The Psychology of Meaning

From moral philosophy and existentialism to the clinical realm of psychotherapy, The Psychology of Meaning explores the multifaceted nature of this highly subjective construct.

Contributors to this groundbreaking edited volume examine not only the many phenomenological aspects of meaning, but also the clinical aspects of people’s reactions to the loss of meaning, to uncertainty, and to meaning violations—when things that were once central to one’s life no longer make much sense. Divided into five parts, the book’s final section contains chapters on how neurocognitive mechanisms compensate for meaning violations. The book’s concluding chapter addresses how psychotherapy can help restore meaning in the face of persistent meaning violations.

The Psychology of Meaning is an ideal course adoption for students in introductory or applied social psychology courses, and also for clinicians specializing in existential-humanistic psychotherapy.

Keith D. Markman, PhD, is an associate professor of psychology at Ohio University, where he is a member of the social judgment and behavioral decision-making program.

Dr. Markman received his doctorate in 1994 at Indiana University and completed a 3-year postdoctoral fellowship at The Ohio State University. He conducts research in the areas of counterfactual thinking, creativity, and psychological momentum and has published over 40 articles and book chapters in these areas.

Dr. Markman is currently an associate editor of Social and Personality Psychology Compass, was nominated for the 2003 Theoretical Innovation Prize in social and personality psychology, and won the Outstanding Junior Faculty Award at Ohio University in 2004. His edited volume, The Handbook of Imagination and Mental Simulation, was published in 2009.

Travis Proulx, PhD, is an assistant professor in the Department of Social Psychology at Tilburg University's School of Social and Behavioral Sciences in Tilburg, Netherlands.

Dr. Proulx received a master's degree in interdisciplinary studies at the University of British Columbia and went on to receive a doctorate in developmental psychology. He subsequently completed a postdoctoral fellowship in social psychology at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Drawing from these diverse perspectives, Dr. Proulx has worked in collaboration on the meaning maintenance model — a discipline-spanning framework that offers an integrated account of inconsistency compensation phenomena. His research focuses on the common ways that people respond to a wide array of meaning violations, ranging from absurdist humor to the absurdity of human mortality.

Matthew J. Lindberg, PhD, is a visiting researcher in the Department of Psychological Sciences at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio.

Dr. Lindberg received his doctorate in 2010 at Ohio University and subsequently joined the Department of Psychology at Fayetteville State University as an assistant professor. His research focuses on how people think about the world and people around them, and how such thoughts affect their emotions, motivations, and behaviors.

Dr. Lindberg has conducted research on counterfactual thinking, creativity, meaning, conscious and unconscious thinking, and jury decision-making.

Contributors

Introduction: The New Science of Meaning
Travis Proulx, Keith D. Markman, and Matthew J. Lindberg

I. The Architecture of Meaning

Three Forms of Meaning and the Management of Complexity
Jordan B. Peterson
An Edifice for Enduring Personal Value: A Terror Management Perspective on the Human Quest for Multilevel Meaning
Jamie Arndt, Mark J. Landau, Kenneth E. Vail III, and Matthew Vess
Beyond Mortality and the Self: Meaning Makes a Comeback
Travis Proulx

II. Epistemic Understanding

Truth Motivation
E. Tory Higgins
Lay Theories of Personality as Cornerstones of Meaning
Caitlin M. Burton and Jason E. Plaks
Making Meaning by Seeing Human
Adam Waytz

III. Teleological Understanding: A Guide for Living

Autobiographical Memory and the Creation of Meaning From Personally Experienced Events
W. Richard Walker and John J. Skowronski
How Actors, Agents, and Authors Find Meaning in Life
Dan P. McAdams
Meaning and Morality: A Natural Coupling
Ronnie Janoff-Bulman
Wrestling With Our Better Selves: The Search for Meaning in Life
Michael F. Steger

IV. Teleological Understanding: Explanations for Events

Searching for and Finding Meaning Following Personal and Collective Traumas
Roxane Cohen Silver and John A. Updegraff
Spirituality and Meaning Making in Cancer Survivorship
Crystal L. Park
Finding Silver Linings: Meaning Making as a Compensatory Response to Negative Experiences
Joanna E. Anderson, Aaron C. Kay, and Gráinne M. Fitzsimons
Finding Meaning in One's Past: Nostalgia as an Existential Resource
Clay Routledge, Constantine Sedikides, Tim Wildschut, and Jacob Juhl
Twists of Fate: Moments in Time and What Might Have Been in the Emergence of Meaning
Laura J. Kray, Hal E. Hershfield, Linda G. George, and Adam D. Galinsky
"It Was Meant to Be": Retrospective Meaning Construction Through Mental Simulation
Matthew J. Lindberg, Keith D. Markman, and Hyeman Choi

V. Restoring Meaning

Meaning Making Following Activation of the Behavioral Inhibition System: How Caring Less About What Others Think May Help Us to Make Sense of What Is Going on
Kees van den Bos
The Embodiment of Meaning Violations
Sarah S. M. Townsend, Dina Eliezer, and Brenda Major
Neural and Motivational Mechanics of Meaning and Threat
Alexa M. Tullett, Mike S. Prentice, Rimma Teper, Kyle A. Nash, Michael Inzlicht, and Ian McGregor
Still a Thrill: Meaning Making and the Pleasures of Uncertainty
Timothy D. Wilson, Dieynaba G. Ndiaye, Cheryl Hahn, and Daniel T. Gilbert
What Makes Life Meaningful: Positive Mood Works in a Pinch
Marc Halusic and Laura A. King
Psychotherapy and the Restoration of Meaning: Existential Philosophy in Clinical Practice
Peter Zafirides, Keith D. Markman, Travis Proulx, and Matthew J. Lindberg

Index

About the Editors

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The Psychology of Meaning

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials