Meaning-Making Process

A Meaning-Making Process is a cognitive process that creates or derives meaning from experiences, information, or events through interpretive connection.

• AKA: Sensemaking, Significance Construction, Interpretive Process.
• Context:
  • It can (typically) involve Personal Meaning-Making through interpreting life events within one's values or life story framework.
  • It can (typically) construct Inner Narratives that help cope with challenges, such as reframing trauma as growth opportunity.
  • It can (typically) occur collectively through Cultural Meaning-Making where communities create significance via stories, rituals, and symbols.
  • It can (often) integrate New Information with prior beliefs through reflective assimilation or accommodation processes.
  • It can (often) operate continuously as circumstances change, especially during meaning crisises when existing narratives fail.
  • ...
  • It can range from being an Individual Meaning-Making Process to being a Collective Meaning-Making Process, depending on its social scope.
  • It can range from being a Conscious Meaning-Making Process to being an Unconscious Meaning-Making Process, depending on its awareness level.
  • It can range from being a Simple Meaning-Making Process to being a Complex Meaning-Making Process, depending on its interpretive sophistication.
  • It can range from being a Crisis-Driven Meaning-Making Process to being a Growth-Driven Meaning-Making Process, depending on its motivational origin.
  • It can range from being a Retrospective Meaning-Making Process to being a Prospective Meaning-Making Process, depending on its temporal orientation.
  • ...
• Example(s):
  • Career Transition Meaning-Making, where individuals create narratives aligning new jobs with life values.
  • Bereavement Meaning-Making, transforming grief into purposeful memorial projects through therapy support.
  • Disaster Recovery Meaning-Making, where communities frame tragedies as resilience tests through public ceremonies.
  • ...
• Counter-Example(s):
  • Meaninglessness States, approaching events as isolated facts without interpretive connection.
  • Dogmatic Meaning Impositions, accepting rigid institutional interpretations without personal reflection.
  • Algorithmic Pattern Detections, which identify correlations without human-assigned significance.
• See: Narrative Cognition, Existential Meaning, Life Purpose, Meaning Crisis, Mythic Narrative Framework, Viktor Frankl, Logotherapy, Sensemaking, Cosmic Perspective, Self-Transcendence State, Creative Expression Activity, Identity Formation, Cognitive Framework, Symbolic Interpretation.

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