Terminal values and meaning in life among university students with varied levels of altruism in the present period of socio-cultural change

Abstract

Abstract The author of this paper, interested in the issues of values preference, meaning in life and altruism among university students has attempted to show a relation between them in the present period of clearly noticeable socio-cultural change. The study was conducted in 2009-2010 in Kraków among university students. The age of the respondents ranged from 21 to 25. 200 sets of correctly completed questionnaires were used for the results analysis. In order to show values preference among university students Rokeach’s ValueSurvey (RVS) was used. The level of a sense of meaning in life was measured by means of Crumbaugh and Maholick’s Purpose in Life Test (PLT). Moreover, Śliwak’s Questionnaire of Altruism (A-N) was applied to measure the level of altruism. It was found that students with a high level of altruism are accompanied by a higher level of meaning in life than students with a low level thereof. Terminal values significantly correlate with meaning in life in groups of students with a high and low level of altruism. Among terminal values, values personal in character appear to be more strongly related to meaning in life than values social in character.