4/25/22, 4:19 PM What Makes Life Meaningful?
| Psychology Today Canada
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July 2020
At a Loss
What Makes Life
Meaningful?
Age, routines, and a sense of purpose may help
foster the belief that life means something.
By Devon Frye published August 10, 2020 - last reviewed on September 6, 2020
A sense that life has meaning doesn’t just offer philosophical
benefit; it’s also tied to improved physical and mental health.
What factors, apart from close relationships and personal
accomplishments, foster a belief in a meaningful life? Three
recent studies highlight some potential mechanisms of
meaning.
What Really Matters
Researchers who study meaning in life have broken the
concept into three facets: coherence (the feeling that life
makes sense), purpose (having and working toward goals),
and mattering (the sense that one’s life has value and makes
a difference). University of Sussex psychologist Vlad Costin
argues the last factor, mattering, may be the most crucial. In
three experiments, participants’ sense of mattering most
reliably predicted whether they saw life as meaningful one
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4/25/22, 4:19 PM What Makes Life Meaningful? | Psychology Today Canada
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month later. Though it wasn’t known why participants felt
their lives mattered, Costin thinks that it could have resulted
from their “believing in God, contributing to others, or leaving
some form of legacy.”
Golden Age
Confidence in life’s meaningfulness may be greatest around
age 60, on average, a recent study suggests. Using data
from 1,042 U.S. adults, University of California, San Diego,
researchers found that the presence of meaning in life
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4/25/22, 4:19 PM What Makes Life Meaningful? | Psychology Today Canada
followed a curve over the lifespan, reaching its peak at
CA
approximately 60 before declining again. The search for
meaning, on the other hand, followed the opposite trajectory,
reaching a low point at 60 before climbing. Regardless of
age, physical and mental well-being were both strongly
correlated with a belief in life’s meaning.
Everything in Its Place
Many seek meaning through extraordinary experiences—but
they may also find it in ordinary, daily acts. New research
found that a preference for routines was correlated with a
greater sense of meaning. Students tracked for a week
reported somewhat greater meaning, on average, when
engaging in everyday acts such as studying or commuting—
perhaps, the authors note, because routines build a coherent
sense of self. Study co-author and Rutgers University
psychologist Samantha Heintzelman observes: “Moments
that make sense and feel right can make life meaningful, too.”
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