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Meaning as Magnetic Force
Abstract
The authors report on data indicating that having a strong sense of meaning in life makes people more appealing social interactants. In Study 1, participants were videotaped while conversing with a friend, and the interactions were subsequently rated by independent evaluators. Participants who had reported a strong sense of meaning in life were rated as desirable friends. In Study 2, participants made 10-s videotaped introductions of themselves that were subsequently evaluated by independent raters. Those who reported a strong sense of meaning in life were rated as more likeable, better potential friends, and more desirable conversation partners. The effect of meaning in life was beyond that of several other variables, including self-esteem, happiness, extraversion, and agreeableness. Study 2 also found an interaction between physical attractiveness and meaning in life, with more meaning in life contributing to greater interpersonal appeal for those of low and average physical attractiveness.
... Meaning in life is an integral component of each individual's life experiences (Hill, Kline, Miller, et al., 2019), and has been found to positively correlate with a number of wellbeing indicators, including better occupational adjustment, enhanced physical and mental health, and improved length and quality of life (Boyle et al., 2009;Krause, 2009;Littman-Ovadia & Steger, 2010;Steger et al., 2009;Stillman et al., 2011). On the other end, a lack of meaning in life appears to be related to negative health and wellbeing outcomes such as psychological distress and physical and cognitive decline (Boyle et al., 2010;Owens et al., 2009). ...
Objective:
The aims of this study were to develop a revised version of the Meaning In Life Measure (MILM; Hill et al., 2019) and investigate its multilevel measurement invariance at the between-person and within-person levels and multi-group measurement invariance across gender, age, and cultural groups.
Methods:
We analyzed an international dataset including data from 1600 sessions with 384 clients in five continents (Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, and North America) using multilevel item response theory and multilevel factor analysis.
Results:
We found that the revised 5-item MILM-5 had satisfactory reliability and structural validity with the overall sample. Further, it demonstrated measurement invariance across the between- and within-person levels, and also across gender and age groups. Across representative countries within continents, the MILM-5 had the same overall factor structure but all factor loadings and item intercepts significantly differed across cultural contexts. Implications are discussed regarding the assessment of meaning in life in international clinical settings.
... Bastaman (2005) (Stillman, Lambert, Fincham, & Baumeister, 2011). ...
... Ausschlaggebend scheint zu sein, ob ein "Sinngrundgerüst" vorhanden ist, an dem Individuen , Lambert, Fincham, & Baumeister, 2011 Schwere Konflikte mit dem besten Freund(in ) Schwere ...
Für die vorliegende Studie wurden 330 Schüler der 13. Klasse aus vier verschiedenen Schulen
Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas hinsichtlich Suizidalität und deren Prädiktoren befragt. Es
sollte untersucht werden, ob und in welchem Grad Suizidalität bei dieser Stichprobe
vorhanden ist und welche Faktoren diese beeinflussen. Es zeigte sich, dass passive
Suizidgedanken, das heißt, der Wunsch tot zu sein, bei mehr als der Hälfte der Jugendlichen
in den letzten 12 Monaten vorhanden waren. Aktive Suizidgedanken (Gedanken, sich das
Leben zu nehmen) und Suizidpläne lagen bei ca. einem Viertel der Teilnehmer(innen) in dem
genannten Zeitraum vor. Fast 17% der Stichprobe hatte sich zu diesem Zeitpunkt schon
versucht das Leben zu nehmen, wobei das Verhältnis Männer - Frauen bei 7:1 lag. Durch die
Ausprägung von Depressionen, Sinnkrisen und psychosozialen Belastungen konnte sowohl
bei Männern als auch bei Frauen ein Großteil der Varianz für Suizidalität vorhersagt werden.
Schutzfaktoren waren dagegen nur bei Männern wirksam, Familienfunktionalität und
Sinnerfüllung wirkten bei diesen als Schutz gegen Suizidgedanken, -pläne und -versuche.
Zusätzlich wurde aufgrund theoretischer Annahmen und experimenteller
Untersuchungen verschiedener Forscher postuliert, dass interfamiliäre-, interpersonelle
Belastungen und traumatische Erfahrungen durch vermittelnde Prozesse (Mediatoren) wie
Depressionen und Sinnkrise zu Suizidalität führen könnten. Des Weiteren wurde
angenommen, dass Sinnerfüllung als Schutzfaktor gegen suizidale Gedanken und
Verhaltensweisen wirkt. Diese Annahmen ließen sich teilweise verifizieren. Erlebnisse wie
häusliche Gewalt, die Erkrankung oder der Unfall eines Familienmitgliedes, der Tod einer
Nahestehenden Person, Konflikte mit dem besten Freund und der Betrug des Partners wurden
nur dann als Prädiktoren für Suizidalität bestätigt, wenn die Jugendlichen auch depressiv
waren und keinen Sinn mehr in ihrem Leben sahen. Die traumatische Erfahrung des sexuellen
Missbrauches wirkte, bei Berücksichtigung von Mediatoren wie Depression, Sinnkrise und
Sinnerfüllung, in geringerem Grad auf Suizidalität, was für eine partielle Mediation spricht.
Dies bedeutet für die Suizidprävention bei ecuadorianischen Jugendlichen, dass der
Fokus auf Strategien zur Bewältigung von Depressivität und Sinnkrise, gelegt werden sollte.
Durch Verbesserung dieser beiden emotionalen und geistigen Zustände kann demnach ein
wichtiger Beitrag zur Suizidprävention geleistet werden. Jugendliche, die sich in schwierigen
Situationen befinden, wie z.B. dem Miterleben von Gewalt zuhause, können möglicherweise
vor Suizidgedanken, -plänen und versuchen geschützt werden, indem ihnen geholfen wird, Mechanismen zur Bewältigung von Depressionen zu entwickeln und ihrem Leben einen Sinn
zu geben, bzw. ihm einen Sinn zu entringen.
Die Hypothesen, welchen diese Studie zugrundeliegt, bauen auf theoretischen Annahmen
auf, die teilweise mit Längsschnittstudien belegt sind. Da die vorliegende Studie jedoch an einem
einzigen Erhebungsdatum durchgeführt wurde, kann nicht belegt werden, welche Variable die
andere tatsächlich beeinflusst hat. Weitere empirische Untersuchungen, insbesondere
Längsschnittstudien, sind notwendig um die Ergebnisse zu bestätigen und kausale Schlüsse ziehen
zu können.
... It may be that, like other aspects of well-being (Lyubomirsky, King, & Diener, 2005), MIL shares a bidirectional relationship with positive outcomes. For example, those who espouse high levels of MIL are rated as more socially appealing than others (Stillman, Lambert, Fincham, & Baumeister, 2011). Perhaps, people with a strong sense of MIL have more economic success. ...
Three studies demonstrate that income is positively associated with meaning in life (MIL) and that this relationship is moderated by positive affect (PA). Moreover, people’s forecasts about these associations resemble the actual data. Study 1 (N = 1,666) used a nationally representative sample to demonstrate that PA moderates the effect of income on MIL. At high levels of PA, income was unrelated to MIL, but at low PA, income was positively associated with MIL. Study 2 (N = 203) provided experimental support for the interaction between income and PA interaction using a PA induction. Although income predicted MIL in the control condition, it was unrelated to MIL following a PA induction. Study 3 (N = 277) demonstrated that people forecast their future lives will be more meaningful if they are wealthy versus poor, which was especially true among people who expect to be unhappy.
... Meaning in life has been associated with a number of psychological benefits as well as weaknesses. Stillman, Lambert, Fincham, and Baumeister (2010) found that people who reported higher levels of meaning in life were considered to have greater interpersonal appeal than those reporting low levels of meaning in life. In a study of stress buffering among mature adults, Krause (2007) found that older people who reported high levels of meaning were better able to withstand the deleterious effects of traumatic life events. ...
Most of tomorrow's leaders will almost certainly be college or university graduates. In order to learn more about their feelings about their future and personal life goals, a survey of about 800 undergraduate degree students at Tel Hai College was conducted, using Snyder's Adult Hope Scale, Steger's Meaning in Life Questionnaire, and a questionnaire on life preferences constructed for the purpose of this study. The findings were analyzed according to different categories: field of study, age, religious observance, ethnic origin (Arab or Jewish), and gender. The results provide a snapshot of Israeli students' attitudes as they look to the future, contributing to our understanding of how they see their place in tomorrow's world. Students are family oriented and idealistic in outlook. Having a family, finding meaning in life, and attaining a fulfilling profession are primary life preferences. In this chapter we report on the findings of a survey of around 800 college students, designed to elicit their personal views of their lives. The students completed the Meaning in Life Questionnaire (Steger, Frazier, Oishi, and Kaler, 2006), the Adult Hope Scale (Snyder et al., 1991), and the Personal Preferences Index, which was constructed for the purpose of this research. The analysis of the findings focuses on understanding the students' long-term life goals and their anticipated role in tomorrow's world.
... Specifically, the social skills and likability of welladjusted individuals may garner more attention from perceivers and motivate them to understand such targets better. Indeed, individuals who report more meaning in life, one indicator of psychological adjustment, are rated as more interpersonally appealing (Stillman, Lambert, Fincham, & Baumeister, 2011), which is likely to elicit more attention from others. Further, the more confident, positive, and involved behaviors of positive self-presenters (Human, Biesanz, Parisotto, & Dunn, 2012) are associated with receiving more attention; perhaps well-adjusted individuals are likely to behave in a similarly positive manner, thus also receiving greater attention. ...
Well-adjusted individuals are highly judgeable in that their personalities tend to be seen more accurately than the personalities of less adjusted individuals (Colvin, 1993a, 1993b; Human & Biesanz, 2011a). The mechanisms behind this effect, however, are not well understood. How does adjustment facilitate judgeability? In the present video-perceptions study, we examined potential mechanisms through which adjustment could promote judgeability at 3 stages of the Realistic Accuracy Model (RAM; Funder, 1995): (a) cue relevance, (b) cue availability, and (c) cue detection. We found that well-adjusted individuals were more judgeable because they provided more relevant cues: Specifically, well-adjusted individuals behaved more in line with their distinctive personalities, which in turn led them to be seen more accurately. In contrast, neither cue availability nor detection could sufficiently account for the link between adjustment and judgeability. In sum, well-adjusted individuals are more judgeable because to their own selves, they are true. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved).
... Thus, non-belief in altruism is tantamount to non-belief in love itself. Because the pursuit of love, the statuses of being a lover and a beloved, and ongoing participation in love relationships with romantic partners, children, parents, and others are some of the foremost sources of both meaning and satisfaction in life (Bergner, 2000; Stillman, Lambert, Fincham, & Baumeister, 2011), their absence would seem likely to result in a considerable lessening of such meaning and satisfaction. On these grounds, we predict that research participants who believe in psychological egoism—who believe that all human action is fundamentally self-interested and all seeming manifestations of altruism illusory—will report finding life less meaningful and satisfying than participants who believe in the reality of altruism. ...
In this research, we explored correlates of individuals' beliefs in altruism, free will, and nonreductionism, as opposed to contrasting beliefs in psychological egoism, determinism, and biological reductionism. Beliefs in altruism, free will, and nonreductionism were associated with heightened a) senses of meaning in life, b) levels of life satisfaction, c) beliefs in morality as a legitimate and important dimension of life, and d) standards of personal moral conduct; they were not associated with levels of social isolation. Implications of these findings are discussed.
Three studies examined the association between physical attractiveness and meaning in life. Study 1 (N = 305 college students) showed that self-reported physical attractiveness positively correlated with meaning in life. Study 2 (N = 598 noncollege adults) replicated the association between self-reported physical attractiveness and meaning in life and extended those findings, demonstrating that outside perceptions of attractiveness are linked to outside perceptions of how meaningful a person’s life is. Study 3 (N = 331 targets, 97 raters) replicated these findings and probed the nuances of the relationships between outside ratings and self-reports of attractiveness and meaning in life. Across the studies, existential significance, or the feeling that one’s life matters, was the facet of meaning that primarily explained the link between attractiveness and meaning in life. In addition, a person’s view of their own attractiveness is more indicative of their well-being than outsider ratings. Implications for our understanding of meaning in life are discussed.
Reaching even one additional person with your research can have an impact. This chapter maps a path from reaching one new person with your science to reaching one hundred thousand people, teaching you increasingly advanced design principles at each level. At minimum, boost your impact by posting the scientific products you are already creating on public, Open Access repositories (your papers on preprint websites, your posters on Figshare.com, and your talks/lectures on YouTube). Learn how to check your views to keep yourself motivated. Building an audience is easiest with social media, but also doable by attracting people organically to your articles and videos. Boost your engagement further by creating scientific products that are high value and low effort. Inspire people to share your science by adding emotion (i.e., do not neglect affective processing). Finally, you can maximize your impact by finding and communicating what you personally find most meaningful about your research, because meaning is attractive.KeywordsImpactResearchSocial mediaScience disseminationKnowledge translationScience communication
This study examined how the triarchic model of grit (i.e., perseverance of effort, consistency of interests, and adaptability to situations) is related to cultivation of genuine happiness, loneliness, and COVID-19 anxiety in American ( n = 643) and Filipino ( n = 546) undergraduate students. It also explored whether grit had indirect effects on such social and well-being outcomes via relatedness needs satisfaction and meaning in life. Results of structural equation modeling demonstrated that whereas all grit dimensions were linked to increased relatedness needs satisfaction and meaning in life in the United States, only consistency and adaptability were associated with such constructs in the Philippines. Meaning in life was related to increased cultivation of happiness and reduced loneliness in both societies. Relatedness needs satisfaction was associated with higher happiness as well as decreased COVID-19 anxiety and loneliness in the United States and the Philippines. Finally, evidence supported indirect effects of grit on cultivation of genuine happiness via relatedness needs satisfaction and meaning in life in both settings. This research complements existing literature on the relational and psychological benefits of staying gritty in different societies.
The present research was designed to examine the psychometric properties of a Chinese version of the MLQ using a construct validation approach in 1,089 Hong Kong secondary school students. Confirmatory factor analyses were used to examine the structural validity of MLQ. Correlational analyses were done to assess how meaning in life dimensions relate to life satisfaction, self-reported duration of daily sleep, and connectedness to social agents. Confirmatory factor analysis showed that the modified two-factor model of meaning in life with presence of meaning and search for meaning as key dimensions, was valid and reliable in the current sample. Evidence for configural, metric, and scalar invariance was found across boys and girls. Meaning in life dimensions was differentially associated with connectedness to various social agents, life satisfaction, and average daily sleep. MLQ is a psychometrically valid tool to measure meaning in life among Hong Kong Chinese students.
Limited research has been conducted so far to explore how meaning in life can promote key academic and psychological benefits in a school context. The research reported here aimed to address this issue by assessing how meaning in life is associated with dimensions of connectedness, academic self-efficacy (Study 1) and personal self-efficacy (Study 2). Participants were two samples of Hong Kong secondary school students. Study 1 revealed that meaning in life was associated with a higher level of connectedness to parents, school, peers, and teachers, and academic self-efficacy (study skills, time management, critical and creative thinking, and involvement in learning). Most connectedness dimensions were linked to lower academic self-efficacy, apart from connectedness to school. Study 2 showed that meaning in life was linked to higher levels of connectedness and personal self-efficacy dimensions (positive self-concept, problem-solving, self-management, and self-reflection). Apart from connectedness to school, other connectedness dimensions were associated with lower personal self-efficacy. Across studies, meaning in life had indirect effects on both self-efficacy through the mediating influence of connectedness. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
Meaning in life has long been a mystery of human existence. In this review, we seek to demystify this construct. Focusing on the subjective experience of meaning in life, we review how it has been measured and briefly describe its correlates. Then we review evidence that meaning in life, for all its mystery, is a rather commonplace experience. We then define the construct and review its constituent facets: comprehension/coherence, purpose, and existential mattering/significance. We review the many experiences that have been shown to enhance meaning in life and close by considering important remaining research questions about this fascinating topic.
Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Psychology, Volume 72 is January 4, 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.
Growing attention is being given to understanding factors that promote individuals’ happiness, life satisfaction, engagement, and meaning in life. This study examined the mutual benefits of a close, connected relationship for parents’ and adolescents’ daily subjective well-being (SWB) and eudaimonia (EUD). Using multilevel actor-partner interdependence models and data from a 21-day daily dairy study of 151 parent-adolescent dyads, we examined the differential role that feelings of connectedness play in parents’ and adolescents’ daily SWB and EUD. Parents’ usual and daily feelings of connectedness to their adolescent were most strongly linked to SWB for parents and adolescents; in contrast, adolescents’ usual and daily feelings of connectedness to their parent were most strongly linked to EUD for parents and adolescents. These findings underscore the importance considering the nature of connectedness in parent-adolescent relationships for understanding their SWB and EUD and point to opportunities for family-based interventions.
This chapter gives a brief overview of the history of Positive Psychology and defines the key elements of it. Positive psychology is a discipline that conducts research and practices based on a scientific approach to human development. Positive psychology is concerned with many concepts that affect individual happiness and psychological well-being. In this section, subjective well-being, life satisfaction, psychological well-being, and optimism which are among the most researched concepts in positive psychology, are explained as the basic building blocks of Positive Psychology. Within the framework of the positive psychology approach, researches and studies are carried out to understand and develop the positive aspects of human personality.
Sensation seeking is a bio-psychological construct characterized by the willingness to pursue new, exciting and intense experiences. Previous research has shown that sensation seeking is strongly related to a range of risky and disruptive behaviors, especially among the young. The Brief Sensation Seeking Scale (BSSS) is an eight-item scale that has shown promising results and given evidence of its validity and reliability in North-American, Italian, Chinese, Peruvian, and Portuguese samples. The aim of the current study is to provide a concise, reliable and valid version of the BSSS in a sample of young Spanish adults and adolescents. To this end, two samples of 600 young adults and a third sample of 584 adolescents and young adults were recruited through online sampling. The results showed that: 1) the psychometric properties of the BSSS were adequate, 2) a strict factorial invariance level can be established across gender, with no structural differences between men and women, and 3) the BSSS is strongly related to alcohol use and the search for meaning. Taken together, our findings provide strong validity evidence, in line with previous research, showing that the BSSS is a psychometrically sound instrument for assessing sensation seeking in Spanish adolescents and young adults.
The present research explored whether self-control is associated with the perception of meaning in life. A week-long daily diary study (Study 1) showed trait self-control (but not daily experiences of self-control failure) to be positively associated with a general sense of meaning in life and daily experiences of meaning. This association was robust against controlling for life satisfaction, positive and negative affect. Study 2 tested two potential mechanisms underlying the association between trait self-control and meaning in life: Successful goal progress and experience of structure in life. While self-control was positively associated with both, only the experience of structure predicted meaning: Self-control was positively related to the perception of one’s life as having a clear sense of structure and order, which in turn predicted a stronger perception of meaning. Study 3 replicated the mediation path via the experience of structure and showed it to be stronger for individuals high (vs. low) in the personal need for structure. The present findings add to the emerging literature on trait (and state) self-control and dispositional determinants of meaning in life.
In this conceptual paper, we review three decades of research on time and meaning in consumer research and psychology to identify key themes that have emerged, build frameworks that integrate past research, and reveal areas of potential for future empirical exploration. We begin by carving out a conceptual understanding of meaning in life and identifying time as a key lens through which the pursuit of meaning can be viewed. We then review extant research on how to spend and construe time in ways that enhance meaning, relying on two frameworks—one anchored in three dimensions of meaning (purpose, mattering, and comprehension) and the other in three levels of time (momentary, day‐to‐day, and lifetime). We conclude by outlining several directions for future research focused on deepening our understanding of how consumers can think about and use their time in ways that boost their sense of meaning in life.
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Previous research links the experience of meaning in life (MIL) with environmental structure and the coherence of external stimuli. The current studies directly test the association between one source of structure in everyday life—routines—and MIL. First, Study 1 (N = 317) found a positive relationship between trait preference for routine and MIL. Study 2 expanded upon this cross-sectional finding with experience sampling data (N = 85; 2,590 episodes) showing that the degree to which current, naturally occurring, behavior followed a typical routine positively related to participants’ momentary feelings of MIL. These findings have implications for conceptualizations of MIL, suggesting a previously unnoted, mundane, and ubiquitous source of MIL. The potential roles of boredom and novelty and individual and situational differences for these effects are discussed.
Viewing work as a calling has been considered to be beneficial to individuals and organizations. However, research to date has largely focused on the effects of individuals’ own callings on themselves, leaving the effects of one’s calling on others unexplored. Based on research that demonstrates prevalent effects of callings and leader’s influences on followers at work, we assumed that leader calling might have positive effects on followers’ outcomes. Specifically, we hypothesized that the extent to which leaders view their work as a calling have positive influences on followers’ team commitment, leader-rated voice behavior, and job performance. We also examined a mediating effect of transformational leadership on the relations between leader’s calling and the three follower’s outcomes. Using data on 284 leader-follower pairs from the South Korean Air Force, we found that leader’s calling was positively associated with followers’ team commitment, voice behaviors, and job performance. The effects of leader’s calling on follower commitment and voice behavior were partly accounted for by follower perceptions of transformational leadership. However, a mediating role of transformational leadership on the link between leader’s calling and job performance was not supported. The implications of these findings are discussed.
To correct problems identified in existing measures of meaning in life (MIL) (lack of inclusion of items related to felt sense, mattering, and reflectivity), a new 8-item Meaning in Life Measure (MILM) was developed. Two subscales emerged: Experience (MILM-E, with items related to felt sense, mattering, goals, coherence) and Reflectivity (MILM-R, with items related to valuing thinking about meaning). High internal consistency and test–retest reliability were found for both subscales. Concurrent validity was demonstrated by a strong positive correlation between MILM-E and the Meaning in Life Questionnaire-Presence (MLQ-P), and a moderate correlation between MILM-R and the Meaning in Life Questionnaire-Search (MLQ-S). For both subscales, small to moderate positive correlations were found with subjective well-being, extraversion, conscientiousness, openness, agreeableness, self-deception, and impression management; moderate negative correlations were found with depression and emotional instability. Participants who were older, female, of higher income, and married with children scored slightly higher than their counterparts on MILM-E; women scored slightly higher than men on MILM-R. We concluded that the MILM has good psychometric properties and that MIL seems to be composed of two factors.
Spirituality is a multifaceted construct, and often studied as a one- or two-dimensional variable. Recent work has resulted in the development of the RiTE model of spirituality. While preliminarily supported as a useful approach to measuring spirituality, little is known regarding its associations with other outcomes. Past studies have shown inverse associations between spirituality and psychological distress, which appears to be partially a function of social support derived from spiritual beliefs or practices. As such, the present study tested the relationship between the RiTE dimensions and psychache as mediated by multiple types of social support. Parallel mediation results from an undergraduate sample (N = 1994) showed that all three RiTE dimensions were indirectly associated with psychache via multiple forms of social support. Ritualistic and existential spirituality also displayed direct associations with psychache. Implications of these findings are discussed in the context of past literature, applicable theoretical constructs, and treatment considerations.
Previous research suggests that belief in free will helps to inhibit anti-social impulses. As a result, belief in free will enables the creation of and participation in society. Consistently, we propose that belief in free will is associated with a sense of belongingness. As previous research indicates that belongingness is a source of meaning in life, we predicted that belief in free will in turn facilitates increased meaningfulness via feelings of belongingness. To test this hypothesis, we conducted two preliminary, small-scale studies and a large-scale study using individual difference data. As expected, in Study 1, the positive association between free will beliefs and meaningfulness was mediated by feelings of belongingness. In Study 2, this effect emerged using alternative measures of free will belief and belongingness, adding to the findings' reliability and validity. In Study 3, these effects were again replicated with a large sample of participants using separate and composite measures of free will belief and belongingness. Finally, we conducted multiple group comparisons and meta-analyses. These confirmed that the proposed correlations and indirect effects were significant and consistent across studies. Our findings provide important understandings of the functions and consequences of free will beliefs.
Recent advances in the science of meaning in life have taught us a great deal about the nature of the experience of meaning in life, its antecedents and consequences, and its potential functions. Conclusions based on self-report measures of meaning in life indicate that, as might be expected, it is associated with many aspects of positive functioning. However, this research also indicates that the experience of meaning in life may come from unexpectedly quotidian sources, including positive mood and coherent life experiences. Moreover, the experience of meaning in life may be quite a bit more commonplace than is often portrayed. Attending to the emerging science of meaning in life suggests not only potentially surprising conclusions but new directions for research on this important aspect of well-being.
Decades of research have shown that positive life events contribute to the remission and recovery of depression; however, it is unclear how positive life events are generated. In this study, we sought to understand if personality strengths could predict positive life events that aid in the alleviation of depression. We tested a longitudinal mediation model where gratitude and meaning in life lead to increased positive life events and, in turn, decreased depression. The sample consisted of 797 adult participants from 43 different countries who completed online surveys at five timepoints. Higher levels of gratitude and meaning in life each predicted decreases in depression over 3 and 6 months time. Increases in positive life events mediated the effects of these personality strengths on depression over 3 months; however, not over 6 months. Goal pursuit and positive emotions are theorized to be the driving forces behind gratitude and meaning in life’s effects on positive life events. We used the hedonic treadmill to interpret the short-term impact of positive life events on depression. Our findings suggest the potential for gratitude and meaning in life interventions to facilitate depression remission.
Perceived meaning in life positively and significantly correlates with adaptive characteristics such as cognitive flexibility, altruism, self-transcendence, social relatedness, and values-directed behavior. Furthermore, one recent study has evidenced that perceived meaning in life is related to automatic stereotyping—the spontaneous activation of often-negative beliefs about a particular group of people. In this case greater perceived meaning was associated with less automatic stereotyping. Despite the significant implications of these initial findings, there is no systematic research that has been conducted with regard to better understanding how perceived meaning and automatic stereotyping relate to one another. The purpose of the present chapter is to advance a research agenda for the integration of what has up to this point been two separate areas of scientific inquiry. Thus, we argue for the inclusion of perceived meaning in studies of automatic stereotyping, advocating for the potential benefits that perceived meaning in life offers with respect to adaptive social interactions, and with particular regard to less automatic stereotyping. Researchers are encouraged to consider new lines of empirical inquiry that expand the science of perceived meaning, advancing our understanding of the concept as well as potential applications for a broad spectrum of intrapersonal and interpersonal processes.
The long-term outcomes associated with happiness and meaning-making were examined by following up on participants in previous studies on experiential learning an average of 2.5 years later. Measures of happiness and meaning-making were extracted by analyzing the participants’ journals using a computerized text-analysis program. Happiness as assessed by a composite measure of positive emotionality showed weak associations with the measures of adaptive functioning, and was negatively correlated with optimism, as well as positively correlated with emotion suppression. By contrast, meaning-making as assessed by composite measures of cognitive processing and self-distancing was robustly positively correlated with almost all measures of adaptive functioning. Regression analyses revealed that the two measures of meaning and their interaction term accounted for 20–24% of the variance in predicting the outcome measures. This study revealed that there may be at times a trade-off between happiness and meaning-making as well as a reversal in their patterns of long-term outcomes.
The authors first discuss the nature of meaning with a focus on three broad functions of meaning and two levels of meaning. Next, the authors discuss the need for meaning with a focus on the four needs for meaning (Baumeister 1991). Finally, the authors discuss some myths related to meaning, particularly the expectation that everything in life does (or will) make sense and have a reason. Throughout the chapter, the authors discuss ideas where the existential perspective and positive psychology perspective differ and could be integrated. Meaning in life likely serves several different functions. First, meaning helps individuals detect patterns in their environment. Such patterns can exist in the physical or social environment. The second function is communication. The third function is related to self-control. Meaning enables one to refer to cultural standards and think about long-term goals and therefore facilitates self-control. Meaning can exist on multiple levels (Vallacher and Wegner 1985). A high level of meaning involves complex and abstract relationships that span out across a large time frame. A low level of meaning is concrete and is in the present moment. The implications of moving to and from different levels of meaning are also discussed. The authors break down the need for meaning in life into four basic needs: purpose, values, efficacy, and self-worth. If all four needs are satisfied it will engender a sense of meaning in life. If one or more of the four needs is unfulfilled, one will be motivated to adjust their life in such a way that all four needs are covered. These four needs can be seen as unique motivations that facilitate making sense of and finding meaning in life.
Multiple studies have shown that the sense of belonging and connectedness contribute to meaning in life, but does meaning also influence social connectedness? The present research examines the reciprocal relationships between meaning and different types of connectedness: intimate, relational, and collective. Analyzing data from a nationally representative longitudinal study (Study 1) with cross-lagged panel models, we found that only collective connectedness was prospectively associated with meaning, whereas meaning was prospectively associated with all three types of connectedness, controlling for life satisfaction. The beneficial effect of meaning extended to behavioral indicators of collective and intimate connectedness (Study 2). Higher levels of meaning in life were prospectively associated with an increased likelihood of joining voluntary associations and getting married, and, for people high in marital satisfaction, with a decreased likelihood of marital separation. Together, these findings suggest that the relationship between social connectedness and meaning in life is bidirectional.
Three correlational studies and 2 experiments examined the association between meaning in life (MIL) and reliance on intuitive information processing. In Studies 1-3 (total N = 5,079), Faith in Intuition (FI) scale and MIL were correlated positively, controlling for religiosity, positive mood, self-esteem, basic need satisfaction, and need for cognition. Two experiments manipulated processing style. In Study 4 (N = 614), participants were randomly assigned to complete the Cognitive Reflection Task (CRT; Fredrick, 2005) either immediately before (reflective/low intuitive mindset condition) or immediately after (control condition) rating MIL. Condition did not affect MIL. However, low MIL rated before the CRT predicted superior performance and greater time spent on the task. The association between reflection and MIL was curvilinear, such that MIL was strongly negatively related to CRT performance particularly at low levels of MIL. In Study 5 (N = 804), intuitive or reflective mindsets were induced and FI and MIL were measured. Induced processing style study did not affect MIL. However, those high in MIL were more responsive to the intuitive mindset induction. The relationship between FI and MIL was curvilinear (in this and the correlational studies), with intuitive processing being strongly positively related to MIL particularly at higher levels of MIL. Although often considered in the context of conscious reflection, MIL shares a positive relationship with reliance on gut feelings, and high MIL may facilitate reliance on those feelings. (PsycINFO Database Record
(c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).
People who have warm and rewarding interpersonal relationships experience more meaning in life. Conversely, people who have experienced social rejection find life less meaningful than other people. Hence, social relationships are an important source of meaning in life. However, the central thesis of this chapter is that meaning in life not only follows from having rewarding interpersonal bonds, finding meaning in life actually aids in the formation of interpersonal bonds. In short, our assertion is that the presence of interpersonal relationships increases the belief that life is meaningful, and the belief that life is meaningful aids in formation of new relationships. Hence, the relationship between meaning and belonging is bidirectional.
The desire for meaning is recognized as a central human motive. Yet, knowing that people want meaning does not explain its function. What adaptive problem does this experience solve? Drawing on the feelings-as-information hypothesis, we propose that the feeling of meaning provides information about the presence of reliable patterns and coherence in the environment, information that is not provided by affect. We review research demonstrating that manipulations of stimulus coherence influence subjective reports of meaning in life but not affect. We demonstrate that manipulations that foster an associative mindset enhance meaning. The meaning-as-information perspective embeds meaning in a network of foundational functions including associative learning, perception, cognition, and neural processing. This approach challenges assumptions about meaning, including its motivational appeal, the roles of expectancies and novelty in this experience, and the notion that meaning is inherently constructed. Implications for constructed meaning and existential meanings are discussed.
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The human experience of meaning in life is widely viewed as a cornerstone of well-being and a central human motivation. Self-reports of meaning in life relate to a host of important functional outcomes. Psychologists have portrayed meaning in life as simultaneously chronically lacking in human life as well as playing an important role in survival. Examining the growing literature on meaning in life, we address the question, "How meaningful is life, in general?" We review possible answers from various psychological sources, some of which anticipate that meaning in life should be low, and others high. Summaries of epidemiological data and research using two self-report measures of meaning in life suggest that life is pretty meaningful. Diverse samples rate themselves significantly above the midpoint on self-reports of meaning in life. We suggest that if meaning in life plays a role in adaptation, it must be commonplace, as our analysis suggests.
A person's judgeability, or the extent to which a person is easy to understand, plays an important role in how accurately a target will be perceived by others. Research on this topic, however, has not been systematic or well-integrated. The current review begins to remedy this by integrating the available research on judgeability from the fields of personality perception, nonverbal communication, and social cognition. Specifically, this review summarizes the characteristics that are likely to promote judgeability and explores its potential consequences. A diverse range of characteristics are identified as predictors of judgeability, all relating to three broader categories: psychological adjustment, social status, and socialization. Furthermore, being judgeable has a variety of potential, largely positive, consequences for the target, leaving good targets poised for greater personal and interpersonal well-being. Nevertheless, many questions on this topic remain and it is crucial for this relatively understudied topic to receive more systematic empirical attention.
Are well-adjusted individuals good targets or accurate self-judges? Across two round-robin studies, the current research first demonstrates that well-adjusted individuals' personalities are viewed with greater distinctive self-other agreement by new acquaintances. Is this enhanced self-other agreement a function of greater judgeability, improving others' ability to form an accurate impression? Or is it a function of greater self-knowledge, having a more accurate impression about oneself? By examining the relationship between psychological adjustment and self-other agreement as a function of trait observability, it becomes clear that psychological adjustment fosters self-other agreement through judgeability more so than through self-knowledge. Specifically, well-adjusted individuals provide new acquaintances with greater information regarding their less observable traits, enhancing others' knowledge and thus distinctive self-other agreement. This effect was replicated with close informant-other agreement, indicating that the well-adjusted individual's tendency to make his or her less visible traits more accessible to others allows those who just met the target to agree better with people who know the target well. In sum, although well-adjusted individuals are in part good self-judges, it is their greater judgeability that seems most critical in enhancing self-other agreement in first impressions.
This research examined the role of personality, nonverbal skills, and gender as moderators of judging and being judged accurately in zero-acquaintance situations. Unacquainted participants, assembled in groups, completed a battery of personality tests, took 2 audiovisual tests (the Profile of Nonverbal Sensitivity [PONS] and the Interpersonal Perception Task [IPT]) intended to assess decoding skills and then rated themselves and every other person in the group on a set of personality dimensions. Results indicated that more sociable and extraverted participants tended to be more legible, that is, were judged more accurately. Participants who were more accurate judges tended to be less sociable and performed better on tests of decoding accuracy. Performance on the PONS predicted accuracy of judgment for men, whereas performance on the IPT predicted accuracy of judgment for women. On the whole, results suggest that some important and theoretically relevant moderators of accuracy in the zero-acquaintance situation have been identified. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Meaning in life has been identified as a potential mediator of the link between religiousness and psychological health. The authors tested this hypothesis in 2 studies, using multiple methods and measures of religiousness and well-being. In the studies, meaning in life mediated the relation between religiousness and life satisfaction (Study 1A), as well as self-esteem and optimism (Study 1B). In addition, using an experience sampling method, the authors found that meaning in life also mediated the relation between daily religious behaviors and well-being (Study 2). The authors discuss these findings and suggest that meaning in life may be an effective conduit through which counselors and clients can discuss "ultimate" matters, even when they do not share similar perspectives on religion. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Counseling psychologists often work with clients to increase their well-being as well as to decrease their distress. One important aspect of well-being, highlighted particularly in humanistic theories of the counseling process, is perceived meaning in life. However, poor measurement has hampered research on meaning in life. In 3 studies, evidence is provided for the internal consistency, temporal stability, factor structure, and validity of the Meaning in Life Questionnaire (MLQ), a new 10-item measure of the presence of, and the search for, meaning in life. A multitrait-multimethod matrix demonstrates the convergent and discriminant validity of the MLQ subscales across time and informants, in comparison with 2 other meaning scales. The MLQ offers several improvements over current meaning in life measures, including no item overlap with distress measures, a stable factor structure, better discriminant validity, a briefer format, and the ability to measure the search for meaning.
Using a ''subjectivist'' approach to the assessment of happiness, a new 4-item measure of global subjective happiness was developed and validated in 14 studies with a total of 2 732 participants. Data was collected in the United States from students on two college campuses and one high school campus, from community adults in two California cities, and from older adults. Students and community adults in Moscow, Russia also participated in this research. Results indicated that the Subjective Happiness Scale has high internal consistency, which was found to be stable across samples. Test-retest and self-peer correlations suggested good to excellent reliability, and construct validation studies of convergent and discriminant validity confirmed the use of this scale to measure the construct of subjective happiness. The rationale for developing a new measure of happiness, as well as advantages of this scale, are discussed.
This research focused on the target effect on a perceiver's judgments of personality when the perceiver and the target are unacquainted. The perceiver was given no opportunity to interact with the target, a condition we refer to as zero acquaintance. We reasoned that in order to make personality judgments, perceivers would use the information available to them (physical appearance). Consensus in personality judgments would result, then, from shared stereotypes about particular physical appearance characteristics. Results from three separate studies with 259 subjects supported this hypothesis. On two of the five dimensions (extraversion and conscientiousness) on which subjects rated each other, a significant proportion of variance was due to the stimulus target. Consensus on judgments of extraversion appears to have been largely mediated by judgments of physical attractiveness. Across the three studies there was also evidence that the consensus in judgments on these two dimensions had some validity, in that they correlated with self-judgments on those two dimensions.
The meaning maintenance model (MMM) proposes that people have a need for meaning; that is, a need to perceive events through a prism of mental representations of expected relations that organizes their perceptions of the world. When people's sense of meaning is threatened, they reaffirm alternative representations as a way to regain meaning-a process termed fluid compensation. According to the model, people can reaffirm meaning in domains that are different from the domain in which the threat occurred. Evidence for fluid compensation can be observed following a variety of psychological threats, including most especially threats to the self, such as self-esteem threats, feelings of uncertainty, interpersonal rejection, and mortality salience. People respond to these diverse threats in highly similar ways, which suggests that a range of psychological motivations are expressions of a singular impulse to generate and maintain a sense of meaning.
Recent research indicates that ostracism is painful even in the face of mitigating circumstances. However, in all previous experiments, there have been no costs to inclusion or benefits for ostracism. If being included meant losing money and being ostracized meant retaining money, would individuals still be distressed when ostracized? In 2 studies, the authors attempted to "load the dice" against inclusion in favor of ostracism. Participants played a variant of Cyberball called euroyberball (pronounced Euroball), in which ostracism and inclusion were crossed with whether the participants earned or lost money for each ball toss they received. In 2 experiments, the authors found that even when being ostracized meant retaining more money than the other players, it was painful. In Study 2, the authors also introduced conditions in which participants were overincluded. In these conditions, participants were sensitive to financial incentives. However, even then participants felt worse when given no positive attention than when given punitive attention.
What makes us human? Why do people think, feel, and act as they do? What is the essence of human nature? What is the basic relationship between the individual and society? These questions have fascinated people for centuries. Now, at last, there is a solid basis for answering them, in the form of the accumulated efforts and studies by thousands of psychology researchers. We no longer have to rely on navel-gazing and speculation to understand why people are the way they are; we can instead turn to solid, objective findings. This book not only summarizes what we know about people; it also offers a coherent, easy-to-understand though radical, explanation. Turning conventional wisdom on its head, the author argues that culture shaped human evolution. Contrary to theories that depict the individual's relation to society as one of victimization, endless malleability, or just a square peg in a round hole, he proposes that the individual human being is designed by nature to be part of society. Moreover, he argues that we need to briefly set aside the endless study of cultural differences to look at what most cultures have in common; because that holds the key to human nature. Culture is in our genes, although cultural differences may not be. This core theme is further developed by a tour through the main dimensions of human psychology. What do people want? How do people think? How do emotions operate? How do people behave? And how do they interact with each other? The answers are often surprising, and along the way, the author explains how human desire, thought, feeling, and action are connected.
Ostracism is such a widely used and powerful tactic that the authors tested whether people would be affected by it even under remote and artificial circumstances. In Study 1, 1,486 participants from 62 countries accessed the authors' on-line experiment on the Internet. They were asked to use mental visualization while playing a virtual tossing game with two others (who were actually computer generated and controlled). Despite the minimal nature of their experience, the more participants were ostracized, the more they reported feeling bad, having less control, and losing a sense of belonging. In Study 2, ostracized participants were more likely to conform on a subsequent task. The results are discussed in terms of supporting K. D. Williams's (1997) need threat theory of ostracism.
This review demonstrates that the physical attractiveness stereotype established by studies of person perception is not as strong or general as suggested by the often-used summary phrase what is beautiful is good. Although subjects in these studies ascribed more favorable personality traits and more successful life outcomes to attractive than unattractive targets, the average magnitude of this beauty-is-good effect was moderate, and the strength of the effect varied considerably from study to study. Consistent with our implicit personality theory framework, a substantial portion of this variation was explained by the specific content of the inferences that subjects were asked to make: The differences in subjects' perception of attractive and unattractive targets were largest for indexes of social competence; intermediate for potency, adjustment, and intellectual competence; and near zero for integrity and concern for others. The strength of the physical attractiveness stereotype also varied as a function of other attributes of the studies, including the presence of individuating information.
Factor analyses of traditional and age-universal measures of intrinsic and extrinsic religion have identified two subcategories of extrinsicness, suggesting the original scales need revision. In this study, confirmatory multiple group factor analyses confirmed this suspicion, identifying extrinsic items concerned with social relationships ("Es") and with personal benefits ("Ep"). The analyses resulted in a revised intrinsic scale which is now partially counterbalanced for acquiescence, an Es scale, an Ep scale, and three single items which may also be used for measuring these constructs. These scales, labeled I/E-R, have reliabilities equal to or better than those of the original scales.
An ethnically diverse sample of 143 college undergraduates was used to test the hypothesis that a sense of existential meaning buffers against the effect of stress on depression and hope. Spiritual meaning as measured by the Spiritual Meaning Scale and personal meaning as measured by the framework subscale from the Life Regard Index-Revised were significantly negatively correlated with depressive symptoms and positively correlated with hope. Spiritual meaning, but not personal meaning, moderated the relationship between stress and depression such that there was a strong relationship between depression and stress for individuals with low levels of spiritual meaning but no relationship between stress and depression for individuals with high levels of spiritual meaning. It appears that, though both spiritual and personal meaning are inversely related to depression and positively related to hope, only spiritual meaning moderates the relationship between daily stress and depression.
Although questions about how people respond to others' nonverbal cues have always been central to the study of nonverbal communication, the study of individual diVerences in accuracy of nonverbal cue processing, or interpersonal sensitivity, is a more recent endeavor. This chapter focuses on assessment of individual diVerences, emphasizing the major paradigms and instruments for assessing accuracy of nonverbal cue processing, and discussing characteristics of the stimuli and judgment methodologies (e.g. what state or trait is being judged, who is being judged, what cue channels are available, whether the cues are posed or spontaneous, whether judgment is done in live interaction or from standard stimuli, what judgment format is used, what criteria and methods are used for scoring). Relative advantages of diVerent approaches are discussed in terms of psychometric qualities, validity, and utility.
A growing body of literature in evolutionary psychology suggests that person perception processes are adaptively tuned. The current investigation tested the hypothesis that people would be able to detect a propensity for violence in other people, based only on a brief glance at their face. Participants estimated the propensity for violence in 87 registered sex offenders after seeing photos of them for 2 s each. Estimated likelihood of violence was significantly related to actual violent history, suggesting that violent tendencies can be accurately inferred from a brief look at a person's face. Cues indicative of high masculinity and high levels of male sex hormones (heavy brow, general facial masculinity, high physical strength, younger age) were related to accurate judgments. Other cues such as facial emotion and good grooming were not associated with an actual history of violence, but nevertheless correlated with raters' judgments. Although there were no sex differences in accuracy, on average women thought targets were more violent than men did. Findings speak to the accuracy and efficiency with which people can detect potential threats to physical well-being.
Two studies supported the hypothesis that female sociosexuality can be accurately detected by strangers based on thin slices of observable behavior. Twenty-four female participants, whose sexual strategies ranged from highly restricted to highly unrestricted, were video taped while interacting with a male confederate. In Study 1, raters' judgments of the women's sociosexuality were highly correlated with the women's self-reported sociosexuality. Study 2 replicated this finding and identified specific cues perceivers used to make their judgments. We identified (1) Valid cues (e.g., eyebrow flashes, glances at the confederate), which were associated with both targets' actual sociosexuality and raters' perceptions of sociosexuality; (2) Poor cues (e.g., hand gestures, posture), which were not correlated with actual or perceived sociosexuality; and (3) Misleading cues (e.g., provocativeness of dress, physical attractiveness), which were not associated with actual sociosexuality, but were correlated with perceptions of sociosexuality. Statistically controlling for valid cues (but not poor cues or misleading cues) reduced the relationship between perceived and actual sociosexuality, suggesting that perceiving these traits may partially account for perceiver accuracy. The accurate detection of traits in others may play an important role in helping people respond adaptively to important social threats and opportunities.
This investigation examined social connectedness as distinct from extraversion and as a mediation variable in the relationship between extraversion and subjective well-being. A college student sample (N=295) and a sample of individuals who identify as lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB; N=148) completed measures of extraversion, social connectedness, life satisfaction, and positive and negative affect. Factor analytic results suggest social connectedness is a unique construct from extraversion. Moreover, the relationship between extraversion and well-being was mediated by social connectedness.
Twenty-four perceivers saw portraits of unacquainted persons for either 150ms, 100ms, or 50ms, and rated their personality on adjective scales. Moreover, stimulus persons described themselves on these scales and the NEO Five-Factor Inventory. Consensus among perceivers and self-other agreement were not systematically related to exposure time, but self-other agreement differed strongly between traits, being highest for extraversion. Even ratings of extraversion by single perceivers were related to the stimulus persons’ self-reports. Particularly strong were correlations between perceived extraversion and self-reports on items measuring the extraversion facets excitement seeking and positive emotions. Self-other agreement for extraversion was mostly mediated by cheerfulness of facial expressions that was related to self-reports of extraversion but not of the other personality traits.
Although most interpersonal interactions take place between people who know each other, most self-presentation research has focused on self-presentation to strangers. Five studies showed that self-presentational favorability differed as a function of whether the interaction partner was a friend or a stranger. Studies 1 and 2 found that self-presentations to friends were consistently more modest than self-presentations to strangers. In Studies 3 and 4, self-presentations were manipulated by instructing participants to present themselves in either a self-enhancing or modest manner. Modesty with strangers and self-enhancement with friends both resulted in impaired recall for the interaction, consistent with the view that those strategies contradict familiar, overlearned patterns. Study 5 distinguished self-deprecation from modesty. Taken together, the results indicate that people habitually use different self-presentation strategies with different audiences, relying on favorable self-enhancement with strangers but shifting toward modesty when among friends. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Demonstrates that the physical attractiveness stereotype established by studies of person perception is not as strong or general as suggested by the often-used summary phrase
what is beautiful is good. Although Ss in these studies ascribed more favorable personality traits and more successful life outcomes to attractive than unattractive targets, the average magnitude of this beauty-is-good effect was moderate, and the strength of the effect varied considerably from study to study. Consistent with the authors' implicit personality theory framework, a substantial portion of this variation was explained by the specific content of the inferences that Ss were asked to make: The differences in Ss' perception of attractive and unattractive targets were largest for indexes of social competence; intermediate for potency, adjustment, and intellectual competence; and near zero for integrity and concern for others. The strength of the physical attractiveness stereotype also varied as a function of other attributes of the studies, including the presence of individuating information. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
A scale to measure psychological sense of community (PSC) for colleges and universities was developed. Based on responses of 198 undergraduate students, factor-analysis was used to derive a 14-item scale (coefficient alpha = .88), which was given to another student sample of 98 undergraduates (alpha = .90). This collegiate PSC scale was administered to another nonrandom sample of 1127 undergraduates (coefficient alpha = .92) from 27 colleges varying in enrollment size. Using a subset of 774 students from psychology classes, a one-way analysis of variance revealed that students from colleges with enrollments of less than 2,000 and 2,000-9,999 had higher PSC scores than students from colleges with enrollments of 10,000-19,999 and greater than 20,000. Higher PSC scores were also observed for students living on-campus versus off-campus. For all colleges combined, higher PSC scores were observed for students who were members of a fraternity or sorority. Extroversion was found to be significantly related to PSC. Both extroversion and size of school accounted for unique variance in PSC. The issues of community homogeneity and diversity were raised. Results were discussed in terms of PSC as an environmental attribute versus personological and interactionist interpretations. Future research needs were noted. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Every human action, ranging from benevolence to inhumane violence has been justified in the name of religion, which has been a pervasive feature of human life throughout history. This article describes religion as a meaning system that is unique in centering on what is perceived as sacred, and in its special ability to address the quest for meaning. The article recommends the meaning system approach for the study of religion, suggesting that this approach can illuminate the resiliency of religion, and its complicated relations with individual and societal well-being. It describes the outline of the volume, and concludes with recommendations for research, education, and policies in the arena of religion that can facilitate well-being in the new millennium.
Previous research has demonstrated that ostracism (to be excluded and ignored) leads to detrimental eVects on four human needs (belonging, control, self-esteem, and meaningful existence; Williams, 2001). These detrimental eVects, however, may be more pronounced, or more prolonged, in particular individuals (see Williams & Zadro, 2001). In the present study, we examined the persistence of the detri-mental eVects of ostracism in high and low socially anxious participants. The results show that being ostracized aVected both groups at the immediate test, and that the high socially anxious participants recovered their primary needs more slowly. The results also show that being ostracized aVects personality/attractiveness ratings of sources of ostracism, and increases the likelihood of interpreting ambiguous situations in a threatening manner. Overall, the study illustrates that a comprehensive understanding of ostracism, and the eVects of mod-erating factors such as social anxiety, requires assessing the eVects across time rather than only focusing on immediate reactions.
Religion invests human existence with meaning by establishing goals and value systems that potentially pertain to all aspects of a persons' life. A goals approach provides a general unifying framework to capture the dynamic aspect of religion in people's lives. Empirical research on the measurement of spirituality and religion through personal goals is described. To illustrate the application of the goals framework, data from the author's research program on personal goals and quality of life in persons with neuromuscular diseases are described. Framing subjective quality-of-life outcomes in terms of goals can lead to new possibilities for understanding adaptation to physical disabilities and in particular, the understanding of the religious and spiritual dimensions of disability and rehabilitation.
We apply charismatic leadership theory to the historic 2008 United States presidential election, in hopes of inspiring dialogue around how leadership theory can inform the critical process of evaluating and electing public leaders. While numerous leadership theories are relevant to understanding the 2008 election, charismatic leadership theory highlights aspects of the leader, followers, and the unfolding economic crisis that are particularly relevant in helping us to understand how a relatively inexperienced political outsider ascended to the US Presidency. Given the potential perils and challenges newly elected President Barack Obama faces in the months and years ahead, we also suggest four core strategies rooted in charismatic leadership theory that may help him capitalize on his early charismatic appeal, as well as avoid the pitfalls of charisma that have plagued some of his predecessors.
Eudaimonic theories of well-being assert the importance of achieving one’s full potential through engaging in inherently meaningful endeavors. In two daily diary studies, we assessed whether reports of engagement in behaviors representative of eudaimonic theories were associated with well-being. We also examined whether eudaimonic behaviors were more strongly related to well-being than behaviors directed toward obtaining pleasure or material goods. In both studies, eudaimonic behaviors had consistently stronger relations to well-being than hedonic behaviors. Data also provided support for a temporal sequence in which eudaimonic behaviors were related to greater well-being the next day. Overall, our results suggest that “doing good” may be an important avenue by which people create meaningful and satisfying lives.
Religion is one of the major resources used to generate meaning in life. An individual's religion involves not only a set of beliefs, but also an involvement in a community of like-minded others. The purpose of this study is to differentiate between religious beliefs and religious community in constructing life meaning at the end stage of life. Twelve women, who resided at various assisted-living facilities, participated in qualitative interviews about the current and past meaning of religion in their lives. They were distributed among fundamental Christian, Catholic, liberal Protestant, and Jewish faiths. Differences between and within the groups were the result of the content, as well as certainty, of belief. These differences influenced the sufficiency of a belief system to construct life meaning. When belief alone was insufficient, life meaning was supplemented with social and secular interactions.
Ostracism is such a widely used and powerful tactic that the authors tested whether people would be affected by it even under remote and artificial circumstances. In Study 1, 1,486 participants from 62 countries accessed the authors' on-line experiment on the Internet. They were asked to use mental visualization while playing a virtual tossing game with two others (who were actually computer generated and controlled). Despite the minimal nature of their experience, the more participants were ostracized, the more they reported feeling bad, having less control, and losing a sense of belonging. In Study 2, ostracized participants were more likely to conform on a subsequent task. The results are discussed in terms of supporting K. D. Williams's (1997) need threat theory of ostracism. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved). (from the journal abstract)
If we asked people to generate a list of aversive interpersonal behaviors, we might expect them to include various examples of verbal and physical abuse. After all, insults and punches are observable, measurable behaviors that we find aversive. This chapter, however, focuses on what many may overlook when constructing such a list, perhaps because it is not considered to be a behavior at all, but rather a “nonbehavior.” I refer to the pervasive and universal phenomenon of ostracism—the general process of exclusion and rejection. As we shall see, ostracism is not only an aversive interpersonal behavior, but also a response to aversive interpersonal behaviors. I review briefly experimental, observational, and case studies from anthropology, sociology, animal behavior, and psychology that pertain to ostracism. I then present a taxonomy and model of ostracism that I hope to be inclusive enough to cover its various forms, as well as specific enough to generate testable hypotheses. The general framework of the model is depicted in Figure 1. Next, I present a new experimental ostracism paradigm that we have employed in our laboratory to test a few hypotheses derived from this model. I also summarize ongoing qualitative interviews with long-term users and victims of the “silent treatment,” a form of ostracism commonly used in close dyadic relationships. Finally, directions for future research are discussed.
There are few topics so fascinating both to the research investigator and the research subject as the self-image. It is distinctively characteristic of the human animal that he is able to stand outside himself and to describe, judge, and evaluate the person he is. He is at once the observer and the observed, the judge and the judged, the evaluator and the evaluated. Since the self is probably the most important thing in the world to him, the question of what he is like and how he feels about himself engrosses him deeply. This is especially true during the adolescent stage of development.
Four studies (N = 643) supported the hypothesis that social exclusion would reduce the global perception of life as meaningful. Social exclusion was manipulated experimentally by having a confederate refuse to meet participants after seeing their videotaped introduction (Study 1) and by ostracizing participants in a computerized ball-tossing game (Study 2). Compared to control condition and acceptance conditions, social exclusion led to perceiving life as less meaningful. Exclusion was also operationalized as self-reported loneliness, which was a better predictor of low meaning than other potent variables (Study 3). Study 4 found support for Baumeister's model of meaning (1991), by demonstrating that the effect of exclusion on meaning was mediated by purpose, value, and positive self-worth.
INCLUYE BIBLIOGRAFIA E INDICE
This article provides researchers with a guide to properly construe and conduct analyses of conditional indirect effects, commonly known as moderated mediation effects. We disentangle conflicting definitions of moderated mediation and describe approaches for estimating and testing a variety of hypotheses involving conditional indirect effects. We introduce standard errors for hypothesis testing and construction of confidence intervals in large samples but advocate that researchers use bootstrapping whenever possible. We also describe methods for probing significant conditional indirect effects by employing direct extensions of the simple slopes method and Johnson-Neyman technique for probing significant interactions. Finally, we provide an SPSS macro to facilitate the implementation of the recommended asymptotic and bootstrapping methods. We illustrate the application of these methods with an example drawn from the Michigan Study of Adolescent Life Transitions, showing that the indirect effect of intrinsic student interest on mathematics performance through teacher perceptions of talent is moderated by student math self-concept.
A wide body of literature documents the effect of social networks and social supports on mental health. Fewer studies, however, have examined the reciprocal effect of mental health on social relationships. This problem is examined using data from a national panel survey of adults aged 20-64. For the sample as a whole, support was found for a social selection process, since psychological distress predicted decreases in primary, but not secondary, social relationships. The extent of primary relationships also were found to be associated with subsequent distress, providing evidence that the relationship between mental health and social environment may be transactional. When examined separately by gender, males but not females were found to be vulnerable to the process of social selection, supporting the hypothesis that the expression of distress is less role-appropriate for men and therefore more likely to invite social sanctions. Social causation effects also were observed only among males.
Although several theories assert that understanding the search for meaning in life is important, empirical research on this construct is sparse. Three studies provide the first extensive effort to understand the correlates of the search for meaning in a multistudy research program. Assessed were relations between search for meaning and well-being, cognitive style, and the Big Five, Big Three, Approach/Avoidance, and Interest models of personality, with a particular emphasis on understanding the correlates of search for meaning that are independent of presence of meaning. Conceptual models of the relation between search and presence were tested. Findings suggest that people lacking meaning search for it; the search for meaning did not appear to lead to its presence. Study 3 found that basic motive dispositions moderated relations between search for meaning and its presence. Results highlight the importance of basic personality dispositions in understanding the search for meaning and its correlates.
The body in the mind
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Family begets meaning: The unique contribution of family relationships to purpose in life
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Prophetic charisma: The psychology of revolutionary religious personalities Addressing moderated mediation hypotheses: Theory, methods, and prescrip-tions
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The pursuit of meaningfulness in life
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