Manifestation of Life Meaning Crisis at Youth

Abstract

Background. In the context of the value pluralism in modern society, the importance of the ability to determine one's own value-semantic orientations, to make an independent choice between various sources of meaning and build one's life project on their basis increases. However, this ability can be developed in different ways in young people, depending on the severity of their alexithymia, reflection, and tolerance for uncertainty. The presence of a consistent system of personal meanings is a sign of personal maturity, which is the key to adaptive behaviour, psychological well-being, independence, and acceptance of one's own responsibility. Successful overcoming of the crisis of the meaning of life, the development of measures to prevent it in young people require the study of psychological characteristics that increase the risk of developing this condition. Objectives. The study focuses on the features of manifestation of a life-meaning crisis in young people with varying degrees of alexithymia, reflection, and tolerance for uncertainty. Methods. An empirical study was carried out using psychodiagnostic techniques: the “Questionnaire of the Meaningful Crisis” by K.V. Karpinsky, the “Toront Alexithymic Scale”, the questionnaire “Differential Type of Reflection” by D.A. Leontiev, “Badner Uncertainty Tolerance Scales” version by G.U. Soldier. Based on the correlation analysis, the strength of the relationship between the studied traits was determined and using the ANOVA analysis of variance and Fisher's Post-hoc analysis, the significance of the difference between the means in different groups was tested. Results. It was found that the severity of life-meaning crisis is associated with difficulties in defining and describing feelings, introspection, quasi-reflection, and tolerance for insolubility. Persons with a high severity of the life-meaning crisis are characterized by high rates of alexithymia. Men are characterized by a greater severity of subjective experiences characteristic of a life-meaning crisis. At the same time, the degree of severity is associated with such indicators as the difficulty of identifying feelings, introspection, and intolerance to difficulties. The level of reflection in men is associated with the level of tolerance for insolubility. The severity of alexithymia in women is associated with the level of reflection, in particular with the level of introspection. Conclusions. The data obtained allow us to draw up a psychological portrait of a modern young man experiencing a life meaning crisis. It has been shown that people with high levels of the life meaning crisis have difficulty noticing, naming, and correctly interpreting the emotional reactions that arise in them. It can be assumed that group trainings aimed at developing emotional intelligence and reducing the level of alexithymia will ease the crisis of the meaning of life for this category of people. Practical application of the results. The materials of the study can be used in the development and implementation of psychological assistance programmes, aimed at teaching adequate mechanisms for coping with a life-meaning crisis for students of secondary and higher educational institutions, as well as for young employees.

Keywords

• life-meaning crisis
• alexithymia
• reflection
• tolerance for uncertainty
• young age