title: Research on meaning-making and health in secular society: secular, spiritual and religious existential orientations.
abstract: This article proposes a framework of concepts for the field of existential meaning-making in secular cultures such as those of Northern Europe. Seeking an operational approach, we have narrowed the field's components down to a number of basic domains and dimensions that provide a more authentic cultural basis for research in secular society. Reviewing the literature, three main domains of existential meaning-making emerge: Secular, spiritual, and religious. In reconfirming these three domains, we propose to couple them with the three dimensions of cognition (knowing), practice (doing), and importance (being), resulting in a conceptual framework that can serve as a fundamental heuristic and methodological research tool for mapping the field of existential meaning-making and health. The proposed grid might contribute to clearer understanding of the multidimensional nature of existential meaning-making and as a guide for posing adequate research and clinical questions in the field.
authors.affiliation: Rigshospitalet, Crosdiciplinary Pain Center, Blegdamsvej 3, DK 2200 Copenhagen N, Copenhagen, Denmark. Electronic address: peterlacour@mail.dk.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: la Cour
authors.affiliation: Research Unit of Health, Man and Society, Institute of Public Health, University of Southern Denmark, Denmark.
authors.forename: Niels C
authors.initials: NC
authors.lastname: Hvidt
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D001294:Attitude to Health; D003071:Cognition; D003469:Culture; D005060:Europe; D006801:Humans; D012069:Religion and Psychology; D012106:Research; D035621:Secularism; D013140:Spiritualism / Q000523:psychology*