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Purpose in Life Scale (PIL)

 


Assessment name:  Purpose in Life Scale (PIL)

Scale overview: The Purpose in Life Scale (PIL) uses 20 items to measure a person’s view of their purpose in life or the meaningfulness of life.

Authors: Crumbaugh and Maholick

Response Type:

Part A: A self-report 7-point rating scale.

Part B: 13 sentence-completion items about one’s life purpose

Part C: respondents are asked to write a paragraph, which includes such concepts as life goals, hopes, and so forth.

Research has focused on the part A items. The unique anchors have been changed to a 7-point scale of agreement by other researchers.

Sample Scale items

Sample Part A Item 1 original format

I am usually

1=Completely bored‚ 2‚ 3‚ 4=Neutral‚ 5‚ 6‚ 7 = exuberant‚ enthusiastic

Sample Part A Item 2 revised rating anchors from 1 = Strongly Disagree to 7 = Strongly Agree

Life to me seems always exciting.

 

Psychometric properties

High scores represent a greater sense of meaning in life and low scores indicate a loss of meaning. The items are related to the work of Viktor Frankl.

See Crumbaugh, J. C., & Maholick, L. T. (1964) for early psychometric properties. Other studies support adequate reliability values and support for validity. The scale is also available in other languages. See the PsychINFO database for additional studies.

Availability:

Online format by Existential Family Therapy:  https://hipaa.jotform.com/220904141017038

http://fetzer.org/sites/default/files/images/stories/pdf/selfmeasures/PURPOSE_MEANING-PurposeInLifeTest.pdf

 

Reference for the original scale

Crumbaugh, J. C., & Maholick, L. T. (1964). An experimental study in existentialism: The psychometric approach to Frankl’s concept of noogenic neurosis. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 20, 200–207.

 

Reference for using scales in research:

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Reference for clinicians on understanding assessment

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Resource Link:  A – Z Test Index

 

 

 

NOTICE:

The information about scales and measures is provided for clinicians and researchers based on professional publications. The links to authors, materials, and references can change. You may be able to locate details by contacting the main author of the original article or another author on the article list.

 

Post Author

 

Geoffrey W. Sutton PhD is Emeritus Professor of Psychology who publishes book and articles about clinical and social psychology including the psychology of religion. Website:     www.suttong.com

  

Books available on   AMAZON       and the   GOOGLE STORE

 

Connections

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Read many published articles and book samples on:

 

  Academia   Geoff W Sutton   

 

  ResearchGate   Geoffrey W Sutton 

 

 

 

 


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