Meaning in Life Across Cultures and Times: An Evidence-Based Overview

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6463-096-1_3How to use a DOI?

Abstract

Background: The topic of meaning in life seems popular in the general public and scientific community. However, many people seem to ask superficial and functionalistic questions which may lead to populist answers, potentially missing out crucial ingredients for a meaningful life. For example, many academics seem to focus either on hyper-specific personal projects and rigid therapeutic paradigms, or on non-evidence-based philosophies. The field seem to miss an overall picture of meaning in life, that a systematic review of empirical research may provideAim: The aim of this chapter is to go beyond the popular questions and answers about meaning in life and try to develop a comprehensive understanding of meaning across cultures and times, based on systematic empirical research. Method: This chapter has systematically answered a comprehensive set of questions about meaning in life: what; how; where; when; who; whose; why; which; which ontological and epistemological status? These questions are derived from Systematic Pragmatic Phenomenological Analysis, which has been developed in line with phenomenologists such as Heidegger, and Foucault. The answers to these questions focus on evidence-based research, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses of empirical studies, and their applications. Findings: Some individuals describe meaning as a Reality, such as a Universal and Cosmic Meaning of Life (‘Transcendence’), whereas others seem to regard meaning as socially-shared symbols or subjective imaginations (‘Immanence’); others combine aspects of both positions (‘Immanent Transcendence’). Research has shown that there is a universal meaning typology: individuals in different cultures and times seem to experience materialistic, hedonistic, self-oriented, social, larger, and/or existential-philosophical types of meanings. Individuals can approach meaning in traditional, functionalistic, or phenomenological/critical-intuitive ways. An individual often develops their approach and types of meaning under influence from their social context. For example, individuals in neoliberal countries are more likely to develop a functionalistic focus on materialistic, hedonistic, and self-oriented types of meaning, whereas individuals in less neoliberal countries are more likely to develop a traditional or phenomenological focus on social or larger types of meaning. Both individuals and societies seem to change over time. In recent years, economists have observed an international trend, moving away from the materialist functionalism of neoliberalism and communism towards meaning-oriented economics. Some individuals may also develop their sense of meaning in response to feeling threatened by life’s limitations, such as death, freedom, and suffering. Individuals seem to experience better mental health, and sometimes better physical health, if they have a dominantly phenomenological approach, focus on larger and social types of meaning, and have a general sense of meaningfulness of life. Discussion & implications: Meaning in life is an evidence-based phenomenon across cultures and times, albeit with individual, social and historical differences in the questions and answers about meaning in life. The research findings have been used by psychotherapists to help clients live a meaningful and satisfying life while accepting life’s challenges and limitations. Sixty clinical trials have shown that meaning-centered therapies have large effects on improving one’s sense of meaningfulness, mental and physical health. The chapter sketches other opportunities to apply this research, such as meaning-centered education, politics, political activism, and human rights.

Copyright

© 2022 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Joel Vos
PY  - 2022
DA  - 2022/12/27
TI  - Meaning in Life Across Cultures and Times: An Evidence-Based Overview
BT  - Proceedings of the Meaning in Life International Conference 2022 - Cultivating, Promoting, and Enhancing Meaning in Life Across Cultures and Life Span (MIL 2022)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 21
EP  - 40
SN  - 2667-128X
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6463-096-1_3
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6463-096-1_3
ID  - Vos2022
ER  -