Optimism, Humor Styles and Hopelessness as Predictors of Meaning in Life for Turkish University Students
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Hülya?ahin-Baltac?, Assist. Prof Dr. ?zlemTagay

Introduction
The purpose of this study is to determine whether optimism, humor styles and hopelessness levels are significant predictors of meaning in life and its sub-scales, the presence of meaning in life and the search for meaning in life. The research was carried out with the participation of a total of 224 students, 158 females and 66 males, who attend the Faculty of Educational Sciences in Mehmet AkifErsoy University. The research data was obtained by utilizing theMeaning in Life Questionnaire, Life Orientation Scale, Beck Hopelessness Scaleand the Humor Styles Scale. In the research, the standard multiple regression analysis was used to test the power of hopelessness, optimism and humor styles in predicting the meaning in life among university students. According to the research findings, hopelessness and self-defeating humor negatively predict the presence of meaning in life, while optimism positively predicts the presence of meaning in life. Hopelessness and self-defeating humor predict significantly meaning in life in a negative way and optimism predicts meaning in life in a positive way. Finally, hopelessness and self-defeating humor predict search for meaning negatively, and optimism predicts positively search for meaning in life.

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