| Summary: | The diagnosis and management of cancer evokes profound questions about one's understanding of the self, the world, and one's purpose in life. The stress and coping literature suggest that the process of meaning-making provides a suitable framework to study such existential questions, as well as an ideal method of intervention. Through a series of manuscripts, this thesis examines the construct of meaning-making within the specific domain of cancer, describes the development of a meaning-making intervention, and assesses the impact of meaning-making coping on psychological adjustment to cancer. The recent proliferation of studies on the concept of meaning that includes the adult cancer experience has been conceptualized and operationalized in a variety of ways. To better understand and use the meaning-making concept within the cancer experience, a systematic review of the literature was conducted to synthesize the current level of knowledge and determine where research should be directed. This review of the empirical and qualitative findings suggested that the successful ability to construct a sense of meaning in illness may lead to positive psychological outcomes. Thus a novel meaning-making intervention (MMI) for cancer patients was developed, and its applicability as well as its effects on psychological adjustment to cancer were explored in a pilot study with a heterogeneous group of patients. Significant improvements in self esteem and self-efficacy were reported in a small, uncontrolled sample and encouraged the need for further confirmatory testing. Guided by the pilot study results, a randomized controlled trial tested the effect of the MMI on levels of self-esteem, optimism, and self-efficacy in a homogeneous sample of newly diagnosed breast or colorectal cancer patients. After controlling for baseline differences on each outcome variable, participants in the experimental group (n=35) who received the MMI were found to have significantly improved percep
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