research paper on purpose in life

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Research Article

Purpose in Life Predicts Better Emotional Recovery from Negative Stimuli

* E-mail: [email protected]

Affiliations Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin – Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, United States of America, Waisman Laboratory for Brain Imaging and Behavior, University of Wisconsin – Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, United States of America, Center for Investigating Healthy Minds, University of Wisconsin – Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, United States of America

Affiliation Center for Women's Health and Health Disparities Research, University of Wisconsin – Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, United States of America

Affiliation Centre for Integrative Neuroscience and Neurodynamics, School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading, Reading, United Kingdom

Affiliation Department of Psychology, Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, United States of America

Affiliations Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin – Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, United States of America, Institute on Aging, University of Wisconsin – Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, United States of America

• Stacey M. Schaefer, 
• Jennifer Morozink Boylan, 
• Carien M. van Reekum, 
• Regina C. Lapate, 
• Catherine J. Norris, 
• Carol D. Ryff, 
• Richard J. Davidson

• Published: November 13, 2013
• https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0080329
• Reader Comments

Purpose in life predicts both health and longevity suggesting that the ability to find meaning from life’s experiences, especially when confronting life’s challenges, may be a mechanism underlying resilience. Having purpose in life may motivate reframing stressful situations to deal with them more productively, thereby facilitating recovery from stress and trauma. In turn, enhanced ability to recover from negative events may allow a person to achieve or maintain a feeling of greater purpose in life over time. In a large sample of adults (aged 36-84 years) from the MIDUS study (Midlife in the U.S., http://www.midus.wisc.edu/ ), we tested whether purpose in life was associated with better emotional recovery following exposure to negative picture stimuli indexed by the magnitude of the eyeblink startle reflex (EBR), a measure sensitive to emotional state. We differentiated between initial emotional reactivity (during stimulus presentation) and emotional recovery (occurring after stimulus offset). Greater purpose in life, assessed over two years prior, predicted better recovery from negative stimuli indexed by a smaller eyeblink after negative pictures offset, even after controlling for initial reactivity to the stimuli during the picture presentation, gender, age, trait affect, and other well-being dimensions. These data suggest a proximal mechanism by which purpose in life may afford protection from negative events and confer resilience is through enhanced automatic emotion regulation after negative emotional provocation.

Citation: Schaefer SM, Morozink Boylan J, van Reekum CM, Lapate RC, Norris CJ, Ryff CD, et al. (2013) Purpose in Life Predicts Better Emotional Recovery from Negative Stimuli. PLoS ONE 8(11): e80329. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0080329

Editor: Kevin Paterson, University of Leicester, United Kingdom

Received: May 8, 2013; Accepted: October 2, 2013; Published: November 13, 2013

Copyright: © 2013 Schaefer et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Funding: This research was supported by the National Institute on Aging (PO1-AG020166), the National Institute on Mental Health (R01 MH043454), and the Waisman Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center (Waisman IDDRC), P30HD03352. J. Morozink Boylan was supported by the National Institute of Mental Health (T32MH018931-22). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institute of Mental Health or the National Institutes of Health. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Introduction

Growing evidence from epidemiological research suggests that self-reported psychological well-being is important for both health and longevity, potentially through mechanisms promoting resilience in the face of adversity (see [1] , [2] for recent theoretical reviews). Ryff defined psychological well-being in terms of six key dimensions: autonomy (capacity for self-determination), environmental mastery (ability to manage one’s surrounding world), personal growth (realization of potential), positive relations with others (high-quality relationships), purpose in life (meaning and direction in life), and self-acceptance (positive self-regard) [3] , [4] . Higher levels of purpose in life, personal growth, and positive relations have been linked to lower cardiovascular risk (lower glycosylated hemoglobin, lower weight, lower waist-hip ratios, and higher “good” cholesterol (high-density lipoprotein (HDL)) as well as better neuroendocrine regulation (lower salivary cortisol throughout the day) [5] . Higher profiles on purpose in life and positive relations with others have also been linked to lower inflammatory factors: interleukin-6 (IL-6) and its soluble receptor (sIL-64) [6] , providing empirical support linking these well-being dimensions to better health profiles.

Recent evidence suggests that relative to other dimensions of well-being, purpose in life appears to be particularly important in predicting future health and mortality. In a prospective, longitudinal, epidemiological study of community-dwelling older persons without dementia (Rush Memory and Aging Project), greater purpose in life was associated with better ability to perform day-to-day activities and less mobility disability in the future [7] . Those who reported greater purpose in life exhibited better cognition at follow-up, had a reduced risk of mild cognitive impairment, and a slower rate of cognitive decline [8] . In fact, people who reported high levels of purpose in life (90 th percentile or higher) were 2.4 times more likely to remain free of Alzheimer Disease than people who reported low levels (10 th percentile or lower). Moreover, on postmortem examination of the brain for Alzheimer Disease-related pathology, purpose in life modified the associations between cognition and both global pathologic change and plaque accumulation [9] , suggesting that having greater purpose in life may protect against the detrimental effects of aging-related changes in the brain that have been linked to Alzheimer Disease. Finally, greater purpose in life was associated with a reduced risk of mortality from all causes [10] . Collectively, these findings suggest that the ability to find meaning and direction in life may help buffer or slow the effects of aging and even the ultimate outcome: death.

Besides healthier biomarker levels, slowed effects of aging, and increased longevity, higher levels of psychological well-being have also been associated with lower rates of depression [3] , [4] , [11] , with the dimension of purpose in life consistently showing negative relations with depressive symptomatology. In fact, people in their 50s who report low psychological well-being are more than twice as likely to suffer from depression when in their 60s, even after controlling for previous depression history, personality, demographic, economic, and physical health variables [12] , suggesting that low well-being is a substantial risk factor for future depression. Depression is characterized by high levels of brooding, and often is associated with a ruminative thinking style, and attentional biases suggesting impaired attentional disengagement from negative information (see [13] , [14] for review), which may contribute to the prolonged responses to negative emotional stimuli that have been observed both in psychophysiological and neuroimaging measures, such as prolonged pupil dilations and amygdala activation [15] – [18] . The link between low psychological well-being and the dysregulated emotion observed in depression is further supported by findings from the neuroimaging literature: those reporting higher levels of purpose in life show better regulation of the amygdala (a brain region involved in fear and anxiety-related processes) by the ventral anterior cingulate cortex, such that activity in the amygdala is reduced and the ventral anterior cingulate cortex is activated to a greater extent for negative relative to neutral pictures [19] . Moreover, high purpose in life was associated with slower judgments of the valence of negative relative to neutral pictures, suggesting that persons having goals and a sense of direction in life appraised the negative pictures as less salient and potentially less threatening than did persons with lower levels of purpose in life. Finally, whereas depressive symptomatology has been linked to decreased gray matter volume in the insula [20] , purpose in life (as well as the other well-being dimensions of personal growth and positive relations with others) are positively associated with right insular gray matter volume [21] .

How might purpose in life protect against depression, the body and brain ravages of growing older, and the accumulated toll of stress and challenges over the years? Based on the accumulating evidence, we hypothesize that one mechanism through which high purpose in life may protect against depression and the wear and tear of life stress is by providing a buffer from negative events, promoting reappraisal and motivated coping processes, decreasing brooding and ruminative thinking styles, supporting faster and better recovery, and thus increasing resiliency. Therefore, we hypothesize that higher levels of self-reported purpose in life will be associated with laboratory measures of emotional recovery, specifically, better automatic regulation of negative emotion as exhibited by better recovery from negative emotional stimuli. Importantly, this hypothesis combines phenomenologically-experienced aspects of well-being with objectively measured laboratory assessments of the time course of emotional responses, as this combination may offer unique windows on adaptive human functioning.

Heterogeneity is the rule in emotion research, characterized by large individual differences in how people react to the same emotional event or stimulus, and in how quickly and easily they recover from that stimulus (see Figure 1 for a hypothetical characterization of different emotional time course profiles to the same stimulus). While one person may briefly feel the effect of an unpleasant event, another may suffer a lingering and pervasive effect on mood. These individual differences in emotional reactivity and regulation constitute a person's affective style (see [22] , [23] for theoretical reviews), may be critically influenced by a person’s sense of life purpose, and may also shape how much purpose and meaning one feels, suggesting bi-directional influences between these constructs

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Note that although subjects A and B have similar initial reactivity during the 4 s picture presentation period, after picture offset they differ in emotional recovery. Subject A shows a prolonged poor recovery, whereas Subject B recovers more rapidly. Subject C demonstrates greater initial reactivity with rapid recovery, whereas Subject D exemplifies an individual who may show smaller, blunted emotional reactivity but severely impaired recovery.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0080329.g001

Affective psychophysiological research provides tools to measure an individual’s affective state without many of the demand characteristics biasing self-report (for review see [24] , [25] ), allowing for objective characterization of the time course of an individual’s emotional reactivity to and recovery from an emotion-eliciting stimulus [26] . Eyeblink reflex magnitude (EBR) measured to an acoustic startle probe from the orbicularis oculi muscle is emotion-modulated, such that activity is potentiated in the presence of an aversive stimulus and is diminished in the presence of a pleasant stimulus [27] , [28] . Just as facial musculature recordings reflect a person’s affective state and their emotional response to stimuli, the temporal resolution possible with the EBR allows for differentiation of aspects of the emotional response from regulation of that response [26] , [29] , [30] , providing objective estimates of both the magnitude and time course of emotional responses during and following incentives and challenges.

In the current paradigm, EBR measurements were obtained during the picture presentation period and after picture offset. We define emotional reactivity as reflected in measurements during the affective picture presentation when the emotionally evocative stimulus is present, and emotional recovery as measurements obtained after picture offset when the stimulus is no longer present. Parsing the time course in this way allows us to investigate individual differences in both reactivity and recovery. By including both the measures of reactivity and recovery in the same analytic models, we can examine individual differences in our measures during the recovery period unconfounded by variations in reactivity. Referring back to Figure 1 , imagine two people who show similar reactions to the negative stimulus when it is present. One person’s regulatory capacities may facilitate quick recovery from a negative stimulus after it is removed (hypothetical subject B), while another may perseverate and show delayed recovery (hypothetical subject A), such as that observed in depression and dysphoria [15] , [17] , [31] . In this way, we can investigate the differential relationships between emotional reactivity and recovery with higher levels of purpose in life. We predicted that those subjects who reported higher levels of purpose in life would exhibit greater emotional recovery from the negative pictures, controlling for their initial reactivity to these pictures, thereby indicating a more adaptive emotion regulatory profile.

Ethics Statement

Ethical approval for telephone and mail surveys was obtained from the Social and Behavioral Science Institutional Review Board at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. All participants gave verbal consent, which included assurance of voluntary participation and confidentiality of data. The ethics committee approved the waiver of written consent. Such passive consent is customary for survey research by telephone and mail questionnaire. Ethical approval for the follow-up psychophysiological session was obtained from the Health Sciences Institutional Review Board at the University of Wisconsin – Madison and all participants provided written consent.

Participants

The Survey of Midlife Development in the United States (MIDUS) began in 1995 with a national sample of Americans ( N  = 7,108) aged 25–74 years [32] . The majority (59.71%) was recruited through random digit dialing (RDD). The remaining respondents included siblings of the RDD sample and a large sample of twins ( N  = 1,914). Data collection focused on sociodemographic and psychosocial assessments obtained through phone interviews and self-administered questionnaires. In 2004, these survey assessments were repeated (MIDUS II). The retention rate from MIDUS I to MIDUS II was 75% (adjusted for mortality).

Psychophysiological data were collected on a subset of MIDUS II participants living in the Midwest who were able and willing to travel to our laboratory. The psychophysiology experiment followed the survey assessment on average over two years later (mean (SD) = 881 (26) days). A total of 331 (183 female) participants (age range 36–84 yrs, mean (SD) =  55.41 (11.12) yrs) agreed to participate in our experiment. For a variety of technical, responsivity, and other data quality issues, 253 (147 female/106 male; 185 singletons/68 twin or sibling) participants (age range 36–84 yrs, mean (SD)  = 54.68 (10.97) yrs) are included because they completed the psychological well-being questionnaire in the survey assessment and provided a total of 10 or more quantifiable eyeblink responses to the startle probes during the psychophysiological paradigm.

Data and documentation for MIDUS I and II, including all MIDUS projects, are publically available at the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR; www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/landing.jsp ).

Given the growing focus on purpose in life as a key predictor of long-term health outcomes and underlying neurophysiology, our hypotheses targeted this particular dimension of well-being, although we included examination of all six scales of well-being collected in the survey assessments in MIDUS II (Scales of Psychological Well-Being; [3] , [4] ). Purpose in life refers to the tendency to derive meaning from life’s experiences and possess a sense of intentionality and goal directedness that guides behavior. The other five dimensions of psychological well-being included autonomy, environmental mastery, personal growth, positive relations with others, and self-acceptance. Each scale had seven items (internal consistency for these scales ranged from.69 to.85).

Other Covariates

Other variables used in the analyses included age at the psychophysiological session, gender, the total number of valid eyeblink responses to the startle probes over the course of the psychophysiology experiment, the lag between the survey and psychophysiological assessments in days, trait positive and negative affect measured with the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS; [33] ), and subjective well-being measures including the Satisfaction with Life Scale [34] and an abbreviated version of the Gratitude Scale [35] asking participants to rate the following two statements: “I have so much in life to be thankful for” and “I am grateful to a wide variety of people.” The affect and subjective well-being measures were collected at the time of the psychophysiology session.

A total of 90 International Affective Picture System pictures (IAPS; [36] ) were presented in a randomized sequence. According to the IAPS normative ratings, 30 negative (mean (SD) = 2.89 (0.61)), 30 neutral (mean (SD) = 5.14 (0.52)) and 30 positive (mean (SD) = 7.24 (0.44)) pictures were selected, with the positive and negative pictures matched on arousal (negative pictures mean (SD) = 5.35 (0.54); neutral mean (SD) = 3.22 (0.73); positive mean (SD) = 5.23 (0.73)). All valences were matched on luminosity, complexity, and number of pictures with social content.

Psychophysiological Procedure

The psychophysiological procedures have been described previously (see [30] for additional details). After informed consent was obtained, the participant completed questionnaires. The participant watched the positive, neutral, and negative pictures, and heard acoustic startle probes (50 ms, 105 dB, white noise bursts with very rapid onset time) presented through headphones. Each picture had either a yellow or purple border around it during the first 500 ms of the picture presentation, and participants responded as quickly as possible to the color of the border by pressing one of two keyboard buttons marked with the color with either their index or middle finger of their dominant hand. This color border identification task was used to keep subjects’ attention on the task and ensure they looked at the pictures. Pictures were presented on the screen for 4 s and were preceded by a 1 s fixation screen (see Figure 2 for a schematic of the psychophysiological paradigm’s design). Acoustic startle probes were inserted at three time points (randomized across trials to maintain an average inter-probe interval of ∼ 16 s). One probe occurred during the picture presentation (2900 ms following picture onset), a 2 nd probe occurred 400 ms after picture offset (4400 ms following picture onset), and a 3 rd probe occurred 1900 ms after picture offset (5900 ms following picture onset). A total of nine probes at each of the three time points were presented for each picture valence category, resulting in three non-probed trials for each picture valence. Because preliminary data analysis revealed reduced magnitude EBRs at the 2 nd probe (across all valences), these data were dropped from all further analyses because it suggests the 2 nd probe was affected by prepulse inhibition due to too close temporal proximity to the picture offset [37] . Participants who did not respond with a perceptible EBR on 10 or more of the 81-probed trials were excluded from EBR analyses as they were considered non-responders to the startle probe.

30 positive, 30 negative, and 30 neutral pictures were displayed individually on separate trials. Participants responded as quickly as possible to the border color (purple or yellow) presented during the first 0.5 s of the picture presentation in order to maintain attention during the task. Startle probes were presented at 2900 ms after picture onset (assessing reactivity ) and 1900 ms after picture offset (assessing recovery ). Note: to avoid publication of an IAPS picture, the example negative picture was selected from the author’s personal collection to be representative of a prototypical IAPS picture. As the mother of the baby in the photograph, she has given written informed consent, as outlined in the PLOS consent form, to publication of their photograph.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0080329.g002

Analytic Strategy

Manipulation check. We used a linear mixed-effects model to test the expected valence (negative, neutral, positive) modulation effect, a main effect of probe time (reactivity, recovery), and a valence x probe time interaction on EBR magnitude. The model included a family-specific random effect to account for within-family dependence between twins and siblings, as well as a participant-within-family-specific random effect to account for the within-person dependence between EBR measurements. Pairwise comparisons between valences (negative, neutral, and positive) and probe times (reactivity, recovery) were adjusted for multiple comparisons using the Bonferroni correction.

Tests of purpose in life and the other psychological well-being dimensions predicting EBR measures of emotional reactivity and recovery to negative stimuli. First, zero-order correlations were calculated between purpose in life and the other five psychological well-being dimensions with EBR magnitude measures obtained (1) at the reactivity probe, (2) at the recovery probe, and (3) with a recovery residual reflecting EBR magnitude at the recovery probe regressed on EBR magnitude at the reactivity probe to remove variation due to differences in reactivity (EBR magnitude at the reactivity probe and the recovery probe are inversely correlated, r = –0.15, p = 0.02).

Because age and gender have previously been shown to influence measures of emotional reactivity and recovery [29] , [30] , linear mixed-effects models were used to test the ability of each of the psychological well-being dimensions to predict EBR magnitude at the reactivity probe as well as EBR magnitude at the recovery probe on negative trials, while controlling for EBR magnitude at the reactivity probe (only included in the recovery models), age, gender, the total number of valid eyeblink responses to the startle probe over the course of the psychophysiology experiment, and the lag between the survey and psychophysiological assessments in days (A Models). The total number of valid eyeblinks was included as a covariate so that the results were not confounded with the reliability of the estimated EBR magnitude. Then to ascertain the specificity of purpose in life’s ability to predict recovery, we added the other five psychological well-being dimensions, both trait positive and negative affect (PANAS: mean positive affect and mean negative affect) and subjective well-being measures (Satisfaction with Life Scale mean and abbreviated Gratitude Scale mean) as covariates in one linear mixed-effects model (B Model) while including all of the covariates included in the earlier models. All models included a family-specific random effect to account for within-family dependence between twins and siblings. Finally, we used linear mixed effects models to control for data dependencies due to twins and siblings being included in the sample rather than randomly pick one person from each family cluster because the latter reduces the sample size, thereby compromising effect size estimates and power.

Manipulation Check

Emotion significantly modulated EBR magnitude. A significant main effect of valence was found across probe times, F(2,1527)  = 8.96, p <0.001, such that EBR magnitude was greater across probe times on negative (mean (SE)  = 0.08 (0.03)) compared to both neutral (mean (SE)  = –0.04 (0.03)) and positive (mean (SE)  = –0.06 (0.03)) trials. A significant main effect of probe time was found across valences, F(1,1527)  = 13.25, p <0.001, such that EBR magnitude was greater across valences during the recovery probe time after picture offset (mean (SE)  = 0.05 (0.02)) than the reactivity probe time during the picture presentation (mean (SE)  = –0.06 (0.02)), consistent with previous reports that startle responses are larger for humans in darkness than in light [38] , reflecting the change in room light levels between a picture on the screen compared to a black computer screen. The valence x probe time interaction was marginally significant, F(2,1527)  = 2.42, p  = 0.09. See Figure 3 for the EBR averages by valence and probe time.

Emotion modulation was observed in the EBR measures with a significant main effect of valence: EBR magnitude was greater on negative compared to both neutral and positive trials across probe times. A main effect of probe time showed larger EBR magnitude across valences in response to the recovery probe after picture offset when the computer screen was black than to the reactivity probe during the picture presentation (consistent with findings of larger responses to startling stimuli in darkness than in light). Mean EBR magnitude was significantly greater on negative than both neutral and positive trials at the reactivity probe, and greater on negative than positive trials at the recovery probe.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0080329.g003

Effects of Purpose in life and the other Psychological Well-being Dimensions

The zero order correlations between each of the psychological well-being dimensions with EBR magnitude measures obtained (1) at the reactivity probe, (2) at the recovery probe, and (3) with a recovery residual reflecting EBR magnitude at the recovery probe regressed on EBR magnitude at the reactivity probe to remove variation due to differences in reactivity are presented in Table 1 . These correlations reveal that both purpose in life and positive relations with others predicted larger EBR magnitude during the picture presentations indicating greater reactivity to the negative pictures. Both purpose in life and self-acceptance also predicted significantly smaller EBR magnitude at the recovery probe, but only purpose in life predicted significantly smaller recovery residuals, when EBR magnitude at the recovery probe is regressed on EBR magnitude at the reactivity probe, controlling for differences in reactivity. See Figure 4 for a scatterplot of the linear relations between purpose in life and the EBR recovery residual.

Note: (1) EBR values are log-transformed and then z-scored within each participant. (2) The EBR recovery measure here reflects EBR magnitude at the recovery probe regressed on EBR magnitude at the reactivity probe, removing variation due to differences in reactivity. (3) The relation remains significant if the outlier is removed: Purpose in life x EBR negative magnitude residual at recovery r = –0.15, p = 0.03.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0080329.g004

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0080329.t001

When demographic and data quality variables were included as covariates, the linear mixed-effects models testing the ability of each of the well-being dimensions to predict reactivity were not significant (all β s<0.009, all p s > 0.13). However, the estimates presented in Table 2 show that when demographic, data quality, and EBR magnitude at the reactivity probe were included as covariates in the models with EBR magnitude at the recovery probe, purpose in life still predicted smaller EBR at the recovery probe; A Models: β  = –0.016, t (230)  = –3.02, p  = 0.003. Personal growth and self-acceptance also predicted EBR magnitude at the recovery probe in the A Models, however only purpose in life remained at trend level when all of the above covariates were included as well as all of the psychological well-being dimensions, trait positive and negative affect, and subjective well-being variables in the same model, β  = –0.017, t (216.90)  = –1.86, p  = 0.064 (see Table 2 ). Thus, the findings from the linear mixed-effects model, which adjusts for the potential dependencies in the data from twins and siblings, show that when all of the psychological well-being dimensions, subjective well-being, and trait positive and negative affect are included in the same analytic model, purpose in life still predicts at trend level lower EBR magnitude at recovery. Therefore, higher levels of purpose in life are associated with better recovery from negative emotional stimuli even with the effect of the other well-being dimensions and positive and negative trait affect removed.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0080329.t002

Finally, as seen in Figure 4 , there was one outlier on EBR magnitude at the recovery probe. All of the analyses reported above include the outlier. When the outlier participant’s data is excluded from the linear mixed-effects models, purpose in life still significantly predicted EBR recovery in each of the models: A Model linear mixed-effects model: β  =  – 0.014, t (229) = –2.64, p  = 0.009; and B Model linear mixed-effects model: β  =  – 0.017, t (216.61)  = –2.05, p  = .042. Importantly, only purpose in life and none of the other well-being dimensions predicted EBR recovery in the B Model when all of the well-being dimensions were included in the same model, regardless of whether the outlier was included or not, all p s > 0.43.

Higher levels of purpose in life, self-reported on average over two years prior, predicted better recovery from a negative stimulus measured with the eyeblink startle response (EBR), such that those persons reporting greater life purpose exhibited smaller EBR magnitude after picture offset. The significant association between purpose in life and EBR magnitude measures of recovery were observed even when differences in EBR magnitude at the reactivity probe during the stimulus presentation were statistically removed. Moreover, the relations between purpose in life and emotional recovery from negative stimuli were still significant when controlling for participants’ age, gender, the five other psychological well-being dimensions, self-reported trait positive and negative affect, and measures of their subjective well-being.

The better recovery exhibited after stimulus offset by those with high life purpose reflects a more healthy emotional time course profile. Davis has demonstrated a crucial role of the central nucleus of the amygdala in the fear potentiation of the startle response in rats [39] , and human studies suggest a similar role for the amygdala in emotion-modulated startle [40] – [42] . Thus the current finding of reduced startle during recovery is consistent with previous reports from our laboratory [19] showing better regulation of the amygdalar response to negative pictures in people with high levels of purpose in life.

Purpose in life stood out among the well-being measures in its ability to predict EBR measures of recovery, suggesting that feeling purpose and meaning in one’s life may contribute to a more healthful and adaptive regulation of negative emotional responses. Taubitz, Robinson, and Larson (2013) recently examined the time course of EBR emotion-modulation in dysphoric women by examining both reactivity to the picture presentation and recovery after picture offset [33] . Dysphoric females, compared to non-dysphoric females, exhibited blunted EBR for negative relative to neutral pictures during the picture presentation (less reactivity), but heightened EBR for negative relative to neutral pictures after picture offset (poorer recovery), as demonstrated by hypothetical Participant D in Figure 1 . In other words, dysphoric females exhibited a recovery profile comparable to that which persons with low purpose in life exhibited in the current study. However, it is important to point out that in the current study, the significant relations between purpose in life and recovery were observed even when gender and both trait positive and negative affect were controlled.

Poor recovery from negative stimuli has been observed in depressed individuals who display sustained pupil dilation and amygdala activation to negative words [15] – [17] . While nondepressed individuals increase dorsolateral prefrontal cortex activation and decrease amygdala activation when reappraising emotional pictures, depressed persons do not [18] . Depression is also characterized by working memory and attentional biases, including increased elaboration of negative information, problems disengaging from negative material, and deficits in cognitive control when processing negative information [13] , [14] . Individuals with depression usually report high levels of rumination [43] and greater use of emotional suppression [44] . Both rumination and suppression are ineffective emotion regulation techniques that can actually increase negative emotions [45] and the associated sympathetic nervous system activity [46] , [47] , suggesting a potential mechanism underlying the physical burden of the dysregulated negative affect characterizing the disorder. According to the World Health Survey, depression has a greater impact on overall health than arthritis, diabetes, angina, and asthma [48] . Because lower levels of psychological well-being, including lower levels of purpose in life, are correlated with higher rates of depression [3] , [4] , [11] , [12] , [49] , the psychological well-being and depression literature further supports the linkage between emotional regulatory skills and purpose in life.

How might higher levels of purpose in life contribute to the ability to recover from aversive and unpleasant events? Additional research is needed. However, having greater purpose in life may provide motivation to constructively learn from and reappraise negative events in an adaptive manner and avoid brooding and ruminative tendencies, so as to quickly refocus on one’s goals and purpose. Possessing higher levels of well-being, especially purpose in life, may provide a wealth of resources one can use to cope with the current situation, motivating an adaptive and proactive handling of the situation, buffering the effect of adverse experiences, and thereby facilitating and fostering the learning and development of even greater emotion regulation skill over time. This idea is supported by reports that purpose in life is a key factor associated with better recovery from trauma in at-risk African American populations [50] as well as Pakistani earthquake survivors [51] , such that those reporting higher levels of purpose in life had decreased rates of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after suffering trauma. Purpose in life might be a “resilience factor,” protecting against the development of psychopathologies such as PTSD and depression after stress and trauma exposure, or even the repeated minor stresses experienced over the course of a lifetime. The current study suggests a mechanism through which purpose in life may confer protection is by facilitating automatic emotion regulation after negative emotional provocation.

In turn, the reverse may also be true, to experience high well-being and purpose, individuals may need to be able to flexibly modify their emotional responses depending on the situation [52] whether it is to (i) temporarily up-regulate and increase a negative emotion to empathize with another or (ii) quickly down-regulate and decrease a negative emotion to refocus attention and concentrate on a task after experiencing an unpleasant event. Thus, people more skilled and adept at emotion regulation may have advantages in work and family life that nurture greater life success, including a greater sense of mastery, growth, and especially purpose in life. Moreover, the connections between purpose in life and emotional recovery/regulation are likely reciprocal in nature over time. Those with a greater sense of purpose in life may be better prepared to respond to emotional challenges more quickly and efficiently as our data show. However, better emotional recovery from negative stimuli, particularly cumulatively through development, might also lead to greater purpose in life. Our study tested the ability of purpose in life, measured about two years prior, to predict emotional recovery, underscoring the need for additional studies to test whether the relationship between purpose in life and emotion regulatory abilities are uni- or bidirectional, especially at different stages in the life span.

In conclusion, this longitudinal investigation combined phenomenologically-experienced aspects of well-being with automatic, objectively measured assessments of emotional reactivity and recovery obtained in the laboratory over two years after the well-being assessment. The MIDUS study features a remarkably large sample with a wide age range, unique for an experiment utilizing psychophysiological measures. Our findings suggest that higher levels of self-reported purpose in life predict a person’s future ability to recover from exposure to negative stimuli. Persons with higher purpose in life showed a facilitated recovery with smaller eyeblink startle responses after negative stimuli offset, suggesting a healthier overall emotional time course. Additional research testing potential mechanisms by which purpose in life may be related to emotional recovery skills [12] and confer resilience from trauma [50] , [51] , as well as how better emotional recovery skills may contribute to purpose in life is warranted. Purposeful life engagement has increasingly been linked to better health outcomes, including assessments of morbidity and mortality [7] , [10] as well as intervening biological mechanisms [9] , [53] . Understanding brain-based emotion regulation processes that contribute to these outcomes are important next steps.

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to express their gratitude to Larry Greischar, David Bachhuber, Kristin Javaras, Adam Koppenhaver, Lucas Hinsenkamp, Isa Dolski, and a number of students and staff from the Waisman Laboratory for Brain Imaging and Behavior for their assistance with data collection and reduction. We also wish to thank Barry Radler and Gayle Love from the Institute on Aging for their dedication and continued assistance in making all MIDUS logistics work.

Author Contributions

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Purpose in Life: A Reconceptualization for Very Late Life

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• Published: 14 February 2022
• Volume 23 , pages 2337–2348, ( 2022 )

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• Keith A. Anderson 1 ,
• Noelle L. Fields 1 ,
• Jessica Cassidy 1 &
• Lisa Peters-Beumer 2  

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Purpose in life has been defined as having goals, aims, objectives, and a sense of directedness that give meaning to one’s life and existence. Scales that measure purpose in life reflect this future-oriented conceptualization and research using these measures has consistently found that purpose in life tends to be lower for older adults than for those in earlier stages of life. In this article, we use an illustrative case study to explore the concept of purpose in life in very late life and critically challenge existing conceptualizations and measures of purpose in life. We examine the two most commonly used measures of purpose in life, the Purpose in Life Test and the Ryff Purpose Subscale and identify specific items that should be reconsidered for use with older adults in very late life. Guided by Socioemotional Selectivity Theory, we then reconceptualize purpose in life in very late life and posit that it consists of three domains—the retrospective past, the near present, and the transcendental post-mortem. We conclude with suggestions on the development of new measures of purpose in life in very late life that are reflective of this shift in time horizons and the specific characteristics of this unique time in life.

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Purpose in Life and Associated Cognitive and Affective Mechanisms

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Anderson, K.A., Fields, N.L., Cassidy, J. et al. Purpose in Life: A Reconceptualization for Very Late Life. J Happiness Stud 23 , 2337–2348 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-022-00512-7

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Purpose in Life: A Brief Review of the Literature and Its Implications for School Guidance Programs

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Purpose in Life and Its Relationship to All-Cause Mortality and Cardiovascular Events: A Meta-Analysis

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• 1 From the Division of Cardiology, Mt Sinai St Luke's and Roosevelt Hospitals and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York.
• PMID: 26630073
• DOI: 10.1097/PSY.0000000000000274

Objective: To assess the net impact of purpose in life on all-cause mortality and cardiovascular events.

Methods: The electronic databases PubMed, Embase, and PsycINFO were systematically searched through June 2015 to identify all studies investigating the relationship between purpose in life, mortality, and cardiovascular events. Articles were selected for inclusion if, a) they were prospective, b) evaluated the association between some measure of purpose in life and all-cause mortality and/or cardiovascular events, and c) unadjusted and/or adjusted risk estimates and confidence intervals (CIs) were reported.

Results: Ten prospective studies with a total of 136,265 participants were included in the analysis. A significant association was observed between having a higher purpose in life and reduced all-cause mortality (adjusted pooled relative risk = 0.83 [CI = 0.75-0.91], p < .001) and cardiovascular events (adjusted pooled relative risk = 0.83 [CI = 0.75-0.92], p = .001). Subgroup analyses by study country of origin, questionnaire used to measure purpose in life, age, and whether or not participants with baseline cardiovascular disease were included in the study all yielded similar results.

Conclusions: Possessing a high sense of purpose in life is associated with a reduced risk for all-cause mortality and cardiovascular events. Future research should focus on mechanisms linking purpose in life to health outcomes, as well as interventions to assist individuals identified as having a low sense of purpose in life.

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Finding Success Starts with Finding Your Purpose

by John Coleman

Summary .   

Many people work their whole lives to achieve material success only to find their happiness and sense of purpose wanting when that success comes. They often spend their later years looking for purpose in their lives in order to feel a sense of meaning. Searching for meaning late in your life is a missed opportunity. Success without significance — purpose, service, and meaningful relationships — is not really success at all. It’s important to properly reflect on how you can live a life imbued intensely not just with the superficial trappings of “success” but with deep purpose and joy in all we do — starting now. Ask yourself:  What is the core purpose of my work and the ways in which it makes the world better? Who are the key relationships in my life, and how can I deepen them? What more can I do at work, at home, and in my community to serve others? How am I becoming better each day?

In 1995, Bob Buford wrote the bestselling book Halftime , which popularized the concept of “moving from success to significance” in the second half of life. Buford realized that many businesspeople work their whole lives to achieve material success only to find their happiness and sense of purpose wanting when that success comes. And he rightly encouraged those people to seek out meaning and impact in their later years.

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Perceived meaning of life and satisfaction with life: A research synthesis using an online finding archive

Yomna sameer.

1 College of Business, Abu Dhabi University, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

Yasmine Eid

2 University of London Recognized Teaching Center, Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport (AASTMT), Cairo, Egypt

Ruut Veenhoven

3 Erasmus Happiness Economics Research Organization (EHERO), Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, Netherlands

4 Opentia Research Program, North-West University, Vanderbijlpark, South Africa

Associated Data

The empirical findings presented in this study are taken from referred research reports and summarized on electronic finding pages in the World Database of Happiness. Finding pages have a unique internet address to which links are given in this text. This text provides also links to excerpts of the studies concerned. This new technique of an online ‘finding archive' is described in this text. Further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author.

Introduction

“Meaning” and “happiness” are leading topics in positive psychology, but their relationship is not well understood. The first step to better understanding is to inspect the pattern of correlations found in the research literature. Specifically, we seek answers to the following questions of fact: (1) Is there a correlation between perceived meaning of life and satisfaction with life? (2) If so, is that correlation positive or negative? (3) How strong is this correlation? (4) How variable is this correlation across persons and situations? (5) Do the correlations differ across components of happiness? (6) What aspects of meaning are most/least associated with happiness? (7) What sources of meaning are most/least associated with happiness? (8) Does seeing meaning relate differently to happiness than searching for meaning?

We took stock of the available research findings, using the World Database of Happiness, which holds standardized descriptions of 171 observed relations between perceived meaning of life and satisfaction with life.

We found strong correlations between happiness and the degree of perceived meaning in life but little correlation with the pursuit of meaning. While the correlation with the degree of meaning is positive at the micro-level of individuals, it appears to be negative at the macro-level of nations.

Having established the above mentioned matters of fact, we considered the following questions on causality: (1) Is there an innate need for meaning? (2) How does the perceived meaning of life otherwise affect satisfaction with life? (3) How does satisfaction with life affect the perceived the meaning of life? (4) Why is the correlation positive at the micro-level of individuals, but negative at the macro-level of nations?

Conclusions

We conclude that there is no innate human need for meaning. Still, the perceived meaning of life can affect life satisfaction in various other ways, while life satisfaction will also affect the sense of meaning. Both positive and negative effects can be involved, the balance of which tends to be positive for seeing meaning but close to neutral for pursuing meaning.

“Meaning” and “happiness” are leading topics in positive psychology, but their relationship is not well understood. Most attention has been devoted to the differences: meaning being presented as an aspect of eudaimonic happiness and happiness in the sense of life satisfaction as hedonic happiness. This conceptual difference goes often with a moral preference for the former over the latter, which fits the current practice in positive psychology, positive psychological interventions (PPIs), focusing more on strengthening eudaimonic strengths than on boosting life satisfaction. Although recognized as separate topics, the relationship between meaning and happiness is little understood.

Perceived meaning of life and satisfaction with life are both appraisals of the quality of life. Their relation can be considered from the following perspectives.

Need-theory of happiness holds that we feel better when innate needs are being fulfilled and that this affective experience gives rise to greater satisfaction with life (Veenhoven, 2009 ). One such innate need is presumed to be a need for meaning Steger and Frazier ( 2005 ); Routledge and FioRito ( 2021 ). If so, the perceived meaning of life will go together with satisfaction with life, and this correlation will be universal. A positive correlation can also be expected if meaning adds to happiness through the gratification of other needs, for instance, if a sense of mission pushes to active involvement in life and as such caters to needs for social respect and the use of one's potentials. In this instrumental perspective, one can also think of a negative effects of a sense of meaning on life satisfaction. A strong sense of mission can interfere with the gratification of other needs, such as in the case of Catholic priests who choose to forego sexual contact.

Next, there are several cognitive views on happiness, one of which holds that the satisfaction with one's life as a whole results from the summing of satisfactions with parts of life in a “bottom-up” process. Part satisfactions concern domains of life, such as family and work, as well as satisfaction with aspects of life, such as its richness or uniqueness (Andrews and Withey, 1976 ). In that context, the perceived meaning of life can be seen as an aspect evaluation of life. Seeing life as meaningful will then add to life satisfaction, while seeing life as meaningless will detract from it. In the cognitive view, satisfaction with that aspect of life will depend on the degree to which life fits a want for meaning, which can draw on an innate need for meaning but can also be a cultural phenomenon.

The effects of the perceived meaning of one's life on satisfaction with life are likely to vary across persons and situations. Contingencies will exist for the positive and negative effects and for the effect through gratification of innate needs as well as for meeting learned wants. One of the personal moderators will be the aptness to believe in a cause and the ability to cope with philosophical doubt about the meaning of life. Situational moderators will be in culture; a sense of meaning is more likely to add to the happiness in cultures that value living a meaningful life and provide practicable models to do so.

Next to the effects of perceived meaning on satisfaction with life, there can be effects of life satisfaction on perceived meaning in life. These “top-down” effects are also likely to be contingent on personal and situational characteristics.

Questions on correlation

In this study, we started by answering some questions on basic facts.

• Is there a correlation between the perceived meaning of life and satisfaction with life?
• If so, is that correlation positive or negative?
• How strong is this correlation?
• How variable is this correlation across persons and situations?
• Do the correlations differ across components of happiness?
• What aspects of meaning are most/least associated with happiness?
• What sources of meaning are most/least associated with happiness?
• Does seeing meaning relate differently to happiness than searching for meaning?

We sought answers to these questions by taking stock of the available research findings. Selection of such findings required that we be clear about what we mean by “perceived meaning of life” and with “satisfaction with life” and that we establish how these phenomena can be measured. We did that in section “Concepts”. Next, we reviewed the available research findings on the relationship between the perceived meaning of life and happiness, drawing on a finding archive, the World Database of Happiness. We described that source in section “Method of this research synthesis” and reported the findings in section “Results”.

Questions about causation

Having reviewed the observed correlations between meaning and happiness, we considered the following questions about the causality behind the relation between the perceived meaning of life and satisfaction with life in section “Discussion”:

Is there an innate need for meaning?

• How does the perceived meaning of life otherwise affect satisfaction with life?
• How does satisfaction with life affect the perceived meaning of life?
• How strong are these effects relatively?
• Why is the correlation positive at the micro-level of individuals, but negative at the macro-level of nations?

Difference from common reviewing

Our approach differs from common practice in research review, which starts with theoretical questions and next presents empirical findings that support or oppose hypotheses. The disadvantages of that procedure are: selective presentation of the available research findings, often involving “cherry picking”, and underreporting of the findings that do not fit a hypothesis.

In this study, we started taking stock of facts in section “Results” and next considered what these data tell about some questions about causation in the relation between the meaning of life and happiness in section “Discussion”. As the reader will see, this allows for a complete overview of the available research findings, which can easily be updated. This inductive approach reveals findings that are likely to escape theoretical imagination, such as in this case, that the correlation is positive at the micro-level of individuals but negative at the macro-level of nations.

In the widest sense, the word “happiness” is seen as denoting “living a good life”, while the term “meaning of life” is taken to refer to what a life contributes to something good beyond that life. As such, there is a conceptual overlap between these notions; meaning is part of happiness. A correlation between living a good life and living a meaningful life is therefore implied but can hardly be demonstrated empirically since we cannot measure how “good” a life is and neither how much “good” of a life contributes to other sakes than that life itself.

In this study, we focus on happiness and meaning in the more limited sense of subjective appraisals of one's life, respectively, with perceived meaning of one's life and satisfaction with life . These are measurable phenomena. We will further avoid the use of the words “meaning” and “happiness” here since these suggest a wider objective worth. We will deal with subjective perceptions of one's life and what we want to determine is how these subjective appraisals relate.

Satisfaction with life

We follow the definition of life satisfaction as the overall appreciation of one's life as a whole ; in other words, how much one likes the life one lives. This concept is at the basis of the World Database of Happiness, our data source. A detailed delineation is found here .

Components of life satisfaction

In assessing how much we like the life we live, we draw on two sources of information: how well we feel most of the time and the degree to which we perceive that life brings us what we want from it. These sub-appraisals are referred to as “components” of life satisfaction, which are an affective component called hedonic level of affect and a cognitive component called contentment . The differences between overall life satisfaction and these components are explained in more detail here . In this study, we explore whether the relationship with the perceived meaning of life differs across overall life satisfaction and these components.

Measures of life satisfaction

Since life satisfaction is something we have in mind, it can be measured using questioning. Some common questions are as follows:

• ° Taking all together, how happy would you say you are these days?
• ° On the whole, how satisfied are you with the life you lead?
• ° Would you say that you are usually cheerful or dejected?
• + Particularly excited or interested in something?
• – So restless that you couldn't sit long in a chair?
• + Proud because someone complimented you on
• something you had done?
• – Very lonely or remote from other people?
• + Pleased about having accomplished something?
• – Bored?
• + On top of the world?
• – Depressed or very unhappy?
• + That things were going your way?
• – Upset because someone criticized you?
• (Affect balance computed subtracting negative from
• positive “yes” responses)
• ° How is your mood today? (repeated several days)
• ° How important was each of the following goals in life in the plans you made for yourself in early adulthood?
• ° How successful have you been in the pursuit of these goals?

Perceived meaning of life

While life satisfaction is a rather clear concept (how much you like the life you live), the perceived meaning of life is a more ambiguous notion. The word “meaning” has different connotations, which cannot be captured in one distinct concept. This leaves us with a set of aspects of perceived meaningfulness, which can be considered separately or in sum.

Aspects of perceived meaning of life

When interpreted as an answer to the existential question of why we live , perceived meaning refers to the role of human life in evolution and one's place in that context. This involves philosophical reflection in which not everybody will engage. When interpreted as what one lives for , it refers to a sense of mission, such as a better life for one's children, which involves some good beyond one's own life. This is referred to as the perceived usefulnes s of one's life. However, the meaning of life is also seen in a sense of direction , which does not necessarily imply contribution to a greater good, such as getting rich. Other aspects or perceived meaning of life are the significance of one's life to the good or the bad or the uniqueness of one's life. These differences are reflected in the questions used in research on the perceived meaning of one's life.

Another topic that is often addressed in studies on perceived meaning is a sense of coherence . We see this as a matter of personality integration and will not consider it in this study.

Measures of perceived meaning of life

Like life satisfaction, perceived meaning in life can be measured using questioning, typically asking respondents to endorse or not statements such as the following:

• I feel my life is meaningful.
• My life has no clear purpose.

Note that these terms are not synonymous, meaning does do not always require a purpose (direction), and a purpose can be meaningless (useless). Next to such items on either meaning or purpose in questionnaires, several measures combine these aspects, either in one question or in multiple questions.

• My personal existence is utterly meaningless, without purpose.

Some questionnaires also contain items on other aspects of the meaningfulness set, such as these items in the Purpose in Life test (Crumbaugh and Maholick, 1969 ).

• In achieving life goals I've made no progress whatever (vs progressed to complete fulfillment).
• My life is: empty, filled only with despair (vs running over with exciting things).
• If I should die today, I'd feel that my life has been completely worthless (vs very worthwhile).
• In thinking of my life, I often wonder why I exist (vs always see reasons for being here).

The more aspects of meaning addressed in a questionnaire, the less clear it becomes what it measures. An additional problem for this study was that such questionnaires also contain items close to happiness, such as the item on suicidal ideation in the Purpose in Life test.

Next to the above questions on the degree of perceived meaning of life, there are also questions on the satisfaction with one's sense of meaning. These things do not necessarily go together; one can see little meaning in one's life but nevertheless be satisfied with that. Other aspects of perceived meaningfulness are the search for meaning and perceived sources of meaning .

All this presumes that people have an idea about the meaning of their life, which is not the case, at least not for young children. So, further variable aspects of the perceived meaning of life are the degree to which one gives it a thought and, if so, how much one is concerned with the issue.

Method of this research synthesis

The first step in this review was to gather the available research findings on the relationship between the perceived meaning of one's life and satisfaction with life. The second step was to present these findings in an uncomplicated form. For both steps, we used the World Database of Happiness, which is an online “finding archive” on happiness in the sense of life satisfaction. The structure of this source is depicted visually in Figure 1 , and a more detailed description is found here .

Homepage of the world database of happiness. https://worlddatabaseofhappiness.eur.nl . Source: World Database of Happiness. Reproduced with permission.

Selection of studies

We could draw on an existing collection of reports of research on our topic, available in the collection of correlational findings of the World Database of Happiness, subject section Meaning of life . This collection is gathered using the following steps:

• Scientific publications on happiness are gathered continuously in the context of the World Database of Happiness. The selection criterion is that happiness in the sense of life satisfaction is addressed.
• Selected publications are included in the Bibliography of Happiness and their main topics are noted using a subject classification. One of the subject categories in the Bibliography is Perceived meaning of Life .
• Publications are selected from this collection that reports an empirical investigation using an acceptable measure of happiness. This procedure is described in more detail here .

We updated the collection, which left us by 30 April 2022 with 28 publications , which together reported 75 studies (one publication reported 47 studies). These studies are listed in Table 1 . Together, they yield 171 separate findings on which we focus in this study.

75 studies in which a correlation between perceived meaning and life satisfaction was assessed.

Description of research findings

The findings obtained using a valid measure of happiness are described on electronic “finding pages”, using a standard format and terminology. Each page has a unique Internet address, to which we have linked in the text of this review. An example of such a finding page is presented in Figure 2 .

Example of a finding page. https://worlddatabaseofhappiness.eur.nl/studies/andrews-withey-1976-study-us-1973-1-228/ . Source: World Database of Happiness. Reproduced with permission.

Format of this review

In this review, we started by summarizing the research findings in Table 2 in which the observed statistical relationships are presented in + , – , or 0 signs. These signs link to finding pages in the World Database of Happiness. If you click on a sign, one such finding page will open.

171 findings on the relation between perceived meaning of life and satisfaction with life.

Meaning of signs: + positive and significant. + positive, non-significant. 0 unrelated. − negative, not significant. − negative, significant. +|− positive in one subgroup, negative in another. +/+ positive on two measures of happiness. +/− positive before control, negative after.

Organization of the findings

In Table 2 we first sorted the findings by the research method used and present these in three separate columns. We distinguished (1) cross-sectional studies, which asses same-time relationships between the perceived meaning of one's life and satisfaction with life, (2) longitudinal studies, which assess change in life satisfaction following change in meaning, and (3) experimental studies, which assess the effect on induced change in meaning on life satisfaction. In Table 2 , we also distinguish between studies at the micro-level, which assess the relation between meaning and life satisfaction of individuals, and studies at the macro-level, which link average meaning in nations to average life satisfaction of citizens.

Presentation of the findings

The observed quantitative relationships between the perceived meaning of one's life and satisfaction with life are summarized in three possible signs: + for a positive relationship, – for a negative relationship, and 0 for a non-relationship. Statistical significance is indicated by printing the sign in bold . Each sign contains a link to a finding page in the World Database of Happiness on which the reader can find more detail.

Some of these finding pages appear in more than one cell of the tables. This is the case for pages on which both a “raw” (zero-order) correlation is reported and a “partial” correlation in which the effect of control variables is removed.

Advantages and disadvantages

The advantages of such representation are as follows: (1) an easy overview of the main trend in the findings, in this case, the many + signs, (2) access to full detail behind the links, (3) an easy overview of the white spots in the empty cells in the tables, and (4) easy updates, by entering new signs in the tables, possibly marked with a color.

The disadvantages are as follows: (a) that much detail is not directly visible in the + and – signs, (b) in particular not the effect size and control variables used, and (c) that the links work only in electronic texts.

This review technique has been applied in earlier syntheses of research on “Happiness and Private Wealth” (Jantsch and Veenhoven, 2019 ), “Happiness and Healthy Eating” (Veenhoven, 2021 ), and “Happiness and Consumption” (Veenhoven et al., 2021 ).

An overview of the 171 research findings is presented in Table 2 . We can now inspect what these findings tell us about the correlation between the perceived meaning of life and satisfaction with life.

Degree of perceived meaning in life and satisfaction with life

Most of the findings are on this topic. Correlations at the micro-level of individuals are presented in the upper part of Table 2 and one correlation at the macro-level of nations is at the bottom of this table.

Is there a correlation?

Yes, there is. Of the 171 observed relationships, only one found no correlation (0) and 15 studies observed a correlation that did not reach statistical significance. The other 155 findings denote a significant correlation.

Direction of the correlation

Plus signs (+) dominate in Table 2 , denoting that the perceived meaning of life typically goes with greater satisfaction with life; however, there is a notable exception. Although correlations at the micro-level of individuals are positive, a study at the macro-level of nations found a negative correlation between the average degree of perceived meaning and average life satisfaction. We will discuss this phenomenon in section “Why a negative correlation at the macro level of nations between perceived meaning of life and average satisfaction with life?”

Strength of the correlations

A total of 136 findings are expressed in a comparable correlation coefficient. These, quite sizable, effect sizes are presented in Table 3 . The average correlation between the perceived degree of meaning and life satisfaction at the micro-level is +0.36.

136 findings on strengths of correlation between perceived meaning of life and satisfaction with life.

Significant correlations printed in bold.

Variability across cultures

Since most correlations are positive, variability is in the size of the correlations. The OECD study among high school pupils covers 50 nations from different parts of the world. In Table 4 , we marked the coefficients observed in different parts of the world using colors. No systematic difference appeared.

117 findings on strengths of correlation between perceived meaning of life and satisfaction with life in Africa , Asia , Latin America , Middle East , and Western nations (Australia, Europe, and North America).

Similarity across components of happiness

Likewise, we visualized a possible difference across components of happiness in Table 5 , marking the correlations with overall life satisfaction as Blue , with affect level as Red , and with contentment as Purple . We also found no clear difference.

136 findings on strengths of correlation between perceived meaning of life and satisfaction with life distinguishing between overall life satisfaction , hedonic level of affect , and contentment .

Difference across questions on “meaning”, “purpose”, and “significance”

Most studies used questions on multiple aspects of the perceived meaning of life; only 25 of the 136 correlates in Table 3 are about the correlation between single aspects of perceived meaning and happiness. These correlates are presented in the top segment of Table 3 . No great differences appeared, although the correlations with questions about “meaning” tended to be stronger than the correlations with questions about “purpose” and “existential significance”. We will come back to this difference in “How does satisfaction with life affect perceived meaning of life?”

Pursuit of meaning and satisfaction with life

The findings on this matter are reported in the middle rows of Table 3 . Interest in the meaning of one's life appears to be unrelated to life satisfaction. At first sight, the reported pursuit of meaning was found to be unrelated to life satisfaction. After controlling for the presence of meaning, the correlation became negative. A comparison across nations also showed a negative correlation in rich countries but a positive correlation in poor countries. We will come back to this latter phenomenon in section “Why a negative correlation at the macro level of nations between perceived meaning of life and average satisfaction with life?”

Perceived sources of meaning and satisfaction with life

The findings on this subject are reported in the lower part of Table 3 . All the correlations were positive, but there was a difference in strengths. Seeing meaning in social bonds was most strongly related to life satisfaction, as in the cases of “interpersonal relations”, “community”, and “society”. The low correlation with seeing meaning in “family” does not fit this pattern. Life satisfaction is related equally strongly to seeing meaning in life itself, such as in the cases of “health” and “personal development”. The weakest correlations were with seeing meaning in “spirituality and religion” and with “work”.

What do these correlational findings tell us about the causal interplay between the perceived meaning of one's life and satisfaction with life?

At first sight, the findings fit the theory that we have an innate need for meaning (cf. section “Questions on correlation”) and that therefore, the more meaning we see in our life, the more satisfied we are with it. Not only are the correlations positive and sizable as we saw in Table 3 , but they also appear to be universal, given the little variation across countries seen in Table 4 . The strong correlations with affect level, which we saw in Table 5 , can also be interpreted as resulting from need gratification, especially in the context of Veenhoven's ( 2009 ) theory of happiness in which the affective component reflects the gratification of universal human needs.

However, we also met with a finding that contradicts this theory. A lot of people appear not to care about the meaning of their life and are still reasonably happy. This was observed in the study of DeHart et al. ( 2022 ) among the general public of the Netherlands, where 20% agreed with the statement “the meaning of life is a subject that does not interest me very much”. Although marginally less happy than their fellow citizens who disagreed with this statement, these people were still quite happy with an average of 7.47 on the 0–10 scale of life satisfaction. So, the quest for seeing meaning in one's life is not universal and not very pressing.

At a more theoretical level, one can also doubt that there is an innate need for seeing meaning in one's life. A “need” is not just a “want” or a “preference” but something that is required for survival and which has, for this reason, become an innate part of human nature. This is the case for our needs for food and social belongingness and can also be seen to apply to the need to use and develop our potentials. The survival value of the perceived meaning of one's life is less obvious, in particular when situated in the life situations of our early forefathers. Because of their survival value, needs were linked with strong affective signals. The affective signals that attend the perceived meaning of one's life are typically less strong than those of hunger and loneliness.

An alternative explanation for the universal quest for meaning is that it is a consequence of human cognition, self-awareness in particular. Because we know that we are, we tend to wonder why we are and whether our life serves any other good beyond our own life. Although these questions come to mind, we can live without convincing answers. Seen in this light, the quest for meaning can be better seen as an evolutionary unintended by-effect of the otherwise highly functional capacity of cognition. This interpretation fits the distinction Wentholt ( 1995 ) makes between innate “organic needs” which we share with most primates and “universal strivings” which come forth from human self-awareness.

How does perceived meaning of life otherwise affect satisfaction with life?

If not automatically in response to the gratification of an innate need, how else can seeing the meaning of life contribute to satisfaction with life? One possibility is that a sense of meaning is pleasant, even if not required. In this respect, the perceived meaning of life is comparable to the enjoyment of arts, not a basic need either, but even so a source of satisfaction.

In this view, the perceived meaning of one's life is one of the appraisals of life aspects that contribute to one's satisfaction with life as a whole, and as such is comparable to the perceived “richness of life”, which also goes with greater satisfaction with life (Oishi and Westgate, 2021 ). In section “Questions on correlation”, we depicted this mechanism as a “bottom-up” effect.

A related effect seems to be that a sense of meaning can help us to cope with misery, a heuristic being “My life is full of suffering, but I live for a good cause”. In this way, a sense of meaning keeps us less unhappy than we would have been otherwise. This mental comfort can have a price when the quest for meaning leads to behaviors that undermine other sources of happiness, such as when one's health is sacrificed for a cause. In such cases, a sense of meaning can reduce happiness on the balance. This could be one of the reasons why the average sense of meaning tends to be higher in countries where average happiness is low, as we will discuss in more detail in section “Why a negative correlation at the macro level of nations between perceived meaning of life and average satisfaction with life?”

This brings us to the wider instrumental value of perceiving meaning in one's life, which positive psychologists typically see as a “strength”. In this view, a sense of meaning facilitates functioning by adding a moral premium to one's activities, which helps us to get involved and overcome dips. In that context, the main causal mechanism will be “activity”, also known as “fully functioning”. Activity appears to be the main determinant of life satisfaction, be it that more activity is not always better. We feel best at a personal optimum between boredom and anxiety (Csikszentmihalyi, 1995 ).

A sense of meaning can also affect life satisfaction more indirectly by fostering other mental strengths, such as your identity and self-esteem. It can also affect social conditions for happiness, such as your social prestige and in that way possibly marriage chances. Again, such effects will not always be positive.

How does satisfaction with life affect perceived meaning of life?

The observed correlations between perceived meaning of life and satisfaction with life should not be interpreted too easily as a causal effect of the former on the latter, since reversed causality is likely to be involved in this case.

One causal mechanism is certainly that meaning of one's life is often seen in one's life as such. We saw in Table 3 that “health” and “personal development” are seen as sources of meaning. Even more, telling is the qualitative study done by Kok et al. ( 2015 ) among Malaysian youngsters, in which about half of the respondents appeared to see meaning in leading a happy life, thus implying a correlation with life satisfaction.

Another causal effect of life satisfaction on perceived meaning is found in Fredrickson's ( 2004 ) “Broaden and Build Theory” of positive affect, which draws on a large body of empirical research. When we feel good, our adaptational repertoire “broadens” in several ways: Good mood enhances activity and makes us more aware of what goes on in other people and will make us more creative in solving problems. This results in the long-term “building” of more resources, both career-wise and in personal relations. As such, life satisfaction adds to one's chance of doing meaningful things.

Apart from adding to the actual meaningfulness of one's life, life satisfaction will also affect your mere perception of how meaningful your life is. The meaningfulness of one's life is an intangible object, the perception of which is highly vulnerable for the observer's mental set. As such, it is likely that happy people tend to see more meaning in their lives than unhappy people, irrespective of the actual meaning of their lives. In this context, it is worth remembering Table 3 , in which we see stronger correlations of life satisfaction with general statements of “meaning”, than for more specific aspects of meaning, such as “purpose” and “existential significance”.

A related effect seems to be that the issue of the meaning of one's life will present itself more urgently when one is unhappy and wonders “What is this suffering good for?” and “Why do I live?”. Since convincing answers to such questions are often not available, unhappy people tend to become more aware of a lack of meaning in their lives and some will attribute their unhappiness to this lack. This will also boost the correlation between the perceived meaning of life and satisfaction with life.

The effect of perceived meaning on life satisfaction and of life satisfaction on perceived meaning of life

As yet, we lack data to provide an answer to this chicken and egg problem, all we can say is that the one experimental study, undertaken so-far, suggests that there is a causal effect of perceived meaning of life on satisfaction with life. This is the case of training in seeing meaning, where the experimental group gained more happiness right during the training than the control group. See column “experimental” in Table 2 . Apart from the weaknesses of this experiment, this is not to say that there is no effect of life satisfaction on perceived meaning, nor that this effect is less strong.

This is worth further investigation, both for the sake of intellectual curiosity and for priority setting in therapy and education. If life satisfaction is the main determinant in this relationship, it is better to foster life satisfaction than to preach meaning. We expand further on this in section “Implications of the top-down effect”.

Why a negative correlation at the macro-level of nations between perceived meaning of life and average satisfaction with life?

Although the perceived meaning of life has been found to relate positively to satisfaction with life at the micro-level of individuals, one study at the macro-level of nations found a negative relationship, with a correlation between average sense of meaning and average life satisfaction of −0.33.

Although counter-intuitive at first sight, this is not uncommon. A similar pattern is observed with religion, although religious people are typically happier than the non-religious, average happiness tends to be lower in the most religious countries of the present-day world (Berg and Veenhoven, 2009 ), even though in the unhappy-religious countries the most religious people are still the happiest.

An explanation of this phenomenon holds that the main function of religion is to cope with misery and that people, therefore, tend to be more religious in miserable nations, which are typically less developed nations. Note that the abovementioned study also found a negative correlation between the perceived meaning of life in nations and their economic development, in which the relationship was mediated by average religiousness (Oishi and Diener, 2014 ). Religion may reduce the pain of miserable conditions, but not enough to provide a satisfying life. This medicine may also be worse than the disease, such as when religion inhibits cultural modernization, which societal pattern appears to fit human nature better than the traditional orientations that were functional in the agrarian phase of the development of human societies (Veenhoven, 2010 ).

In this case of perceived meaning, a related explanation is that the question about the meaning of life presents itself more in miserable conditions, in which little meaning can be found in one's life, life being full of suffering. In such contexts, there is more demand for meaning beyond one's own life, such as “saving the country” or “spreading the gospel”. Cultures respond to this demand by providing ways to see meaning in misery and glorifying them. As in the case of religion, some ways to meaning can bring people “from the frying pan into the fire”, for example, in the case of drawing them into a holy war.

This explanation fits the micro-level finding that time spent thinking about the meaning of life relates positively to life satisfaction in poor countries but negatively in rich countries as can be seen here .

Implications of the top-down effect

Satisfaction with life tends to foster a sense of meaning in one's life (cf. section “How does satisfaction with life affect perceived meaning of life?”), and this top-down effect should be acknowledged in programs that aim to promote meaningfulness, such as currently in moral education.

Over the ages, education has not only involved the passing of knowledge but also included “character building”, in the context of which much attention has been devoted to “moral education”. Parts of this, traditionally religious inspired, education lives on in present-day positive psychology, in positive education in particular, since there is a moral component in notions of “positive mental health”. In the contemporary post-modern climate, there is less emphasis on the passing along of particular norms and values but more attention on developing a personal moral orientation. A view on the meaning of one's life is part of such orientation, and consequently, training in seeing meaning has been developed, an example of which is found here .

While the emphasis in moral education is to provide examples of leading a just life, there is growing attention to the development of the strengths and skills needed to live a just life. This shift links up with the notion of “performance character” (Lickona and Davidson, 2005 ) and fits the focus on strengthening strengths in positive psychology. People perform typically better when feeling good and for that reason Lawton et al. ( 2021 ) plea for including student wellbeing as a goal in moral education.

Given the probable effects of life satisfaction on perceived meaning in life (cf. section “How does satisfaction with life affect perceived meaning of life?”), moral educators should consider fostering the life satisfaction of their students, including positive affect, which mental state is typically not cherished by moral educators. For this purpose, moral educators can draw on the rich research on happiness education from positive psychology (Bergsma et al., 2021 ).

Seeing meaning in one's life tends to go together with greater satisfaction with that life, at least at the micro-level of the individual. At the macro-level of nations, it goes with lower average life satisfaction. The relation between the perceived meaning of life and satisfaction with life is bi-directional and involves several causal mechanisms. An innate need for meaning is unlikely to be involved.

Data availability statement

Author contributions.

YS, YE, and RV were involved in the gathering and description of the research findings. Most of the text was written by RV. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.

1 (+) signifies the positive emotions, and (–) signifies negative emotions.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. The handling editor declared a past co-authorship with author RV.

Publisher's note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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Greater Good Science Center • Magazine • In Action • In Education

A New Way to View Money and Happiness

For decades now, scientists have been trying to figure out what role wealth plays in our satisfaction with life. While some studies have found that money doesn’t buy happiness (at least not beyond a certain income point), others have found money plays a much more significant role . Wealthier countries seem happier overall, and citizens in those countries enjoy more well-being as their income climbs .

But a new study brings another wrinkle to the conversation. Previous studies have tended to focus on people in wealthier, Western, urbanized countries. This one looked at those living in small-scale, rural communities that depend on nature for livelihoods, with no or little cash income. Some are Indigenous; most are located in Africa, South America, and Asia. Their results yield new insights into the relationship between money and happiness.

Smaller communities, bigger happiness

As part of a larger study of the effects of climate change, researchers surveyed almost 3,000 people living in 19 small communities around the world about how satisfied they were with their lives on a scale of 0 to 10. Since the communities studied didn’t have formal cash-based economies or record-keeping, household income was estimated from the market value of assets that would have been purchased with cash, when available.

In analyzing the results, researchers found a wide range of life satisfaction between individuals—but the patterns were quite different from similar studies in other parts of the world. While Indigenous people with greater personal income were slightly more satisfied with life than those with less income, overall, they were much happier than their Western counterparts even at very low incomes. In fact, people living in these small-scale societies reported an average score of 6.8 out of 10, even though most of them lived on less than the equivalent of $1,000 per year.

These are very different results than what you might find in the Gallup Poll or World Values Survey, both of which look at how income affects life satisfaction. For example, people in the Gallup Poll didn’t report these levels of happiness until they reached the $25,000 level of income. To study author Eric Galbraith, this suggests that income is not necessarily strongly tied to happiness for everyone, and that these polls are missing the mark.

“Basically, these small-scale societies show that there are powerful ways to achieve life satisfaction that are not apparent from looking at industrialized societies alone,” he says.


Interestingly, though, living in a particular village mattered when it came to life satisfaction—some villages tended to have happier people in them than others. However, the difference wasn’t related to the overall income in that community, unlike what seems to be the case in Western countries and even in smaller, non-Western countries around the world.   This may seem counterintuitive, given the tie between individual wealth and happiness among the villagers. That’s probably because the connection to income is so weak that other factors dominate, says Galbraith.

He speculates that the differences in happiness levels between villages are probably due to other, non-economic factors associated with living in these communities—such as feeling more closely connected to nature, living in a more interdependent community, not having a lot of wealth inequality, or not experiencing social ills like those you might find in a more industrialized society, such as drug addiction.

More than money

Though we can’t know for sure why people in these communities report being so satisfied with life, we should still take note of these findings, says Galbraith.

For one thing, he says, researchers have not been including the views of Indigenous people in worldwide happiness reports; so, the reports (like Gallup and the World Values Survey) may be skewed toward finding a stronger relationship between income and well-being than is warranted.

In addition, governments may be creating policies aimed at increasing citizen income to improve life satisfaction without considering other, important factors for the happiness of their communities.

Regardless of what explains the high satisfaction in these communities, we can still learn from their example. One potential takeaway is that we should question the assumption that greater income leads to greater happiness, says Galbraith. Perhaps, we should realize that living in a consumer-based, ad-filled world is making us  think  we need more money than we have, and creating a desire for something irrelevant to our well-being.   Instead, we may want to pay closer attention to other findings from the science of happiness to understand what makes for the good life, says Galbraith—whether that’s being in close connection with nature, strengthening our social bonds, or removing inequalities among us.

“The fact that rich people tend to be more satisfied with their lives can make it seem that having lots of money is the clearest route to happiness,” says Galbraith. “But the things that truly make people happy don’t need to cost money. There really are other ways to get to a satisfying life.”

About the Author

Jill Suttie

Jill Suttie, Psy.D. , is Greater Good ’s former book review editor and now serves as a staff writer and contributing editor for the magazine. She received her doctorate of psychology from the University of San Francisco in 1998 and was a psychologist in private practice before coming to Greater Good .

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