Character and Meaning

The beautiful synergy between character development and meaning in life.

What is a life well lived? In my Columbia course “The Science of Living Well” I focus on Aristotle’s notion of “eudaimonia”, which I interpret to mean self-actualization as achieved through the development of one’s creative potential and the cultivation of virtue. I believe that focusing on eudaimonia is what gives us a sense of a life well lived— that our life was really meaningful.

Surprisingly, there is a lack of really rigorous research on the link between the development of strengths and meaning in life. Experiencing life as meaningful is a fundamental human need. In recent decades there has been a substantial increase in research showing that meaning in life is critical for well-being and navigating life’s many uncertainties. What’s more, researchers have started distinguishing between three different meanings of meaning: comprehensibility/coherence, purpose, and mattering/significance.

Comprehensibility/coherence centers around the need to make sense of life experiences and find ways to make them comprehensible. People with a strong sense of coherence feel that their regular environment makes sense. This is tied to the need for safety and the predictability and chaotic nature of the environment. If things are too unpredictable (such as an in harsh environments with food insecurity and violence in the environment) there is a low sense of coherence.

Purpose refers to the need for people to feel that their lives are being directed and motivated by a higher valued life goal or dream. With purpose there is an energy oriented toward the future, usually with a specific “top-level goal” in mind.

Mattering/significance is the most existential of the trio, and involves the perceived worth and value of one’s life. People with a high feeling of significance/mattering believe their existence holds importance and value and that their presence has a long-lasting impact.

Character and Meaning

A new paper by positive psychologist Pninit Russo-Netzer and colleagues brings it all together, looking at the beautiful synergy between character development and different forms of meaning. They used a vast and diverse sample and focused on 24 character strengths that positive psychologists study (take the free test here):

In their first analysis they found that all character strengths were strongly correlated with an overall sense of meaning in life. This suggests that the utilization of any of these strengths can probably increase your overall sense of meaning in life. However, the character strengths that showed the highest correlations with total meaning were hope, spirituality, gratitude, zest, and curiosity. This is close to what I found in my own earlier analysis, especially the hope and gratitude dimensions.

For the different dimensions, some character strengths alined with all three forms of meaning while others were uniquely strong for one dimension. This graph shows the percentage of participants selecting each of the character strengths for the three types of meaning:

Interestingly, love was found to be the character strength aligned with all three pathways of meaning in life. This reflects the centrality of love to the experience of meaning in life. As Erich Fromm put it in his amazing book “The Art of Loving”, “love is the only sane and satisfactory answer to the problem of human existence.”

There were also unique effects. The five most frequently selected strengths which were correlated with a sense of comprehension/coherence were love, kindness, perspective, curiosity, and spirituality. The five most frequent strengths which facilitated a sense of purpose were perseverance, love of learning, curiosity, love, and hope. The five most frequent strengths which facilitated a sense of significance/mattering were love, kindness, spirituality, perspective, and hope.

The researchers conclude:

“Taking the character strengths and tripartite elements of meaning together, we suggest that, in order to optimally make sense of the world, feel that one’s existence is of significance, and pursue purpose-driven goals, people might need to turn deep within, up and beyond, and sideways and interconnectedly in their life meaning journey.”

This interesting language is tied to an excellent paper by psychologists Ofra Mayseless and Pninit Russo-Netzer outlining a “vision for the farther reaches of spirituality”. In their paper the researchers suggest three related “spatial” facets are important for spiritual development:

(1) Deep within: Relating to our capacity to act in a harmonious and balanced way, being at peace with our “authentic” self.

(2) Up and beyond: Relating to our capacity to connect our physical and personal existence to the ideal, the ultimate, the sacred, the eternal, and the divine or transcendent in a sphere that lies outside the confines of space and time. These kind of growth processes are often expressed as a sense of security, bliss, joy, awe, and gratitude.

(3) Sideways and interconnected: Relating to our spiritual capacity to experience our interconnectedness to all that exists. This includes our connectedness to other people and our capacity to feel embedded within a community in a way that transcends our differences and yet respects them and to feel connected and responsible to all humankind and to all living things.

The psychologists underscore the importance of alignment and harmony among the three facets and the nonlinear and endless nature of this developmental process of becoming. The scholars argue that this developmental process contributes to a sense of “inner personal wholeness”, a quality that is never fully achievable but which involves a sense of inner peace, integrity, and harmony; closeness to one’s authentic self; a sense of “being held”; gratitude; a compassionate and caring stance; and a sense of meaning and purpose in life. Critically, they argue that inner wholeness may lead to outer wholeness, among individuals and among social groups.

Gender and Age Trends

Back to the main study. They also found significant gender differences and age trends. For the three dimensions of meaning, women were significantly higher in selecting traditional heart-based strengths (e.g., love, kindness, gratitude) while men were significantly higher in choosing traditional mind-oriented strengths (e.g., judgment, honesty, prudence). As the authors of the study point out, “these patterns appear to align with traditional gender roles relating to women and emotions/heart and men and thinking/mind. Perhaps this indicates the preferences to explore perceptions of meaning per one’s default toward mind or heart.”

The differences for women also align with the results of a 2017 meta-analysis of gender differences in character strengths that revealed only four differences, which were all in favor of women being higher than men in terms of selecting love, kindness, gratitude, and appreciation of beauty. The authors write, “Future studies should aim to further unpack these differential trends between men and women in their salient character strengths in relation to the three meaning components.”

Age trends were also found. Age trends showed an increase over the years for spirituality, love of learning, and gratitude for the coherence pathway. According to the authors, “this indicates an ongoing quest for learning, a seeking of the sacred in life and trying to make more sense of the universe, and an appreciation for life that grows over time.”

For purpose, they found an increase over the years in love of learning, spirituality, and fairness, showing “the importance of valued life goals involving growth in learning, an inclusiveness of others, and connections outside oneself.” Interestingly, they found a decrease in hope and bravery over the years for purpose, perhaps reflecting a decrease in “willingness to take risks and move out of one’s comfort zone and less hopefulness about the diminishing future.”

For significance, spirituality and fairness increased through the lifetime “showing, again, the crucial role of the pursuit of or communing with the sacred for meaning-making. The trend for increases in fairness indicates a pursuit of a more emotional meaning—a mattering—and that the pursuit and expression of fairness and justice is important for mattering.”

I found it interesting that when comparing the three components of meaning in life, they found that purpose was the most important, irrespectively of the character strength selected.

Conclusions

These findings clearly show that there is a strong link between character development and meaning in life. A recent focus in positive psychology on the mindful development of character emphasizes the bidirectional nature of character development and meaning, what Ruo-Netzer and colleagues call “life meaning synergy.” Interventions by Ryan Niemic and others in the field of positive psychology have been proposed to increase this synergy, and I personally think they should be implemented in a thoughtful, science-backed way in K-12 (and of course beyond!).

What are your top character strengths? How can you use your strengths in new and challenging ways to find greater meaning in life? Let me know in the comments!