The Role of Meaning in Life and Religious Experience amongst Young People with Specific Personality Profiles

The aims of the research I embarked on were: (a) to show the level of meaning in life, intensity of motivation to look for meaning and purpose in life, the level of personality traits and the level of religious experience: God’s presence and God’s absence, in the lives of young people; and (b) to show the relation between meaning in life and motivation to look for meaning and purpose in life, with religious experience: God’s presence and God’s absence, in groups of young people with specific personality profiles. In the research the following methods were applied: in order to define the level of religious experience: God’s presence and God’s absence- The Scale of Religious Experience (SRE) by S. Głaz, in order to define meaning in life- The Purpose in Life Test (PLT) by J. Crumbaugh and L. Maholick, to define intensity of motivation to look for meaning and purpose in life- The Seeking of Noetic Goals Test (SONG) by J. Crumbaugh was applied, and in order to establish the personality profiles amongst young people- The Personality Questionnaire (NEO-FFI) by R. McCrae’a and P. Costa. The research was carried out in Kraków amongst 134 university students. All of them declared that had religious experience of God’s presence and of God’s absence. The age of the young people ranged from 19 to 24. The subject group comes from several non-Catholic public and Polish state universities. All students were Polish born