FACTOR STRUCTURE OF THE LIFE-MEANING ORIENTATIONS TEST IN THE STUDENTS SAMPLE

Abstract

The internal consistency and structure of questions of the life-meaning orientations test - the most popular tool for measuring the consciousness of life and the existential orientation of a person - have been studied. Its diagnostic value is undeniable, but the procedure for distributing assessments by subscales raises a number of questions: some items are included in two or three scales at once, and the content of individual items does not correspond to the characteristics of the subscale in which they are included. The vagueness of the factorial structure is explained by the fact that the methodology is based on a one-dimensional approach, which initially did not imply the differentiation of individual components. A survey of 93 students aged 17-24 was carried out, while two versions of the keys to the method, published in 2000 and 2020, were used in parallel. The general indicator of students' life awareness has an average interval of 103.16 ± 18.73, is characterized by a normal distribution and high internal consistency. The factorial structure of variables is not similar to any of the models previously described in methodological sources. The measurement of the meaningfulness of life in the student sample is influenced by five factors that together determine 62.7% of the empirical distribution: 1) the existential fullness of the personality's existence; 2) a sense of controllability and orderliness of life; 3) the success of self-identification (awareness of oneself, one's goals and life purpose); 4) a positive and open perception of one's own life; 5) joyful expectations from the future. The obtained factors only partially reflect the structure of LSS as a mental education of a higher order. First of all, they reveal the peculiarities of understanding their own life in the student population. The study asks the question of the psychological factors that determine the existential characteristics of a person at different stages of life.