Content area
Full text
The present study explores the roles of meaning in life and reasons for living in Depression. The Beck Depression Inventory (Beck et al., 1961), Meaning in Life Questionnaire (Steger et al., 2006) and Reasons for Living Inventory (Linehan et al., 1983) were administered to two groups- the clinical group and the normal group, each consisting of 15 males and 15 females, matched on the basis of age, sex and educational qualifications. Since significant differences between males and females in clinical and normal groups did not emerge on any of the variables, hence further statistical treatments were done combining males and females together. Significant differences were found between clinical and normal groups with respect to presence of meaning in life and fear of suicide of reasons for living. Also significant relationships were obtained between depression and presence of meaning in life and between depression and survival and coping beliefs and fear of suicide of reasons for living in the clinical group. Survival and coping beliefs of reasons for living was found to be the highest contributing factor for the development of depression, followed by child-related concern of reasons for living.
Keywords: Meaning in Life, reasons for living, depression.
Victor Frankl posited that meaning in life can be discovered in three different ways: (1) by creating a work or doing a deed; (2) by experiencing something or encountering someone; and (3) by the attitude we take toward unavoidable suffering. He further delineated that man's search for meaning is the primary motivation in life and not a "secondary rationalization" of instinctual drives. This meaning is unique and specific in that it must and can be fulfilled by the person alone, only then does it achieve a significance, which will satisfy the will to meaning. The detrimental influence of the feeling of total and ultimate meaninglessness of people's lives, their awareness of a meaning worth living for, as a result of which they are haunted by the experience of their inner emptiness, a void within themselves which he thus called "existential vacuum". And when someone with such vacuum is confronted with significant life stress, it is proposed that an existential neurosis can be triggered. Maddi (1967) has described existential neurosis as consisting of cognitive symptoms such as...