Frank Martela

Aalto University

Compassion at work has been linked to many important work outcomes, including improved well-being, leadership capability, cooperation, and commitment. However, what prevents compassion at work has not been adequately studied, with only a few research studies on the barriers to compassion; those that exist are mainly limited to healthcare. This empi...

Stronger theory on the nature of human well-being is needed, especially as well-being indicators are increasingly utilized in policy contexts. Building on Erik Allardt, who argued that a theory of well-being is, in essence, a theory of human nature, I propose four modes of existence each capturing one dimension central to human well-being: Having r...

The satisfaction of the psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness have been established as central components of human well-being, predictive of various positive behavioral and psychological outcomes. However, in many contexts, they need to be assessed very briefly, sometimes with just one item. Recent research has shown that we...

Psykologia / Journal of the Finnish Psychological Society 59(2): Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction and Frustration Scales (BPNSFS) has recently been criticized for its psychometric structure and content validity. In the present study, the psychometric structure and validity of the Finnish translation of the measure adapted to work context were...

Lately, several key experts have proposed that well-being and flourishing ought to be the ultimate aim of education. To make this aspiration into reality, we need (1) a shared normative vision, (2) a shared understanding of key features of flourishing, and (3) shared flagship indicators to assess flourishing. Normatively, while the aim of education...

In this case study we present an example of a modification of the chair work technique, called ‘chair work with the empathic other’, and examine the process of emotional change of the participant. We find that talking directly to the empathic other supports the participant’s emotional engagement with the task and guides her emotional processing thr...

Meaning in life has been established as a key factor of human well-being and flourishing. Beneficence and the three psychological needs of self-determination theory—autonomy, competence, and relatedness—have all been individually studied as antecedents of meaningfulness. Yet, no previous research has examined them neither longitudinally nor simult...

Recent research in positive psychology has proposed that the experience of meaning in life (MIL) is multidimensional and consists of three components: mattering, purpose, and coherence. In this model, mattering has been operationalized as the extent to which people feel like they matter on the scale of the universe. The current research suggests th...

Objective Building on the Self-Determination Theory, this study examines how basic psychological need satisfaction related to COVID-19 behavioral measures is associated with motivation quality and whether motivation quality is associated with intention to wear a face mask and to avoid meeting others. Methods Cross-sectional survey study involving...

Psychotherapy research identifies alliance ruptures and their resolutions as significant events in psychotherapy, influencing outcome. However, we know little about the process how such events influence outcomes, only assuming if clients stay in therapy that the rupture was resolved, and the outcome will be positive. The purpose of this paper is to...

Positive affect is often considered the “hallmark of well-being,” associated with better health, longevity, and success. Self-determination theory (SDT) proposes that satisfying three basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness (BNS) fosters optimal functioning, thriving, and positive affect. Meanwhile, broaden-and-build theo...

Self-Determination Theory (SDT) is a broad theory of psychological growth and wellness that has revolutionized how we think about human motivation and the driving forces behind personality development. SDT focuses on people’s basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness and how social environments that support these needs fos...

Most normative accounts of meaningful work have focused on the value of autonomy and capability for self-development. Here, I will propose that contribution–having a positive impact on others through one’s work–is another central dimension of meaningful work. Being able to contribute through one’s work should be recognized as one of the key axiolog...

Measuring subjective well-being as a key indicator of national wellness has increasingly become part of the international agenda. Current recommendations for measuring well-being at a national level propose three separate dimensions: evaluative well-being, experiential well-being, and eudaimonia. Whereas the measurement of the first two dimensions...

Self-management in Finnish working life – where and who experience it? Recently, self-management has been presented as a solution to higher motivation, agility, and innovativeness. Despite increased interest in the topic, many of the theoretical claims have yet to be studied quantitatively. This research aims to illuminate where and who experiences...

Are managers necessary for organizations? Could organizations function without them? To answer, we must separate between two questions: are top managers necessary? And are middle managers necessary? I argue that larger organizations are prone to need someone to have oversight of the wholeness and to take responsibility for its design and developmen...

This book is a collection of all the papers published in the special issue “Philosophy and Meaning in Life Vol.4: Selected Papers from the Pretoria Conference,” Journal of Philosophy of Life, Vol.12, No.1, 2022, pp.1-115. We held the Fourth International Conference on Philosophy and Meaning in Life online at the University of Pretoria, Pretoria, So...

Objective: Citizens’ volitional engagement in protective behaviors is essential for successful pandemic management, as much of the required adherence is beyond authorities’ control and difficult to monitor. Building on the Self-Determination Theory (SDT), this study examines how basic psychological need satisfaction (BPNS) related to COVID-19 behav...

In the quest to identify the key sources of subjective well-being, self-determination theory (SDT) has proposed that three basic psychological needs—autonomy, competence, and relatedness—are fundamental to well-being across cultures. To understand their influence on well-being, we analyzed data from European Social Survey on 27 European countries (...

Following calls for multidimensional conceptualizations of meaning in life, the tripartite view where meaning is seen to consist of significance, purpose, and coherence has gained in popularity. To operationalize it, we developed the Three Dimensional Meaning in Life Scale (3DM), confirming its factor structure, psychometric properties, and validit...

A key research program within the meaning in life (MIL) literature aims to identify the key contributors to MIL. The experience of existential mattering, purpose in life and a sense of coherence are currently posited as three primary contributors to MIL. However, it is unclear whether they encompass all information people consider when judging MIL....

We present a hybrid philosophical/psychological argument in defense of ‘free will.’ The argument builds on the proposals in philosopher Christian List’sbook, Free will is real. We show that List’s psychological account of free will – that it requires the ability to consider alternatives, to make a choice, and to enact that choice – has already been...

Compassion is in high demand within organizational research, with important implications for leadership, well-being, and productivity. However, thus far only meditation-based interventions have been implemented to increase compassion in organizations. Our aim was to explore whether compassion could be increased among managers through improving thei...

Re-enchantment taps well into the current zeitgeist: The rising focus on emotions and post-material values also in organizational context. Enchantment is deeply tied to socially generated emotions. Our aim is to develop the concept of copassion, referring to the process of responding to the positive emotion of a fellow human being. Concepts are cru...

In order to capitalize on positive emotions at work and build high-quality interpersonal relationships and psychological safety, it is important that coworkers respond to each other’s positive emotions in a constructive and validating way. However, despite the importance of symmetrical emotion regulation outcomes, organizational research has largel...

Meaning in life has grown into a topic of great interest in psychological research. Conceptually, scholars differentiate between sources and components of meaning. However, the current scholarly views on meaning are highly cognitive and it is unclear to what extent they correspond with the understanding of lay people with cognitive difficulties, li...

Human well-being is an important goal in both policy contexts and in health care, while also predicting various health-related outcomes. However, the proliferation of conceptions of well-being has become a major obstacle for the progress of a comparable and cumulative science of well-being, leading to a need to reach consensus on the key dimensions...

The significance of meaningful work for quality of work life has been confirmed by research showing its importance both as regards to employee motivation, well-being, and commitment as well as organizational outcomes such as turnover intentions, citizenship behavior, and customer satisfaction. In explaining what makes work meaningful, Self-Determin...

Does having a negative impact on others decrease one’s well-being? In three separate pre-registered studies (n=111, n=445, & n=447), participants engaged in a button-pushing activity for 4 minutes in three conditions: earning money for themselves (∼60c), also earning money for the Red Cross (∼15c), or also reducing the money distributed to the Red...

An effective response to crises like the COVID-19 pandemic is dependent on the public voluntarily adhering to governmental rules and guidelines. How the guidelines are communicated can significantly affect whether people will experience a sense of self-initiation and volition, protecting compliance from eroding. From the perspective of Self-Determi...

Psychological safety in temporary organisations We explore how psychological safety—a team’s shared experience that it is safe to take inter-per-sonal risks—is possible in temporary self-man-aging organisations. Our findings present team-work practices used by a highly diverse group that constructed a complex art installation for the Burning Man fe...

Self‐determination theory is an empirically based, organismic theory of human nature that focuses on motivation, personality development, and wellness. Rooted in the assumption that humans are inherently curious, self‐motivated, and growth‐oriented, there are six mini‐theories within the theory: Cognitive evaluations theory focuses on how social en...

Self‐determination theory is an empirically based, organismic theory of human nature that focuses on motivation, personality development, and wellness. Rooted in the assumption that humans are inherently curious, self‐motivated, and growth‐oriented, there are six mini‐theories within the theory: Cognitive evaluations theory focuses on how social en...

Koronaviruksen leviämisen ehkäiseminen vaatii ihmisiä omaksumaan monia totutusta poikkeavia tapoja, kuten fyysisen etäisyyden pitämistä ja tiheää käsienpesua. Viranomaisten antamien suositusten ja ohjeiden noudattamista on mahdotonta kaikilta osin valvoa ja osa varotoimenpiteistä saattaa jatkua hyvinkin pitkään, joten ohjeiden toimivuus on huomatta...

In order to be considered a basic psychological need, a candidate need should fulfill several criteria, including need satisfaction having a unique positive effect on well-being, and need frustration having a unique effect on ill-being, properties demonstrated by autonomy, competence and relatedness. Previous research has demonstrated that benefice...

The authors would like to correct the following error in the publication of the original article: The appendix 1 was missing and will hereby be added. The appendix contains the four items for the Beneficence frustration scale to assess antisocial impact.

The bureaucratic organizational structure has been recently challenged by a number of organizations that claim to offer employee emancipation and autonomy through self-management, self-organizing, or “holacracy.” To facilitate theorizing about such organizational-level self-management, I examine it as an ideal type of organizational form, comparing...

Interest in the experience of well-being, as both a research topic and as a policy goal, has significantly increased in recent decades. Although subjective well-being (SWB)—composed of positive affect, low negative affect, and life satisfaction—is the most commonly used measure of well-being, many experts have argued that another important dimensio...

Life goals or aspirations can be distinguished as intrinsic or extrinsic, with different implications for well-being. In this study we used network analysis to reexamine this intrinsic-extrinsic distinction, illustrating how novel candidate aspirations can be mapped along this dimension using innovative methods. We identify four previously unexamin...

Every managerial choice is an opportunity to either grow or decline morally. Pragmatism, at least the Deweyan version presented here, maintains that there are no objective moral facts or values. Instead, our current moral outlook is the result of our past experiences and social interactions, and prone to evolve in the future. The function of morali...

Meaningful work is a key element of positive functioning of employees, but what makes work meaningful? Based on research on self-determination theory, basic psychological needs, and prosocial impact, we suggest that there are four psychological satisfactions that substantially influence work meaningfulness across cultures: autonomy (sense of voliti...

They tend to downplay positive emotions, which could paradoxically increase their satisfaction with life

Positive affect (PA) has consistently been shown to predict meaning in life (MIL). In one of the first investigations to examine multiple predictors of MIL simultaneously, we tested in three studies the hypothesis that satisfactions associated with being benevolent and fulfilling psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness are mor...

Research on meaningful work has proliferated in recent years, with an increasing understanding of the centrality of meaningfulness for work-related motivation, commitment, and well-being. However, ambiguity around the main construct, “meaningful work,” has hindered this progress as various researchers have used partly overlapping, partly differing...

While well-being and happiness have become focal topics of psychological research, questions of good life have been mainly left to philosophers. This is an untenable state of affairs, as it leads to an overemphasis on one dimension of good life while failing to acknowledge that there are centrally important sources of value beyond one’s own happine...

This article aims to offer a refined way of understanding what we mean by the concepts of meaningfulness and meaning in life. The first step is to separate worthwhileness, as the broadest evaluation of life taking all types of values into account, from meaningfulness, which is seen as one type of intrinsic value along with, for example, well-being,...

Ever since Kant, moral philosophers have been more or less animated by the mission of discovering inescapable law-like rules that would provide a binding justification for morality. Recently, however, many have started to question (a) whether this is possible and (b) what, after all, this project could achieve. An alternative vision of the task of...

Research on the energizing effects of autonomous self-regulation and the depleting effects of self-control suggest that they are tapping into the same phenomenon: the energy available to, and allocated by, the self. Based on self-determination theory, we distinguish two forms of self-regulation: self-controlling regulation which is energy draining...

The chapter starts with a discussion of eudaimonia as originally used by Aristotle and his contemporaries. We argue that eudaimonia should not be understood as referring to any kind of subjective experience or ‘richer feeling of happiness’ but is rather about a good and valued way of living that can produce happiness, vitality and wellness as its b...

A number of studies have shown that prosocial behavior is associated with enhanced well-being, but most prior experimental studies have involved actual or potential face-to-face contact with the beneficiary. To establish that it is prosocial behavior itself, and not only an increased sense of social relatedness to the recipient that improves well-b...

Despite growing interest in meaning in life, many have voiced their concern over the conceptual refinement of the construct itself. Researchers seem to have two main ways to understand what meaning in life means: coherence and purpose, with a third way, significance, gaining increasing attention. Coherence means a sense of comprehensibility and one...

Prosocial behaviors have been associated with enhanced well-being, but what psychological mechanisms explain this connection? Some theories suggest that beneficence - the sense of being able to give - inherently improves well-being, whereas evidence from self-determination theory (Weinstein & Ryan, 2010) shows that increases in well-being are media...

The clash between positivist and constructivist research methodologies in organization studies has sent many researchers to look for a ‘third way’ in critical realism and more recently in pragmatism. Building on John Dewey’s work, this article develops a position where the fallible nature of all knowledge is acknowledged and the value of science is...

The origins of many organizational failures can be traced to organizational or environmental complexity. One strategy to deal with this complexity, known as systemic thinking, is to try to cognitively grasp the interdepencies and dynamics of the situation. However, systemic thinking is cognitively taxing and can thus be utilized only sporadically....

Interactions with clients have traditionally been looked at as potential sources of exhaustion, strain and burnout. As the focal importance of client interactions in modern service economy has been increasingly acknowledged, however, a few recent voices have suggested that some client interactions could be a source of recovery and energy for the em...

What makes employees feel well within an organization? The aim of the present chapter is to start from a paradigm that emphasizes human relationality, affectivity, and intersubjective systems, and accordingly focuses on how well-being is emerging from contextual interrelations between employees. Applying this perspective to a qualitative study of n...

Following the relational turn in psychoanalytic theorizing, the systems metaphor has increasingly become a part of the therapeutic vocabulary. This has led to a view of therapy as an ongoing process in which the mutual interplay between the analyst and the patient cocreates a systemic higher level dimension that is based on bidirectional and jointl...

Organizational life is full of bigger and smaller situations in which one person offers some form of care for another. Although they can be significant for the well-being of both the careprovider and the carereceiver – and for the organizational atmosphere, these acts of caregiving have not received the research attention they would deserve. The ai...