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Emotions and Meaning in Life: A Motivational Perspective

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The Experience of Meaning in Life

Abstract

The pursuit of meaning in life has been described as a central human motivation. All the things we strive to do somehow relate to this elusive feeling of purpose. Research connecting emotions to judgments of meaning is relatively sparse, and the results are mixed. This chapter introduces a new perspective to resolve the controversies and instigate new ideas. While emotions have been examined in terms of their valence and arousal, studies have largely ignored their motivational properties. Both the emotions that facilitate immediate action and the ones that linger after our goal attempts have succeeded or failed impact our sense of how meaningful our lives are. The possible relationship between meaning in life and various discrete emotions is discussed, based largely on each emotion’s motivational intensity and direction, in relation to goal pursuit.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The actions of an angry/determined individual likely feel “meaningful” to the person at the moment. However, it is difficult to assess this perception of meaning in a laboratory on existing questionnaires, which measure global perceptions of meaning. If a more “local” sense of meaning could be measured, then individuals in a state of heightened motivational intensity would likely score high on this measure.

  2. 2.

    This idea is also consistent with the concept of concrete and abstract goals. Though the causes of anger vary, once it is elicited, anger may facilitate behavior that is instrumental to a specific goal. This should result in goals being framed in a more concrete fashion. Indeed, anger like other emotions high in motivational intensity should narrow attention and cognition. Again, as it is an approach-related emotion and likely relates to narrowed, concrete thinking, it follows that anger may relate to less perceived meaning, but a higher sense of search for it.

  3. 3.

    Anger does not always need to produce aggression for this statement to be true. Anger can lead to action that may benefit self/others and not be aggressive, such as signing a petition to prevent an unjust event from occurring (Harmon-Jones et al. 2003).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA

    David Tang, Nicholas J. Kelley & Joshua A. Hicks

  2. University of New South Whales, Kensington, NSW, Australia

    Eddie Harmon-Jones

Authors
  1. David Tang
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  2. Nicholas J. Kelley
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  3. Joshua A. Hicks
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  4. Eddie Harmon-Jones
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Correspondence to David Tang .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. , Dept. of Psychology, Texas A&M University, TAMU 4235, College Station, 77843, Texas, USA

    Joshua A. Hicks

  2. , Dept of Psychology, North Dakota State University, Minard Hall, Fargo, 58105, North Dakota, USA

    Clay Routledge

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Tang, D., Kelley, N.J., Hicks, J.A., Harmon-Jones, E. (2013). Emotions and Meaning in Life: A Motivational Perspective. In: Hicks, J., Routledge, C. (eds) The Experience of Meaning in Life. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6527-6_9

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