(The Feeling of) Meaning-as-Information
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 23359123 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Samantha J Heintzelman (0000-0003-4442-6882, University of Missouri), Laura A King (0000-0002-3753-2575, University of Missouri) |
| Year | 2014 |
| Volume | 18 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 153-167 |
| Publication date | 2014-05-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Personality and Social Psychology Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1532-7957 • E-ISSN: 1088-8683 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/1088868313518487 |
| PMID | 24501092 |
| OpenAlex | W1973029906 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 66 |
| References cited | 131 |
The desire for meaning is recognized as a central human motive. Yet, knowing that people want meaning does not explain its function. What adaptive problem does this experience solve? Drawing on the feelings-as-information hypothesis, we propose that the feeling of meaning provides information about the presence of reliable patterns and coherence in the environment, information that is not provided by affect. We review research demonstrating that manipulations of stimulus coherence influence subjective reports of meaning in life but not affect. We demonstrate that manipulations that foster an associative mindset enhance meaning. The meaning-as-information perspective embeds meaning in a network of foundational functions including associative learning, perception, cognition, and neural processing. This approach challenges assumptions about meaning, including its motivational appeal, the roles of expectancies and novelty in this experience, and the notion that meaning is inherently constructed. Implications for constructed meaning and existential meanings are discussed.
Cognition · Cognitive psychology · Epistemology · Feeling · Meaning (existential) · Mindset · Perception · Emotions and Moral Behavior · Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction · Psychology · Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment · Social Psychology
Apes in Tuxedos
Sentido na Vida na Adultez Emergente
Meaning is about mattering
Mental simulation and meaning in life
Meaning in life and intuition
Intergroup conflict self-perpetuates via meaning
Lessons for Positive Arts and Humanities from the Science of Meaning in Life
From needs to goals and representations
Prosociality enhances meaning in life
The Multidimensional Existential Meaning Scale
The Science of Meaning in Life
Meaning in Life as Comprehension, Purpose, and Mattering
Prosocial behavior increases perceptions of meaning in life
The three meanings of meaning in life
Beyond the Search for Meaning
Meaningfulness as Satisfaction of Autonomy, Competence, Relatedness, and Beneficence
Recent work on the meaning of “life’s meaning
Life Crafting and Self-Determination
Positive Psychology in Times of Pandemic—Time Perspective as a Moderator of the Relationship between Resilience and Meaning in Life
Meaningfulness as Sensefulness
Çok Boyutlu Varoluşsal Anlam Ölçeği
How perceived restorative environments shape meaning in life
Why Does Awe Have Prosocial Effects? New Perspectives on Awe and the Small Self
Protective Gun Ownership as a Coping Mechanism
Chasing my Tail all Day
What Indicates Your Life is Meaningful? A New Measure for the Indicators of Meaning in Life (3IML)
Just-World Beliefs Increase Helping Intentions via Meaning and Affect
Relationships Between Meaning in Life, Positive and Negative Affect, and Eating Behaviors
What Can We Learn About the Concept of Meaning in Life from Older Adults with Alzheimer’s Disease? A Directed Content Analysis Study
Examining Cross-Cultural Relationships Between Meaning in Life and Psychological Well-Being in Turkey and the United States
Meaning in Late Life
The Hidden Values of Resisting Temptation
The Causal Model of Attitudes Toward Marital Infidelity Based on Family Cohesion in Iranian Women
Cross-cultural measurement invariance of the purpose in life test - Short form (PIL-SF) in seven Latin American countries
Better academic performance, higher meaning in life in Chinese adolescents
What makes a life meaningful? Folk intuitions about the content and shape of meaningful lives
Is Meaning in Life Constituted by Value or Intelligibility
The Nature of Consciousness
Disabled at Work
Routines and Meaning in Life
Meaning and Attention Intertwined
Perceiving a Stable Self-Concept Enables the Experience of Meaning in Life
Coherence and the Conjunction Fallacy
Entertainment Contributes to Adaptive Coping
Is There an Easy Path to Eudaimonia? Novel Insights on the Dual-process Perspective in Media Entertainment
The Sources of Meaning and Meaning in Life (SoMe) questionnaire in Finnish
Building Bridges, Forging New Frontiers
The Interplay Between Meaning and Sacred Awareness in Everyday Life
Sad music as a means for acceptance-based coping
Revisiting Redemption
Metaphors can give life meaning
The Emergence of Meaning From Meaningful Moments in Life
Where, O death, is thy sting? The meaning-providing function of beliefs in literal immortality
What do people find most meaningful? How representations of the self and the world provide meaning in life
How does meaning in life predict proactive coping? The self‐regulatory mechanism on emotion and cognition
Dynamic interrelations among meaning in life subcomponents and their longitudinal associations with adolescent internalizing problems
The importance of meaning in the relationship between religion and death
Understanding the evolutionary origins of positive psychology and religious growth
On the conflation of purpose and meaning in life
Unlocking Coherence
Meaningful outrage
Heroism and the Pursuit of a Meaningful Life
Meaning in Life, Self-Control, Positive and Negative Affect
Experiential appreciation as a pathway to meaning in life
Ethical leaders' search for meaning
Experiences of meaningful connection in the first weeks of the Covid-19 pandemic
The principles of psychology.
Toward a psychology of being.
Positive Adjustment to Threatening Events
Ostracism
Longitudinal study of social support and meaning in life.
Some key differences between a happy life and a meaningful life
Psychological and Physical Well-Being During Unemployment
Meaning in life, anxiety, depression, and general health among smoking cessation patients
The nature of awe
Unemployment Alters the Set Point for Life Satisfaction
On boredom
On Being Rejected
Feelings-as-Information Theory
GLOMO sys
Effect of a Purpose in Life on Risk of Incident Alzheimer Disease and Mild Cognitive Impairment in Community-Dwelling Older Persons
The Meaning Maintenance Model
Perceived social isolation makes me sad
Narrative Identity
The human orbitofrontal cortex
A new look at habits and the habit-goal interface.
Judgment under Uncertainty
What Can Economists Learn from Happiness Research?
Loneliness Matters
Meaning as Magnetic Force
What Feeling Is the “Feeling of Knowing?”
The Construction of Social Judgments
Purpose in Life Is Associated With Mortality Among Community-Dwelling Older Persons
On the Perception of Incongruity
Narrative Identity Processing of Difficult Life Experiences
Lost and Found Possible Selves, Subjective Well‐Being, and Ego Development in Divorced Women
Reversing the negative psychological sequelae of exclusion
In search of meaningfulness
Beyond Surprise
Making sense of the meaning literature
Direct visual perception
Whatever happened to "What might have been"? Regrets, happiness, and maturity
Stressors Arising in Highly Valued Roles, Meaning in Life, and the Physical Health Status of Older Adults
Meaning in Life and Mortality
Stories of Life Transition
Happy, mature, and gay
Religious commitment and positive mood as information about meaning in life
Observation Reconsidered
Coming to Our Senses
Positive affect and the experience of meaning in life
It's a wonderful life
Learned helplessness in the rat
The Hard Road to the Good Life
Turn-frogs and careful-sweaters
Counterfactuals as Behavioral Primes
How do habits guide behavior? Perceived and actual triggers of habits in daily life
Pavlovian conditioning
Conditions for intuitive expertise
Approaches to personality inventory construction
Behavior
Positive affect, intuition, and feelings of meaning
Personal strivings
Mood, misattribution, and judgments of well-being
Personal projects, happiness, and meaning
Processing deficits and the mediation of positive affect in persuasion
Conflict among personal strivings
From what might have been to what must have been
Two conceptions of happiness
Thinking within the box
The meaning in life questionnaire
The structure and properties of the sense of coherence scale
Intuition
Asymmetrical effects of positive and negative events
Counterfactual thinking
Boredom and social meaning
| Unique citing works | 66 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 6 |
| Citation span | 2015 - 2026 (12) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 60 |