The structural relationship of meaning in life, personal growth initiative, life orientation and wisdom with authentic personality in students

Personality and related structures have been considered as one of the fields of study in psychology and psychiatry.

The purpose of this study was to investigate structural relationships of Meaning in life, Personal Growth Initiative, Life orientation and wisdom with authentic personality in college students.

In a hypothetical structural model of relationships between research variables, 166 students (85 boys and 81 girls) of University of Isfahan were selected by available sampling. They were evaluated with Meaning in Life, Life Orientation (Scheier and Carver, 1985), Personal Growth Initiative (Robitschek, 1998), Three-Dimensional Wisdom (Ardelt, 2003) and Authenticity personality Scales (Wood et al, 2008).

The results showed that there is a positive and significant relationship between life orientation, meaning in life, Personal Growth Initiative and wisdom with authentic personality in students. The results of structural equation modeling also showed that optimism, Personal Growth Initiative and wisdom have a significant relationship with authentic personality of students. The evaluation of hypothetical model with fit indexes demonstrated that the hypothetical model fits the measurement model. The results showed a significant correlation between the orientation of life, Personal Growth Initiative, the authentic personality and meaning in life.

The findings of the present study, in addition to practical implications, has provide a useful framework for identifying the components that affect the formation and development of authentic personality in students.