Understanding the Search for Meaning in Life: Personality, Cognitive Style, and the Dynamic Between Seeking and Experiencing Meaning

Meaning as Magnetic Force

The authors report on data indicating that having a strong sense of meaning in life makes people more appealing social interactants. In Study 1, participants were videotaped while conversing with a friend, and the interactions were subsequently rated by independent evaluators. Participants who had reported a strong sense of meaning in life were rated as desirable friends. In Study 2, participants made 10-s videotaped introductions of themselves that were subsequently evaluated by independent raters. Those who reported a strong sense of meaning in life were rated as more likeable, better potential friends, and more desirable conversation partners. The effect of meaning in life was beyond that of several other variables, including self-esteem, happiness, extraversion, and agreeableness. Study 2 also found an interaction between physical attractiveness and meaning in life, with more meaning in life contributing to greater interpersonal appeal for those of low and average physical attractiveness.

Effects of global meaning and illness-specific meaning on health outcomes among breast cancer patients

Growing attention has focused on meaning-making processes and their health correlates among cancer patients. However, much of this work is marked by conceptual and methodological limitations. The current study evaluated global meaning and theoretically distinct aspects of illness-specific meaning (i.e., seeking sense, found sense, seeking benefits, found benefits) among breast cancer survivors who had completed primary treatment. Health outcomes (i.e., emotional distress, health-related quality-of-life) were assessed 4 months later. Different facets of meaning had different longitudinal associations with outcomes. Findings underscore the importance of distinguishing among conceptually discrete dimensions of personal meaning.

Calling in Work

Recent scholarship indicates that people who view their work as a calling are more satisfied with their work and their lives. Historically, calling has been regarded as a religious experience, although modern researchers frequently have adopted a more expansive and secular conceptualization of calling, emphasizing meaning and personal fulfillment in work. The assumption that calling can be easily secularized and applied has not been tested. Therefore, we tested whether calling was related to psychological adjustment and positive work attitudes of both highly religious and less religious college students (N = 242). We also tested whether these positive relations were mediated by people’s intrinsic religiousness or by a broader, secular construct, meaning in life. Moderation-mediation analyses supported views of calling centering on people’s experience of meaning in their work rather than more constrained religious views. Implications for future research and practical applications of calling to positive work attitudes are discussed.

Posttraumatic growth among cancer patients in India

Cancer patients sometimes report positive life changes in addition to more harrowing ones. Theoretically, several cognitive processes are thought to contribute to posttraumatic growth, but few studies have examined these relationships empirically among cancer patients. Moreover, most research has been conducted in western developed countries. This preliminary study offered a novel examination of posttraumatic growth and its cognitive correlates among cancer patients in western India. As hypothesized, in bivariate analyses perceived growth was significantly associated with greater meaning-focused coping (sense-making, benefit-finding), and with reappraisal of worldviews. Growth was not related to subjective appraisals regarding illness threat or stressfulness. In multivariate analyses, reappraisal of worldviews was the strongest concurrent predictor of posttraumatic growth. Results suggest that deliberative cognitive processes merit further study.

The egoism and altruism of intergenerational behavior

Some of the most important issues in society today affect more than one generation of people. In this article, the authors offer a conceptual overview and integration of the research on intergenerational dilemmas-decisions that entail a tradeoff between one's own self-interest in the present and the interests of other people in the future. Intergenerational decisions are characterized by a combination of intertemporal (i.e., behaviors that affect the future) and interpersonal (i.e., behaviors that affect other people) components. Research on intergenerational dilemmas identifies factors that emerge from these dimensions and how they interact with each other to influence intergenerational beneficence. Critically, phenomena that result from the intersection of these two dimensions-such as immortality striving through legacy creation-are especially important in distinguishing intergenerational decisions from other related decision contexts.

Depression and Everyday Social Activity, Belonging, and Well-Being

Dysfunctional social behavior has been implicated in the experience of depression. People with greater depressive symptoms report more frequent negative social interactions and react more strongly to them. It remains unknown, however, whether reaction strength differs depending on whether social interactions are positive or negative. Drawing on socio-evolutionary models of depression (N. B. Allen & P. B. T. Badcock, 2003), we proposed that people with greater depressive symptoms should not only react more strongly to negative social interactions but also to positive social interactions and a sense of belonging. Using non-clinical samples, two daily process studies examined the role of depression in people's reactivity to social interactions in natural, ongoing, social contexts. In Study 1, the number of positive and negative social events showed a stronger relation to well-being among people with greater depressive symptoms. Study 2 extended this finding to perceptions of belonging in memorable social interactions, finding a stronger link between belonging and well-being among people with greater depressive symptoms. Together these studies provide the first indication that depressive symptoms may sensitize people to everyday experiences of both social rejection and social acceptance.