Identification of markers for models of meaning constructs

Abstract

Strategies of meaning formation are included in the highest level of regulation of an individual life. The article presents the results of empirical determination of the polar meaning strategies marker. In the initial modeling of the meaning formation processes, two polar strategies are proposed: adaptive and developmental. The system of personal meanings occupies a central place in the structure of the personality and is correlated with its properties manifested in interactions. For an empirical description of polar strategies, we developed nine scales of personality properties according to the type of private semantic differential. In these bipolar semantic scales, we used words that denote personality traits that act as indicators of meaning. An empirical study was carried out with the use of various techniques for studying semantic regulation of a person to determine a marker that allows one to identify these meaning strategies. The battery of tests included: the author’s private semantic differential, including nine scales of personality properties, “Test of life-sense orientations” (by D. A. Leontiev), test “Who Am I?” (by M. Kuhn), “Multiple intelligence test” (by G. Gardner), “Test of frustration tolerance” (by S. Rosenzweig), “Questionnaire of personality reflection” (by I. A. Stetsenko). An empirical sample (n = 145) found that a stable positive statistically significant correlation (p≤.05) exists only between the indicators of nine developed scales of personal properties and the indicator “Meaningfulness of life” in the “Test of life-sense orientations” by D.A. Leontiev. This indicator “Meaning-fulness of life” can be used as an indicator marker of polar strategies of meaning formation: adaptive and developmental. Its use contributes to a more effective study of the processes of meaning formation and reduces the laboriousness of diagnostic procedures.