The Personality Construct of Hardiness, V Relationships With the Construction of Existential Meaning in Life

• Published in: The Journal of humanistic psychology Vol. 51; no. 3; pp. 369 - 388
• Main Authors: Maddi, Salvatore R., Khoshaba, Deborah M., Harvey, Richard H., Fazel, Mostafa, Resurreccion, Nephthys
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01-07-2011; SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
• Subjects: Attitudes; Bravery; Disasters; Existentialism; Hardiness; Meaning; Motivation; Personality; Personality traits; Psychology; Reliability; Resilience; Socially desirable responding; Stress; Theoretical constructs; Undergraduate students; Validation; Validity; hardiness; existential meaning
• ISSN: 0022-1678; 1552-650X
• DOI: 10.1177/0022167810388941

In the past 25 years, personality hardiness has been emphasized as a composite of the interrelated attitudes of commitment, control, and challenge that together provide the existential courage and motivation to turn stressful circumstances from potential disasters into growth opportunities. As such, hardiness has become considered the pathway to resilience and is increasingly used in consulting work. This study continues the construct validation of hardiness, using its latest measure, the Personal Views Survey III-R. In a large sample of undergraduates, this test showed adequate internal consistency reliability and absence of relationship to socially desirable responding. Furthermore, as expected, hardiness was positively related to measures of the ongoing, existential process of finding meaning through experiencing rather than imposing preexisting notions of what life is all about.