成長主題、意義化與台灣成人心理成熟的關聯性初探

A Study on the Relationship among Growth Themes, Meaningfulness, and Psychological Maturity of Taiwanese Adults

本研究依據Bauer 和 McAdams（2004a, 2004b）的觀點，將心理成熟定義為社會認知成熟及社會情緒幸福感等兩種人格發展類型，藉此探討台灣樣本的心理成熟特色，並檢視成長主題、意義化與心理成熟間的關聯性。研究樣本是透過滾雪球方式選取102 位18 ~ 57 歲的參與者，分別填寫Loevinger華盛頓造句測驗（WUSCT）、心理幸福感量表（PWB）、大五人格量表（BFI）及撰寫成長主題故事。研究將WUSCT 所量測的自我發展階段視為社會認知成熟的指標，研究結果發現參與者的自我發展階段平均介於「自我意識」與「良心」之間，且年齡越大發展階段越高；至於心理幸福感所量測出的社會情緒幸福感程度，則反映出多數人認同日常生活中所帶來的正向情緒；但社會認知成熟與社會情緒幸福感間無關聯性。基本上，在高峰經驗中描述成就主題並能賦予事件意義化者，越能促進社會認知成熟度的提升；而描述學業挫折或工作表現不佳等低潮經驗，則會降低社會情緒幸福感的程度。此外，高峰經驗成就主題中的意義化能調節成長主題與社會認知成熟的關係。在輔導實務面上，建議啟發個體多元的自我價值及生命意義的建構，勿拘泥於學業及工作表現。

Based on concept of psychological maturity in personality psychology (Bauer & McAdams, 2004), this study defines two forms of personality development: social-cognitive maturity (SCM) and social-emotional well-being (SEWB). SCM deals with how complexly ones think about the self and others, and how their lives have organized in the world in increasingly complex ways. It is frequently measured by Loevinger’s measure of ego development (Loevinger, 1976; Hy and Loevinger,1996). SEWB, based on self-determination theory, deals with how good one feels about the self in a world of others (Ryan& Deci, 2001). SCM and SEWB were expected to relate differentially to two forms of growth themes:Agentic-grwoth tehms and Communal-growth themes. Agentic-growth themes (e.g., emphasizing power) correlated primarily with SCM, and communal-growth themes (e.g., emphasizing intimacy) correlated primarily with SEWB (Bauer & McAdams, 2004b). Growth themes from personal memories are narratives of specific events in a person’s life. They complete with a visual image of the event and attendant thoughts and feelings that the person remembers experiencing at the time of the event (Brewer, 1986).Growth themes often provide meaning or even contribute to a sense of meaning. A strong sense of meaning is associated with well-being (Emmons, 2003). How people construct their growth themes and make meaning of these themes greatly depend on personality. This study explores the characteristics of psychological maturity in Taiwanese adults and examines the relationships among personality, growth themes,meaningfulness, and psychological maturity. 102 participants were recruited through snowball sampling from Taiwan. The participants’ ages ranged from 18-57 years old (average age = 26.78; male, N = 44; married = 11; student = 57). The participants completed the scales of Washington University Sentence Completion Test (WUSCT), Psychological Well-being (PWB), and Big- Five Inventory (BFI), and they were asked to write down their life stories (Growth Themes). The participants completed a booklet typically took 2-6 hours to complete. Regression model was used to examine the meaningfulness would moderate the relationship between growth themes and ego development. Results showed that the average stage of ego development for participants was between Self-Aware stage and conscientious stage. Older participants displayed a higher level of ego development. Moreover, majority of people agreed with that life brings positive emotion in everyday. Consistent with previous findings, PWB and SCM were not significantly correlated. Furthermore, the results of regression analysis indicated that personality was positively correlated with social emotion well-being, but didn’t correlate with meaningfulness. Extraversion personality was positively related to the growth themes derived from life stories. In the description of the peak experience in life stories, making meanings to achievement themes was positively correlated with SCM. On the other hand, when describing nadir experience, experiencing academic setback and poor job performance was negatively correlated with SWB. Finally, the meaningfulness moderated the relationship between growth themes and ego development for participants when describing achievement themes in peak experience. The overall findings are summarized in three parts. First, the non-significant relationship between SCM and SWB indicates that these two perspectives of maturity develop independently.Moreover, the two growth themes mapped differentially onto measures of SCM and SWB,suggesting that the different underlying reasons that people for their life experience relate to specific kinds of personality development. Second, Taiwanese adults describe the achievement themes more often than communion themes. When people describe more achievement themes in peak experiences, they tend to develop a higher level of ego development. Third, when people make more meaning of achievement themes in peak experiences, they tend to display a higher ego development.