- 期刊
生與死：生命有限性促進生命意義
Life and Death: Scarcity Linking to Enhanced Meaning of Life
摘要
恐懼管理理論指出當個體意識到生命有限的事實時，會傾向於使用許多機轉對抗死亡恐懼。但有限捷思模式認為面對死亡恐懼的機轉不總是這麼複雜，也許只是反映了一種生命有限性與價值之間的關係。依此模式，事物的有限性會使它的價值增加，同樣的，突顯生命有限性也會提高對生命的評價。因此本研究的主要目的是檢驗有限捷思模式的假設是否也適用於華人社會。本研究將300位就讀於高雄醫學大學的受試者（男性102人, 女性198人；平均年齡為19.68, SD =1.49）隨機分配至控制組或實驗組，實驗處理為使用填字作業來操弄受試者在生命有限性變項上的突顯與否，並在實驗後施測生命意義量表，以及控制死亡知覺變項，研究結果發現符合預期，實驗組在生命意義量表的平均得分顯著高於控制組的平均得分。本研究也同時測量了受試者對五種一般物品的評價以確定生命有限性與價值之間是存在著獨特的關係，結果顯示，突顯生命有限性不會增加受試者對一般物品的評價。本研究結果首次在華人社會支持有限捷思模式，在未來死亡恐懼與生命意義相關研究中，可以此模式做為基準點，並以探討生命意義在文化間的差異與內涵做為值得繼續發展的方向。
並列摘要
Terror management theory proposes that individuals tend to adopt a variety of mechanisms as defensive buffers against the fear of death. Nonetheless, the ”scarcity heuristic model” suggests that people’s responses to the anxiety of death may be not necessarily so complicated. One’s responses may only represent a link between scarcity and value of life. The scarcity of an object increases its value. Based on the same principle, the awareness of life scarcity may lead to higher evaluation of life. The aim of the study was to examine whether the ”scarcity heuristic model” developed in the West could be applied to people in a Confucian society. 300 participants of Kaohsiung Medical University students (102 men and 198 women; average age 19.68, SD = 1.49) were recruited and randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. Chinese word puzzles with mortality or not were used to manipulate the participants’ mortality, alone with the control of death perception variables. The Meaning in Life Questionnaire (MLQ) was used for the measure of life value. As predicted, results showed that the experimental group had significant higher scores on MLQ the control group did. After the experiment, we also had the participants to evaluate five products (toasters, cell phone, alarm clock, bagpack, and lamp) to confirm that the results were specific to the relationship between death and evaluations of life. Results showed that reminded of mortality did not enhance the evaluations of the products. Accordingly, the ”scarcity heuristic model” was firstly replicated in the Confucian society, suggesting that the model may be used to explore the issue of death and meaning of life for future studies.