The subjective quality of episodic future thought and the experience of meaning in life

Vess, Matthew; Hoeldtke, Russell T.; Leal, Stepanie A.; Sanders, Courtney S.; Hicks, Joshua A.

doi:10.1080/17439760.2017.1291851

Cited by 12 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…No published research, to my knowledge, has explored the relationship between aspects of authenticity and mental time travel. However, given that mental time travel underlies important aspects of psychological health (Philippe, Koestner, Beaulieu-Pelletier, Lecours, & Lekes, 2012; Vess, Hoeldtke, Leal, Sanders, & Hicks, 2018), exploring this possibility may inform basic understanding of subjective true self-awareness and practical issues surrounding human health and functioning.…”

Section: Subjective True Self-awareness: New Directions and Lingeringmentioning

confidence: 99%

Varieties of Conscious Experience and the Subjective Awareness of One’s “True” Self

Vess

2019

Review of General Psychology

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The subjective awareness of one's true self is considered a fundamental aspect of authenticity. It is theorized to reflect an experienced disconnect between one's conscious awareness and actual experiences. In this brief review, I describe some of the early theorizing on the construct and the research that this theorizing has inspired. I then review an emerging direction of research specifically focused on the relationship between subjective feelings of being disconnected from one's true self and tendencies to become mentally detached from present experience (i.e., mindwandering). This work offers new insights into the nature of subjective true self-awareness; it elucidates for the first time how disruptions to people's ongoing mental connection to present experience relate to the experience of true self-awareness and it invites theorizing about aspects of authenticity in ways that do not require evaluations of a self-concept. I end the review by speculating on how this work might inspire new empirical and theoretical directions in the psychological study of authenticity and feelings of true self-awareness.

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Section: Subjective True Self-awareness: New Directions and Lingeringmentioning

confidence: 99%

Varieties of Conscious Experience and the Subjective Awareness of One’s “True” Self

Vess

2019

Review of General Psychology

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“…Of interest are studies on cross-cultural distinctions of life meaning (Ohbuchi et al, 1999;Woldu & Budhwar, 2011). Under investigation is the influence on meaning in life of situational variables such as prosocial behavior (Klein, 2017), visualizations of future events (Vess, Hoeldtke, Leal, Sanders, & Hicks, 2017), and income level (Ward & King, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Meaningful And Motivational Determinants Of The Scholarly Activities Of Doctoral Students

Salikhova¹

2018

The European Proceedings of Social and Behavioural Sciences

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In the conditions of reforming higher education in Russia it is important to follow how those new conditions are influencing the motivation for scholarly activity of doctoral students. In the present study, 112 doctoral students from natural science departments at Kazan University (Russia) identified the level of meaningfulness of life, satisfaction of basic psychological needs and predominance of external versus internal motivation in their academic/scholarly activity. Results showed a direct link between meaningfulness of life and basic psychological need satisfaction for autonomy, competence and relatedness, and an inverse association with internal motivation for academic/scholarly activity. Doctoral students with a lower level of meaningfulness in life showed a higher level of internal motivation for their scholarly activities and significantly lower levels of psychological need satisfaction, whereas those for whom the level was higher, motivation was more external. This suggests that the presence of goals in life, emotional fullness in life, and satisfaction with its results and control over it among the present sample of doctoral students was not associated with academic and scientific contexts. The results allow the clarification of substantial aspects of the problem of organizing education at the higher levels.

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“…Most of the current views on meaning in life seem to imply strong cognitive processes, such as reflecting, making abstraction, detecting and repairing incongruences in one's mental models of how the world works, connecting memories, experiences, and aspirations across past, present, and future (Heine, Proulx, & Vohs, 2006;Krause, 2007;Martela & Steger, 2016;Steger, 2012). In line with these theoretical ideas, some researchers have suggested that complex cognitive abilities govern the experience of meaning in life and that cognitive decline might jeopardize it (Krause, 2007;McKnight & Kashdan, 2009;Vess, Hoeldtke, Leal, Sanders, & Hicks, 2017;Wilson et al, 2013). Some evidence in support of this assumption comes from a study showing that higher functional connectivity in the medial temporal lobe of the brain was related to higher meaning in life scores (Waytz, Hershfield, & Tamir, 2015) and a study showing that working memory, perceptual speed, and semantic memory predicted declines in purpose over time (Wilson et al, 2013).…”

Section: Meaning In Life and Cognitionmentioning

confidence: 96%

What Can We Learn About the Concept of Meaning in Life from Older Adults with Alzheimer’s Disease? A Directed Content Analysis Study

et al. 2021

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Meaning in life has grown into a topic of great interest in psychological research.Conceptually, scholars differentiate between sources and components of meaning. However, the current scholarly views on meaning are highly cognitive and it is unclear to what extent they correspond with the understanding of lay people with cognitive difficulties, like those with Alzheimer's disease. Using directed content analysis, we analyzed short descriptions of meaning in life of 126 older adults with Alzheimer's disease, exploring whether the components (i.e., coherence, purpose, significance) and sources from the current literature could be identified and what additional themes emerged in their accounts. Replicating findings in other populations, family and relationships were the most prominent sources.Coherence and purpose were each described by 15% of participants, significance was almost not mentioned. We discuss the entanglement of components and sources in people's descriptions and the possibility of a connection facet underlying meaning. We provide evidence for a distinction between cognitive and felt coherence and show that many participants talked about fulfilled and purpose instead of future-oriented purpose, emphasizing the need for a developmental understanding of meaning.

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The subjective quality of episodic future thought and the experience of meaning in life

Cited by 12 publications

References 35 publications

Varieties of Conscious Experience and the Subjective Awareness of One’s “True” Self

Varieties of Conscious Experience and the Subjective Awareness of One’s “True” Self

The Meaningful And Motivational Determinants Of The Scholarly Activities Of Doctoral Students

What Can We Learn About the Concept of Meaning in Life from Older Adults with Alzheimer’s Disease? A Directed Content Analysis Study

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