Understanding the Search for Meaning in Life: Personality, Cognitive Style, and the Dynamic Between Seeking and Experiencing Meaning
2008/03/05 by Michael F. Steger, Todd B. Kashdan, Brandon A. Sullivan +2 · 37 citations
Psychology · Social Sciences · #Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction #Social and Intergroup Psychology #Optimism, Hope, and Well-being
paper · doi:10.1111/j.1467-6494.2007.00484.x
Abstract
Although several theories assert that understanding the search for meaning in life is important, empirical research on this construct is sparse. Three studies provide the first extensive effort to understand the correlates of the search for meaning in a multistudy research program. Assessed were relations between search for meaning and well-being, cognitive style, and the Big Five, Big Three, Approach/Avoidance, and Interest models of personality, with a particular emphasis on understanding the correlates of search for meaning that are independent of presence of meaning. Conceptual models of the relation between search and presence were tested. Findings suggest that people lacking meaning search for it; the search for meaning did not appear to lead to its presence. Study 3 found that basic motive dispositions moderated relations between search for meaning and its presence. Results highlight the importance of basic personality dispositions in understanding the search for meaning and its correlates.
Citations
Cited by
- The meaningful life in Japan and the United States: Levels and correlates of meaning in life
- Psychosocial and neurobiological aspects of the worldwide refugee crisis: From vulnerability to resilience
- Meaning in Life: Is It a Protective Factor for Adolescents’ Psychological Health?
- Passion for a Leisure Activity, Presence of Meaning, and Search for Meaning: The Mediating Role of Emotion
- Meaning in Life and Meaning of Life in Mental Health Care: An Integrative Literature Review
- Nostalgia motivates pursuit of important goals by increasing meaning in life
- The psychological benefits of music-evoked nostalgia
- Meaning in Life Among Ghanaian University Students: Does Religious Commitment Matter?
- A Theory of Subjective Wellbeing
- Meaning in life and resilience to stressors
- The Search for Meaning in Life Through Continuing and/or Transforming the Bond to a Deceased Spouse in Late Life
- Insights into the meaning of medical students’ studies. An online survey at two medical faculties
- Preliminary Efficacy of an Occupation-Oriented Purpose in Life Intervention After Breast Cancer
- Depression and Everyday Social Activity, Belonging, and Well-Being. [europepmc]
- Meaning in Life in Emerging Adulthood: A Person-Oriented Approach. [europepmc]
- The Role of Meaning in Life Within the Relations of Religious Coping and Psychological Well-Being. [europepmc]
- Meaning in life in chronic pain patients over time: associations with pain experience and psychological well-being. [europepmc]
- When is Meaning in Life Most Beneficial to Young People? Styles of Meaning in Life and Well-Being Among Late Adolescents. [europepmc]
- Autonomy, Competence, Relatedness, and Beneficence: A Multicultural Comparison of the Four Pathways to Meaningful Work. [europepmc]
- The Meaning in Life in Suicidal Patients: The Presence and the Search for Constructs. A Systematic Review. [europepmc]
- Relationship between meaning in life and death anxiety in the elderly: self-esteem as a mediator. [europepmc]
- Life Crafting as a Way to Find Purpose and Meaning in Life. [europepmc]
- Meaning in life as a protective factor against suicidal tendencies in Chinese University students. [europepmc]
- The Presence and the Search Constructs of Meaning in Life in Suicidal Patients Attending a Psychiatric Emergency Department. [europepmc]
- Distinct Routes to Understand the Relationship Between Dispositional Optimism and Life Satisfaction: Self-Control and Grit, Positive Affect, Gratitude, and Meaning in Life. [europepmc]
- Optimizing Students' Mental Health and Academic Performance: AI-Enhanced Life Crafting. [europepmc]
- Dignity Therapy Helps Terminally Ill Patients Maintain a Sense of Peace: Early Results of a Randomized Controlled Trial. [europepmc]
- The Severity of Traumatic Stress Associated with COVID-19 Pandemic, Perception of Support, Sense of Security, and Sense of Meaning in Life among Nurses: Research Protocol and Preliminary Results from Poland. [europepmc]
- From Shattered Goals to Meaning in Life: Life Crafting in Times of the COVID-19 Pandemic. [europepmc]
- Disease Acceptance and Eudemonic Well-Being Among Adults With Physical Disabilities: The Mediator Effect of Meaning in Life. [europepmc]
- Sustained, Multifaceted Improvements in Mental Well-Being Following Psychedelic Experiences in a Prospective Opportunity Sample. [europepmc]
- Grit and Meaning in Life of Chinese Nurses: The Chain Mediating Effect of Social Support and Hope. [europepmc]
- Positive Psychology in Times of Pandemic-Time Perspective as a Moderator of the Relationship between Resilience and Meaning in Life. [europepmc]
- Meaning in life, psychological hardiness and death anxiety: individuals with or without generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). [europepmc]
- Associations between the Willingness to Donate Samples to Biobanks and Selected Psychological Variables. [europepmc]
- Spiritual Needs, Religious Coping and Mental Wellbeing: A Cross-Sectional Study among Migrants and Refugees in Germany. [europepmc]
- Social Support and Depressive Symptoms Among Adolescents During the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Mediating Roles of Loneliness and Meaning in Life. [europepmc]
- The Relationships Between Suicidal Ideation, Meaning in Life, and Affect: a Network Analysis. [europepmc]
Related