Although researchers are now able to assess reliably the variable of existential meaning, quality longitudinal investigations of meaning's relationship with specific clinical variables are scarce. The author conceptualizes existential meaning as a composite of personal, spiritual, and implicit meaning. These latter three variables are, respectively, the experience of one's particular life as having purpose and coherence, experiencing a transcendent or spiritual presence from which one derives a sense of unique purpose, and manifesting attitudes and behavior that are normatively valued. Utilizing a sample of 395 male and female undergraduates and employing the framework subscale of the Life Regard Index-Revised (LRI-R-framework), the Spiritual Meaning Scale (SMS), and the Personal Meaning Profile (PMP) to measure personal, spiritual, and implicit meaning, respectively, the author explored existential meaning's relationship over time with depressive symptoms (as measured with the Beck Depression Inventory-II, depression scale of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales, and depression scale of the Personality Assessment Inventory) and hope (as measured with the Herth Hope Scale, the Adult State Hope Scale, and the Beck Hopelessness Scale). A latent cross-lagged panel analysis of the relationship between meaning and depression over 2 one-month time periods indicated that meaning exerted unidirectional influence on depression, with decreases in meaning leading to increases in depressive symptoms. Additionally, hierarchical regression analysis showed that individuals with low levels of existential meaning were more likely than those with higher meaning levels to experience increased symptoms of depression in response to increased stress levels. Because the newly developed SMS (appended to this paper) was the only meaning measure exhibiting sufficient discriminant validity with regard to hope, only the SMS was entered in cross-lagged panel analysis measuring its relationship to hope over the 2 one-month periods of time, with results indicating that spiritual meaning and hope reciprocally influence one another. Existential meaning seems appropriately conceptualized as a construct consisting of personal, spiritual, and implicit components. Because this construct can be assessed reliably and may play a role in the etiology and alleviation of depressive symptoms, the author calls for increased research within clinical settings on methods for optimizing individuals' levels of existential meaning.

Growth in research on the psychology of religion is contributing to a greater understanding of the impact of religious variables on mental health. The purpose of the current project was to examine how religious orientation (RO), locus of control (LOC), and spiritual meaning (SM) relate to anxious symptoms (AS) and depressive symptoms (DS) in a college sample. Specifically, locus of control (LOC) and spiritual meaning (SM) were hypothesized to mediate the relations between RO and AS and DS. The sample analyzed consisted of 401 undergraduate students who were primarily Caucasian and Christian. Correlational analyses, mediated regression analyses, and moderated regression analyses were used to examine the hypotheses. Because gender differences are noted in the literature when examining the relations between RO and mental health variables and were also found in the present study, gender was controlled in all analyses. In the current study, females had lower levels of internal LOC (ILOC) and chance LOC (CLOC) and higher levels of God LOC (GLOC), AS, and SM than males. Many mediational hypotheses were supported. SM mediated the relations between intrinsic religiousness (IRO) and AS and between IRO and DS. SM partially mediated the relation between extrinsic religious orientation (ERO) and AS. ILOC was not found to mediate the relations between RO and AS or between RO and DS. Powerful others LOC (PO LOC) mediated the relation between IRO and AS. PO LOC partially mediated the relations between ERO and AS, between quest religiousness (QRO) and AS, between IRO and DS, and between QRO and DS. CLOC mediated the relations between IRO and AS, between ERO and AS, between QRO and AS, and between QRO and DS. CLOC partially mediated the relation between IRO and DS. GLOC partially mediated the relation between QRO and DS. Social desirability was examined as moderating the relations between RO and AS and between RO and DS. Social desirability was found to moderate the relation between ERO and DS. In sum, LOC and SM were found to mediate relations between RO and AS and DS. Social desirability moderated the relation between ERO and DS.

This thesis is an investigation into the appropriation and assimilation of meaning by examining the relationship between the technique and meaning of the musical sample and meaning and memory in architecture. As a previously recorded sound integrated into a new work, the sample has a dual identity as both detail and artifact. It is a detail of two or more wholes: an original condition and the new condition, and an artifact from the context of the work from which it was taken. In architectural design, each recognizable form and spatial arrangement is a sample from a prototype with its own context and history. Each time a known form or spatial arrangement is sampled meaning is communicated from the prototype to the new work. The decontextualization of the sample, its manipulation and recontextualization into a new work provides the architect a means for reinterpretation and reinvention. Through an exploration of the use of the sample in music, art and architecture this thesis shows how sampling can alter the meaning of the physical environment.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2003. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 148-155).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hong Kong, 1988.

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Both laymen and psychologists have often observed that certain features of a familiar word change when it is continuously repeated. In the psychological literature, this phenomenon has been called "verbal satiation". The studies to follow are concerned with the effects of sustained repetition on the meaning of both familiar and unfamiliar words. [...]

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Over the past number of years, the study of language has been engaged in increasingly by a wide variety of academic disciplines and fields. Perhaps this bears witness to the growing appreciation of the pivotal role that language plays in our formation as individual persons, as peoples and as cultures. / As a particular kind of speech, liturgical language takes seriously the multi-dimensional nature of human reality, and, among other things, addresses itself to the profound questions of meaning posed by the human condition, as well as the 'needs' that arise in the posing of these questions. Further, as a rich communicative complex, liturgical language is itself multi-dimensional and multi-valent. This study is undertaken to investigate the meaning of this kind of language. To do this, the analytical 'lenses' of Ritual, Performative Language Theory, and Metaphor will be employed and discussed.