Beauty is in the eye of the psychologically fulfilled: How need satisfying experiences shape aesthetic perceptions of spaces

Psychological need fulfillment as a source of resilience: Its protective role in concerns and symptoms of anxiety and depression during the COVID-19 pandemic

The essential role of the psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness in well-being has been demonstrated convincingly. Yet whether their fulfillment also serves as a source of resilience in the face of adversity has received limited attention. A longitudinal sample of Belgian citizens (N = 1869; Mage = 56.23, 68% female) completed an online questionnaire on 13 occasions between April 2020 and April 2022 during the COVID-19 crisis. Multilevel analyses showed that need fulfillment, both at the between- and within-person level, related negatively to concerns, even after controlling for exposure to personal risks. Further, the association between concerns and changes in symptoms of depression and anxiety was dampened when people reported higher need fulfillment compared with others (i.e. between-person level) or when they reported periodically more need fulfillment than usual (i.e. within-person level). This moderation effect occurred on top of the systematic negative main effect of need fulfillment on symptoms of anxiety and depression. Psychological need fulfillment serves as a resilience factor (a) by reducing concerns in the face of adverse events (i.e. an appraisal effect) and (b) by mobilizing resources that help individuals to deal better with concerns (i.e. a coping effect). Theoretical and practical implications of the resilience effect of need fulfillment are discussed.

Self-Actualization and the Tragedy of Beauty

A tragedy of beauty has occurred in Western culture and perhaps worldwide: The importance of beauty for a flourishing and self-actualizing life is largely going unnoticed by both the general public and by psychologists. Philosophers, sacred scriptures, and a range of empirical findings point to the centrality of engaging with beauty for a meaningful life and suggest engagement with beauty as a means of pursuing self-actualization. However, not only American culture but humanistic psychologists have severely undervalued the fulfillment of aesthetic needs and a life engaged by beauty. We examined the relationship between the Engagement with Beauty Scale and the Short Index of Self-Actualization ( N = 252). Very small, nonsignificant correlations were found between the Short Index of Self-Actualization and engagement with natural beauty, engagement with artistic beauty, and engagement with moral beauty. This indicates that persons high in self-actualization have no more interest in beauty than those low in self-actualization; this implies that those in our sample do not take the importance of beauty into account as they make choices to grow as a person. We conclude that American culture has been infected by a tragedy of beauty, which is a serious impediment toward fully self-actualizing, and to moving toward self-transcendence.