A critical aspect of the non-native students' academic adjustment in English-speaking countries is their English language ability, including their reading fluency and comprehension. Even when these students are considered proficient readers of English at an advanced level, they display different reading processes when dealing with the complex input of a second language (L2) text, as compared with their native English reading classmates. Despite the importance of comprehending highly sophisticated academic reading in international education, there is a lack of research in the field as to how advanced L2 readers cope with the texts with which the highly educated native speakers engage. This study, therefore, examined meaning construction processes of highly proficient L2 readers during reading the texts that vary in degree of cohesion. To describe readers' approaches to text cohesion and also recognize readers' perceptions of their own process, the study used a close observation of reading processes of nine highly proficient graduate students at a U.S. university with the use of qualitative research methods. The students participated in two interviews - pre-reading interview and post-reading cognitive interview - and two think-aloud verbal protocol sessions. Participants read one high-cohesive and one low-cohesive text during the think-aloud sessions, and then shared the meaning they constructed from the texts and also their thinking about the texts. The data from the instruments were analyzed qualitatively using a grounded theory approach. The results of the study reveal that the readers' meaning representation processes emerging as the result of reader and text interaction display differences at the local and global levels of processing of the high- and low-cohesive text. The processing differences between the readers are most apparent in texts with low text cohesion. The low cohesive text allowed the readers, especially, the creators of meaning, to conduct more elaborative processing compared to their performance with the high-cohesive one, in which all readers attempted to create a catalogue of facts trusting the explicitly provided text cohesion features. These results have implications for theories of text processing as well as the design of materials and instruction used for advanced L2 readers and lower level L2 readers.

Konsumenter använder varumärken dagligen och exponering av varumärken sker överallt: i reklam, böcker, filmer, människor och så vidare. Tidigare forskning visar att konsumenter använder varumärken för att bygga upp sin självbild och skapa sin identitet, samt att konsumenter kan ha mer eller mindre starka relationer till varumärken. Varumärken i sig är bara materiella markörer, de blir meningsfulla för konsumenterna först då de sätts in i ett sammanhang och får en individuell historia uppbyggt kring sig. Studiens syfte är att utifrån ett konsumentperspektiv visa hur meningsskapande i en relation mellan ett varumärke och en konsument kan se ut. Detta genom att reda ut frågeställningen: ”Hur kan en konsument skapa mening i sin relation till ett varumärke?”. En fallstudie har genomförts, där en individs meningsskapande kring ett varumärke har undersökts. Fallstudien bestod av två djupgående intervjuer och fem observationer. Resultatet har analyserats med hjälp av teorier kring bland annat meningsskapandeprocesser och varumärkessymbolik. Slutsatsen är tre faktorer som kan bidra till meningsskapande kring ett varumärke: överensstämmelse med konsumentens ”jag”, symbolisk innebörd och visuellt tilltalande, och användning. / Consumers use brands daily and the exposure of brands takes place everywhere: in advertisements, books, movies, people, and so on. Previous research shows that consumers use brands to create their self-image and identity, and that consumer can have stronger or weaker relationships with brands. Brands in their selves are only material markers, brands become meaningful to consumers when they are put into a context and receive an individual story built around them. The purpose of this paper is to show how consumers can create meaning in their relationship with brands. This is by sorting out the issue: “How can a consumer create meaning in the relationship with a brand? “. A case study has been carried out, in which an individual's meaning creation to a brand has been investigated. The case study consisted of two interviews and five observations. The results were analyzed using theories about meaning creation processes and brand symbolic. The conclusions are three factors that may contribute to the creation of meaning towards a brand: correspondence with the consumer's “self”, symbolic meaning and visually appearance, and the use of the brand.

This research sought to clarify the construct of life meaning by creating a new, multidimensional measure of life meaning. In an initial study, 392 university undergraduates (317 women, 75 men) completed several existing life meaning measures. Exploratory factor analytic procedures undertaken on the item responses supported the extraction of 10 factors: Achievement, Framework/Purpose, Religion, Death Acceptance, Interpersonal Satisfaction, Fulfillment/Excitement, Giving to the World, Existential Vacuum, Intimacy, and Control. Of the original 170 items, the 64 items with the highest factor loadings were retained, and together comprise the Multidimensional Life Meaning Scale (MLMS). Higher-order exploratory factor analyses yielded three factors: Personal Efficacy, Self-Transcendence, and Fulfillment. A second study, conducted with an independent sample of undergraduate students (N = 262; 200 women, 62 men), provided mixed support for the factor structure of the MLMS at the item level, but replicated the higher-order factor structure revealed in the initial study. The criterion-related (concurrent and discriminant) validity was also examined in the second study, by factor analyzing the MLMS factors along with criterion subscales thought to be related to life meaning, and support was found for 7 of the 10 first-order factors. In a final study, support was found for the existence of group differences that were hypothesized on the basis of rational links to interpreted higher-order dimensions of life meaning. In accordance with predictions, Theology students (n = 28) reported higher levels of Self-Transcendence and depressed students (n = 31) indicated lower levels of Fulfillment compared to a baseline group of undergraduate students (n = 262). Contrary to expectations, Law/Business students (n =35) were not significantly different from the baseline group on Personal Efficacy. Based on the results of these three studies, it is concluded that the life meaning construct is multidimensional. The Multidimensional Life Meaning Scale is a promising measure of the construct, and the inclusion of both lower-order and higher-order factors is a new way of conceptualizing life meaning. / Thesis (Ph.D, Psychology) -- Queen's University, 2007-08-14 13:59:44.903

This qualitative research project is a narrative inquiry into the loss experiences of four bereaved individuals who have lost an immediate family member; one of them is myself. In particular, the meanings assigned to the losses and how those meanings impacted the grieving process were explored by listening to in-depth narratives of the participants’ experiences of loss and grief. A narrative methodology was used, based on a constructivist epistemology that describes a human tendency to put events in narrative forms in order to give them a sense of continuity and meaning. Four narratives, along with their respective analysis, were presented in separate chapters, with my own narrative presented as the last narrative chapter. Of the four of us, two are males: one from Jewish-American and the other from German-Romanian descent, and two are females: both from Persian descent. The four participants ranged from 39 to 71 years of age at the time of the interviews, with the losses occurring 3 to 25 years before the interviews. Findings of this research reveal the unique and complex grieving processes of the participants. A variety of meanings were assigned to the losses with each meaning having its own possible impact on the course of bereavement. Each participant expressed her/his own personal assumptions about the nature of life, love, suffering, human vulnerabilities, and death stemming from their life experiences and culture. We all expressed in our own unique way that the loss of a special person, a loving bond, and a significant relationship will always remain painful, but their memories, legacies, and love will continue beyond their deaths, which can help us in finding meaningful, productive, and hopeful paths. Hopefully this research project will provide some validation and inspiration for other grieving individuals and contribute to the current understanding of bereavement and grief.

This qualitative research project is a narrative inquiry into the loss experiences of four bereaved individuals who have lost an immediate family member; one of them is myself. In particular, the meanings assigned to the losses and how those meanings impacted the grieving process were explored by listening to in-depth narratives of the participants’ experiences of loss and grief. A narrative methodology was used, based on a constructivist epistemology that describes a human tendency to put events in narrative forms in order to give them a sense of continuity and meaning. Four narratives, along with their respective analysis, were presented in separate chapters, with my own narrative presented as the last narrative chapter. Of the four of us, two are males: one from Jewish-American and the other from German-Romanian descent, and two are females: both from Persian descent. The four participants ranged from 39 to 71 years of age at the time of the interviews, with the losses occurring 3 to 25 years before the interviews. Findings of this research reveal the unique and complex grieving processes of the participants. A variety of meanings were assigned to the losses with each meaning having its own possible impact on the course of bereavement. Each participant expressed her/his own personal assumptions about the nature of life, love, suffering, human vulnerabilities, and death stemming from their life experiences and culture. We all expressed in our own unique way that the loss of a special person, a loving bond, and a significant relationship will always remain painful, but their memories, legacies, and love will continue beyond their deaths, which can help us in finding meaningful, productive, and hopeful paths. Hopefully this research project will provide some validation and inspiration for other grieving individuals and contribute to the current understanding of bereavement and grief.

This thesis presents a cross-sectional study of psychological meaning making processes involving religious beliefs and the construction of a sense of purpose in life. Previous research has studied the connection between religiosity and purpose in life, but has failed to adequately represent the multidimensionality of meaning and religion, resulting in a lack of understanding of the psychological processes involved in the construction of a sense of purpose in life.  The purpose of this study was to research the connection between specific religious beliefs and a sense of purpose in life in individuals aged 25-40, by testing one hypothesis: There is a significant, positive correlation between the strength of religious belief and purpose in life, and answering two research questions: 1. What specific religious beliefs show a significant correlation to purpose in life?, and 2. How are religious beliefs used in a meaning system for the construction of purpose in life? The study employed a two-phase, mixed methods sequential exploratory design, and a meaning system theory framework, complemented by additional theoretical perspectives in phase 2. The weighting of the data was on the first, qualitative phase of the study  and the data were mixed in the final, joint analysis of both types of data.  Phase 1 consisted of a survey, measuring the strength of religious beliefs (measured by the BVS scale) and sense of purpose in life (measured by the LAP-R and one item of the WHOQOL-BRIEF). The survey was completed by 40 respondents who self-identified as Christian and were members of various Christian congregations in the city of Stockholm and surrounding areas. The results of phase 1 of the study firstly showed a significant, moderate, positive correlation between the strength of religious belief and purpose in life, confirming the hypothesis. The results also showed that purpose in life was positively and significantly correlated to a belief that God is an all pervading presence (tau = 0.35, p<0.05), belief in forces for evil in the universe (tau = 0.40, p<0.01), belief that human physical contact can be a spiritual experience (tau = 0.27, p<0.05), belief in life after death (tau = 0.31, p<0.05), belief that one's life has been planned out (tau = 0.33, p<0.05), belief that there is a heaven (tau = 0.30, p<0,05), belief that the human spirit is immortal (tau = 0.30, p<0.05), and belief that there is a God (tau = 0.32, p<0.05). Phase 2 consisted of interviews with 9 of the survey respondents, yielding qualitative data that were analysed through an interpretative framework based on two hermeneutic theories. The qualitative analysis showed that religious beliefs are used to construct purpose in a meaning making process consisting primarily of three elements in a meaning system. Beliefs regarding what is ultimately good (ultimate concerns) and beliefs regarding the purpose and role of humanity (overall purpose) provides a foundation for the construction of purpose in life. The individual constructs purpose by locating himself/herself (self-definition) in relation to ultimate concerns and overall purpose. The results of phase 2 also showed that both the content and conviction of religious beliefs influence their use in the construction of purpose in life, further explicating the results of phase 1.  The joint analysis of the two phases showed that the results from phase 2 supported the results from phase 1, both regarding the beliefs involved in the construction of purpose in life and the importance of both content and conviction in meaning making processes.  Suggestions for further research include additional research on the connections between the various elements of a meaning system, research on the connection between religious beliefs, purpose and the development of self-definition, as well as further theoretical developments of meaning system theory, and harmonisation of meaning system theory with other, complementary theoretical perspectives.

In this thesis, tools of categorical quantum mechanics are used to explain natural language from a cognitive point of view. Categories of generalized relations are developed for the task, examples are provided, and languages that are particularly tricky to describe using this approach are taken into consideration.

Meaning in life is one of the most heavily researched constructs of positive psychology in the psychological literature. Despite its popularity, the positive psychology literature has been devoid of research that has explored the measurement of the construct with individuals who identify as African American. The present study was conducted to reexamine the cultural equivalence of the Meaning in Life Questionnaire (MLQ), a popular existing measure, with a predominantly African American sample. A sample of 155 African American and 179 White American college students were recruited from a southern metropolitan university and rural Midwestern university. Participants responded to the MLQ and a demographic questionnaire. The factor structure and the nature of the items were examined using a principal axis exploratory factor analysis with an oblique rotation (delta = 0). The results of the study were partially consistent with the existing literature on the MLQ, providing evidence to support the two factor structure of the measure. However, the nature of the items loading on each scale was called into question because the subsamples of participants responded significantly differently on the items of the Presence subscale. Furthermore, the reliability and communality value on one item (i.e., “My life has no clear purpose”), which was significantly lower, provided additional rationale for differences in MIL for these groups. The results suggested that there might be a noteworthy difference in: (a) how African American participants and White American participants interpreted the items and (b) how their subjective experience may influence responding to the items. In sum, the research has important implications for understanding the nature of African American meaning in life and its connection to the present day African American experience in the United States context.

The purpose of this dissertation was to explore the role of memory in finding and making meaning in and through grief. I use narrative ideas and introduce the Tree of Meaning metaphor as a research model, which assists people find new meaning in their lives, by experiencing, telling and re-telling stories of their lived experiences, including the grief. A qualitative approach was used so that the focus was on co-constructing new meanings, with the co-researchers. The three co-researchers emerged as a natural part of my on-going counselling, using a purposive sampling method in which the co-researchers are selected because of their specialist knowledge. i.e. the loss of a spouse or a child through death. Each co-researcher‘s stories were carefully recorded using the Tree or Meaning metaphor as a vehicle for the storytelling, affording the coresearchers a safe place to tap into their inner child as they explored the stories that would assist them find and make new meanings in their lives. Out of this research journey I concluded that memory is key to meaning-making, because through our memory, we can revise, edit and rewrite our life stories and find new strands of meaning in these stories that connect the past and the future in a way that allows us to find and make meaning of our grief. AFRIKAANS : Die Doel van hierdie verhandeling is om die rol van die geheue te ondersoek met betrekking tot hoe ons lewens betekenis vind en maak in en deur die rouproses. Ek gebruik verhalende metodes en stel voor die "Boom van Betekenis" beeldspraak voor as 'n navorsingsmodel. Hierdie model help mense om nuwe betekenis vir hul lewens te vind en maak deur hulle rou te ervaar, daarvan te praat en om hulle lewenservarings oor te vertel, insluitend die rouproses wat hulle moes deurmaak. 'n Gehalte benadering is gebruik sodat die fokus op medesamestelling van nuwe betekenisse, saam met die medenavorsers kan plaasvind. Die drie medenavorsers het 'n natuurlike deel geword van my voortgaande berading met die gebruik van 'n doelgerigte toetsmetode, waarby die medenavorsers gebruik is volgens hulle spesiale ervarings, byv. Die afstaan aan die dood van 'n vrou / man of kind. Elke medenavorser se verhaal is noukeurig opgeneem deur gebruik te maak van die "Boom van Betekenis" beeldspraak as 'n voertuig vir die oorvertel van hul verhale. Dit het verseker dat hulle 'n veilige metode gevind het om hulle innerlike kindwees te ondersoek en die verhale uit te lig waardeur hulle nuwe betekenis in die lewe sou kry. Uit hierdie navorsingsgeleentheid het ek afgelei dat geheue die sleutel is om nuwe betekenis vir ons lewens te vind en maak. Dit is deur ons geheue dat ons, ons lewensverhale kan hersien, redigeer en oorskrywe en terselfdertyd nuwe afleidings kan maak, wat die verlede met die toekoms verbind. Sodoende vind ons dan in hulpmiddel om beter betekenis aan die rou te gee. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Practical Theology / unrestricted

Victor Frankl (1969, 1972, 1975, 1984a, 1984b) postulated that man’s search for meaning is the primary motivational force in his life. If this postulation is true for life in general, it was expected that this would also be true for a person’s work life. The objective of the present research was to explore whether relationships exist between man's "will to meaning" as defined in Frankl’s logotherapy, with work aspects such as work commitment and work motivation. The present research also investigated the relationships between meaning and certain work related biographic/lifestyle variables. Survey research was conducted with a sample of 458 management level employees from six large companies from different industrial sectors in South Africa. Seven standardised, well-validated instruments were used to measure the respective constructs. The following constructs were measured: meaning, work involvement, work commitment (represented by work values, job involvement and career commitment), and work motivation (represented by intrinsic motivation and goal orientation). The data was analysed by means of Principal Factor Analysis, Non-Parametric Analysis of Variance, Partial Correlation Analysis, Stepwise Multiple Regression Analysis, and Structural Equations Modelling. These instruments were revalidated as part of the present study. The results of this research indicated that meaning was significantly associated with career commitment. The results also indicated that meaning was significantly associated with work motivation, as measured through intrinsic motivation and goal orientation. Furthermore, meaning generally showed statistically significant relationships with work orientation and lifestyle related variables. In contrast, meaning did not show statistically significant relationships with work values, job involvement or work involvement. Meaning also did not show statistically significant relationships with Biographical/demographic type variables. These findings deepened the understanding of some of the origins of work commitment and work motivation. The findings from this study also pointed to a deeper and more fundamental source of work motivation and work commitment than those sources covered in the existing work motivation and commitment theories; an existential source. This study also attested to the significant role that meaning plays in a person’s work and in his worklife. / Thesis (PhD (Organizational Behaviour))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Human Resource Management / unrestricted