ABSTRACT
The previous edition of The Human Quest for Meaning arrived at a watershed moment for meaning-in-life research. Appearing in the same year as Ryff and Singer’s (1998) influential treatise on psychological well-being (Ryff and Singer also contributed to The Human Quest for Meaning), the two contributions set the stage for innovative, rigorous, mainstreamed, and revitalized empirical inquiry into the nature, origins, and consequences of people’s beliefs that their lives are meaningful. Exciting research now is building on a foundation of four decades of work. This body of foundational research is the focus of this chapter. Meaning, by its very nature, appears to be an integrating factor in people’s lives, drawing together the threads of their efforts to achieve happiness, withstand distress, and attain transcendence beyond their solitary selves (Steger, 2009). In a parallel fashion, this chapter focuses on providing an overview and a conceptual framework for viewing what the field has learned about the well-being, psychopathology, and spirituality correlates of meaning in life.
