The Sources of Meaning Profile (SOMP) with Aged Subjects Exhibiting Depressive Symptomatology

ABSTRACT

Few studies have looked at the linkage between sources or dimensions of meaning and depressive symptomatology. In this study the authors administered the 16-item Sources of Meaning Profile (SOMP) to 37 elderly Israelis diagnosed as evidencing depressive symptomatology, and compared their meaning scores with those of four other groups of Israelis and Australians (total n =310) with no known depressive symptomatology. The magnitude of meaning scores, an indicator of how important or unimportant a source of meaning was for the individual, was strongly and negatively correlated with depressive symptomatology, as measured by the Beck Depression Inventory. Meaning scores correctly discriminated between “normals” and “depressed” in almost 90% of the cases. The evaluative and therapeutic utility of the SOMP, as a phenomeno-logically grounded self-assessment of “current being,” is briefly discussed.