Positive affect and the experience of meaning in life

Searching for meaning is associated with costly prosociality

The study of meaning in life has largely centered on its relationship with personal well-being, while a focus on how meaning is related to enhancing the well-being of others has received less research attention. Although searching for meaning may imply lower personal well-being, we find that meaning-seekers are more motivated to perform costly prosocial actions for the sake of others’ well-being, given the perceived meaningfulness of these behaviors. Studies 1–4 (N = 780) show that meaning-seeking correlates with the motivation to engage in a range of costly prosocial behaviors. Meaning-seeking is further shown to be distinct from pursuing happiness in its relationship with costly prosociality (Study 2 & 3) and to share a stronger association with high-cost than low-cost prosociality (Study 3 & 4). Study 5 (N = 370; pre-registered) further shows that the search for meaning is related to costly prosocial behavior in the recent past. While our studies are cross-sectional, the pattern of findings suggests that seeking meaning (rather than happiness) may play an important role in motivating altruistic tendencies.

Everyday Life Meaningfulness for the Community-Dwelling Oldest Old During the COVID-19 Pandemic

In many countries, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to strong restrictions and changed the everyday lives of older people. In Finland, people aged 70 and over were instructed to stay at home under quarantine-like conditions. Existing studies from other countries have reported increases in negative experiences and symptoms as a result of such restrictions, including psychosocial stress. However, little focus has been given to older people's experiences of meaningfulness during the pandemic. Using survey and interview data, we ask to what extent have community-dwelling oldest old (80+) experienced meaningfulness during the pandemic, what background factors are associated with meaningfulness and what factors have contributed to everyday life meaningfulness during the pandemic. The data was collected as part of the COVID-19 sub-study of the third follow-up of the Cardiovascular Risk Factors, Aging and Dementia (CAIDE85+) study, a Finnish population-based cohort study carried out in the eastern part of the country. In the quantitative analyses, meaningfulness was assessed as part of the Experiences of Social Inclusion Scale. The association of meaningfulness with different background factors (gender, age, living alone, self-chosen quarantine or physical isolation, self-rated health, physical functioning, and cognitive capacity) was explored with the Chi-square test. The quantitative findings indicate that the majority of the participants experienced meaningfulness during the pandemic. Participants who did not practice any physical isolation measures and participants with higher self-rated health experienced more meaningfulness. There was no evidence for difference in the prevalence of meaningfulness and other background factors. The qualitative data was analyzed using thematic analysis. The findings indicated that factors contributing to meaningfulness in everyday life were social contacts, daily chores and activities, familiar places and seasonal changes. The small sample size does not provide possibilities for generalizing the results into the wider population of older adults. However, the results provide new understanding of the oldest old's experiences of meaningfulness in everyday life during the global pandemic. The findings may help find ways to support older people's meaningfulness in challenging times.

Psychological Balance Scale: Validation Studies of an Integrative Measure of Well-Being

Studies infer Psychological Balance from the absence of psychopathology. In this article, we investigated this construct as an antecedent of well-being. We present empirical evidence toward the validation of a new theoretical model regarding Psychological Balance, a dynamic state with relatively constant characteristics, comprising Consistency and Flexibility and influenced by a Self/Others Ratio. A battery of 31 items, as indicators of Consistency, Flexibility, and Self/Others Ratio, aided this empirical investigation. In an online study (N = 933), we collected cross-sectional data from the United Kingdom. Results of cross-validation analyses provided evidence toward the validity of the proposed model and the psychometric properties of its instrument. There were statistically significant associations between Consistency (i.e., degree of integration of a universal value structure as self-related characteristics that motivate personal goals and behavior), Flexibility (i.e., degree of ability to re-define meaningful and important goals in response to situational challenge), and five well-being variables (e.g., Meaning in Life). Self/Others Ratio (i.e., ratio of motivation to serve self-interest and the interest of others), operationalized as a binary variable (e.g., close and away from 1), moderated some of these associations. Altogether, this work may contribute toward a nuanced understanding of well-being and form the basis of interventions that aim to decrease emotional discomfort and increase meaning, happiness, and life satisfaction.

Exposure to authoritarian values leads to lower positive affect, higher negative affect, and higher meaning in life

Five studies tested the effect of exposure to authoritarian values on positive affect (PA), negative affect (NA), and meaning in life (MIL). Study 1 (N = 1,053) showed that simply completing a measure of right-wing authoritarianism (vs. not) prior to rating MIL led to higher MIL. Preregistered Study 2 (N = 1,904) showed that reading speeches by real-world authoritarians (e.g., Adolf Hitler) led to lower PA, higher NA, and higher MIL than a control passage. In preregistered Studies 3 (N = 1,573) and 4 (N = 1,512), Americans read authoritarian, egalitarian, or control messages and rated mood, MIL, and evaluated the passages. Both studies showed that egalitarian messages led to better mood and authoritarian messages led to higher MIL. Study 5 (N = 148) directly replicated these results with Canadians. Aggregating across studies (N = 3,401), moderational analyses showed that meaning in life, post manipulation, was associated with more favorable evaluations of the authoritarian passage. In addition, PA was a stronger predictor of MIL in the egalitarian and control conditions than in the authoritarian condition. Further results showed no evidence that negative mood (or disagreement) spurred the boost in MIL. Implications and future directions are discussed.

Does Reflection on Everyday Events Enhance Meaning in Life and Well-Being among Emerging Adults? Self-Efficacy as Mediator between Meaning in Life and Well-Being

In recent years, the issue of the meaning in life has aroused particularly great interest in researchers considering the question of whether and how, using simple interventions, outside the therapeutic office, the sense of meaning in life and well-being can be strengthened. The aim of this study was to explore whether interventions based on reflection on everyday, stressful situations can contribute to fostering the sense of meaning in life and psychological well-being among emerging adults. Additionally, we aimed to explore relationships between the above-mentioned constructs and self-efficacy. The research focuses on emerging adults, who, as statistics show, are the most vulnerable among all adults to various mental problems. A pretest–posttest control group design was used. The study involved 80 emerging adults (56 women and 24 men) who were randomly assigned to the experimental group, which completed specially prepared diaries for a week, or the control group. Participants completed the Meaning in Life Questionnaire, the Generalised Self-Efficacy Scale, and the Ryff Scales of Psychological Well-Being twice. In the experimental group, significant differences were noted between pretest and posttest in psychological well-being, especially in the area of relationships with others (M_pretest = 59.3; M_posttest = 65.07; t(39) = −11.40; p = 0.001) and purpose in life (M_pretest = 54.85; M_posttest = 58.21; t(39) = −3.15; p = 0.003), as well as self-efficacy (M_pretest = 28.06; M_posttest = 29.60; t(39) = −2.82; p = 0.007). There were no differences in the level of meaning in life. The analysis carried out showed that self-efficacy mediates the relationship between presence of meaning in life and psychological well-being (the Aroian test: z = 4.48; SE = 0.11; p = 0.0007).

An Ethnographic Perspective of Well-Being, Salutogenesis and Meaning Making among Refugees and Asylum Seekers in the Gambia and the United Kingdom

Research on refugees and asylum seekers largely focuses on the negative impacts that forced migration has on well-being. Though most individuals do not experience poor long-term mental health because of forced migration, less attention has been given to what factors promote positive well-being. Using an ethnographic approach, I elucidate how the concept of salutogenesis can be applied to African refugees and asylum seekers living in the greater Serrekunda area of the Gambia and in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in the United Kingdom. Specifically, I explore what resources impact on the sense of coherence construct and its three components—comprehensibility, manageability and meaningfulness—and how these are embedded in everyday discussions and understandings. In total, I spent twenty months conducting ethnographic fieldwork between the two sites and conducted forty individual interviews. Amongst my interlocutors, the three most common resources that people spoke positively about, particularly as it relates to meaning making, are work, education and religion. Further research in this area is crucial in order to identify, promote and strengthen those factors facilitating positive well-being amongst those who have been forcibly displaced.

Daily meaningfulness among patients with opioid use disorder: Examining the role of social experiences during residential treatment and links with post-treatment relapse

BACKGROUND

A sense of meaningfulness is an important initial indicator of the successful treatment of addiction, and supports the larger recovery process. Most studies address meaningfulness as a static trait, and do not assess the extent to which meaningfulness might vary within an individual, or how it may vary in response to daily life events such as social experiences.

METHODS

Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) was used to: 1) examine the amount of within-person variability in meaningfulness among patients in residential treatment for prescription opioid use disorder; 2) determine whether that variability was related to positive or negative social experiences on a daily basis; and 3) assess whether those day-to-day relationships were related to relapse at four months post-treatment. Participants (N = 73, 77% male, M_age = 30.10, Range = 19-61) completed smartphone-based assessments four times per day for 12 days. Associations among social experiences, meaningfulness, and relapse were examined using multilevel modeling.

RESULTS

Between-person variability accounted for 52% (95% CI = 0.35, 0.67) of variance in end-of-day meaningfulness. End-of-day meaningfulness was higher on days when participants reported more positive social experiences (β = 1.17, SE = 0.33, p < .05, ΔR² = 0.041). On average, participants who relapsed within four months post-residential treatment exhibited greater within-day reactivity to negative social experiences (β = -1.89, SE = 0.88, p < .05, ΔR² = 0.024) during treatment than participants who remained abstinent.

CONCLUSION

Individual differences in maintaining meaningfulness day by day when faced with negative social experiences may contribute to the risk of relapse in the early months following residential treatment.

Meaning in Life, Religious Coping, and Loneliness During the Coronavirus Health Crisis in Turkey

Since December 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused serious mental health challenges and consequently the Turkish population has been adversely affected by the virus. The present study examined how meaning in life related to loneliness and the degree to which religious coping strategies mediated these relations. Participants were a sample of 872 adults (242 males and 360 females) drawn from general public in Turkey. Data were collected using Meaning in Life Questionnaire, UCLA Loneliness Scale, and the Religious Coping Measure. Meaning in life was associated with more positive religious coping and less negative religious coping and loneliness. Positive religious coping was associated with less loneliness, while negative religious coping was associated with more loneliness. Religious coping strategies mediated the impact of meaning in life on loneliness. These findings suggest that greater meaning in life may link with lesser loneliness due to, in part, an increased level of positive religious coping strategies and a decreased level of negative coping strategies.

Psychological resources, dropout risk and academic performance in university students – pattern-oriented analysis and prospective study of Hungarian freshmen

A growing number of studies support the idea that academic performance is based on specific psychological resources and cognitive abilities. As early university dropout is a widespread problem, it is increasingly important to explore which psychological resources can enhance learning, academic motivation, and achievement during the transition from high school to university. The goal of our study was to explore the psychological resources at the start of the studies linked to subsequent academic achievement. Coping mechanisms, time perspective, self-esteem, mindset, motivation, and test anxiety were measured using questionnaires in a voluntary online study among first-year university students (N = 1113, 53.0 % female). Using exploratory factor analysis, we identified three different factors of psychological resources: ‘Academic achievement focus’, ‘Self-confidence’, and 'Search for interests’. Based on the factor scores, hierarchical cluster analysis identified five subgroups of students. These subgroups showed differential association with first semester GPA and the number of attained credits. The combination of a focus on high academic achievement but low self-confidence could be traced as characteristics predicting the highest risk of decreased achievement and loss of credits. These results indicate that training in psychological resources could support academic achievement and prevent university dropout.

The Joyful Life: An Existential-Humanistic Approach to Positive Psychology in the Time of a Pandemic

In the midst of a global pandemic, psychology has a duty to identify dispositional or character traits that can be cultivated in citizens in order to create resiliency in the face of profound losses, suffering and distress. Dispositional joy holds some promise as such a trait that could be especially important for well-being during the current pandemic and its consequences. The concept of the Joyful Life may operate as bridge between positive psychology and humanistic, existential, and spiritual views of the good life, by integrating hedonic, prudential, eudaimonic and chaironic visions of the good life. Previous phenomenological research on state joy suggests that momentary states of joy may have features that overlap with happiness but go beyond mere hedonic interests, and point to the experience of a life oriented toward virtue and a sense of the transcendent or the sacred. However, qualitative research on the Joyful Life, or dispositional joy, is sorely lacking. This study utilized a dialogical phenomenological analysis to conduct a group-based analysis of 17 volunteer students, who produced 51 autobiographical narrative descriptions of the joyful life. The dialogical analyses were assisted by integration of the Imagery in Movement Method, which incorporated expressive drawing and psychodrama as an aid to explicate implicit themes in the experiences of the participants. The analyses yielded ten invariant themes found across the autobiographical narrative descriptions: Being broken, being grounded, being centered, breaking open, being uplifted, being supertemporal, being open to the mystery, being grateful, opening up and out, and being together. The descriptions of a Joyful Life were consistent with a meaning orientation to happiness, due to their emphasis on the cultivation of virtue in the service of a higher calling, the realization of which was felt to be a gift or blessing. The discussion examines implications for future research, including the current relevance of a joyful disposition during a global pandemic. Due to the joyful disposition's tendency to transform suffering and tragedy into meaning, and its theme of an orientation to prosocial motivations, the Joyful Life may occupy a central place in the study of resiliency and personal growth in response to personal and collective trauma such as COVID-19.

Meaning and purpose in Huntington's disease: a longitudinal study of its impact on quality of life

Objective

Previous work in Huntington’s disease (HD) has shown that a sense of meaning and purpose (M&P) is positively associated with positive affect and well‐being (PAW); however, it was unknown whether HD‐validated patient‐reported outcomes (PROs) influence this association and how M&P impacts PROs in the future. Our study was designed to examine if HD‐validated PROs moderate the relationship between M&P and PAW and to evaluate if baseline M&P predicts 12‐ and 24‐month changes in HD‐validated PROs.

Methods

This was a longitudinal, multicenter study to develop several PROs (e.g., specific for the physical, emotional, cognitive, and social domains) for people with HD (HDQLIFE). The sample consisted of 322 people with HD (n = 50 prodromal, n = 171 early‐stage manifest, and n = 101 late‐stage manifest HD). A single, multivariate linear mixed‐effects model was performed with PAW as the outcome predicted by main effects for M&P and several moderators (i.e., an HD‐validated PRO) and interactions between M&P and a given PRO. Linear‐mixed models were also used to assess if baseline M&P predicted HD‐validated PROs at 12 and 24 months.

Results

Higher M&P was positively associated with higher PAW regardless of the magnitude of symptom burden, as represented by HD‐validated PROs, and independent of disease stage. In our primary analysis, baseline M&P predicted increased PAW and decreased depression, anxiety, anger, emotional/behavioral disruptions, and cognitive decline at 12 and 24 months across all disease stages.

Interpretation

These findings parallel those seen in the oncology population and have implications for adapting and developing psychotherapeutic and palliative HD interventions.

Influence of Life Meaning on Subjective Well-Being of Older People: Serial Multiple Mediation of Exercise Identification and Amount of Exercise

Objective: This study aimed to explore the relationship between life meaning and subjective well-being among older people and the mediating role of subjective exercise identification and objective amount of exercise.

Methods: A total of 352 older respondents completed four questionnaires: the Chinese life meaning scale, the University of Newfoundland Happiness Scale, the physical activity habits questionnaire, and the exercise identification questionnaire designed for this study.

Results: Gender differences existed in the respondents' perception of life meaning, and men had a better perception of life meaning (t = 2.28, SE = 0.63, p < 0.05). There were age differences in the subjective well-being of older people (F = 5.69, partial η² = 0.03, p < 0.01); the subjective well-being of older individuals steadily declines with rising age. Life meaning not only directly affected the subjective well-being of the respondents but also indirectly influenced their subjective well-being through the following three pathways: life meaning → exercise identification → subjective well-being (mediating effect of 22%); life meaning → amount of exercise → subjective well-being (mediating effect of 22%); and life meaning → exercise identification → amount of exercise → subjective well-being (serial multiple mediation effect of 27%).

Conclusion: The more positive the life meaning perception of older people is, the higher their experience of subjective well-being. For older people to sense the meaning of life, we recommend that they realize the importance of physical activities and take the initiative to engage in physical activities to obtain higher subjective well-being.

Meaning gained versus meaning lost: The effects of meaning salience on anxiety and depression during the coronavirus pandemic

People who have meaningful lives generally experience less anxiety and depression. Meaning salience, or the awareness of the meaning in one's life, is believed to partially explain this relationship. However, in times of isolation, what might be most salient to people are the meaningful aspects of their lives that have disappeared. This study seeks to understand how making gained versus lost meaning salient affects anxiety and depression. Participants either wrote for 5 minutes about how their life gained meaning (n = 29) or lost meaning (n = 30) due to the coronavirus restrictions, or about music (i.e., the control condition; n = 32). Those who wrote about gained meaning experienced less momentary anxiety than those who wrote about lost meaning. In addition, meaning salience moderated the relationship between meaning and both anxiety and depression. Those who wrote about gained meaning appeared to exhibit a positive relationship between meaning in life (MIL) and both anxiety and depression, while those who wrote about lost meaning exhibited negative relationships. In all, this suggests that meaning salience is not always positive and that researchers and practitioners should consider how making positive meaning salient may be more beneficial than a general focus on MIL.

Work as Meaningful and Menacing Phenomenon for South African Middle Managers During the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Role of Self-Transcendence in Cultivating Meaning and Wellbeing

Self-transcendence has become and remains an important research theme. Little is known about the role of self-transcendence in cultivating meaningful work and its impact on the wellbeing of middle managers in the face of adversity, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim of this qualitative hermeneutic phenomenological study was to explore the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the meaning middle managers attach to their work by investigating the role of self-transcendence in cultivating meaning and wellbeing in a cohort of seven South African middle managers employed in cross-boundary service industry settings. Data were collected through unstructured narratives. Findings confirm that self-transcendence serves as a coping mechanism during adversity and that it facilitates the re-negotiation of meaning, resulting in three potential shifts: the shift from a blame orientation to a work orientation, the shift from reflection to reflexivity and the shift from self-consciousness to other-consciousness. The findings also highlight how self-transcendence enables the exploration of the adaptive benefits of anxiety. The findings contribute new insights into the construct of self-transcendence and extend research on existential positive psychology. It is suggested that organizations invest in reflexive practices as a tool to promote deep learning and connectivity by exploring dialectical processes through reflexive work.

The Relationship between Gratitude, Wellbeing, Spirituality, and Experiencing Meaningful Work

Poor mental wellbeing not only affects an individual and their family, but it also affects the workplace and the society as a whole. Consequently, it is crucial to investigate approaches that can promote a positive mindset in order to enhance wellbeing. This study aimed to explore the association between gratitude, wellbeing, spirituality, and experiencing meaningful work. A sample of 197 participants (69.5% female) completed measures of gratitude, experiencing meaningful work, spirituality, and several wellbeing indices. Gratitude was significantly positively associated with happiness, life satisfaction, flourishing, positive affect, spirituality, and experiencing meaningful work. A mediation analysis revealed that the relationship between wellbeing and experiencing meaningful work was partially mediated by gratitude. Additionally, spirituality did not moderate the relationship between gratitude and experiencing meaningful work. Overall, the findings indicate that fostering a grateful mindset could enhance wellbeing and work engagement, which in turn could lead to the experience of meaningful work.

Psychometric Properties of Flourishing Scales From a Comprehensive Well-Being Assessment

In this article, we develop a measure of complete well-being. The framework is derived from the theoretical model of human flourishing understood as a state in which all aspects of a human life are favorable. The approach extends beyond psychological well-being and reflects the World Health Organization definition of health that not only considers the health of body and mind but also embraces the wholeness of the person. The Well-Being Assessment (WBA) is a comprehensive instrument designed to assess holistic well-being in six domains: emotional health, physical health, meaning and purpose, character strengths, social connectedness, and financial security. Although each of these domains is distinct, all of them are nearly universally desired, and all but financial security constitute ends in themselves. Data were collected from a representative sample of working adults. A sample of 276 employees participated in the pilot, 2,370 participated in the first wave and 1,209 in the second wave of the survey. The WBA showed a good fitting (40 items, six factors), satisfactory reliability, test-retest correlation, and convergent/discriminant validity in relation to stability over time and relevant health measures, as well as a good fit to the data that were invariant over time, gender, age, education, and marital status. The instrument can be of use for scientists, practitioners, clinicians, public health officials, and patients. Adoption of more holistic measures of well-being that go beyond psychological well-being may help to shift the focus from health deficiencies to health and well-being promotion.

Meaningful Work, Job Resources, and Employee Engagement

Meaningful work and employee engagement have been the subject of increasing interest in organizational research and practice over recent years. Both constructs have been shown to influence important organizational outcomes, such as job satisfaction, wellbeing, and performance. Only a limited amount of empirical research has focused on understanding the relationship within existing theoretical frameworks. For this study, meaningful work is proposed as a critical psychological state within the job demands-resources (JD-R) model that can therefore, in part, explain the relationship between job resources and employee engagement. Survey data collected from 1415 employees working in a range of organizations, across a number of industries, were analyzed with confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modelling (SEM). In support of expectations, job variety, development opportunities, and autonomy, each had a significant and positive direct association with meaningful work. These job resources also had a significant and positive indirect effect on employee engagement via meaningful work. Although job variety, development opportunities, autonomy, and feedback had significant positive direct associations with engagement, contrary to expectations, supervisor support had a negative association with engagement. The final model explained a sizable proportion of variance in both meaningful work (49%) and employee engagement (65%). Relative weights analyses showed that job variety was the strongest job resource predictor of meaningful work, and that meaningful work was more strongly associated with employee engagement than the job resources. Overall, the results show that meaningful work plays an important role in enhancing employee engagement and that providing employees with skill and task variety is important to achieving that goal. Practical implications, study limitations, and future research opportunities are discussed.

Is Positive Affect Related to Meaning in Life Differently in Younger and Older Adults? A Time Sampling Study

OBJECTIVES

Prior studies have found that as people age, they value low-arousal positive affect (LAP) to a greater extent and high-arousal positive affect (HAP) to a lower extent. We aimed to investigate whether actually achieving those ideal affects was related to better well-being outcomes, measured in terms of meaning in life.

METHODS

Using a time sampling design across 14 days (N = 162), we investigated whether the experience of LAP and HAP was related to the experience of meaning in life and how these associations differed across younger and older adults in Hong Kong.

RESULTS

Both LAP and HAP contributed to the experience of meaning in life for both younger and older adults. The global effect of LAP on meaning in life was stronger for older than younger adults, whereas the momentary effect of HAP on meaning in life was stronger for younger adults than older adults.

DISCUSSION

Findings suggest that achieving ideal affect is related to better eudaimonic well-being outcomes. People of different age groups know how they want to feel. Actually achieving the feelings endorsed by one's age group is associated with higher meaningfulness of life.

Meaning in Life, Subjective Well-Being, Happiness and Coping at Physicians Attending Balint Groups: A Cross-Sectional Study

This study aimed to measure the scores of well-being, subjective happiness, sense of meaning, and coping in Romanian physicians and the potential impact on them of systematically attending Balint groups. Eighty participants (33 men, 47 women, mean age 38.90, SD 9.73) were included in the study. From them, 43 had systematically attended a Balint group in the last two years, while the others represented the controls. All participants were administered the Meaning of Life Questionnaire, the Job-related Affective Well-being Scale, the Brief COPE Scale, and the Subjective Happiness Scale. t-tests and MANOVA were used to compare the group scores and the impact of Balint training on the study variables. Results showed that Balintian participants had a lower use of denial and self-blame and were more oriented towards the seeking of emotional and instrumental support. They also reported higher scores in high pleasurable-low arousal emotions, positive emotions, and in the perception of the presence of meaning. Still, when considering other additional predictors (gender, age), the distinct impact of Balint training remained limited to the preference for certain coping mechanisms. These results could stimulate the use of Balint groups as a tool for the physician's formation programs.

Meaning in life and vagally-mediated heart rate variability: Evidence of a quadratic relationship at baseline and vagal reactivity differences

Higher meaning in life (MIL) consistently predicts better health, but the physiological processes underlying this relationship are not well understood. This study examined the relationship between MIL and vagally-mediated heart rate variability (VmHRV) under resting (N = 77), stressor (n = 73), and mindfulness intervention (n = 72) conditions. Regression was used for MIL-VmHRV analyses at baseline, and longitudinal mixed models were used to examine phasic changes in VmHRV as a function of MIL. Regression revealed a quadratic MIL-VmHRV relationship, and mixed models linked higher MIL to greater stress-reactivity but not enhanced stress-attenuation. MIL and mindfulness did not interact to influence VmHRV recovery after experimental stress. Findings suggest that cardiac vagal tone and cardiac vagal reactivity are linked to MIL, shedding light on the physiology underlying MIL and its health associations.

Mediating Effect of Personal Meaning in the Prediction of Life Satisfaction and Mental Health Problems Based on Coronavirus Suffering

Research Problem: The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has triggered a multi-faceted crisis worldwide. Researchers and health authorities in various parts of the world echoed the dire condition of the public's mental health. This study sought to examine the mediating effect of personal meaning on the association between coronavirus (COVID-19)-related suffering, mental health problems, and life satisfaction. Participants included 231 adults (mean age = 46.65 ± 13.98; 68% female) and completed measures of suffering related to COVID-19, meaning, life satisfaction, and mental health problems online. Results: Findings from mediation analysis showed that suffering had significant associations with personal meaning, mental health, and well-being. Furthermore, personal meaning was significantly associated with adults' mental health and well-being and mediated the negative effect of suffering on mental health and well-being. Discussion: Overall, results from this study indicate that personal meaning is an important promotive factor that may help to understand the negative effect of coronavirus-related suffering on mental health and well-being amid the public health crisis.

Are All Purposes Worth Having? Integrating Content and Strength in Purpose Research

A prevailing belief is that a sense of purpose in life is worth having, based on evidence that it predicts greater psychological functioning, social relationships, physical health, and longevity. Yet, whether the benefits of having a sense of purpose persist across all contents – or the actual substance of one’s aspirations – lingers as a critical blind spot within this literature. Here, we contend that an ecological systems perspective is needed to contextualize how purpose content either enables or extinguishes the benefits of feeling purposeful. We nominate congruence (the fit between a purpose and ecological conditions) and feasibility (the ease with which a purpose can be pursued) as measurable features of purpose content that fuse people and contexts and potentiate whether a sense of purpose proves favorable. Greater congruence and feasibility should orchestrate support for purpose-related goals, actions, and justifications, thus amplifying the likelihood of positive outcomes. Practical strategies for integrating the congruence and feasibility of individuals’ aspirations within the study of purpose are discussed.

Low satisfaction with normative life domains in adolescents with anorexia nervosa

OBJECTIVE

Low satisfaction with normative life domains might be an important factor in the persistence of anorexia nervosa (AN). Initial evidence in non-clinical samples showed that lower satisfaction with normative life domains was related to more intense eating disorder symptoms. As a critical next step, the current study examined satisfaction with normative life domains in a clinical sample. Specifically, the present study tested whether adolescents with AN reported lower satisfaction with normative life domains than adolescents without an eating disorder.

METHOD

Adolescents with AN (n = 69) and adolescents without an eating disorder matched on age, gender and educational level (n = 69) completed the Brief Multidimensional Students' Life Satisfaction Scale to assess satisfaction with five life domains (family, friendships, school, self and living location) and life in general.

RESULTS

Adolescents with AN reported significantly lower satisfaction with normative life domains than the comparison group. Subsequent analyses showed that this overall group difference was primarily driven by adolescents with AN reporting lower satisfaction with the self, school experience and life in general.

CONCLUSIONS

Findings supported the hypothesis that adolescents with AN show relatively low satisfaction with meaningful, non-AN-related life domains. This points to the potential relevance of enhancing satisfaction with specific life domains to optimize treatment effectiveness.

Relationships between Mindfulness, Purpose in Life, Happiness, Anxiety, and Depression: Testing a Mediation Model in a Sample of Women

Mindfulness is connected to positive outcomes related to mental health and well-being. However, the psychological mechanisms that account for these relationships are largely unknown. A multiple-step multiple mediator structural equation modeling (SEM) model was tested with mindfulness as the independent variable; purpose in life and behavioral activation as serial mediators; and happiness, anxiety, and depression as outcome measures. Data were obtained from 1267 women. Higher mindfulness was associated with higher levels of happiness and lower anxiety and depression symptoms. The association of mindfulness with the outcome variables could be partially accounted for by purpose in life and behavioral activation. The SEM model explained large proportions of variance in happiness (50%), anxiety (34%), and depression (44%) symptoms. Mindfulness is associated with both a sense of purpose in life and engagement in activities, which are also connected with positive outcomes. Moreover, having purposes in life is linked to higher levels of behavioral activation.

The relationship between meaning in life and post-traumatic stress symptoms in US military personnel: A meta-analysis

BACKGROUND

Subjective meaning in life has been theorized to play a critical role in the adjustment to traumatic events. However, its association with post-traumatic stress symptoms has not been quantitatively reviewed.

METHODS

Informed by Park's integrated meaning-making model and evidenced-based psychological treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder, the goals of this meta-analysis were to: (1) to determine the direction and magnitude of the association between meaning in life and post-traumatic stress symptoms; and (2) to examine potential moderators of this association (i.e., age, sex, race, marital status, type of trauma, and meaning in life conceptualization). CINAHL, Embase, PILOT, PsycINFO, PubMed, and Web of Science core collection databases were searched.

RESULTS

A random-effects meta-analysis was conducted on 26 associations (N = 9,751). A significant, moderate, negative relationship was found between meaning in life and post-traumatic stress symptoms (r = -0.41; 95% CI: -0.47 to -0.35, k = 25). No significant moderators were detected.

CONCLUSIONS

Findings suggest that meaning in life plays a crucial role in adjustment to traumatic events. Development and testing of randomized controlled trials to determine whether increases in meaning in life result in reductions of post-traumatic stress in US military personnel may facilitate ongoing efforts aimed at recovery from trauma.

Longitudinal associations of meaning in life and psychosocial adjustment to the COVID-19 outbreak in China

Objective

Literature suggests that ‘meaning in life’ may be a mental strength that enables individuals to function healthily and adaptively in the face of stress events. Therefore, this study aims to examine the longitudinal associations between meaning in life and psychosocial adjustment to the COVID‐19 outbreak among Chinese people.

Methods

A prospective design was adopted. 154 Chinese college students (Mean age = 20.41 ± 1.45 years) completed two waves of the assessment. Participants reported their meaning in life before the outbreak (Time 1) and their psychosocial adjustment 7 weeks later after the outbreak had occurred (Time 2).

Results

Participants’ meaning in life at Time 1 was positively related to life satisfaction and negatively related to depression, anxiety, stress, and negative emotions at Time 2. Additionally, levels of meaning in life at Time 1 were positively associated to COVID‐19‐related behavioural engagement – prosocial behaviour and information addiction at Time 2. Individuals’ perceptions of the outbreak and status of self‐quarantine did not moderate these relationships.

Conclusion

Findings suggest that individuals’ prior level of meaning in life may help them maintain a healthy psychosocial adjustment during disease outbreak, though cautions regarding the possibility to render an addiction to information about the outbreak are warranted.

Do people with elevated social anxiety respond differently to digital and face-to-face communications? Two daily diary studies with null effects

BACKGROUND

Retrospective studies have found that people with elevated social anxiety (SA) show a preference for digital/online communication, which may be due to perceptions of enhanced emotional safety. Whether these individuals prefer digital compared to face-to-face communication and experience emotional benefits naturalistically remains unclear.

METHODS

We recruited college students (N = 125) and community adults (N = 303) with varying levels of SA and sampled their emotions during digital and face-to-face communication using ecological momentary assessment (EMA) (Study 1) and a day reconstruction method (DRM) (Study 2). We preregistered our hypotheses (https://osf.io/e4y7x/).

RESULTS

Results from both studies showed that SA did not predict the likelihood of engaging in digital compared to face-to-face communication, and SA was associated with less positive and more negative emotions regardless of the communication medium. Study 2 showed that whether digital communication was synchronous (e.g., in real time via phone/video chat) or asynchronous (e.g., texting/instant messaging) did not impact the association between SA and emotions.

LIMITATIONS

EMA and DRM methods, despite their many advantages, may be suboptimal for assessing the occurrence of digital communication behaviors relative to more objective methods (e.g., passively collecting smartphone communication data). Using event-contingent responding may have also yielded more reports of digital communication, thus strengthening our power to detect small, cross-level interaction effects.

CONCLUSIONS

These results challenge beliefs that digital/online communication provides a source of emotional safety for people with elevated SA and suggests a greater need to address SA-related emotional impairments across digital communication platforms.

The Science of Meaning in Life

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.

Meaning-making as a mediator of anxiety and depression reduction during cognitive behavioral therapy intervention in participants with adjustment disorders

There is a consensus among researchers about the link between low meaning in life and anxiety and depressive symptoms. One unanswered question is whether meaning-making is a mediator of the change in anxiety and depression symptoms in participants with adjustment disorders during cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) treatment. The aims of this study were (a) to analyse whether there was meaning-making during the application of the CBT, (b) to analyse whether meaning-making was a mediator of anxiety psychopathology and (c) to analyse whether meaning-making was a mediator of depressive symptoms. The sample was composed of 115 patients who satisfied the full Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)-5 criteria for adjustment disorder as their primary diagnosis and completed CBT treatment in a primary care mental health service: 74.78% women, n = 86, and 25.22% men, n = 29, with a mean age of 41.89 (standard deviation [SD] = 10.39) years. The diagnosis was established using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-5 (SCID-5), and participants filled out the Beck Anxiety Inventory, the Beck Depression Inventory and Purpose in Life questionnaires. The therapists were clinical psychologists with experience in clinical assessment. A repeated-measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) and two mediation analyses using the bootstrap method were performed. The results indicated that (a) There was meaning-making during the CBT because the treated sample showed a statistically significant improvement in meaning in life, and (b) meaning-making during the CBT was a partial mediator between anxiety symptoms and depressive symptoms before and after the treatment. The present study suggests that meaning in life could be an important variable in the psychopathology of adjustment disorders.

Effects of mortality awareness on attitudes toward dying and death and meaning in life-a randomized controlled trial

A randomized controlled trial was carried out to investigate effects of heightened mortality awareness on meaning in life and attitudes toward dying and death. An intervention group (n = 51) completed questionnaires and participated in interventions to increase mortality awareness; a control group (n = 47) only completed the questionnaires. Longitudinal analyses revealed a decrease in the intervention group's fear of dying and an increase in their acceptance of dying, but no effects on attitudes toward death. Changes in meaningfulness were contingent on participants' religiousness. Unexpected cross-sectional results and the study's implications for theory and further empirical work are discussed.

Presence of meaning, search for meaning, religiousness, satisfaction with life and depressive symptoms among a diverse Israeli sample

The present study explored the structure and correlates of meaning in life (MIL) among an Israeli sample. The sample consisted of 559 adults. The average age of participants was 48.24 and 61.3% of them were females. Participants provided demographic information and completed measures of MIL, satisfaction with life, and depressive symptoms. The MIL Questionnaire showed a very good fit for the proposed 2-factor model (i.e. presence of meaning, search for meaning) to the data collected from the current sample. Presence of meaning correlated positively with both search for meaning and satisfaction with life, and negatively with depressive symptoms. Search for meaning was positively and weakly tied to satisfaction with life, but was unrelated to depressive symptoms. Religiousness appeared as a significant moderator between the two meaning factors, and between them and life satisfaction. Specifically, as religiousness became stronger: (a) the link between presence of meaning and search for meaning became weaker; (b) the link between presence of meaning and life satisfaction became stronger and (c) the link between search for meaning and life satisfaction became weaker. The findings suggest that there are differential implications of presence search for meaning on the health and well-being, and the important role religiousness plays in this regard.

Does laughing have a stress-buffering effect in daily life? An intensive longitudinal study

Positive affect is associated with alleviating mental and physiological stress responses. As laughter is a common physiological operationalization of positive affect, we investigated whether the effects of experiencing a stressful event on stress symptoms is lessened by frequency and intensity of daily laughter. Using an intensive longitudinal design, we ambulatory assessed the self-reported experience of stressful events, stress symptoms and the frequency as well as the intensity of laughter in university students' daily lives. Our hierarchical ecological momentary assessment data were analyzed with multilevel models. The results support the stress-buffering model of positive affect: We found that the frequency of laughter attenuated the association between stressful events and subsequent stress symptoms. The level of intensity of laughter, however, was found to have no significant effect. Future studies should use additional psychophysiological indicators of stress and straighten out the differential contributions of frequency and intensity of daily laughter.

Lives of significance (and purpose and coherence): subclinical narcissism, meaning in life, and subjective well-being

Three studies addressed two research questions. First, does accounting for meaning in life (MIL) wipe out the association between narcissism and other aspects of well-being? Second, among the three facets of MIL (significance, purpose, and coherence), does significance explain the association between narcissism and MIL? All studies measured narcissism and MIL. Study 1 was a re-analysis of cross-sectional data, including measures of subjective well-being (SWB) and self-deceptive enhancement (N = 415; Womick et al., 2019). Study 2, N = 300, measured the facets of MIL in a sample of adults. Study 3, N = 295, included MIL facets and self-esteem in a sample of students. In Studies 1 and 3, MIL fully mediated the relationship between narcissism and SWB. SWB did not fully mediate the association between narcissism and MIL. Studies 2 and 3 showed that all MIL facets accounted for the association between narcissism and MIL. Self-esteem partially mediated the association between narcissism and MIL, but self-esteem and MIL, both, independently wiped out the link between narcissism and SWB. Narcissism contributes to SWB through MIL, and the paths from narcissism to SWB through MIL and self-esteem are independent. Implications are discussed.