Meaning in life and meaning of life: visual qualitative research in midlife academic staff with or without depression

Aim: To find sources of meaning in life and people’s beliefs about the meaning of life in adult academic staff in midlife, with or without depression, to inform current mental health clinical practice and research.Background: Failure to address the problem of meaninglessness or the existential crises is associated with psychopathologies such as depression, anxiety, addiction, aggression, hopelessness, apathy, lower levels of well-being, physical illness and suicide. This is a real and complex clinical issue that needs to be addressed.Methodology: Qualitative research using auto-photography and photo elicitation in a sample of Australian academic staff in midlife. Recruitment was enabled via the university webpage and resulted in 11 participants (n= 11). Ethics approval was gained through the universities Human Research Ethics Committee. Trustworthiness was increased by using multiple data collection methods–auto-photography (visual), photo elicitation (verbal) and essay writing (written), allowing for the capturing of deeper, richer and multi-dimensional data. Interpretive thematic analysis was used to obtain optimal results from the visual, verbal and written data.Findings: Six participants had no depression and were mentally healthy and five had clinical depression. The most talked about sources of meaning in life were: having a connection to people and animals, looking after the self, having hobbies, working and having a career, and the least talked about were religion, spirituality and atheism. Relationships with family were cited as the most important source of meaning in life. Beliefs about the meaning of life included that: life is a journey of …