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Contentment: Perceived Completeness Across Cultures and Traditions

September 2016
Review of General Psychology 20(3):221-235

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Columbia University

Over the past 2 decades, a major focus in psychological research has been on pursuing happiness, positivity, and optimal human flourishing. Interestingly, little attention has been paid to contentment, which, according to over 4,000 years of spiritual, philosophical, and theoretical discourse, is an emotion that sits at the deepest core of human wellbeing and is foundational to the experience of fulfillment in life. This article synthesizes etymological, religious, philosophical, and psychological treatments of contentment from multiple languages and traditions. Derived from these perspectives, it also presents a prototype approach to contentment, its core affect features and cross-cultural variations. Finally, it presents theory-grounded hypotheses intended to initiate future research on the topic. We propose a primary appraisal theme that is at the root of all experiences of contentment: perceived completeness, which refers to the perception that the present situation is enough and entire.

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Contentment: Perceived Completeness Across Cultures and Traditions

Daniel T. Cordaro and Marc Brackett

Yale University Lauren Glass

Loyola Marymount University

Craig L. Anderson

University of California, Berkeley

Over the past 2 decades, a major focus in psychological research has been on pursuing happiness,

positivity, and optimal human flourishing. Interestingly, little attention has been paid to contentment,

which, according to over 4,000 years of spiritual, philosophical, and theoretical discourse, is an emotion

that sits at the deepest core of human wellbeing and is foundational to the experience of fulfillment in

life. This article synthesizes etymological, religious, philosophical, and psychological treatments of

contentment from multiple languages and traditions. Derived from these perspectives, it also presents a

prototype approach to contentment, its core affect features and cross-cultural variations. Finally, it

presents theory-grounded hypotheses intended to initiate future research on the topic. We propose a

primary appraisal theme that is at the root of all experiences of contentment: perceived completeness,

which refers to the perception that the present situation is enough and entire.

Keywords: contentment, happiness, positive psychology, wellbeing, emotion

“With the rise of contentment, the purity of one’s heart blooms.

The contented person who possesses nothing owns the world.”

—Vasistha’s Yoga, II:15,16.

Ryokan, an old Zen Master, lived the simplest possible life in a

small wooden hut at the foot of a mountain. He had exactly what

he needed, and nothing more—a roof over his head, a river a short

distance away, and the bounty of the forest in his backyard. One

evening when the moon was full and bright, the old man was out

collecting water when a thief approached from a nearby village.

While searching the house and finding nothing to steal, the thief

was too distracted to hear the old man approaching. Ryokan found

the thief rummaging and said, “You have traveled far to see me,

and you should not return empty-handed. Please, accept my robe

as a gift.” The thief was bewildered, but he accepted the old man’s

clothes and ran off. Ryokan sat naked, looking at the night sky and

thought, “I wish I could have given him this beautiful moon.” (B.

Watson, 1992).

At the heart of human wellbeing is a peaceful emotion, content-

ment, which has been the subject of intense philosophical, spiri-

tual, and scientific debate for millennia (Gaskins, 1999;Saunders,

1966). Contentment can be felt toward pleasant experiences (e.g.,

stepping into a warm bath, enjoying the sun), unpleasant experi-

ences (e.g., losing a loved one, falling short of a goal), or as with

Ryokan, about life itself. Contentment also is a key component of

our overall satisfaction with life (Shiota, Keltner, & John, 2006;

Reps & Senzaki, 1998), which raises foundational questions about

the nature of what it means to be well: Why are some people

contented with so little, while others are miserable with so much?

What does it feel like to unconditionally accept the present mo-

ment, regardless of pleasant or unpleasant circumstances? Is true

and lasting contentment a real possibility in life, or is it just the

rhetoric from religious and philosophical legends? Does content-

ment mean we have given up on life, or can we accomplish our

goals and pursue our passions while accepting the entire journey

along the way?

Approaches to Wellbeing and Emotion

For the past 15 years, the field of positive psychology has sought

to understand and cultivate positive emotions, character traits, and

institutions, and in doing so has focused primarily on one partic-

ular positive emotion, happiness, which has become the mascot for

most of what is good and meaningful in life (Easterlin, 2006;

Lyubomirsky, Sheldon, & Schkade, 2005). Since the inception of

positive psychology (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000) over

3,500 scholarly articles and 16,000 books have featured the word

“happiness” in their titles (search.proquest.com; amazon.com).

More recently, research in emotion psychology has turned to a

much broader array of positive states than have previously been

studied. These include: amusement (Hejmadi, Davidson, & Rozin,

2000;Keltner & Bonanno, 1997;Keltner & Shiota, 2003;Shiota,

Campos, & Keltner, 2003); awe (Hejmadi et al., 2000;Shiota et

al., 2003;Shiota, Keltner, & Mossman, 2007); coyness (Bretherton

& Ainsworth, 1974;Reddy, 2000); desire (Gonzaga, Turner, Kelt-

ner, Campos, & Altemus, 2006;Keltner & Shiota, 2003); gratitude

(Sheldon & Lyubomirsky, 2006); interest (Keltner & Shiota, 2003;

Daniel T. Cordaro and Marc Brackett, Department of Psychology, Yale

University; Lauren Glass, Department of Psychology & Philosophy,

Loyola Marymount University; Craig L. Anderson, Department of Psy-

chology, University of California, Berkeley.

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Daniel T.

Cordaro, Department of Psychology, Yale Center for Emotional Intelli-

gence, Yale University, 340 Edwards Street, New Haven, CT 06511.

E-mail: daniel.cordaro@yale.edu

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2016, Vol. 20, No. 3, 221–235 1089-2680/16/$12.00 http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/gpr0000082

221

Reeve, 1993;Silvia, 2008); pride (Tracy & Robins, 2004); and

triumph (Matsumoto & Hwang, 2012). One common feature in the

recent trend of studying positive states, however, is that most

are high-arousal emotions (Keltner & Lerner, 2010) that activate

the central nervous system as opposed to relaxing it. At present,

there is a dearth of research on positive states that are lower in

arousal such as contentment, peace, tranquility, and satisfaction,

with some notable exceptions reviewed herein.

This review relies, in part, on an appraisal theory of emotion,

which assumes that affective states are defined by their core

appraisal themes that emerge during moments of evaluating our

current circumstances (Han, Lerner, & Keltner, 2007;Ovies,

Horberg, & Keltner, 2010). According to the appraisal approach,

unique emotions give rise to unique influences on social cognition,

perspective, and decision-making (Ellsworth & Scherer, 2003),

which in turn defines the experience of the emotion (Lazarus,

1991;Smith & Ellsworth, 1985). For example, a central appraisal

theme for fear would be the perception of a threat (Ekman &

Cordaro, 2011), and the central appraisal theme for pride would be

the perception of a high sense of self-worth (Tracy & Robins,

2004). To set the stage for our discussion of contentment across

cultures and traditions, we begin with the central appraisal theme

for contentment as the perception of completeness in the present

moment.

Moving forward with this theme, this article explores the psy-

chology of contentment through several linguistic, cultural, phil-

osophical, and scientific perspectives, resulting in a central theme

and common etymological interpretation of contentment spanning

multiple disciplines and traditions. Second, contentment is exam-

ined using the prototype approach, which highlights common

themes, features, and components of the felt experiences of con-

tentment (Fehr & Russell, 1984;Keltner & Haidt, 2003). Content-

ment is also explored through appraisal themes or antecedent

conditions that are consistent with many felt experiences of the

emotion (Ellsworth, & Scherer, 2003;Scherer, Schorr, & John-

stone, 2001), as well as its core affect experience, described as a

function of valence and activation, which distinguishes content-

ment from other related states such as happiness, pride, triumph,

and elation (Russell & Barrett, 1999). Lastly, we identify key areas

of research and their relationship to the emotion contentment to

facilitate future research in the area.

Perceived Completeness

While not well-studied in psychology, contentment has been at

the heart of philosophical discourse for over 4,000 years (Vente-

godt, Andersen, & Merrick, 2003). A synthesis of linguistic, reli-

gious, philosophical, and scientific theories reveals several com-

mon features, appraisals, and variations of contentment. Across

cultures and disciplines, one main appraisal theme is what Sinnott

and Berlanstein (2006)—and a host of philosophers across time

and tradition—describe as a sense of completeness, which is

central to feeling connected to the self and others. Sinnott and

Berlanstein (2006) argue that a sense of completeness encom-

passes a basic psychological need for integrating all of the rich and

complex information in our environment into a holistic, meaning-

ful narrative. When we reject the present experience, thoughts of

incompleteness arise, causing psychological suffering. For exam-

ple, going through breakup can challenge our sense of innate

completeness, because of such thought patterns such as: “I have

been rejected;” “I’m not worthy;” and “I’m not good enough.”

Pleasant situations can sometimes challenge our sense of innate

completeness, especially when we depend on hedonic pleasure as

a contingency of well-being. The first bite of a warm chocolate

cake might be blissful, but with each subsequent bite we become

more and more tired of sweets. If we were to cling to the bliss of

that first bite, the rest of the cake (and future cakes compared with

this one) might leave us disappointed and underwhelmed. Accord-

ing to this perspective, psychological suffering arises when we

believe that our innate completeness is contingent on something

other than what is being experienced in the present moment. When

we unconditionally accept the present experience, a feeling of

completeness, and subsequently the emotion contentment, arises.

According to Sinnott and Berlanstein (2006), attributions of

completeness, therefore, predict the extent to which we have

developed a healthy and accepting relationship with the stories we

weave about our world; it reflects one’s ability to routinely and

unconditionally accept all aspects of the self—both positive and

negative. In this regard, experiences of completeness and the

resulting emotion contentment, also appear to promote temporal

orientation to the present moment (Kabat-Zinn, 2003) as well as an

increased sense of holistic wellbeing (Diener, 2000;Ryan & Deci,

2000;Ryff, 1989). These latter two features of contentment are

likely outcomes of perceived completeness, since this attribution

requires an appreciation for what exists in the present moment

without ruminating over past experiences (Nolen-Hoeksema,

2000) or worrying over future possibilities (Mathews, 1990). We

will further elaborate on contentment and the attribution of com-

pleteness as we explore the linguistic, philosophical, religious, and

psychological contexts surrounding these theories.

Etymology, Meanings, and Early

Treatments of Contentment

When communicating complex emotional states, we are bound

by the labels available to us, as well as the context surrounding the

experience (Barrett, 2004;Frijda, Markam, Sato, & Wiers, 1995;

Frijda, 1993). In the West, an emotion is typically represented in

a single word, but languages in other cultures may lack the related

term or use terms or phrases that have no direct translations in

English (Heider, 2006;Russell, 1991). An example of this relevant

to contentment is the Dutch word uitbuiken, which literally means

“to belly out” (Ekman & Cordaro, 2011). More colloquially,

uitbuiken refers to the feeling of satisfaction that one feels in one’s

stomach after finishing a delicious meal. The fact that it takes 15

words to translate uitbuiken into English does not mean that this

feeling is exclusive to the Dutch-speaking world, but rather it

illustrates the rich complexity of translating emotion terms across

language traditions. To begin understanding the linguistic roots

and modern interpretations of contentment, a brief selection of

translations and etymologies is provided, as well as an overview of

common themes across these translations. Woven within these

language traditions is a brief historical account of how the word

“contentment” has come into its modern interpretation. We argue

that across linguistic and philosophical traditions, attributions of

completeness covary with felt experiences of contentment.

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222 CORDARO, BRACKETT, GLASS, AND ANDERSON

Santosha in Sanskrit and Hindi

One of the earliest mainstream treatments of contentment ap-

pears in the Bhagavad Gita, a 700-verse Sanskrit scripture written

between the 5th and 2nd century BCE that comprises 18 chapters

in the Bhishma Parva of the Hindu epic Mahabharata (Swami,

1983). In the Gita, two powerful royal families stand on the

battlefield, ready to wage war over control of the kingdom of

Kuru. Arjuna, a warrior for one of the families, refuses to lead his

troops to march on the enemy, which is comprised of his relatives

and beloved teachers. Upon asking the heavens for guidance,

Krishna, a form of the god Vishnu, intervenes by teaching Arjuna

the inner workings of consciousness, the universe, and santosha

(divine contentment, see Banavathy & Choudry, 2014):

“One who revels only in the universal essence, and is content [san-

tosha] in the universal essence, no duty exists for him” (III.17);

“Contentment in whatever comes of its own accord, transcending

duality, free from envy, balanced in success and in failure, he is not

bound to karma even when performing actions” (IV.22); and “To

whom praise and insult are same, who is silent, content with anything,

who is without a home, with unwavering mind, a person who is such

a devotee is dear to me.” (XII.19)

The use of santosha in the Gita implies a sense of equanimity,

completeness, and unconditional acceptance of the workings of the

universe. Krishna explains that one who understands the true,

complete self feels a permanent sense of wellbeing and mental

clarity regardless of whether the experience is pleasant or unpleas-

ant. At the conclusion of the Gita, Arjuna realizes santosha,is

freed from all earthly desires, and acts to fulfill his destiny as a

warrior: “By your grace, my delusion is gone; and I have gained

recognition of myself. I remain as one from whom all doubts have

gone” (XVIII.73).

A variation on santoshta appears in Patañjali’s Yoga Su

៮tras,

which are comprised of 196 sacred Sanskrit aphorisms compiled

around 400 CE that constitute the foundational text of Ashtanga

(Raja) Yoga. In the Yoga Su

៮tras, Patañjali compiles what are

known as and still practiced as the five Niyamas, or observances

that relate to enlightenment: Yama (purity), Tapas (austerity),

Sva៮dhya៮ya (study), Ishvarapranidhana (divine surrender), and

Santosha (contentment). Patañjali writes, “As a result of content-

ment [santosha], there is purity of mind, one-pointedness, control

of the senses, and fitness for the vision of the self. Supreme

wellbeing is gained through contentment.” (Patañjali, 1990, pp.

2.41–42). In most translations of the Yoga Su

៮tras, santosha is

considered a divine state of peace, completeness, and equanimi-

ty—an indestructible sense of wellbeing that cannot be shaken

even as one experiences the extremes of pleasure and pain. Pata-

ñjali suggests that true and lasting contentment arises when one

has calmed the restlessness and reactive nature of the mind

(2.33–34).

Finally, one of the clearest and most precise treatments of

contentment in the ancient Sanskrit texts comes from Vasistha’s

Yoga, a 32,000 verse masterpiece purportedly written by the sage

Valmiki to explain the illusory nature of the manifest world. It is

a major compilation of nondual wisdom, incorporating traditions

from the Advaita Vedanta philosophy and various Yogic traditions

(Venkatesananda, 2010). It highlights various anecdotes, narra-

tives, and metaphors that aim toward understanding the true nature

of reality.

At the very start of Vasistha’s discourse, we learn the pillars of

enlightenment, which are described as four virtues that are para-

mount to liberation. In what might be the most direct description

of contentment as an emotion of self-completeness regardless of

external circumstances, Vasistha explains to Rama the path to

liberation:

Rama, there are four gatekeepers at the entrance to the realm of

Freedom. They are self-control, spirit of enquiry, contentment [san-

tosha], and company of the wise. . . . What is contentment? To

renounce all craving for what is not obtained and to accept what

comes unsought, without being elated or depressed even by them—

this is contentment. As long as one is not satisfied in the self, he will

be subjected to sorrow. (II:11, 15, 16)

Dzongkha and Tibetan

In any discussion of contentment, attention must be given to two

Buddhist cultures that value this emotion above and beyond all

others—Tibet and Bhutan. There are two major themes of con-

tentment in the national language of Bhutan (Dzongkha) and its

root language (Tibetan), which separately handle the sensations for

physical satisfaction and psychological contentment. Dzongkha

tsham tshey and Tibetan ngoms pa are similar in meaning, as they

describe the feeling of physical satisfaction, such as a sense of

fullness after a meal or the sensory pleasure of stepping into a

warm bath after a long day. In a physical sense, Dzongkha tsham

tshey is also used to limit excessive behaviors involving the

physical body, such as overeating or drinking too much rice wine.

Similar in meaning to the Sanskrit santosha is the Tibetan chog

shes, which serves as the root for the Dzongkha chog she. These

both literally translate to “knowledge of completeness” or “know-

ing what is enough.” This Buddhist construct suggests that through

practical knowledge of what it means to feel complete in life, one

can find peace and a sense of wellness regardless of the situation.

Instead of seeking contentment through excess, the emotions chog

shes/chog she embody a feeling of “enoughness” with regards to

whatever one already has or is. Chog shes/Chog she can be quite

practical in that it prescribes a lifestyle that avoids excess, appre-

ciates the present moment, and aims to balance work, family,

friends, and social duties. It is also used to describe more spiritual

dimensions of completeness, similar to what a long-term meditator

may feel when experiencing a glimpse of liberation. The Dzong-

kha translations of the scriptures, which detail the life and teach-

ings of Gautama Buddha, summarize the contentment experience

as: “Chog She Pa Nyi Norgi Chog”—“Contentment is the greatest

wealth”(Carter, 2000).

Hebrew, Arabic, and Greek

In Judaic, Christian, and Islamic scriptures, one of the most

important Semitic root words is Š-L-M (shalam; Shin-Lamedh-

Mem), meaning “complete, intact, well;” literally translated,

Š-L-M indicates safety, but figuratively Š-L-M refers to whole-

ness. Stemming from the Semitic root Š-L-M are Hebrew shalom,

Aramaic shlam, and Arabic Sala៮m, all central to common greetings

and blessings for peace and contentment on several levels—phys-

ical, mental, and spiritual. Š-L-M is more than just political peace,

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223

CONTENTMENT ACROSS CULTURES & TRADITIONS

the absence of war—it is a sense of deep and unshakable wellbeing

resulting from completeness in life. Shalom, according to the

Jewish sages, is the very purpose of the Torah: “All that is written

in the Torah was written for the sake of peace (shalom)” (Handel-

man, 2008, p. 25). Š-L-M is also the root of the word “Islam” via

‘aslama, meaning “voluntary submission to God”: “Whomsoever

God desires to guide, He opens his heart to Islam” (Qur’an, 6:125).

The Qur’an also directly references the emotion contentment via

Arabic Rida when describing the nature of the relationship be-

tween God and God’s creations: “God has contentment with them,

and they have contentment with God” (5:119; 9:100; 98:8). This

latter passage appears three times throughout the scriptures, lend-

ing to the importance of reciprocal unconditional acceptance be-

tween God and everything in God’s universe.

Furthermore, the Greek eiréné, which is the translation of sha-

lom used in the New Testament of the Bible, evolved from the root

eiro

៮, meaning “to join together into a whole”: “Peace (Eiréné)I

leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the

world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be

afraid” (John 14:27). In the New Testament alone, 62 of the 260

chapters contain at least one reference to eiréné, making it one of

the most commonly used emotions in the Bible (Strong, 1995). We

also see the apostle Timothy directly referencing the importance of

this sense of fundamental completeness: “Godliness with content-

ment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we

cannot take anything out of the world” (Timothy, 6:5–8; The New

English Bible; New Testament, 1961).

It is interesting that common translations for shalom,Sala៮m, and

eiréné typically focus on “peace,” but historically their meanings

were likely much more rich and complex. Far more than just the

absence of conflict, these words embody a deep inner contentment,

a feeling of personal and social wellbeing (Swinton, 1997). Fur-

thermore, these concepts are fundamental to the religious traditions

they represent, as they allow for a direct connection with the

divine.

Latin and English

The modern English word “contentment” is derived from Old

French contenter via Latin continere (v.), meaning “to hold to-

gether” or “that which is contained.” This root describes something

whole, complete, and intact—the contents of something—and not

just a simple feeling of satisfaction. The word continere later

evolved into a term meant to describe a person who felt whole,

complete, and intact: contentus. More specifically, someone who

feels contentus has no desires beyond what exists in the present

moment; they are whole, fully contained (Klein, 1966;Weekley,

2012).

Unique Linguistic Distinctions in English

In colloquial English, contentment is often used interchangeably

with other emotion terms, both positive (e.g., satisfied, happy, and

pleased) and negative (e.g., complacent, indifferent, and relaxed);

however, the attribution of unconditional completeness regardless

of circumstance distinguishes contentment from these states. In a

broader simplification of this distinction, contentment refers to the

quality of having enough, whereas happiness, ecstasy, joy, glee,

gladness, and satisfaction extend into situations of gaining more or

experiencing something desirable. Contentment is an emotion that

uniquely provides a sense of acceptance and completeness regard-

less of whether the situation may be desirable or undesirable. For

example, we can feel contentment in the fully accepted passing of

a loved one. Sadness may also be present in this situation, but we

can feel complete in our sadness as we understand that grieving is

an important and natural part of processing the loss. Another way

of experiencing contentment is by releasing our cravings or desires

for pleasant experiences. As Vasistha’s Yoga advises: “The con-

tented person who possesses nothing owns the world” (II: 15,16).

The underrepresentation of contentment in modern language is

due largely to the fact that “happiness” and “joy” have been used

throughout various popular theories as blanket terms meant to

cover the wide spectrum of pleasant states (Ekman, Davidson, &

Friesen, 1990;D. Gilbert, 2007;M. E. Seligman, 2004). Content-

ment is occasionally, and often incorrectly, used as a synonym for

some negative states like complacency: “His cooking had im-

proved, but there were no grounds for him to feel content,”

resignation: “I’ve decided to just be content with this inevitable

failure,” indifference: “They were too content with how things

were to care about anything,” or judgments of laziness: “She could

have been much more in life, but she was too contented to have

any motivation at all.” These alternate uses reflect cultural values

driven by competition, individual achievement, and strong con-

cepts of “winner” and “best”—and where caring for others and

cultivating quality of life are less important (Hofstede, 1984,

2003).

Western Philosophical Treatments of Contentment

One of the most ancient and important struggles in the history of

our species regards the understanding and cultivation of wellbeing

for self, family, and community. A central aim of scientific,

spiritual, and political traditions has been to promote and protect

sources of wellness. Contentment figures prominently in these

philosophical discussions on what it means to live “the good life.”

There have been more philosophies related to the human condition

than can be covered here; a selection of some of the more foun-

dational teachings is presented below, including critical interpre-

tations on how each advances the present discussion on content-

ment.

Hedonia, Eudaimonia, and Diogenes of Sincope

There is a long and complex history of discourse on human

wellness from Greek philosophy, which begins with the notion that

wellbeing equates to hedonism, or pleasure-seeking. Democritus is

interpreted as advocating for a sort of enlightened hedonism,

where the good of mankind is an internal state of mind, rather than

anything external. Democritus is credited as being the first known

philosopher to make a single aim the guiding principle for deciding

one’s actions. This aim is eudaimonia, “well-being of spirit,” or

euthymia, best translated as “contentment” (Thomas, 1965; T35,

T36, F7, F8). He developed the term euthymein (v.), which denotes

being cheerful in misfortune and was later used by Aristotle. As

described in his treatise On Contentment (Peri euthymiés), con-

tentment is available through the actualization of an individual’s

“own power (dynamis) and nature (physis)” (Fragment B3), which

requires moderation and acquisition only of “what is necessary”

(Fragment B285).

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224 CORDARO, BRACKETT, GLASS, AND ANDERSON

The philosopher Epicurus later argued that a good life is

achieved through the enjoyment of one’s life in its entirety. This

involves pleasure, which is not debauchery, but simply the expe-

rience of life. Moderation is a crucial component of this kind of

enjoyment. Similar to the aforementioned Tibetan concept of chog

shes (“knowledge of what is enough”), the Epicurean ideals were

practical standards for understanding moderation and the harmful

consequences of excess; simple pleasures leading to a contented

life were to be maximized, but pleasures leading to increased

desires and fears were to be avoided: “Don’t spoil what you have

by desiring what you don’t have; but remember that what you now

have was once among the things you only hoped for” (Chang,

2006).

Finally, no discussion of Greek contentment philosophy can be

without Diogenes of Sinope, a contemporary of Aristotle who

lived deliberately in poverty, taking only an empty wine barrel for

shelter. Diogenes gave away his begging bowl because, inspired

by dogs drinking peacefully at the river, he realized that he could

also drink from the river using only his hands. As a radical

departure from both the hedonistic and eudaimonic perspectives,

Diogenes famously said: “He has the most who is most content

with the least” (Thomas, 1965).

It is said that Diogenes’ philosophy of contentment reached

Alexander the Great’s ears. The curious conqueror walked down to

the river to find Diogenes naked, lying peacefully in the sun.

Alexander said, “Ask me any favor, and I will grant it,” to which

Diogenes replied, “Stand a little less between me and the sun”

(Dryden, 2004). Diogenes told the most powerful man in the world

to step out of his way, making their unlikely meeting and brief

dialogue the stuff of contentment legend. As philosopher Charles

Caleb Colton summarized of Diogenes’ philosophy of wellbeing,

“True contentment depends not upon what we have; a tub was

large enough for Diogenes, but a world was too little for Alexan-

der” (J. H. Gilbert, 1895, p. 161). Diogenes’ philosophy aimed for

freedom from all desires whatsoever—freedom from the desire for

pleasures prescribed by the hedonic perspective, as well as free-

dom from the desire for grand life goals as prescribed by some

within the eudaimonic perspective. Though Diogenes may repre-

sent an extreme form of austerity, it is a powerful proposition that

there are two distinctly different ways to satisfy all of our desires:

(a) strive to fulfill them all, or (b) eliminate them entirely.

Daoist and Zen Philosophy

One of the most influential East Asian philosophical texts is the

Tao Te Ching, a collection of 81 brief, cryptic poems written

between the sixth and 4th century BCE, presumably by an enlight-

ened scholar known as Laozi. As one of the fundamental Taoist

texts, the Tao Te Ching has had immense impact on Eastern

thought and culture, particularly in Confucianism and Chinese

Buddhism. Several of the most well-regarded translators of this

text agree that Chapters 44 and 46 regard the nature of contentment

(Goddard, 2008;Tze, 1974,1997). Laozi writes, “Great desire

incurs great expense, and great riches incur great fear, but con-

tentment comes at no cost; Who knows when to stop, does not

continue into danger, and so may long endure” (Merel, 2010). Two

chapters later, he continues, “. . . There is no calamity greater than

desire, no greater misery than discontent, no fault greater than

greed. Therefore, contentment alone is enough” (Merel, 2010).

Laozi’s philosophy advances our discussion by treating the state of

“no desires” as equivalent to the emotion contentment and the

concept of completeness. Furthermore, the discourse highlights the

connection between “having” and the emotion “fear,” because

identification with desires necessitates a fear or anxiety toward not

attaining them, or toward maintaining them once they are

achieved.

Related to the work of Laozi, the teachings of Zen Buddhism

suggest that the realization of contentment does not come from

adding more to what already exists, such as gaining more status,

titles, money, achievements, acceptance, friends, and so forth

Instead, Zen philosophy teaches that contentment is realized only

by systematically removing all additions we have made to what

already is; this requires releasing all attachment to our desires and

identities, and removing psychological barriers constructed by the

ego, the sense of “I.”

The Zen masters teach that if we can reduce our perception of

reality to pure experience of the present moment, we can feel an

unshakable, fundamental contentment. Zen teachings also describe

that non-fully enlightened beings can catch glimpses of fundamen-

tal contentment through meditation, life simplification, and atten-

tion to and appreciation of the present moment (Suzuki, 1961).

Puritan Philosophy

Thomas Watson, a 17th century Puritan preacher and philoso-

pher, based his entire life and work on a single Biblical verse from

John the Apostle: “I am not saying this because I am in need, for

I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances” (Phil.

4:11). Watson taught that dissatisfaction with God’s creation was

a sinful perspective, and in light of this he wrote the book The Art

of Divine Contentment, which is an exposition exclusively of Phil.

4:11. The Art of Divine Contentment explains that as one compli-

cates life through accumulating material possessions, one moves

away from God; simplifying life through the cessation of desires

and eliminating possessions brings one closer to God (T. Watson,

1829, Sect. VIII).

Watson advances the approach to contentment by providing a

Western link to Eastern Philosophy through his argument that true

contentment involves eliminating desires, not fulfilling them; once

desires cease, wellbeing exists regardless of whatever emotional

states, thoughts, or situations arise:

Contentment is the manna that is laid up in the ark of a good

conscience....When thoughts begin to arise, and the heart is

disquieted, conscience saith to a man, as the king did to Nehemia,

‘why is thy countenance sad?...hast not thou a treasure that thou

canst never be plundered of?’ (Sect. XIV, rule 4)

Taken together, these philosophical traditions speak to the im-

portance of the emotion contentment as a primary realization

objective toward attaining sustainable wellbeing. Some of the most

influential texts in human history, which represent many of the

world’s major spiritual and secular traditions, discuss contentment

as a fundamental emotional state to be understood and cultivated

with respect to wellness. Only a small fraction of these traditions

are discussed here, with a majority of them treating contentment as

a peaceful state of being involving an experience of completeness

with regard to the present state of things. These traditions also

discuss what contentment is not—usually contrasting it with de-

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CONTENTMENT ACROSS CULTURES & TRADITIONS

sire, greed, and excessive behaviors. More important, philosophi-

cal treatments of contentment point to this emotion as stemming

from attributions of “having enough,” as opposed to “having or

wanting more.”

Contentment in Psychology

Here, we briefly review research in psychology relevant to the

emotion contentment and present a theoretical framework of con-

tentment drawing from the prototype, appraisal, and core affect

models of emotion. Also provided are descriptions of content-

ment’s many variations and common themes derived from previ-

ous works. We conclude with suggestions for future lines of

research to help build a more holistic understanding of content-

ment as an emotion.

Research on Contentment

While there is a dearth of psychological research on content-

ment as an emotion, sufficient evidence exists to support its

appraisal theme, completeness, as well as to distinguish content-

ment from related emotions and nonaffective states. One likely

reason for the paucity of literature on contentment is that happiness

and joy have dominated the field as blanket terms used to describe

a broader array of pleasant states, such as pleasure, relief, accom-

plishment, amusement, and contentment (see Ekman, Davidson, &

Friesen, 1990). Another possible explanation is that early, influ-

ential work on emotional expression largely hypothesized that all

positive states—usually referred to collectively as happiness or

joyfulness—shared the same expression, the Duchenne smile,

marked by upturned lip corners, raised cheeks, and contracted

areas around the outer and sometimes inner eyes (Ekman &

Friesen, 1982). Recent studies, however, have indicated that there

may be more nuanced, distinguishable expressions for positive

emotional states like contentment (e.g., Cordaro, Keltner, Tsher-

ing, Wangchuk, & Flynn, 2016). What little research exists on

contentment has focused on physiology, expression, and cultural

interpretations, with some formal comparisons to other positive

states, like happiness.

Contentment Is a Low Arousal State

Many emotion researchers hold that emotions are related to

distinct goals and require equally distinct physiological responses,

reflected in autonomic nervous system activity (Stemmler, 2004,

2009). Kreibig (2010), for example, reviewed the autonomic ner-

vous system responses reported for 16 emotions, including eight

positive states of which contentment was one, and found that there

are distinct physiological differences between induced content-

ment states versus induced happiness states. Contentment, accord-

ing to Kreibig’s (2010) findings, was correlated with decreases in

heart rate, skin conductance, and several additional relaxation

responses. Happiness, on the other hand, showed distinct increases

in cardiac activity, blood pressure, respiration, and other excitation

responses. These findings are consistent with Johnstone and Scher-

er’s (1999) research on acoustic properties of different emotions;

people experiencing contentment had more relaxed speech produc-

tion and lower rates of articulation as compared to the controls; in

contrast, happiness produced increases in speech production and

rates of articulation. In summary, contentment differs from happi-

ness and related states by way of low physiological arousal and

relaxation responses.

Contentment and Ideal Affect

The differences between happiness and contentment are further

reflected in Lu’s (2001) cross-cultural review outlining the differ-

ences between the understanding of happiness and contentment in

Western versus Eastern cultures. According to his cross-cultural

review, Lu found that the concept of contentment in Chinese

colloquial linguistics was equated with the concept of accepting

“whatever one has at the moment, and naturally feeling moved and

touched from the bottom of one’s heart.” This finding is strongly

consistent with the appraisal of completeness. He further argues

that Western culture generally links wellbeing to high-arousal

states like happiness, where Eastern cultures perceive wellbeing as

more consistent with low-arousal states like, contentment, peace,

and tranquility.

These cultural differences are further investigated in Tsai,

Louie, Chen, and Uchida’s (2007) study of ideal affect in chil-

dren’s storybooks across American and Taiwanese preschoolers.

European American preschool children had strong preferences for

storybooks that portrayed mostly exciting positive states, while

Taiwanese preschool children preferred storybooks portraying

mostly calm/contented positive states. Additionally, Tsai et al.

(2007) coded the facial expressions of the characters in best-selling

American and Taiwanese storybooks and found significantly more

high-arousal positive expressions in the American books, whereas

they found more low-arousal positive expressions, including con-

tentment, in the Taiwanese bestsellers.

More nuanced experiments have uncovered that within one

culture, individual differences also exist for preferences for hap-

piness versus contentment. Diener (2000) reported that for a sam-

ple of American participants, satisfaction with life varied as an

interaction between sensation-seeking and high versus low arousal

positive emotions. According to one study, individuals high in

sensation seeking were most satisfied when they experienced

high-arousal positive emotions like happiness and excitement. In

contrast, low-sensation seekers were most satisfied when they

experienced low-arousal positive emotions like contentment.

Contentment as a Discrete Emotion

Extending Diener’s (2000) work on the experiences of content-

ment, Fredrickson’s (2001) conceptual review of the role of pos-

itive emotions in the broaden-and-build theory treats contentment

as a discrete emotion. The broaden-and-build theory captures how

certain discrete positive emotions broaden thought-action tenden-

cies and allow for building physical, intellectual, social, and psy-

chological resources (Fredrickson, 1998). For example, happiness

promotes playfulness and creativity, interest promotes exploration

and self-expansion, love promotes relationship building, and so on.

Fredrickson (2001) argues that contentment “broadens by creating

the urge to savor current life circumstances and integrate these

circumstances into new views of self and of the world.” Further-

more, she posits that contentment and related positive states are not

simply urges to savor and enjoy, but rather they represent distin-

guishable, deeply programmed behaviors that are fundamental to

physical survival.

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226 CORDARO, BRACKETT, GLASS, AND ANDERSON

In one study, Fredrickson and Branigan (2005) support the

broaden-and-build theory with respect to amusement and content-

ment. Participants watched videos designed to prime amusement,

contentment, neutrality, anger, and anxiety—emotions that repre-

sent the wide spectra of valence and activation. The independently

primed participants were asked to list what they would like to do

right then, given what they were feeling; those in both the amuse-

ment and contentment conditions reported more possibilities in

what they would like to do in that moment as compared with the

neutral and negative conditions. Fredrickson and Branigan con-

clude that despite clear differences in phenomenology and degrees

of pleasantness and activation between amusement and content-

ment, the two emotions equally broadened participants’ thought-

action repertoire compared with the neutral/negative states. The

broaden-and-build theory explains that contentment, like other

positive emotions, broadens awareness and encourages novelty,

exploration, and skill-building. In her review of positive emotions,

Fredrickson (1998) described contentment as an emotion that

follows flow (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990), when “one feels more

together than before, not only internally but also with respect to

other people and to the world in general.” This perspective is

highly consistent with the proposed appraisal theme of perceived

completeness.

Beyond the broaden-and-build approach, what kinds of adaptive

tendencies might contentment promote from an evolutionary per-

spective? Jackson (2002) proposed an evolutionary argument for

contentment as an adaptive buffer against excessive consumption

and selfishness. He argued that the current western economic

model does not support ecological sustainability, which is a main

reason why materialism and consumerism are negatively corre-

lated with contentment and wellbeing. From an evolutionary per-

spective, pleasures are simply evolved processes that support suc-

cessful genetic strategies (Hamilton, 1972), but our current

socioeconomic structure is not aligned with the psychosocial con-

ditions in which our species evolved to flourish (Nesse, 1999;

Wright, 1995). Contentment, and its appraisal of completeness,

can be viewed as a kind of barometer for the extent to which we

are producing social, psychological, and environmental structures

that sustain global wellness.

Extending the work on nonverbal expressions of positive states,

an experiment by Hejmadi, Davidson, and Rozin (2000) explored

a facial expression of contentment inspired by an ancient Indian

text called Natyashastra, written by Bharata in the 2nd century

CE. The Natyashastra details a theory of acting, emotion, stage

preparation, and performance execution and has been an endur-

ingly influential work in Indian performing arts throughout the

centuries. Included in it are nuanced and sophisticated descrip-

tions of the attributions, qualities, and expressions of nearly 40

emotional states, including the well-studied western emotions

anger, joy, sadness, surprise, fear, and disgust. On contentment,

the Natyashastra says:

Contentment...istoberepresented on the stage by consequents such

as enjoyment of objects gained, and not grumbling over objects

unattained, partially enjoyed, lost, and the like. Contentment arising

from spiritual knowledge, purity, wealth, and power, is always to be

represented on the stage by an absence of fear, sorrow, and sadness.

When one enjoys attained objects such as sound, touch, taste, form,

and smell, and is not sorry over their non-attainment, one is said to

have contentment. (Guptacharya, 1971)

In their cross-cultural study, Hejmadi et al., (2000) presented

Indian and American college students with video recordings of

dynamic facial/postural expressions of 10 emotions—including

peace/contentment—described in Natyashastra. Two conditions

compared recognition ratings in a forced-choice format versus a

free-response format, both of which yielded above-chance ratings

for all emotions. The excellent performance of the stimuli in

conveying emotion concepts to Western and non-Western observ-

ers extended in particular into the positive emotions not usually

represented in Western taxonomies, like contentment.

In a more recent series of studies, Cordaro et al. (2016) pre-

sented simple, one-sentence stories that induced discrete emotions

in participants from China, India, Japan, South Korea, and the

United States. The participants were asked to freely produce non-

verbal expressions that would capture the emotion in the story. A

team trained in the Facial Action Coding System (Ekman, Friesen,

& Hager, 1978) coded all 2,500 expressions and analyzed them for

cross-cultural and within-cultural patterns. According to their find-

ings, contentment expressions had three universal characteristics

(smile, eyelids drooping, and audible/visible deep breath in and

out), and it also distinguished itself from the other 12 positive

emotions and 11 negative emotions that were investigated.

In a follow-up investigation, Keltner & Cordaro (2016) pre-

sented static photos of 17 different emotions to participants in

China, Japan, India, South Korea, New Zealand, Poland, Pakistan,

Germany, Turkey, and the United States. Participants were asked

to read one sentence emotion stories and choose the photograph

that best matched the emotion concept conveyed in the story.

Across these cultures, contentment was one of the 14 facial ex-

pressions that were recognized at above-chance levels. Further-

more, when presented with both happiness and contented expres-

sions, participants reliably distinguished between the two using the

story-matching paradigm.

Lastly, Cordaro et al. (2016) performed an 11-culture expression

recognition experiment using vocal bursts of emotions, defined as

nonlinguistic sounds. Using the same narratives as in their previ-

ous works, the study presented simple emotion stories to partici-

pants in 10 industrialized nations and one remote culture in Bhu-

tan. The participants were asked to match the stories to one of three

vocal bursts. Of the 17 emotions investigated, 13 were universally

recognized, including the vocal expression for contentment. These

studies, when taken together, indicate that the contentment emo-

tion concept is generally understood across a wide range of cul-

tures, including those without any contact with the globalized

world. They also importantly indicate that there may be universal

and multimodal expressions of contentment, a requirement for

considering contentment as an emotion.

Does contentment hold up to the rigorous definitions of an

emotion? Ekman and Cordaro (2011) describe 13 criteria for an

emotion, which include: (a) distinctive expression; (b) distinctive

physiology; (c) automatic appraisal; (d) distinctive antecedent

events; (e) presence in other primates; (f) quick onset; (g) can be

brief in duration; (h) automatic occurrence; (i) distinctive thought

patterns; (j) distinctive subjective experience; (k) refractory period

filters information to what supports the emotion; (l) unconstrained

target; and (m) can be enacted in either a constructive or destruc-

tive fashion. In validating an emotion construct for contentment,

future research must answer the question: which of these criteria

apply to contentment and related states? First, we hypothesize that

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227

CONTENTMENT ACROSS CULTURES & TRADITIONS

the criteria for expression, physiology, appraisal, duration, refrac-

tory period, and antecedent events are fulfilled for contentment

such that it is distinguishable from other, well-studied and related

emotional states like happiness, joy, pride, awe, and so forth.

Similarly, it will be important to ascertain whether contentment

can be reliably elicited and measured using physiological, behav-

ioral, and self-report methods. Based on our etymological and

linguistic review, we expect that the criteria for distinctive thought

patterns, experiences, targets, and ways of enacting contentment

would hold consistent patterns across cultures and linguistic

boundaries, as well as notable within-culture differences. Cross-

cultural and linguistics research that ascertains the differences and

similarities in emotion language, stories, experience, and expres-

sion would be well-suited to test these criteria (see Elfenbein &

Ambady, 2002).

The remaining three criteria: presence in other primates, quick

onset, and automatic occurrence are not as clearly related to

contentment, which would be informed by further research that

compares physiological contentment responses for humans and

other primates with responses for more well-studied related states,

such as excitement and sensory pleasure (e.g., Fessler & Gervais,

2010).

Perceived Completeness and Motivation

What motivates us to achieve desired outcomes is an enduring

and important line of work in modern psychology, because it

extends into work on satisfaction with life (Deci & Ryan, 1985),

1985), psychological wellbeing (Nakamura & Csikszentmihalyi,

2002), and development of social relationships (Vygotsky, 1978).

If contentment arises because of minimized desires, how can it be

consistent with achievement and growth in life beyond simplified

evolutionary tendencies? Gaskins (1999) disentangles this illusory

paradox, as he uses a unique contentment-focused perspective to

illustrate the benefits of a Zen Buddhist approach to achieving

goals.

Gaskins (1999) argues that there are fundamental differences

between Western constructs of motivation and those found in Zen

philosophy, and that there is opportunity for the latter to augment

the former. Both theories hold that people are motivated to realize

contentment and wellbeing, and both also hold that we do so by

attaining valued goals such as autonomy, competence, relatedness,

and so forth. The critical difference between Western and Zen

philosophies, according to Gaskins, is that wellbeing can be cul-

tivated in two distinct ways: (a) the actualization of a “self”

(Western), or (b) the realization of no self (Zen, Vedic, etc.). These

two pathways both provide opportunities to cultivate a sense of

contentment, but do so through two completely different means.

Western motivation theories are fundamentally focused on achiev-

ing a contented state by developing and cultivating a strong sense

of self, which is contingent upon achieving all valued goals. For

example, when we feel completeness through our many accom-

plishments, contentment may arise. From this perspective, con-

tentment cannot arise until the desires are met (e.g., Alexander the

Great).

Zen philosophy, on the other hand, is focused not on fulfilling

desires, but rather on systematically eliminating them to cultivate

an indestructible sense of completeness (e.g., Diogenes, Ryokan,

and Vasistha). Gaskins explains that from this perspective, con-

tentment arises when we release our cravings and fears, thereby

removing the desires that preclude the possibility for contentment

to arise. In this sense, motivation is not externally driven by desire

fulfillment, but rather intrinsically driven by curiosity, inspiration,

and passion.

Prototype Approach

According to the discrete emotion perspective (Izard, 1993), a

foundational feature of emotional experiences is that they can be

distinguished from one another via central themes called proto-

types (Fehr & Russell, 1984;Shaver, Schwartz, Kirson, &

O’Connor, 1987). Prototypical instances of an emotion are rare in

day-to-day experiences, yet it is nonetheless informative to high-

light the theoretical features of an emotion that may distinguish it

from similar states. Emotion prototypes also serve as important

theoretical foundations for operationalizing emotion variables in

the laboratory setting (Gross & Thompson, 2007).

An emotion prototype approach typically specifies components

and themes of the emotion that are related to intentional objects

and attributions. For example, a prototype theme of fear might be

“perceived threat.” When the intentional object—whether a bear, a

rollercoaster, or a shadow in the closet—is perceived to pose a

physical danger, the prototypical emotion fear arises. Related to

fear is the emotion awe, which Keltner and Haidt (2003) distin-

guish from fear using a prototype approach. They describe two

themes present in prototypical awe, which involve an intentional

object that is perceived to be “vast” (big) and “needing accommo-

dation” (mind-blowing). They describe that awe can have a flavor

of fear, such as when witnessing a volcanic eruption, an event that

would be perceived as vast, needing accommodation, and threat-

ening. Awe can also be experienced without fear, such as seeing a

double rainbow all the way across the sky, an event that would be

perceived as vast, needing accommodation, and not threatening.

Other prototypical emotion themes include loss (sadness; Bo-

nanno, 2009), having one’s goals blocked (anger; Ekman & Cor-

daro, 2011), and attaining a high sense of self-worth (pride; Tracy

& Robins, 2007).

What, then, is the prototypical theme of contentment? After

reviewing a wide range of linguistic, philosophical, and scientific

perspectives, perceived completeness arises as a consistent the-

matic appraisal of contentment across cultures and traditions.

Completeness refers to a state where an intentional object such as

the self, aspects of one’s life, or the sum of all existence is

perceived to be whole and entire, regardless of whether the present

experience is pleasant or unpleasant. Completeness can come in

many forms, from finishing a work of art to sitting back and

enjoying the end of a great meal; from accepting failure to accept-

ing the death of a loved one. The theme of completeness offers a

sense of fundamentally having and being enough, without reacting

to the current experience with rejection and judgment.

Sinnott and Berlanstein (2006) describe a sense of completeness

or “wholeness” as central to feeling connected with others and

concepts larger than the self. The sense of completeness encom-

passes a basic psychological need and intrinsic motivation for

integrating information from the world into one holistic narrative.

Most critically, the feelings of completeness also relate to our

sense of place within the global narrative we piece together.

Failure to integrate cognitive representations of the world leads to

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228 CORDARO, BRACKETT, GLASS, AND ANDERSON

a perception of fragmented identity, increased conflict, and general

dissatisfaction with life. These states of fragmentation, according

to Sinnott and Berlanstein:

. . . leave the person with sadness and a yearning to reweave the web

of life, to dance the dance of life in some more coherent way. But to

participate happily in our modern version of village circle dances, we

need three things. We need to feel mastery of many steps, to feel

connected to other dancers in the circle, and to be in connection with

the overall pattern that the dance represents. (p. 385)

Individuals who develop a unified self-perception tend to feel a

sense of place in the world, are able to maintain stronger social

connections, and benefit from healthier psychological growth. A

sense of completeness, according to Sinnott and Berlanstein

(2006), is related to cognitive maturation, in particular one’s

ability to routinely and unconditionally accept all aspects of the

self—both positive and negative.

Core Affect Approach

Where the prototype approach handles such features as attribu-

tion, thematic content, antecedent events, and intentional objects,

the core affect approach attempts to describe the raw, subjective

feeling of emotion that arises from neurophysiological changes

(Russell & Barrett, 1999). The two most widely used, irreducible

dimensions are pleasure and (physiological) activation, which

together describe an appreciable amount of variance in the expe-

rience of different emotional states (Russell, Weiss, & Mendel-

sohn, 1989).

Contentment is certainly a pleasurable state, but linguistically it

is distant from the extremes of states like jubilation, ecstasy,

serenity, and bliss. Based on the evidence in this review, it is

suspected that contentment would fall just beyond neutral on the

pleasant side of the dimension, near related states such as satis-

faction, calmness, peacefulness, and so forth. Similarly, content-

ment is physiologically dissimilar from high-activation positive

states like enthusiasm, triumph, and excitement. Empirical and

linguistic evidence described herein suggests that contentment is a

lower-activation state that feels subjectively similar to the arousal

levels of being relaxed, at-ease, and peaceful (Kreibig, 2010).

Comparison of Related States

In any theoretical review of an emotion, it is important to

compare the conceptual similarities and differences of closely

related emotions and states (Keltner & Haidt, 2003). In the fol-

lowing comparison, we rely on Ekman’s (1992) consideration of

emotion families, as well as Posner, Russell, and Peterson’s (2005)

circumplex model of affect. Both of these models assume that

states vary according to similar groups or families. For example,

joy, elation, ecstasy, and bliss belong to the happiness family of

emotions, according to Ekman’s model. Another example is that

calm, gratitude, hope, contentment, and satisfaction would belong

to the same grouping of states (low arousal, pleasant) according to

Russel’s model. Table 1 summarizes 11 emotions or states that are

broadly related to contentment, but have key differentiating fea-

tures.

The evidence across traditions provided by this review high-

lights perceived completeness as the central appraisal theme for

contentment. Because contentment is a low-arousal, pleasant emo-

tion, other states may appear similar but are likely fundamentally

different for several reasons. Some emotion concepts are used

colloquially as synonymous with contentment, such as calm,sat-

isfied,peaceful, and tranquil. Other emotions may be experienced

concurrently with contentment, and so the concepts have been

entangled—such as with happiness,joy,gratitude, and hope.

Lastly, some nonaffective states are occasionally mistaken for

contentment, because they share some similarities with perceived

completeness—humility and self-acceptance.

Calm is a quality of an emotion, but not an emotion. Picard,

Vyzas, and Healey (2001) equated calmness with the lowest ex-

treme of their arousal axis for the physiological measurement of

emotions.

Satisfaction is a well-studied concept in the wellbeing and

emotion literature, and is also generally not considered an emotion

as it has no well-defined antecedent. In one of the most robust

Table 1

States Related to Contentment and How They are Distinguished From Contentment

State Description/appraisal Differentiation Reference

Calm Blanket term for low psychophysiological

arousal

Calm is emotion aspecific; contentment is likely an

emotion or emotion-like state

Picard, Vyzas, and Healey

(2001)

Gratitude Pleasant feelings about perceived benefits Contentment does not require a focus on benefits Emmons and McCullough

(2004)

Happiness Blanket term for high-arousal positive affect Contentment is a specific low-arousal positive state Fredrickson (1998)

Hope Belief that something positive could

materialize

Contentment is present-moment focused and independent

of future beliefs

Lazarus (1999)

Humility Modest or low view of one’s significance Contentment is a nonjudgmental sense of completeness

and does not necessitate modesty

Exline and Geyer (2004)

Joy Higher arousal version of happiness Contentment is a low-arousal pleasant state Fredrickson (1998)

Satisfaction Extent to which desires and expectations are

fulfilled

Contentment can be present even when expectations are

not fulfilled

Diener, Emmons, Larsen,

and Griffin (1985)

Self-acceptance Positive evaluations of oneself and one’s

past

Contentment can be present only when self-judgments

cease and self-acceptance becomes unconditional

Ryff and Keyes (1995)

Peace Absence of disturbances Contentment can be present along with external

disturbances and disruptions

De Rivera and Páez (2007)

Tranquility Pleasant inactivity in body and mind Contentment can be present during physiological exertion Ellsworth and Smith (1988)

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229

CONTENTMENT ACROSS CULTURES & TRADITIONS

series of studies on wellbeing across the life span, Diener, Em-

mons, Larsen, and Griffin (1985) elaborated on the meaning of

satisfaction as it relates to the human experience. They broadly

define satisfaction as the extent to which desires and expectations

are filled, which critically separates satisfaction from contentment,

which can be present with missed expectations and unfulfilled

desires.

Peaceful is one of the most broadly used synonyms for content-

ment in the philosophical and spiritual literature. Similar to satis-

faction, the concept of peace has no well-defined antecedent.

Peace is a broadly defined state that requires the absence of

disturbances (De Rivera & Páez, 2007), which is why it is used to

describe time periods where conflict and war are not present.

While peace and contentment are likely to coexist in more calm

situations, we can nevertheless feel contentment even in the pres-

ence of a chaotic environment, or when unpleasant situations arise.

Tranquility is a less-well studied affective state in the literature,

but Ellsworth and Smith (1988) defined tranquility as a pleasant

inactivity in the body and mind (see also Fredrickson, 1998).

While tranquility requires sedation, contentment is not so. We can

feel contentment while engaging in flow states, which do not

necessitate sedation (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990).

Happiness and Joy are widely considered to be emotions, but

they tend to be used as catch-all categories for positive emotion in

the literature (see Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000). Further-

more, joy is typically referenced as a more intense form of hap-

piness (Fredrickson, 1998). Some theorists have argued that hap-

piness and joy have specific antecedent conditions, such as gaining

something new or anticipatory enthusiasm (Ekman & Cordaro,

2011;Shiota et al., 2011). Even so, contentment differs in arousal,

expression, and the perception of completeness.

Gratitude is an emotion that has seen increased attention in

emotion psychology as of late, as it has important implications in

wellbeing and prosocial interaction (Williams & Bartlett, 2015).

While gratitude requires a focus on the benefits or positive qual-

ities of different circumstances, contentment requires the complete

acceptance of the circumstances, regardless of perceived benefit or

deficit.

Hope has been studied in emotion theory and counseling con-

texts (Lazarus, 1999;Snyder, 1995), and is generally defined as a

belief that something positive could manifest in the future. Hope

is, by definition, a future-oriented emotion that requires a full or

partial expectation of what is to come. Contentment, on the other

hand, is only concerned with feeling complete with whatever is

presently happening.

Humility is a nonaffective quality that is embodied by the

enlightened masters and some folk heroes. Exline and Geyer

(2004) studied humility as a “modest or low view of one’s signif-

icance.” These works identify humility as a type of self-restraint

from excessive hubris or narcissism, which may lead to content-

ment but is not equivalent to contentment. Contentment is a

nonjudgmental sense of completeness and does not necessitate

modesty.

Self-acceptance, like humility, is a nonaffective quality that is

similar to, but distinctly different from contentment. Ryff and

Keyes refer to self-acceptance as a positive evaluation of the self

and one’s past behaviors, and in contrast contentment is a non-

judgmental state of accepting all current experiences, whether or

not they are directly related to the psychological self.

Researching Contentment

In this section we synthesize the perspectives of contentment

across disciplines, incorporate the theoretical work that has been

conducted on contentment thus far, and suggest three major lines

of research for future work in this area.

Contentment, Wellbeing, and Life Satisfaction

In positive psychology, discussions about contentment have

been few with respect to studies of wellbeing, though related

constructs appear in the subjective wellbeing and psychological

wellbeing literature (Gable & Haidt, 2005;Ryan & Deci, 2000).

These fields of research concern themselves with optimal human

experiences and functioning through two main philosophical per-

spectives: hedonism and eudemonism. It appears self-evident that

contentment may be closely related to both forms of wellbeing, but

how and to what extent? Since hedonism and eudemonism encom-

pass distinctly different views about the nature of wellbeing, they

will also likely relate to contentment in unique ways.

According to the hedonic perspective, wellbeing is defined as

maximizing pleasure while minimizing pain (Kubovy, 1999).

Through the lens of hedonism, wellbeing has been conceptualized

in many ways, ranging from broad definitions of pleasurable

bodily sensations to more specific interpretations of individual

self-interests, goals, and motivations (Lucas & Diener, 2009).

Across these interpretations, proponents of this perspective largely

treat hedonism and wellbeing as equivalent (Kahneman, Diener, &

Schwarz, 1999), and as such, wellbeing and contentment are

related but inequivalent. For one, contentment is an emotion or an

emotion-like state, while pleasure/wellbeing are broader sensa-

tional experiences that can incorporate a wide range of positive

emotions. From this perspective, a felt experience of contentment

would be considered pleasurable and therefore add to the overall

pleasure-to-pain ratio. Like others, we view wellbeing as an out-

come of contentment and other positive emotions (Ryff & Singer,

2008). Another distinguishing and intriguing aspect of content-

ment is that it can be felt during either pleasant or unpleasant

experiences, whereas hedonic wellness is possible only when

pleasure is maximized and pain is minimized. More specifically,

bodily sensations of contentment (e.g., after a nice meal or a warm

bath) are almost certainly related to hedonic pleasure, but more

psychological or perception-based experiences of contentment

(e.g., unconditional acceptance of what is) are not necessarily

contingent on experiencing pleasure alone.

Eudaimonia on the other hand, pertains to doing what is worth

doing and pursuing desires that fulfill objectively valid human

needs (Fromm, 1981). According to the eudemonic perspective,

not all pleasurable behaviors lead to outcomes that promote well-

being (Waterman, 1993). For example, eating a meal rich in fats

and carbohydrates often leads to momentary, but not long-term,

wellbeing. Pleasure, happiness, and positive emotions, in general,

can therefore not be equivalent to wellbeing; instead, there exist

quantifiable activities that lead to flourishing across the life span.

Ryff and Singer (1998,2000,2008) explored a multidimensional

measurement of human wellness across cultures, which they refer

to as psychological wellbeing (PWB). According to this line of

work, PWB is comprised of six aspects of human wellness that

tend to transcend cultural boundaries as well as phases of the

human life span: autonomy, environmental mastery, life purpose,

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230 CORDARO, BRACKETT, GLASS, AND ANDERSON

personal growth, positive relatedness, and self-acceptance. Culti-

vating the six aspects of PWB have been found to promote emo-

tional and physiological health (Ryff & Singer, 1998). In this way

the six PWB factors might be seen as gateways to contentment, but

they are not requisites in and of themselves (Reis, Sheldon, Gable,

Roscoe, & Ryan, 2000;Sheldon, Ryan, & Reis, 1996). The PWB

aspects of self-acceptance and purpose in life appear to be the

factors most closely associated with contentment, but further re-

search is required to investigate their relationship and causality.

Moving forward, a critical next step is to develop and validate an

assessment of contentment so that comparisons can be made

between related constructs, such as happiness, PWB, hedonism,

and satisfaction with life, among other related constructs. Another

important next step is to identify experimental inductions of con-

tentment, such as video clips (Fredrickson & Branigan, 2005),

music (Juslin & Sloboda, 2001), and narratives (Singer, 2004),

which together will offer testable operationalizations of content-

ment that can be used to validate new measures and provide

experimental manipulations for future studies.

Contentment, Desire, and Impulse Control

In our increasingly globalized world, people are flooded daily

with advertisements, TV shows, and Internet memes that promote

a culture of material and financial success. Wealth is routinely

presented as equivalent to happiness, successful startup entrepre-

neurs are deified in the media, and social status is increasingly

defined by an accumulation of possessions and power (Burroughs

& Rindfleisch, 2002;Kasser, 2002). Both scientific and cultural

wisdom agree that “money doesn’t buy happiness,” and despite

overwhelming findings that individuals who score high in materi-

alism suffer from lower levels of mental and physical wellbeing,

the cultural message of “more is better” nonetheless pervades

(Kasser & Ryan, 1993). Studies indicate that simply viewing

desirable consumer products increases materialistic concerns, and

endorsing materialistic ideals can predict lower impulse control

and compulsive behaviors (Bauer, Wilkie, Kim, & Bodenhausen,

2012;Rose, 2007).

This area of research points to several interesting lines of

inquiry with respect to contentment, because contentment by def-

inition regards a state of minimal perceived desires. It is strongly

suspected that people who experience contentment with greater

frequency will not as readily succumb to media and advertising

messages that suggest that we are less than what we really are.

Consumers are frequently promised increased wellbeing in product

promotion, but a contented perspective may empower consumers

to choose the goods and services that add to their quality of life

instead of complicating it. It is also suspected that feeling content-

ment with greater frequency will predict increased ability to con-

trol impulses, relating to improved emotion regulation ability and

prosocial orientation. As a complement to the wellbeing literature,

this line of work would identify individuals who more regularly

experience contentment and investigate downstream behavioral

effects with regards to impulse control and self-regulation.

Future research on the emotion contentment should also address

the emergent findings that cultivating an obsessive relationship to

positive emotions can, perhaps paradoxically, diminish wellbeing

and increase instances of stress and depression (e.g., Baumeister,

Vohs, Aaker, & Garbinsky, 2013;Gruber, Mauss, & Tamir, 2011;

Mauss, Tamir, Anderson, & Savino, 2011;Parks, Della Porta,

Pierce, Zilca, & Lyubomirsky, 2012). These findings are consis-

tent with the teachings of Zen and Buddhist philosophy that our

relationship to our emotions is at least as important as the emotions

themselves. It stands to reason that obsessively pursuing and cling-

ing to positive states like happiness, joy, awe—or perhaps even

contentment—may paradoxically reduce wellness overall. This is

not to say that we are to abandon happiness altogether, but rather

recraft a new relationship to the ebb and flow of pleasant and

unpleasant states that we experience each day.

Contentment and Mindfulness

Studies of contentment are naturally aligned with lines of re-

search in the mindfulness literature, and in particular forms of

therapy that use experiential acceptance and present moment ori-

entation, such as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT).

ACT involves empirically grounded interventions that use present

moment-attunement techniques to change maladaptive behaviors

and increase psychological flexibility (Hayes, Strosahl, & Wilson,

1999). Experiential acceptance, one of the six core principles of

ACT that together increase psychological flexibility, refers to the

ability to allow thoughts, feelings, emotions, and sensations come

and go without judging or struggling against them. Hayes, Luoma,

Bond, Masuda, and Lillis (2006) describe the acceptance process

as an:

. . . active and aware embrace of those private events occasioned by

one’s history without unnecessary attempts to change their frequency

or form, especially when doing so would cause psychological harm.

For example, anxiety patients are taught to feel anxiety, as a feeling,

fully and without defense; pain patients are given methods that en-

courage them to let go of a struggle with pain, and so on. (p. 7)

There is a clear overlap between mindfulness techniques, expe-

riential acceptance, and a felt experience of contentment. There is

reason to believe that effective mindfulness techniques can lead to

increased feelings of contentment, but more importantly content-

ment can become an experiential indicator that mindfulness tech-

niques—or any self-improvement interventions for that matter—

are working effectively. It is an encouraging possibility for future

research to explore contentment as both a positive life outcome

and a target for cultivation in interventions that promote psycho-

logical flexibility and wellbeing.

Related to intervention, a fascinating empirical question with

respect to contentment as a metaemotion (Gottman, Katz, &

Hooven, 1997) is: can we learn to feel whole, complete, and entire

regardless of the emotional experiences that arise on a daily basis?

If we can feel ashamed that we are sad, or afraid that we are happy,

then perhaps we can learn to cultivate a sense of contentment with

respect to all states. Future research in contemplative practices will

ideally address these central questions, as we move toward a

healthier, more accepting relationship to our emotions in schools,

at work, and at home.

Conclusion

Historically, contentment has been a key focus in some of the

most profound spiritual, philosophical, and theoretical texts across

the millennia. This is likely because contentment is a cornerstone

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231

CONTENTMENT ACROSS CULTURES & TRADITIONS

to the fundamental human goal to know what it means to be well

and enjoy life. Regardless of culture or situation, the concept of

contentment is broadly treated across all of these traditions as a

feeling of completeness, and can be present regardless of the

situation. Viktor Frankl, an Austrian psychiatrist, founder of logo-

therapy, and Holocaust survivor concisely summarizes this central

point in his book Man’s Search for Meaning (Frankl, 1984 ed.):

Don’t aim at success. The more you aim at it and make it a target, the

more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be

pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side

effect of one’s personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself or

as the by-product of one’s surrender to a person other than oneself.

Happiness must happen, and the same holds for success: you have to

let it happen by not caring about it. I want you to listen to what your

conscience commands you to do and go on to carry it out to the best

of your knowledge. Then you will live to see that in the long-run—in

the long-run, I say!—success will follow you precisely because you

had forgotten to think about it. (pp. 16–17)

To date, there is a paucity of research regarding the nature of

contentment as an emotion that is distinguishable from other,

related emotions and states like satisfaction and serenity. It is

believed that individuals who are contented live healthier and more

fulfilled lives, but only well-designed studies can test these hy-

potheses. Furthermore, extensions of contentment may provide

promising opportunities for improving quality of life through

behavioral interventions involving, for example, mindfulness or

other contemplative practices. From a scientific perspective, con-

tentment likely will be best understood by synthesizing multiple

perspectives across several languages and cultures. We hope this

article serves to stimulate new psychological studies—and per-

sonal cultivations—of contentment.

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Received January 19, 2016

Revision received August 16, 2016

Accepted August 17, 2016 䡲

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SWAMI VENKATESANANDA

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Article

May 2001

The scientific study of emotion has long been dominated by theories emphasizing the subjective experience of emotions and their accompanying expressive and physiological responses. The processes by which different emotions are elicited has received less attention, the implicit assumption being that certain emotions arise automatically in response to certain types of events or situations. Such an assumption is incompatible with data showing that similar situations can provoke a range of emotions in different individuals, or even the same individual at different times. Appraisal theory, first suggested by Magda Arnold and Richard Lazarus, was formulated to address this shortcoming in our understanding of emotion. The central tenet of appraisal theory is that emotions are elicited according to an individual's subjective interpretation or evaluation of important events or situations. Appraisal research focuses on identifying the evaluative dimensions or criteria that predict which emotion will be elicited in an individual, as well as linking the appraisal process with the production of emotional responses. This book represents the first full-scale summary of the current state of appraisal research. Separate sections cover the history of apraisal theory and its fundamental ideas, the views of some of the major theorists currently active in the field, theoretical and methodological problems with the appraisal approach including suggestions for their resolution, social, cultural and individual differences and the application of appraisal theory to understanding and treating emotional pathology, and the methodology used in appraisal research including measuring and analyzing self-report, physiological, facial, and vocal indicators of appraisal, and simulating appraisal processes via computational models. Intended for advanced students and researchers in emotion psychology, it provides an authoritative assessment and critique of the current state of the art in appraisal research.

Meta-Emotion: How Families Communicate Emotionally

Book

Feb 2013

Feelings and Consumer Decision Making: The Appraisal‐Tendency Framework

Article

Jul 2007
J CONSUM PSYCHOL

This article presents the Appraisal‐Tendency Framework (ATF; Lerner & Keltner, 2000, 2001; Lerner & Tiedens, 2006) as a basis for predicting the influence of specific emotions on consumer decision making. In particular, the ATF addresses how and why specific emotions carry over from past situations to color future judgments and choices. After reviewing the main assumptions and the 5 main principles of the framework, 2 streams of research are presented. One stream addresses emotional carryover effects on the assessment of risk; the other addresses carryover effects on the assessment of monetary value. Because risk assessment and value assessment are fundamental psychological processes, understanding them has the potential to yield manifold implications for consumer judgment and decision making. The concluding sections highlight limitations and future directions of the framework.

The High Price of Materialism

Book

Jun 2002

Tim Kasser

A study of how materialism and consumerism undermine our quality of life. In The High Price of Materialism, Tim Kasser offers a scientific explanation of how our contemporary culture of consumerism and materialism affects our everyday happiness and psychological health. Other writers have shown that once we have sufficient food, shelter, and clothing, further material gains do little to improve our well-being. Kasser goes beyond these findings to investigate how people's materialistic desires relate to their well-being. He shows that people whose values center on the accumulation of wealth or material possessions face a greater risk of unhappiness, including anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, and problems with intimacy—regardless of age, income, or culture. Drawing on a decade's worth of empirical data, Kasser examines what happens when we organize our lives around materialistic pursuits. He looks at the effects on our internal experience and interpersonal relationships, as well as on our communities and the world at large. He shows that materialistic values actually undermine our well-being, as they perpetuate feelings of insecurity, weaken the ties that bind us, and make us feel less free. Kasser not only defines the problem but proposes ways we can change ourselves, our families, and society to become less materialistic. Bradford Books imprint

Facial Action Coding System (FACS): A technique for the measurement of facial action

Book