The Psychology of Meaning in Life

Tatjana Schnell

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• eBook ISBN: 9781000072853
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Mental Health in Psychology
• Index: Psychology

This book offers an inspiring exploration of current findings from the psychology of meaning in life, analysing cutting-edge research to propose practical, evidence-based applications. Schnell draws on psychological, philosophical and cognitive perspectives to explore basic concepts of meaning and introduce a multidimensional model of meaning in life.

Written in an accessible style, this book covers a range of topics including the distinction between meaning and happiness, the impact of meaning on health and longevity, meaning in the workplace, and meaning-centred interventions. Each chapter ends with exercises to encourage self-reflection and measurement tools are presented throughout, including the author's original Sources of Meaning and Meaning in Life Questionnaire (SoMe), to inspire the reader to consider the role of meaning in their own life.

The Psychology of Meaning in Life is essential reading for students and practitioners of psychology, sociology, counselling, coaching and related disciplines, and for general readers interested in exploring the role of meaning in life.

Chapter 1

Searching for meaning?

You won’t find the meaning of life in this book. Whether it exists and what it could be is not scientifically ascertainable – at least not from a psychological perspective. What you will find, however, are insights into how people give meaning to their lives. Thus, this book is about personal meaning, or “meaning in life.” Many people experience their life as meaningful without resorting to a universal meaning of life. Others believe they know the meaning of life and thereby gain fulfilment. Some “simply live” and find the question of meaning rather superfluous. In critical moments, however, the question of meaning arises for almost everyone. It goes hand in hand with doubts about fundamental beliefs. Our foundation is questioned: “Am I on the right path?” “Can my worldview stand up to hard times?” “Why am I doing all this?”

Such questions can be exhausting and are often painful to deal with. In general, we try to avoid them. Who is prepared to rebuild a ship on the open sea? To dispose of rotten planks, find suitable new ones and attach them to the others, all while living life and fulfilling its daily requirements: working, educating one’s children, taking care of relatives, cultivating relationships, staying healthy yourself and so on.

In many cases, the impulse to deal with the meaningfulness of one’s own life comes from an upsetting event: an illness, a separation, an accident, a death, an experience of personal failure. All of these events interrupt the continuity of our experience. They change our perspective and sharpen our vision. They evoke the question why.

1.1 Why a feel-good society is not a meaningful society

In a world marked by great inequality and driven by opaque dynamics, it may be better not to ask why. Better here means lighter, more pleasant or smoother. The question why holds the danger of previous illusions being dismantled. If “because that’s how you do it” or “that’s the way things are” is no longer sufficient as an answer, you are faced with your own responsibility. This realisation implies either a call for change or a conscious decision for what is. Both require reflection. And sometimes, this confronts us with the challenge of drawing consequences. Such questions and the changes that may accompany them are not easy, pleasant and smooth. Nevertheless, they are important and valuable.

But why? Wouldn’t it be much better to just live and enjoy life? When I talk to others about my field of research, I often hear, “The purpose of life is simply to live!” Apart from the fact that some of us like to question and reflect in principle, a desire to “just live” is certainly understandable. And a meaningful life depends neither on cognitive ability nor on a personal affinity for headaches. However, if we take a closer look at our society, it becomes clear why it is difficult today to equate a life of “just do it” with a good life.

We live in a multi-optional society. At every fork in the road, a wide variety of possibilities open up. We are inevitably spoiled for choice; no way of life is self-evident. Questions arise: Which type of school? What kind of education, and where? Which form of life, which form of love? Man or woman, long term or spontaneous, marriage or not? No child, a child or children? What occupation? The list is almost endless. Under these conditions, what does “just do it” mean? Those who avoid reflection will often take the path of least resistance, will choose options that offer themselves. It is unlikely that the path taken will actually correspond to the person’s abilities, interests and values.

Furthermore, our present culture is based on an image of the human being that conveys to us that happiness is feasible – through consumption, diet, wellness or trendy lifestyles. The promises of happiness are manifold. And anyone who is still not happy despite all these possibilities has only themselves to blame. The supposed availability of happiness causes happiness stress. Those who do not question the more or less subtle influence of advertising and mass media will fall into the well-being trap: Short-term satisfaction leads to long-term dependency and frustration.

Last but not least, people who live unquestioningly give away their creative potential. The fewer objections we make, the more one-sided developments become. The fewer citizens who ask “why?”, the more remote the logics of political and economic decisions become. Questions of meaning are the basis of indignation and commitment (Hessel, 2008; Hessel & Vanderpooten, 2011). They demand a change of perspective and challenge supposed impossibilities, necessities and constraints. Asking questions about meaning means questioning ourselves – with all the potentially disturbing (and thus productive) consequences.

1.2 (Facing up to) questions of meaning

“Just do it” doesn’t guarantee well-being. It may prevent conflicts, but will rarely lead to a life that is experienced as good or fulfilling. What philosophers have been demanding for a long time has been confirmed by empirical research on meaning in recent years: The confrontation with ourselves and the meaningfulness of our actions is beneficial and sometimes necessary for a good life.

Many people are pushed to authenticity by crises. Viktor Frankl even described suffering as an opportunity: It can trigger growth and maturation processes that would otherwise not have taken place. But there is nothing to be said against posing questions of meaning on one’s own initiative. Or – in a better formulation by Viktor Frankl – to see ourselves as being questioned by life (Frankl, 1986). The book in hand offers an introduction to the reflective examination of life’s meaning on the basis of scientific findings. On the one hand, it promotes personal reflection, and on the other hand, it should help to constructively take up and deal with questions of meaning in patients and clients. At the end of each chapter, you will have the opportunity to question yourself. Greek antiquity assumed that those who asked big questions would do well to understand and recognise themselves: Gnothi seauton! (Know thyself!) was an inscription at the entrance of the oracle of Delphi.

1.3 Know thyself!

Essential questions

• Have you ever dealt with the question of meaning in your life?
  • If so, when and why?
  • If not, why not?

What is your opinion on the following statements?

• Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player,
• That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
• And then is heard no more. It is a tale
• Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
• Signifying nothing.
  (Shakespeare, 2015, p. 77f)

• We “must find out the meaning that is objectively there.”
  (Frankl, 2000, p. 113)

• Life that had meaning would not ask about it.
  (Adorno, 2003, p. 516)

For contemplation

With Heidegger, Rüdiger Safranski criticises an understanding of meaning as

something that exists in the world, or in some imaginary Beyond, as something present-at-hand, something that one can hold on to and orient oneself by – God, a universal law, the stone tables of morality… . That kind of nonsense was then rampant – “meaning” was being practiced; there were meaning research programs; there was talk of the shortage of sense-and-meaning resources, which therefore should be used economically. It was a particularly foolish metaphysics of existence.

(Safranski, 1998, p. 151)

1.4 Literature

Adorno, T. W. (2003). Can one live after Auschwitz? A philosophical reader. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

Frankl, V. E. (1986). The doctor and the soul: From psychotherapy to logotherapy. New York: Vintage.

Frankl, V. E. (2000). Man’s search for ultimate meaning. Cambridge, MA: Perseus Publishing.

Hessel, S. (2008). Time for outrage: Indignez-vous! London: Twelve Hachette Book Group.

Hessel, S., & Vanderpooten, G. (2011). Engagez-vous! La Tour d’Aigues: Editions de l’Aube.

Safranski, R. (1998). Martin Heidegger–between good and evil. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Shakespeare, W. (2015). Macbeth. London: Penguin Books.

Chapter 2

Defining meaning

Empirical research on meaning deals with meaning in life. It is therefore a question of whether, how and when people find meaning in their lives, what sources they draw on and which purpose they pursue. The fact that many people believe that there is a meaning of life is not questioned by this approach. However, such concepts are empirically examined exclusively from the perspective of the individual. How can personal concepts of meaning be grasped? And what does “meaning” mean at all?

2.1 Etymology

Let us begin with the etymology of the German term for meaning (Sinn), since it is particularly revealing. Originally it meant “walk, journey, way.” The Germanic word group is based on the Indo-European root, whose original meaning was again “to take a direction, to seek a trail” (Duden Etymologie, 1989). Etymologically it is thus the taking of a path, the decision for a direction that determines meaning or meaninglessness. A dynamic quality of meaning is implied. Meaning cannot be fixed. Meaning is the journey, not the reward.

The English term “meaning” was inherited from the Germanic: terms like mena, menen, or menian meant to “signify, intend, think, or have in mind” (Oxford English Dictionary, 2001). The ampler background of the German term Sinn is thus not covered by the English term “meaning” (see also Leontiev, 2013).

2.2 Philosophical definition

In a philosophical dictionary, Schischkoff (1991) emphasises the subjectivity involved in the perception of meaning. Meaning, he contends, is not an essential property. It is attributed to a thing, action or event by a person in a specific situation. Therefore, “a thing can be meaningful to one person, but meaningless to another, or meaningful to me today and meaningless a year later” (Schischkoff, 1991, p. 667, transl. TS). This definition confirms the dynamic character of meaning mentioned earlier and further defines it as subjective and relational.

2.3 Meaning in life: a multidimensional construct

With reference to the etymological and philosophical aspects, meaning in life can be determined...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of figures
• List of tables
• Acknowledgements
• 1 Searching for meaning?
• 2 Defining meaning
• 3 Measuring meaning in life
• 4 Meaning as attribution
• 5 Varieties of meaning
• 6 Sources of meaning
• 7 The social dimension of meaning in life
• 8 Crises of meaning – when foundations shake
• 9 Existential indifference
• 10 Meaning and happiness
• 11 Meaning, health and illness
• 12 Meaning-centred interventions
• 13 Meaning in work
• 14 Outlook
• Index