The need for sense-making as a personal resource: conceptualization and scale development

Abstract

We consider need for sense-making a personal resource and propose that people differ in their levels of this need. We present results of five studies (N = 879) that tested Need for Sense-Making Scale (NSM). The scale is unidimensional, highly reliable, and has satisfactory construct and criterion validity. Need for sense-making was moderately positively related to extroversion, openness, conscientiousness, self-esteem, and sense of control, while negatively related to neuroticism. There was an inverted U-shaped relationship between the need for sensemaking and well-being. When individuals were presented with a meaningful task, searching for and presence of meaning sequentially mediate the relationship between need for sense-making and task performance. Need for sense-making predicts work engagement through searching for and presence of meaningful work.

The efficient measurement of individual differences in meaning motivation: The need for sense-making short form

“…Similar to Cantarero et al (2021) we performed diagonally weighted least squares confirmatory factor analysis of the full scale, which supported the unifactorial structure of the scale; the model had a moderate fit to the data χ 2 /df = 5.21; RMSEA = 0.09, 90% CI = [0.083, 0.091], SRMR = 0.10, GFI = 0.93, though χ 2 /df exceeded the recommended 5.00. 2 We next reviewed the content of the items to select a subset for the short version of the scale.…”

“…It is conceptualized as a personal resource as it elevates the chances of achieving a sense of meaning. Cantarero et al (2021) found that need for sense-making related positively to openness to experience, selfesteem, and internal locus of control. Need for sense-making related to searching for meaning in a task, which was linked to perceiving the task as more meaningful and related to better task performance.…”

“…Drawing on the conceptualization of the lower, more specific meaning type, Cantarero et al (2019Cantarero et al ( , 2021 proposed that people differ in the need to make sense of the world. To assess the corresponding individual differences, they developed the Need for Sense-Making Scale (NSM).…”

Bored like Hell: Religiosity reduces boredom and tempers the quest for meaning.

“…Yet, our findings suggest otherwise and are consistent with previous observations. That is, earlier research found similarly small (and null) correlations for need for cognition with boredom (Van Tilburg & Igou, 2016) and with meaning (Cantarero, Van Tilburg, Gąsiorowska, & Wojciszke, 2018). Perhaps, this relatively weak association reflects that need for cognition, which involves a tendency to “engage in and enjoy thinking” (Cacioppo & Petty, 1982, p. 116), occurs in relative isolation of establishing or searching for meaning.…”

Consequences of Sisyphean Efforts: Meaningless Effort Decreases Motivation to Engage in Subsequent Conservation Behaviors through Disappointment

“…Similar to the participants in our studies, the participants in Chandler and Kapelner's study did not perceive the meaningless condition as more meaningless than the participants in the control condition. This result suggests that evaluations of meaningfulness and meaninglessness may depend upon context, the characteristics of an individual and the relationship between an individual's goals and their actions [9,47].…”