Value Fulfillment from a Cybernetic Perspective: A New Psychological Theory of Well-Being

Value fulfillment and well-being: Clarifying directions over time

OBJECTIVE

We investigate for the first time in a 9-day diary study whether fulfilling one's values predicts well-being or whether well-being predicts value fulfillment over time.

BACKGROUND

The empirical associations between the importance of human values to individuals and their well-being are typically weak and inconsistent. More recently, value fulfillment (i.e., acting in line with one's values) has shown to be more strongly correlated with well-being.

METHOD

The present research goes beyond past research by integrating work from clinical, personality, and social psychology to model associations between value fulfillment and positive and negative aspects of well-being over time.

RESULTS

Across a nine-day diary study involving 1434 observations (N = 184), we found that people who were able to fulfill their self-direction values reported more positive well-being on the next day, and those who fulfilled their hedonism values reported less negative well-being on the next day. Conversely, people who reported more positive well-being were more able to fulfill their achievement, stimulation, and self-direction values on the next day, and those who reported more negative well-being were less able to fulfill their achievement values. Importantly, these effects were consistent across three countries/regions (EU/UK, India, Türkiye), the importance people attributed to values, period of the week, and their prestudy well-being.

CONCLUSION

These results help to understand the fundamental interconnections between values and well-being while also having relevance to clinical practice.

Perceptions of a good life: Associations with culture, age, wellbeing, and health

What does a good life look like? The present research investigated individual differences in people's perceptions of the factors that are most important for living a good life using two waves of data in probability samples from the U.S. (MIDUS; N = 4,041) and Japan (MIDJA; N = 381). We examined country- and age-related similarities and differences in perceptions of a good life and associations of perceptions of a good life with experiences of wellbeing and physical health. Some factors were considered important for living a good life in both countries and across age (e.g., positive relationships with family), whereas other factors varied between countries (e.g., U.S. participants were more likely to perceive faith as important) and by age (e.g., younger adults were more likely to perceive having a good job as important). Further, perceptions of a good life were related to experiences of wellbeing and physical health concurrently and prospectively. This research informs our understanding of how people differ from one another in their perceptions of a good life, and how these differences may matter for individuals' experiences of a good life.

Levels of goal adjustment in late adulthood

In this review, we argue that in late adulthood adults adjust their goals at three levels to cope with age-related challenges: At the highest level, they narrow their goal systems by selectively pursuing fewer goals from important life domains that are mutually supportive, by abandoning goals, and by focusing on agency protection. At the mid-level of individual goals, older adults show changes in goal content, goal importance, goal orientation, and goal focus, indicating, for example, a relative increase in intrinsic goals. Finally, but worthy of future investigation, older adults may show adjustments on the level of means and strategies for goal pursuit. Individual differences in such adaptations also contribute to differences in goal commitment, well-being, and psychopathology in late adulthood.

No Peace for the Wicked? Immorality Is Thought to Disrupt Intrapersonal Harmony, Impeding Positive Psychological States and Happiness

Why do people think that someone living a morally bad life is less happy than someone living a good life? One possibility is that judging whether someone is happy involves not only attributing positive psychological states (i.e., lots of pleasant emotions, few unpleasant emotions, and satisfaction with life) but also forming an evaluative judgment. Another possibility is that moral considerations affect happiness attributions because they tacitly influence attributions of positive psychological states. In two studies, we found strong support for the second hypothesis. Moral considerations only appear to affect happiness attributions when they also affect attributions of positive psychological states. Additionally, both studies supported a hypothesis about why moral judgments have these effects. Specifically, we found that when people judge that someone is living a bad life, they infer that the person is not at peace with themselves. However, when this inference is blocked, moral considerations do not affect attributions of happiness or positive psychological states. In sum, although "happiness" appears to be a purely psychological concept, happiness judgments are sensitive to moral considerations because people often assume that immorality disrupts intrapersonal harmony.