The Seeking of Noetic Goals Test (SONG): a complementary scale to the Purpose in Life Test (PIL)

Abstract

A new attitude scale to measure the strength of motivation to find meaning in life is herein developed to complement the Purpose in Life Test (PIL), which measures the degree to which meaning has been found. Both instruments were designed from the orientation of Frankl's logotherapy, which holds the "will to meaning" to be the strongest human motivation. Ss were: Group 1 "abnormal," 128 logotherapy patients, 20 methadone patients, 262 alcoholics; Group 2 "normal," 19 seminary students, 64 mixed college students, 123 female college freshmen. (Subgroup fractionations were studied independently.) Results support a predicted moderate negative correlation with the PIL and statistically significant construct validity in separating normal from abnormal populations. PIL-SONG combinations in the prediction of therapeutic outcome support the usefulness of the SONG as a supplementary instrument. The predicted differences are small, but in the expected direction.