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Finding meaning through emotional understanding: emotional clarity predicts meaning in life and adjustment to existential threat

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Abstract

If emotions provide information relevant to personal meaning, then people with a greater sense of clarity about their emotions may possess some advantages in finding meaning in their lives. Consistent with this, in Studies 1, 2, and 3 we found that individuals high in trait emotional clarity have greater meaning in life. However, meaning is often undermined by existential threats. In two subsequent studies we measured (Study 4) or manipulated (Study 5) existentially threatening thoughts, and then measured meaning in life. Results showed that elevated death thoughts were associated with deficits in meaning for individuals with low, but not high, in trait emotional clarity. Taken together, these studies demonstrate that the extent to which one clearly understands their emotions contributes to perceptions of meaning in life and the maintenance of meaning in the context of existential threat.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, North Dakota State University Fargo, Dept. 2765, P.O. Box 6050, Fargo, ND, 58108-605, USA

    Andrew A. Abeyta, Clay Routledge & Michael D. Robinson

  2. University of Southampton, Southampton, UK

    Jacob Juhl

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  1. Andrew A. Abeyta
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  2. Clay Routledge
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  3. Jacob Juhl
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  4. Michael D. Robinson
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Correspondence to Andrew A. Abeyta.

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Abeyta, A.A., Routledge, C., Juhl, J. et al. Finding meaning through emotional understanding: emotional clarity predicts meaning in life and adjustment to existential threat. Motiv Emot 39, 973–983 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-015-9500-3

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