalent, transcendent experiences are reported with frequency; life review and wisdom underscores both a sense of coherence and the continuity of personal characteristics over the life span, and a decidedly optimistic orientation toward human nature. The impression gained is one of older persons with an integrated and often deep and spiritual orientation toward their lives.
本研究考察了十位杰出的澳大利亚老年人（七名男性和三名女性）如何赋予其生活一种精神意义。该研究是对卡罗琳·琼斯在澳大利亚广播公司广播节目《寻找意义》中发表的访谈进行的二次分析。这些访谈明确涉及个人意义问题。本文所报告的研究结果主要集中在意义的非常规或“精神”方面。所涉及的主题包括：整体意义感、利他行为、超验体验、人生回顾和智慧。获取知识成为一种整体的人生目标；利他行为很普遍，超验体验时有报道；人生回顾和智慧既强调了一种连贯感以及个人特征在生命跨度中的连续性，也体现了对人性的一种明显乐观的取向。所获得的印象是，这些老年人对自己的生活有着一种整合的、且往往深刻的精神取向。
