-
![]()
When we think about lives filled with meaning, we often focus on people whose
grand contributions benefited humanity. Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Jr., and
壮な
Nelson Mandela surely felt they had a worthwhile life. However, how about us ordinary
people?
Many scholars agree that a subjectively meaningful existence often boils down to
主観的に
(a)
three factors: the feeling that one's life is coherent and “makes sense,” the possession of
clear and satisfying long-term goals, and the belief that one's life matters in the grand
信念
scheme of things. Psychologists call these three things coherence, purpose, and
(1)
existential mattering.
存在に関する な
However, we believe that there is another element to consider. Think about the first
butterfly you stop to admire after a long winter, or imagine the scenery on top of a hill
after a fresh hike. Sometimes existence delivers us small moments of beauty. When
S
people are open to appreciating such experiences, these moments may enhance how they
=4
view their life. We call this element experiential appreciation. The phenomenon reflects
感謝価値評価
the feeling of a deep connection to events as they occur and the ability to extract value
抽出する.
V
from that link. It represents the detection of and admiration for life's inherent beauty.
発
(b) 本来備わっている。
We recently set out to better understand this form of appreciation in a series of
studies that involved more than 3,000 participants. Across these studies, we were
interested in whether experiential appreciation was related to a person's sense of
meaning even when we accounted for the effects of the classic trio of coherence,
purpose, and existential mattering. If so, experiential appreciation could be a unique
(c)
contributor to meaningfulness and not simply a product of these other variables.
変数の産物
As an initial test of our idea, during the early stages of the COVID pandemic, we
had participants rate to what extent they agreed with different coping strategies to
対処方法
relieve their stress. We found that people who managed stress by focusing on their
Avent
appreciation for life's beauty also reported experiencing life as highly meaningful. In
感謝
- 1 -
有意義
