Humanistic/Existential Approaches & Assessment

Cultural Group Comparisons

  • Cultural Group A and Cultural Group B are being compared.
  • Variables Y1, Y2, Y3, Y4, and Y5 are measured for both groups.
  • \eta (eta) represents a latent variable for each group.
  • \lambda (lambda) represents factor loadings for each item.
  • \epsilon (epsilon) represents measurement error for each item (e.g., response styles, communication problems, unclear wording, poor translation).
  • Equation for each item: Yx = \lambda x\eta + \epsilon x.
  • The analysis examines whether \eta A = \eta B and \lambda A1 = \lambda B1.

Example of Cultural Group Comparison

  • Cultural Groups: Chinese People (A) vs. American People (B).
  • Variables: Boredom, Discomfort, Crying, Sadness.
  • The analysis aims to determine if there are differences in the latent variables (\eta A and \eta B) related to these emotions between the two cultural groups.
  • Distress about the impact of Trumps 145% tariff

Humanistic/Existential Approaches

  • Focus on private experiences, subjective perceptions, and the self.
  • Emphasis on the present rather than distant historical causes.

Conceptualizing a Psychosocial Problem

  • Challenges:
    • Formulating a case based on theory.
    • Developing critical skills in choosing relevant and useful measures.
    • Communicating evidence-based assessment choices coherently.
  • Key Considerations:
    • Theory: Why theory-based assessment is needed and how key constructs map onto assessment strategies.
    • Assessment: Essential principles and key constructs.
    • Application: Measurement of key constructs, reliability and validity of measurement tools, and applicability to real-world problems.

Agenda

  • Revisiting assessment questions
  • Existential concepts
  • Viktor Frankl
  • Carl Rogers
  • Existential meaning
  • The Multidimensional Existential Meaning Scale
  • Measure of fusion
  • Awkward fits for Existential/humanist approaches and psychometric approach
  • Can we shoe-horn it?

Humanistic/Existential Approaches

  • Grew in the 1950s in the US
  • Journal of Humanistic Psychology began in 1961
  • Focus is on subjective experience and the self
  • Existentialism
    • Viewpoint of Kierkegaard, Sartre, and Heidegger
    • Human beings are completely free and responsible for their own behavior
    • We are not victims of forces
    • We are builders of our own lives
    • Choosing agent, Free agent, Responsible agent
    • Greater potential for self-change than earlier theorists

Existential Anxiety

  • The courage to be – to break out of blind conformity and instead strive for authenticity
  • To achieve this, need to be aware of non-being, alienation, nothingness, inevitability of death.
  • Human desire for significance, despite transitory nature of life
  • Radiohead 1995 “They laugh at me because I'm different; I laugh at them because they're all the same.” ― Kurt Cobain

Quote by Christopher Hitchens

  • Life is a difficult journey, and it's important to make the most of the time we have and treat others well.

Humanistic Concepts

  • People are basically good, with inherent potential to have meaningful relationships and to make choices that are in the interests of self and others.
  • People can free themselves from crippling assumptions and attitudes
  • Growth and self-actualization, rather than pathogenic processes
  • Present and conscious processes rather than past causes
  • Shares the earlier existential concepts of responsibility, freedom, people have the capacity for self-awareness and choice

Assessment Considerations

  • Qualitative vs. Quantitative Research:
    • Rational empirical methods are illusory.
    • Narrative methods are closer to the human experience.
    • Can we compromise? Should we compromise?
  • Capturing Existential Aspects:
    • Can we meaningfully capture things that are important about existential approaches like: Compassion, Self-acceptance, Values for living?

Viktor Frankl

  • Viktor E. Frankl (1905-1997)
  • Author of Man's Search for Meaning

Frankl's Theory

  • At the core of Frankl's theory is the belief that our primary motivational force is our search for meaning.

Frankl’s Experience

  • We are all motivated by a will to meaning
  • Life can have meaning even in the most miserable of situations
  • Meaning comes from three sources:
    • Purposeful work
    • Love
    • Courage in the face of difficulty
  • The book:
    • Describes his personal experiences in Auschwitz and other death camps
    • Page 50 paragraph 2

Love and Meaning

  • Even in the face of uncertainty and loss, love can provide strength and meaning.
  • Quote from Man’s Search for Meaning: "Set me like a seal upon thy heart, love is as strong as death."

Multidimensional Existential Meaning Scale (MEMS)

  • Questions about the scale's face validity, strengths/weaknesses, and measurement equivalence across cultures, genders, and ages.
  • Further evaluation of measurement equivalence is encouraged.

Multidimensional Existential Meaning Scale article

  • George and Park's research on measuring meaning in life using a tripartite approach.

Meaning in Life (MIL)

  • MIL – the extent to which one’s life is experienced as making sense (George & Parks 2017)
  • Tripartite Model (George & Park, 2017, pp 614)
    • Comprehension
      • ‘extent to which individuals perceive a sense of coherence and understanding regarding their lives’.. Feel that there is a clear and coherent organization to one’s life
    • Purpose
      • Extent to which life is ‘directed and motivated by valued life goals’
      • Without this, can feel aimless and disengaged
    • Mattering
      • My existence is significant, important, and of value to others
      • Central function of religion and spirituality may be to transcend materiality

Multidimensional Existential Meaning Scale (MEMS)

  • (George & Park, 2017)
  • Aim: To develop a scale of meaning in life based on the tripartite model (comprehension, purpose, mattering)
  • Method (p. 615 Column 2 paragraph 2):
    • Initial set of items
    • Survey three samples of undergrads median age 19 from Northeastern US (relevance to different cultures/age groups?)
    • Assess one sample twice (2 weeks apart) to assess test-retest reliability
  • Analyses
    • Factor analyses –will there be three separate factors – sounds like a CFA doesn’t it!
    • Actually did an EFA first..
    • Do the subscales correlate with other MIL measures
    • Do the measures corelate with well-being variables, as we would expect this would

Factor Loadings and Communalities for the MEMS

  • Table displaying factor loadings for items related to Comprehension, Purpose, and Mattering.
  • Items with high loadings on Mattering:
    • My life is of value even in the grand scheme of the universe (0.89)
    • Even considering how big the universe is, I can say that my life matters (0.87)
    • Even in the big picture of the universe, my life is of value (0.86)
  • Items with high loadings on Comprehension:
    • I understand my life events (0.84)
    • I understand my life (0.76)
    • I can make sense of the things that happen in my life (0.75)
  • Items with high loadings on Purpose:
    • I have certain life goals that compel me to keep going (0.85)
    • I have a clear sense of what my life goals are (0.79)

CFA Factor Loadings and Item Descriptives

  • Table 2. CFA factor loadings and item descriptives.
  • Comprehension:
    • I understand my life - 0.88
    • I know what my life is about - 0.85
    • Looking at my life as a whole, things seem clear to me - 0.79
  • Purpose:
    • My direction in life is motivating to me - 0.83
    • I have goals in life that are very important to me - 0.83
    • I have aims in my life that are worth striving for - 0.81
  • Mattering:
    • Even considering how big the universe is, I can say that my life matters - 0.91
    • I am certain that my life is of importance - 0.88
    • Whether my life ever existed matters even in the grand scheme of the universe - 0.82

Comparison with Unidimensional Scales

  • Comparison to Presence MLQ, PPMS, and a composite scale

Relationships with Well-being Variables

  • Table 5 presents relationships between MEMS subscales and well-being variables such as life satisfaction, positive affect, negative affect, depression, anxiety, and stress.
  • Comprehension, Purpose, and Mattering each show significant relationships with these variables.

Cronbach’s Alpha

  • A test of internal consistency (expressed as number between 0 and 1)
  • How closely related a set of items are as a group – inter- relatedness
  • A high alpha does not mean the measure is unidimensional (use a CFA/EFA to determine this)
  • Should only use alpha on a defined subscale or factor, not a measure containing 2 or more factors..
  • More advanced than item-total correlation
  • An acceptable range is > .7
  • The more items a scale has, the higher the alpha (all other things equal)
  • An alpha of 0.95 is not necessarily good – it might just be the questions are redundant…

Reliability of MEMS Subscales

  • Cronbach's alpha values for comprehension, purpose, and mattering subscales were consistently high across three samples, indicating good internal consistency.
  • Test-retest reliability was also good, with correlations of 0.75 for comprehension and purpose, and 0.85 for mattering over a two-week period.

Self-Concept

  • The actual self and the ideal self (sometimes thought of as self concept)
  • When these systems are in opposition or incongruent
  • Want to go to university but entry marks are not high enough -
  • Accurate perception can be threatening to the self
  • We try to get congruence by engaging in defensive behaviour, such as:
    • Viewing incongruent elements as forced on us by others
    • Selective focus on certain experiences that are consistent with our ideal self, avoid, withdraw from experiences that are inconsistent with our ideal self
  • Big discrepancies between self and ideal often lead to disappointment and dissatisfaction, dejection, shame and embarrassment
  • Discrepancies have an impact on how we feel and what we do to cope

Q-Sort Methods

  • People use different words to describe the same experience
  • Lots of cards with printed statements e.g., I am likeable, I am anxious, I am a great leader.
  • Consider how I’d like to be (ideal self) by placing them in a grid according to whether not like me (disagree) to really like me (agree)..
  • Consider how I actually am (actual self) by placing them in a grid according to whether not like me to really like me..
  • Can then quantify the difference between ideal and actual self
  • Good ‘within person measure’ (less useful ‘between person measure’)
  • Please don’t use these in your Case Assessment Plan
  • Not common in research these days
  • Often very hard to get an index of reliability and validity

Q-Sort Basic Process

  • Person sorts certain number of cards into the same number of boxes
  • Fewer boxes at high ends of agreement and disagreement than in the middle
  • Start at around 55 seconds to get a quick demo of the q sort technique…

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)

  • Approaches to understanding growth

Opening Ideas from "The Happiness Trap"

  • ‘Feeling good’ versus living a rich and meaningful life
  • Happiness (pleasure, gratification, elation) is
    • Not normal but we crave and strive for it
    • Great but doesn’t last
    • Pursuing it is unsatisfying
    • THIS IS THE TRAP
  • What is a rich and meaningful life?
    • Take action based on what we consider valuable and meaningful
  • Values – verbally constructed global desired life consequences
  • Values – not out there to be found – they are to be defined elaborated and constructed in an ongoing way (Wilson et al., 2010)
  • Not fleeting, sometimes uncomfortable
  • Life involves pain – cannot be avoided but we FIGHT IT, ARGUE, TAKE DRUGS TO STOP IT
  • Psychological flexibility
    • being present here and now
    • Being fully aware
    • Choosing actions that are guided by your values
    • Moving towards what is important
  • Drains the power of chronic and overwhelming troublesome thoughts and frees us to live meaningfully
  • Can change your life’s trajectory

Thoughts

  • Are stories – sometimes true, sometimes false, sometimes both
  • We all have them – chatter, soft/loud
  • Cognitive fusion – story and event become blended
    • Thoughts seem to represent reality
    • Thoughts are truth
    • Thoughts need to be obeyed
    • Thoughts are threatening
  • Contrast with traditional CBT approaches (Ellis, Beck, etc)

The Struggle Switch

  • SWITCH IS ON….
    • ‘should of.. Could of…. This must…. This has to be… this can’t…’
    • troublesome feelings snowball – anxiety causes anger..
    • Acting inconsistent with values - alcohol/drugs to distract…
  • SWITCH IS OFF…
    • Anxiety comes, rises, goes..
    • Observe, don’t waste time and energy struggling against them…
    • Example of smoking

ACT Perspective

  • What kind of things would you want to capture from an ACT Perspective?
    • Cognitive fusion - people are entangled in their private experiences
    • Psychological flexibility - the ability to contact the present moment more fully as a conscious human being, and to change or persist in behavior when doing so serves valued ends

The Cognitive Fusion Questionnaire (CFQ)

  • Gillanders et al 2014
  • Cognitive fusion occurs when people are entangled in their private experiences
  • This questionnaire is free to use
  • Citation: Gillanders, D. T., Bolderston, H., Bond, F. W., Dempster, M., Flaxman, P. E., Campbell, L., Kerr, S., Tansey, L., Noel, P., Ferenbach, C., Masley, S., Roach, L., Lloyd, J., May, L., Clarke, S., Remington, R. (2014) The development and initial validation of The Cognitive Fusion Questionnaire. Behavior Therapy, 45, 83-101, DOI: 10.1016/j.beth.2013.09.001

The Cognitive Fusion Questionnaire

  • Bold items are the items that were retained after the CFA (another table) – there were more items than those here..

Correlations Between CFQ and Other Constructs

  • Table displaying correlations between the Cognitive Fusion Questionnaire (CFQ) and other constructs, such as Acceptance and Action Questionnaire (AAQZ), Southampton Mindfulness Scale (SMS), Five Facets Mindfulness Questionnaire Total (FFMQ), etc.
  • The table includes sample sizes, correlation coefficients (r), and p-values.

CFQ Psychometric Summary

  • Table 5: Summary of Properties and Normative Data
  • Mean(SD)
  • Cronbach’s alpha
  • test-retest reliability

Sensitivity to ACT Intervention

  • Table 6: Sensitivity to ACT Intervention in an Organisational Setting
  • Whole sample
  • ACT
  • Control

Summary of Existential/Humanist Perspectives

  • Focus is on subjective experience
  • Free and actualized life
  • Less focus on the past – ultimately freedom from the past is of interest
  • We experience a meaningful life when we have clear and coherent life, purpose, and we matter/are valued
  • Problems arise when we hold on to the past, fuse with thoughts, have conditions of worth