Institut für Psychologie | Tatjana Schnell

Sources of Meaning and Meaning in Life Questionnaire (SoMe)

DESCRIPTION: The Sources of Meaning and Meaning in Life Questionnaire (SoMe) measures 26 sources of meaning and, independently of these, separate scales to assess meaningfulness – a fundamental sense of purpose, orientation, coherence, and belonging, and crisis of meaning – the evaluation of life as frustratingly empty and lacking meaning.

NUMBER OF ITEMS: 151 items, measuring 26 sources of meaning, meaningfulness and crisis of meaning.

RELIABILITY:

• Internal consistencies range from .85–.91 for the dimensions (M = .88), and .59–.95 for the scales (M = .76; N = 322). See table 1.
• Sources of meaning, meaningfulness and crisis of meaning show a high short-term stability; 2-month test-retest stability coefficients average .81 for the scales, .90 for the dimensions (German data).
• Stability of sources of meaning and meaningfulness is still high after an interval of 6 months (.72 for the scales, .78 for the dimensions); for crisis of meaning, it is .48 (German data).

Table  1.  SoMe  scales and dimensions,  with  internal consistencies (N = 322).

Lavigne, K. M., Hofman, S., Ring, A. J., Ryder, A. G., & Woodward, T. S. (2013). The personality of meaning in life: Associations between dimensions of life meaning and the Big Five. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 8(1), 34-43.