Categorization of College Students' Meaning of Life

Abstract

This study was designed to develop meaning-in-life categories which have adequate interrater reliability and stability over time. Also of interest were the categories which college students endorsed and the number of students who reported no meaning in life. A pilot study was used to develop appropriate categories. 100 students from a State University class were asked to write about the three most meaningful things in their lives and then ranked their written meanings in order of importance to them. Eight categories had adequate interrater reliability and stability over a 3-mo. period. The “relationship” category was most often chosen followed by “service,” “growth,” “belief,” “existential-hedonistic,” “obtaining,” “expression,” and “understanding.” Only 5% of our sample claimed life to have no meaning.