Espiritualidade e sentido de vida: importância para o funcionamento saudável

Abstract

The dissertation, developed in two studies, investigates the importance of the relationship between spirituality and the meaning of life, as well as its impacts on healthy functioning. The first study sought to map the scientific production in Psychology about the themes meaning in life and spirituality, in the Latin American context, in order to verify the most used approaches, methodologies, possible gaps and contributions to the understanding of the correlation between these phenomena. The search was performed in national and international journals, indexed on the electronic platforms DOAJ, SciELO and Redalyc, which contained the terms “meaning in life” and “spirituality” or “religiosity”, published from 2007 to 2007. 2017. Of the articles retrieved from the electronic databases (N = 3,009), only 19 met the established inclusion / exclusion criteria. The evidence found showed that there is a low number of publications correlating the constructs in Psychology, especially in relation to psychometric instruments for measuring spirituality, as well as the need for knowledge generation and evaluation to enable further explanation of the relationship between phenomena. The second study sought to investigate the relationship between spirituality and the meaning of life, associating the life contexts and sociodemographic data of the population, the influence of spirituality in the attribution of meaning of life and the degree of importance of spirituality in the opinion of the participants, as well as understanding the impacts of the meaning of life, spirituality and quality of life in relation to psychological well-being. The study included 619 subjects resident in the state of Espírito Santo, 69% female and 31% male, ranging from 18 to 86 years (M = 33; DP = 12, 97). Data collection was performed through an online questionnaire containing sociodemographic questionnaire, questions about the investigated phenomena and the participants' life context, as well as the following scales: Meaning in Life Questionnaire; Psychological Well-Being Scale; Quality of Life Instrument (WHOQOL-Abbreviated); and Quality of Life Instrument, Spirituality, Religion and Personal Beliefs Module-WHOQOLSRPB. The results evidenced the high religious/spiritual involvement of the investigated population and reveal the importance of spirituality for the subjects, regardless of religious identifications. Moreover, they showed strong associations between spirituality and the meaning of life and significant effects of these phenomena when comparing data by gender, marital status and age. Physical, psychological and social health, as well as the presence of meaning, wholeness and optimism/hope were the aspects that contributed to the explanation of the total psychological well-being of the participants. The dissertation presents contributions to the expansion of Logotherapy assumptions, based on the strong correlation found between spirituality and the meaning of life, as well as confirms results of scientific researches and provides subsidies for further studies on the healthy functioning of individuals. Research also contributes to understanding the human spiritual dimension, experienced in many ways, including diverse beliefs. The results can provide empirical support in the field of psychology, as well as areas related to mental health, promoting reflection on the importance of spirituality and meaning of life phenomena in the practices and training of Psychologists, as well as in the performance of various professionals related to the field. health (or not).