Does a lack of meaning in life cause boredom and depression?
Posted Apr 23 2009 5:23pm
I really love The International Network on Personal Meaning (INPM). They always have very thought provoking articles on a wide range of articles dealing with the search for personal meaning.
Today when I was checking out the site, I came across a great article, "Does a lack of meaning in life cause boredom and depression?". Here's the abstract for the article.
Existential theories suggest that lacking a sense of meaning can lead to boredom and depression. To date, this suggestion has not been empirically examined. Existing empirical research indicates that these three constructs are strongly and significantly intercorrelated, but it has not yet been determined if and how meaning, boredom, and depression are related over time. The purpose of the present study was to explore the relationships between meaning, boredom and depression both concurrently and across time in order to suggest possible causal and theoretical relationships between them. These constructs were measured in an undergraduate population (N = 85) approximately two months apart. Partial correlations and regression (mediation) analyses indicated that the relationship between boredom and depression over time is most clearly explained by meaning. Results also suggested that boredom and depression can influence meaning over time. A theoretical model delineating this relationship is depicted and implications are discussed.
Click here to read the full article by Shelley A. Fahlman, Shiran Sabari, and John D. Eastwood from York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada on meaning.ca.
Today when I was checking out the site, I came across a great article, "Does a lack of meaning in life cause boredom and depression?". Here's the abstract for the article.
Existential theories suggest that lacking a sense of meaning can lead to boredom and depression. To date, this suggestion has not been empirically examined. Existing empirical research indicates that these three constructs are strongly and significantly intercorrelated, but it has not yet been determined if and how meaning, boredom, and depression are related over time. The purpose of the present study was to explore the relationships between meaning, boredom and depression both concurrently and across time in order to suggest possible causal and theoretical relationships between them. These constructs were measured in an undergraduate population (N = 85) approximately two months apart. Partial correlations and regression (mediation) analyses indicated that the relationship between boredom and depression over time is most clearly explained by meaning. Results also suggested that boredom and depression can influence meaning over time. A theoretical model delineating this relationship is depicted and implications are discussed.
Click here to read the full article by Shelley A. Fahlman, Shiran Sabari, and John D. Eastwood from York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada on meaning.ca.