Baumeister, R. F. (1991). Meanings of life. New York, NY: Guilford.
Baumeister, R. F. (2002). Yielding to temptation: Self- control failure, impulsive purchasing, and consumer behavior. Journal of Consumer Research, 28(4), 670-676. doi:10.1086/338209 Baumeister, R. F., & Wilson, B. (1996). Life stories and the four need for meaning. Psychological
黃莉、洪才舒 學習的意義感 159
Inquiry, 7(4), 322-325. doi:10.1207/s15327965pli0704_2
Bering, J. M. (2002). The existential theory of mind. Review of General Psychology, 6(1), 3-24.
doi:10.1037/1089-2680.6.1.3
Crumbaugh, J. C. (1973). Everything to gain: A guide to self-fulfillment through logoanalysis.
Oxford, UK: Nelson-Hall.
Davis, C. G., Nolen-Hoeksema, S., & Larson, J. (1998). Making sense of loss and benefiting from the experience: Two construals of meaning. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75(2), 561-574. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.75.2.561
Deakin Crick, R., Broadfoot, P., & Claxton, G. (2004). Developing an effective lifelong learning inventory: The ELLI project. Assessment in Education, 11(3), 248-272. doi:10.1080/09695940 42000304582
Depaola, S. J., & Ebersole, P. (1995). Meaning in life categories of elderly nursing home residents.
The International Journal of Aging and Human Development, 40(3), 227-236. doi:10.2190/
TMNQ-JBGT-9MLE-YKQM
De Vogler, K. L., & Ebersole, P. (1981). Adults’ meaning in life. Psychological Reports, 49(1), 87-90.
doi:10.2466/pr0.1981.49.1.87
De Vogler, K. L., & Ebersole, P. (1983). Young adolescents’ meaning in life. Psychological Reports, 52(2), 427-431. doi:10.2466/pr0.1983.52.2.427
Ebersole, P., & Depaola, S. (1987). Meaning in life categories of later life couples. The Journal of Psychology, 121(2), 185-191. doi:10.1080/00223980.1987.9712656
Emmons, R. A. (2005). Striving for the sacred: Personal goals, life meaning, and religion. Journal of Social Issues, 61(4), 731-745. doi:10.1111/j.1540-4560.2005.00429.x
Fabry, J. B. (1988). Guideposts to meaning: Discovering what really matters. Oakland, CA: New Harbinger.
Frankl, V. E. (1985). Man’s search for meaning. New York, NY: Washington Square Press/Pocket Books.
Fry, P. S. (1998). The development of personal meaning and wisdom in adolescence: A reexamination of moderating and consolidating factors and influences. In P. T. P. Wong & P. S.
Fry (Eds.), The human quest for meaning (pp. 91-110). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Giddens, A. (2013). New rules of sociological method: A positive critique of interpretative sociologies.
Retrieved from http://as.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0745666523.html
Goddard, C., & Wierzbicka, A. (2004). Cultural scripts: What are they and what are they good for?
160 學習的意義感 黃莉、洪才舒
Intercultural Pragmatics, 1(2), 153-166. doi:10.1515/iprg.2004.1.2.153
Greenberg, J., Pyszczynski, T., & Solomon, S. (1986). The causes and consequences of a need for self-esteem: A terror management theory. In R. F. Baumeister (Ed.), Public self and private self (pp. 189-212). New York, NY: Springer-Verlag. doi:10.1007/978-1-4613-9564-5-10
Hedlund, D. E. (1977). Personal meaning: The problem of educating for wisdom. The Personnel and Guidance Journal, 55(10), 602-604. doi:10.1002/j.2164-4918.1977.tb04312.x
Heine, S. J., Proulx, T., & Vohs, K. D. (2006). The meaning maintenance model: On the coherence of social motivations. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 10(2), 88-110. doi:10.1207/
s15327957pspr1002_1
Hermans, H. J., & Hermans-Jansen, E. (1995). Self-narratives: The construction of meaning in psychotherapy. New York, NY: The Guilford Press.
Ho, D. Y. F. (1998). Interpersonal relationships and relationship dominance: An analysis on methodological relationalism. Asian Journal of Social Psychology, 1(1), 1-16. doi:10.1111/
1467-839X.00002
Huang, L.-L. (2016). Interpersonal harmony and conflict for Chinese people: A Yin-Yang perspective. Frontiers in Psychology, 7, 847. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00847
Illeris, K. (2009). A comprehensive understanding of human learning. In K. Illeris (Ed.), Contemporary theories of learning (pp. 7-20). New York, NY: Routledge.
Jarvis, P. (2009). Learning to be a person in society: Learning to be me. In K. Illeris (Ed.), Contemporary theories of learning (pp. 21-34.). New York, NY: Routledge.
Jenerson-Madden, D., Ebersole, P., & Romero, A. M. (1992). Personal life meaning of Mexicans.
Journal of Social Behavior and Personality, 7(1), 151-161.
Leath, C. (1999). The experience of meaning in life from a psychological perspective. Retrieved from http://purl.oclc.org/net/cleath/writings/meaning.htm
Li, J. (2003). US and Chinese cultural beliefs about learning. Journal of Educational Psychology, 95(2), 258-267. doi:10.1037/0022-0663.95.2.258
Lu, L., & Yang, K.-S. (2006). Emergence and composition of the traditional-modern bicultural self of people in contemporary Taiwanese societies. Asian Journal of Social Psychology, 9(3), 167-175. doi:10.1111/j.1467-839X.2006.00195.x
McAdams, D. P. (1996). Personality, modernity, and the storied self: A contemporary framework for studying persons. Psychological Inquiry, 7(4), 295-321. doi:10.1207/s15327965pli0704_1 Mezirow, J. (2009). An overview on transformative learning. In K. Illeris (Ed.), Contemporary
theories of learning (pp. 90-105). New York, NY: Routledge.
黃莉、洪才舒 學習的意義感 161
Park, C. L., & Folkman, S. (1997). Meaning in the context of stress and coping. Review of General Psychology, 1(2) 115-144. doi:10.1037/1089-2680.1.2.115
Peterson, C. (2006). A primer in positive psychology. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Reker, G. T., & Wong, P. T. P. (1988). Aging as an individual process: Toward a theory of personal meaning. In J. E. Birren & V. L. Bengston (Eds.), Emergent theories of aging (pp. 214-246).
New York, NY: Springer.
Sartre, J. P. (1992). Being and nothingness: An essay in phenomenological ontology (H. E. Barnes, Trans.). London, UK: Methuen. (Original work published 1957)
Schlegel, R. J., Hicks, J. A., King, L. A., & Arndt, J. (2011). Feeling like you know who you are:
Perceived true self-knowledge and meaning in life. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 37(6), 745-756. doi:10.1177/0146167211400424
Steger, M. F., Kashdan, T. B., Sullivan, B. A., & Lorentz, D. (2008). Understanding the search for meaning in life: Personality, cognitive style, and the dynamic between seeking and experiencing meaning. Journal of Personality, 76(2), 199-228. doi:10.1111/j.1467-6494.2007.00484.x Stillman, T. F., & Baumeister, R. F. (2009). Uncertainty, belongingness, and four needs for meaning.
Psychological Inquiry, 20(4), 249-251. doi:10.1080/10478400903333544
Taylor, S. J., & Ebersole, P. (1993). Young children’s meaning in life. Psychological Reports, 73(3), 1099-1104. doi:10.2466/pr0.1993.73.3f.1099
Wong, P. T. P. (1998). Implicit theories of meaningful life and the development of the personal meaning profile. In P. T. P. Wong & P. S. Fry (Eds.), The human quest for meaning: A handbook of psychological research and clinical applications (pp. 111-140). Mahwah, NJ:
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Yalom, I. D. (1980). Esistenial psychotherapy. New York, NY: Basic Books.
Zukier, H. (1986). The paradigmatic and narrative modes in goal-guided inference. In R. M.
Sorrentino & E. T. Higgins (Eds.), Handbook of motivation and cognition: Foundations of social behavior (Vol. 1, pp. 465-502). New York, NY: Guilford Press.
162 學習的意義感 黃莉、洪才舒
Journal of Research in Education Sciences 2017, 62(1), 133-162
doi:10.6209/JORIES.2017.62(1).05
Meaning of Learning: Construction, Loss, and Reconstruction
Li-Li Huang Tsai-Shu Hung
Department of Psychology,
National Taiwan University Institute of Learning Sciences, National Tsing- Hua University
Abstract
The aim of this study was to explore the processes and mechanisms of the construction, loss, and reconstruction of meaning in the context of learning. A qualitative method was implemented, and 17 adults (9 men and 8 women) were interviewed. Baumeister’s (1991) connection theory of meaning-making, Park and Folkman’s (1997) global meaning and situational meaning theory, and the Chinese cultural script of learning were all adopted as formal theories for the secondary interpretation of the participants’ self-narrative data, and also for the disclosure of the situational structures of existential contexts. The results showed the process to consist of four parts. First, connection is the key mechanism of meaning-building; for example, connecting with oneself/others or with one’s own beliefs about life and the world, or with belief in learning. Second, loss of meaning is a result of disconnection, such as disconnecting from the belief of learning, engendering thoughts about the vacancy of existence. Third, meaning is defined in terms of reality and cost consideration, and being able to see future possibilities. Finally, the reconstruction of meaning results from transformation and compensation. This paper also discusses the implications of culture, the limitations of self-narrative data, and the potential for future research.
Keywords: Chinese cultural script, learning, meaning, meaning of life
Corresponding Author: Li-Li Huang, E-mail: lilihuang@ntu.edu.tw
Manuscript received: Jul. 26, 2016; Revised: Oct. 3, 2016; Accepted: Oct. 24, 2016.