ABSTRACT

Finding meaning in and for one�s life has been found to have a salutogenic effect on people�s lives. This issue becomes even more important in traumatic situations. An extremely stressful situation is the diagnosis with cancer, where one�s life and future are seriously threatened. Some people succumb under such huge stress, others live an impaired life, and still others bounce back to an acceptable level of functioning. The emotional co-activation theory may stand at the basis of turning such adversity into advantage. One possible mechanism that would help people balance the negative emotions produced by diagnosis and its implications is through finding meaning for life. Our study aims to investigate whether there is a difference in the texture of affective life between those Romanian cancer patients who are able to find meaning for their foreseen future and those who are not. We are also interested in the underlying mechanisms that might contribute to these findings.

KEYWORDS: meaning in life, life regard index (LRI) cancer related distress, positive reinterpretation, active coping, co-activation.