Exploring Existential Meaning: Optimizing Human Development Across the Life Span

by Gary T. Reker (Editor), Kerry Chamberlain (Editor)

Overview

Both implicit and existential meaning are important constructs in fully understanding human experience. The editors of this volume present a forum for an array of viewpoints and recent research that address the notion of optimal human growth.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780761909941
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
Publication date:	09/03/1999
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Gary T. Reker, Ph.D. was born in Hamm, West Germany in 1942. He obtained his B.A. (1965) from Mc Master University and his M.A.Sc. (1970) and Ph.D. (1973) from the University of Waterloo. He has been at Trent University since 1972 and retired as Professor Emeritus in Psychology in 2008. He is married to Dorothy and they have three grown daughters and six grandchildren.

As a life-span developmental psychologist, his teaching and research interests have focussed on the aging process, specifically on the role of personal meaning in life, optimism, death attitudes, resilience and creative coping in promoting successful aging. He has conceptualized and constructed numerous measuring instruments, has published numerous articles in peer reviewed journals, authored several book chapters, and has edited (with Kerry Chamberlain) a book entitled, "Existential meaning: Optimizing human development across the life span" (Sage, 2000).

In 1981 and again in 1986, he was a Fellow of the Andrew Norman Institute for Advanced Studies in Gerontology and Geriatrics at the University of Southern California. In 1999, he was the Visiting Chair in Gerontology at St. Thomas University, Fredericton, New Brunswick. In 2007, he returned to the University of Southern California as a Visiting Scholar. He is actively involved in the Gerontological Society of America, the International Network on Personal Meaning, and the International Institute for Reminiscence and Life Review.

Kerry Chamberlain is Professor of Social and Health Psychology at Massey University in Auckland, New Zealand. He is coeditor (with Michael Murray) of Qualitative Health Psychology: Theories and Methods (SAGE), coauthor (with Antonia Lyons) of Health Psychology: A Critical Introduction (Cambridge), and series editor (with Antonia Lyons) for Critical Approaches to Health (Routledge). He serves on the editorial boards of several journals and has published widely on health issues and qualitative research. His current research interests are in poverty, health and illness, medicalisation, food, and the mundane, and innovative methods for qualitative research.

Table of Contents

Foreword - James E Birren
Introduction - Gary T Reker and Kerry Chamberlain
PART ONE: THEORETICAL AND CONCEPTUAL ISSUES
Philosophical Foundations of Existential Meaning - Gary M Kenyon
Meaning as Movement - Hubert J M Hermans
The Relativity of the Mind
Theoretical Perspective, Dimensions, and Measurement of Existential Meaning - Gary T Reker
PART TWO: RESEARCH ON EXISTENTIAL MEANING
Structural Components of Personal Meaning in Life and their Relationship with Death Attitudes and Coping Mechanisms in Late Adulthood - Nancy Van Ranst and Alfons Marcoen
Dimensions and Discourses of Meaning in Life - Kay O'Connor and Kerry Chamberlain
Approaching Meaning from Qualitiative Perspectives
An Inquiry into Existential Meaning - Dominique L Debats
Theoretical, Clinincal and Phenomenal Perspectives
The Personal Meaning System in a Life-Span Perspective - Freya Dittman-Kohli and Gerben J Westerhof
The Development of a Culturally Sensitive Measure of Sources of Life Meaning - Edward Prager, Rivka Savaya and Leora Bar-Tur
PART THREE: APPLICATIONS AND INTERVENTIONS
Finding Meaning in Caregivers of Persons with Alzheimer's Disease - Carol J Farran, Karen Lowe Graham and Dimitra Loukissa
African American and White Caregivers' Perspectives
Making Meaning within the Experience of Life-Threatening Illness - Doris D Coward
Religion and Meaning in Late Life - Susan H Mc Fadden
Logotherapeutic and ‘Depth Psychology' Approaches to Meaning and Psychotherapy - David Guttmann
PART FOUR: OVERVIEW AND NEW DIRECTIONS
Existential Meaning - Gary T Reker and Kerry Chamberlain
Reflections and Directions

Editorial Reviews

Contributors from around the world, in the fields of psychology, psychogerontology, social work, counseling, and health and welfare, assess and evaluate the role of existential meaning in moderating the effects of stress on physical health and psychological well- being. Articles in the first section explain the foundations of existential meaning and define certain key terms; the second section emphasizes research methodology, both clinical and sociological. The book concludes by providing specific applications of the theories, models, and methodologies through case studies with families of Alzheimer's patients, examinations of religious meaning in late life, and other timely examples. Paper edition (unseen), $29.95. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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