Humanist/Existential Approaches

Existential concepts: focus on subjective experiences and the self - human beings are completely free and responsible for their own behaviour

Existential meaning

ACT Concepts: What is a rich and meaningful life? Taking action based on what we find meaningful and valuable

Assessment

Internal consistency (Cronbach's Alpha): how closely related a set of items are as a group

Victor Frankl (1905-1997)

Carl Rogers

The Multidimensional Existential Meaning Scale: Tripartite model

The Valued Living Questionnaire: values measure from an ACT perspective

Existential anxiety: The courage to be - to break out of blind conformity and instead strive for authenticity

Meaning in Life: the extent to which one's life is experienced as making sense

Comprehension: extent to which individuals perceive a sense of coherence and understanding regarding their lives

Purpose: extent to which life is directed and motivated by valued goals

Mattering: my existence is significant, important and of value to others

Here and Now: Focus on the present rather than distant historical causes

Person-centred: "when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change"

Humanistic approaches: people are basically good, inherent potential to have meaningful relationships, and to make good choices that are in the interests of self and others

We are all motivated by a will to meaning

Meaning comes from three sources

Purposeful work

Love

Courage in the face of difficulty

Q-Sort Methods: people are presented with lots of cards with printed statements eg I am likeable, I am anxious, and asked to sort into different piles - how I'd like to be (ideal self) and how I actually am (actual self)

An acceptable range is above .7

Should only use alpha on a defined subscale or factor, not a measure containing 2 or more factors

Assesses discrepancies between ideal and actual self

Psychological flexibility: being present in the here and now and choosing actions that are guided by your values

Cognitive fusion: when story and event become blended - thoughts are seen to represent reality

Struggle switch

Switch is on: mind chatter - "should of, could of, this must"- troublesmoe feelings snowball, acting inconsistent with values

Switch is off: anxiety comes, rises and goes - observe, don't wast time and energy struggling

Rate 10 domains based on importance and consistency over the past week

Item-total correlations not that strong - but you wouldn't expect similar scores between domains

Principal factor analysis: modest factor loadings for a single-factor model