本研究主要在探討大學生的生活壓力、社會支持與生命意義各層面的相互關係，最後瞭解生活壓力、社會支持對生命意義的預測情形。本研究採問卷調查法的方式，以台灣北部地區576名大學生為研究對象，邀請大學生填寫「生命意義量表」、「大學生生活壓力量表」及「社會支持量表」三種量表。資料蒐集完畢後，以描述性統計、獨立樣本t考驗、皮爾森積差相關、逐步迴歸分析、階層迴歸分析進行資料分析。研究主要發現如下： 一、大學生普遍具有追尋生命意義的動機，但約有四分之一的學生對個人的生命意義主觀感受是欠缺的或不確定的。 二、不同性別大學生的生命意義感、意義追尋動機無顯著差異。 三、有宗教信仰的大學生其生命意義感較無宗教信仰者高，且信仰越虔誠則生命意義感越高。 四、大學生的生命意義感與意義追尋動機為正相關。 五、日常困擾、重大負向生活事件兩者的發生件數、影響程度，分別和生命意義感呈負相關。 六、社會支持、日常困擾影響程度與意義追尋動機為正向關係。 七、大學生的社會支持、日常困擾程度、重大負向生活事件發生件數、是否有宗教信仰，對生命意義感具顯著預測力。 八、大學生的社會支持、日常困擾程度、日常困擾發生件數，能夠顯著預測意義追尋動機。 九、有宗教信仰的大學生，信仰虔誠度對生命意義感預測力高於生活壓力。 十、大學生的社會支持並沒有產生調節生活壓力對生命意義之效果。 根據研究結果，建議可藉由協助大學生探索其生命意義、發展個人的靈性或宗教信仰、建立個人的社會網絡、學習因應日常困擾之能力、嘗試從苦難中找尋生命意義，以獲得較高的生命意義感。最後提出對未來相關研究的建議。 / The study examined the relative contributions of life stress and social support to the prediction of life meaning among Taiwan college students. This study employed three questionnaires to collect data, including Meaning in life Questionnaire, Life Stress Scale, and Social Support Scale. The participants of the study were 576 college students of northern Taiwan. The descriptive statistic, t-test, Pearson’s correlation analysis, stepwise multiple regression and hierarchical multiple regression analysis were used to analyze data. The main findings of this study were: 1. College students generally had the motivation of searching for meaning, but about 1/4 students had deficient or uncertain subjective experience to the presence of life meaning. 2. Male and female students had no significant differentiation in the presence and search for the meaning in life. 3. College students with religious beliefs had higher presence of meaning in life than those who didn’t have religious beliefs. Moreover the higher the dedication in religion a student had the higher meaning in life. 4. There was a positive correlation between the presence of meaning in life and the search for meaning in college students. 5. Daily hassles, number of major life events, and the degree of influence had negative relationship with the presence of life meaning. 6. Positive relationship between social support, degree of influence of daily hassles and the search for meaning in life were found. 7. College students’ social support, degree of influence of daily hassles, number of major life events, and religious beliefs could significantly predict the presence of meaning in life. 8. College students’ social support, degree of influence of daily hassles, and number of daily hassles could significantly predict the search for meaning in life. 9. The dedication level in religion had higher prediction than life stress on the presence of meaning in life among college students who had religious beliefs. 10. The college students' social support had no buffering effect between stress and the meaning of life. According to the findings, researcher suggested that college students could obtain higher levels of life meaning by exploring their meaning of life, developing spirituality or religious beliefs, learning the ability to cope with daily hassles, and finding meaning in sufferings. Finally, suggestions for further research were proposed.

Over the past five decades, universities across the globe have been subjected to powerful forces of change that have impacted their definition, governance and funding structures, and managerial practices. In South Africa, the reform process was amplified by the country’s apartheid legacy and the political and socio-economic realities. Consequently, the transformation has resulted in the corporatisation of universities and the re-engineering of the academic profession into a managed profession that brought about a changed work environment with less secure conditions of employment, more expectations and increased work pressure, with diminished autonomy. The changed and changing South African higher education environment has had and continues to have its effects on academic employees’ well-being, health and morale. Limited research has investigated the sense of purpose and meaning and psychological health of academic employees. Moreover, there is an absence of empirical studies that have reported on the development and evaluation of a brief group-based meaning-centred intervention that focuses on both the sense of purpose and meaning, and psychological health of academic employees. The primary aim of the study was to first explore the meaning and/or meaning frustration embedded in the academic employee experience, in order to develop and empirically assess a brief group-based meaning-centred intervention in a higher education setting. The intervention was articulated from a logotherapy perspective of Viktor Frankl’s system of psychotherapy. An intervention mixed methods design, consisting of four interdependent phases, was used to pursue the aim of the study. The phase one qualitative single case study was used to explore and describe the sense of meaning and/or meaning frustration embedded in academic employees’ experiences. This was used as a means of developing and supporting the intervention that was implemented in the phase three quantitative quasi- experimental single-group pre/post test study. Phase two was thus an applied phase where the intentional mixing of the qualitative and quantitative phases took place. Likewise, phase four was an applied phase since it was used to draw conclusions based on the integration of the phase one findings and the phase three results. The results of the quantitative study indicated that the majority of academic employees who participated in the study had a sense of definite purpose and meaning (MPIL-post = 114.59, SDPIL-post = 18.04) and psychological health, despite the changed and changing HE landscape. The main finding suggests that a logotherapy brief group-based intervention, with a strong cognitive restructuring component, may have a positive impact on the sense of purpose and meaning of academic employees, whilst reducing the presence of symptoms of depression, post traumatic stress, binge eating and panic. The experience of purpose and meaning in work, and adaptive psychological coping, was related to academic employees’ sense of making a difference in students’ development, the appreciation they have received from students, their freedom of choice, their view of work as a calling, the unique benefits of working in HE, meaning beyond the meaning in the moment (ultimate meaning) and making a difference in colleagues’ (staffs’) lives. Llimitations in the study are noted and recommendations are made to formalise existential analysis as a research method of meaning informed organisational assessment. / Psychology / Ph. D. (Counselling Psychology)