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Meanings of Life
Who among us has not at some point asked, ``what is the meaning of life?'' In this extraordinary book, an eminent social scientist looks at the big picture and explores what empirical studies from diverse fields tell us about the human condition. MEANINGS OF LIFE draws together evidence from psychology, history, anthropology, and sociology, integrating copious research findings into a clear and conclusive discussion of how people attempt to make sense of their lives. In a lively and accessible style, emphasizing facts over theories, Baumeister explores why people desire meaning in their lives, how these meanings function, what forms they take, and what happens when life loses meaning. It is the most comprehensive examination of the topic to date.
426 pages, Paperback
First published August 9, 1991
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884 people want to read
About the author
Roy F. Baumeister
82 books463 followersDr. Roy F. Baumeister is Social Psychology Area Director and Francis Eppes Eminent Scholar at Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida. He is a social psychologist who is known for his work on the self, social rejection, belongingness, sexuality, self-control, self-esteem, self-defeating behaviors, motivation, and aggression. And enduring theme of his work is "why people do stupid things." He has authored over 300 publications and has written or co-written over 20 books.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
April 13, 2014
For those who don't know, Roy Baumeister is one of the most prolific social psychologists in the field. He's written on numerous and diverse topics and is extremely well-regarded by his peers. This was a longer, dryer book than the other book of his I've read (his book on unrequited love) but nevertheless was a very interesting read. I feel I learned a lot and was, once again, impressed by his breadth and depth of knowledge.
It's not a light read, nor a quick one. And it has a lot more discussion of history than is typical (in my experience) of books that social psychologists write for lay audiences. It made a great sabbatical read, though, even if took me I don't know how many years to get to it (it's been on my shelf forever). Well worth the time it took to read it.
It's not a light read, nor a quick one. And it has a lot more discussion of history than is typical (in my experience) of books that social psychologists write for lay audiences. It made a great sabbatical read, though, even if took me I don't know how many years to get to it (it's been on my shelf forever). Well worth the time it took to read it.
January 30, 2021
There's no meaning of life 'per se', but there's a meaning on individual life.
No matter how much you'll discuss this topic, you will never find a satisfying solution other than your perception of life; none know what is life and even if we had this answer we wouldn't want to know it, that's the mystery of it.
I guess that the answer, if there's any, relays in the experience of life, which is the ultimate and the most 'sophisticated' philosophy, one which is still denied even by our modern thinkers.
No matter how much you'll discuss this topic, you will never find a satisfying solution other than your perception of life; none know what is life and even if we had this answer we wouldn't want to know it, that's the mystery of it.
I guess that the answer, if there's any, relays in the experience of life, which is the ultimate and the most 'sophisticated' philosophy, one which is still denied even by our modern thinkers.
March 9, 2020
Baumeister's a total gun. I guess I went into this book, with the approach "what are some meanings I might discover in my life" And I got things like "often when middle aged men find the anticipated rewards of career success aren't bringing lasting fulfilment they change the focus of their attention to family and community"
people have a day to day plan, but often no coherent life story, which bums them out.
"In theory, a meaning of life is an interpretive construct that pulls to all the actions of someone's life and their consequences. In practice, life is a hodgepodge of inconsistency, false starts, changed plans, loose ends mutually irrelevant projects."
It's like he articulates the "situation" really darn well, then strategies or suggestions are vanishingly rare. does he not feel the pull? perhaps I was asking the wrong questions.
people have a day to day plan, but often no coherent life story, which bums them out.
"In theory, a meaning of life is an interpretive construct that pulls to all the actions of someone's life and their consequences. In practice, life is a hodgepodge of inconsistency, false starts, changed plans, loose ends mutually irrelevant projects."
It's like he articulates the "situation" really darn well, then strategies or suggestions are vanishingly rare. does he not feel the pull? perhaps I was asking the wrong questions.
July 8, 2014
This book drew me into Roy's work. A fascinating theory of what brings one a sense of meaningfulness. Although published in 1991, the views presented here are more important than ever in the growing science of well-being; an answer to many paradoxes of happiness.
March 11, 2023
The American life expectancy is in decline. There are rising rates of suicide among teens and adults, as well as high death rates by opiates and alcohol. This phenomenon is attributed in part to the loss of meaning. Growing numbers of people feel life isn’t worth living.
This book, Meanings of Life, is more timely now than when it was published more than three decades ago. Once we understand where people find meaning, we should find illumination about which sources of meaning are weak or absent in the 2020s.
It’s an ambitious book about a broad topic, written by a prominent psychologist with a deep knowledge of social science research. Roy F. Baumeister breaks down the big topic into bite-sized pieces to make them accessible to readers without PhDs in philosophy. This is not a philosophy book proposing a theory about how human beings should find meaning. Instead, it’s a book based upon the research about how we find meaning, or fail to do so.
Baumeister assumes that people have a need for life to make sense in certain ways, even if most moderns have no well-developed philosophy of life. The modern uncertainty about life’s ultimate meaning is related to the lack of consensus about fundamental values. Baumeister asserts there are four basic needs for meaning: purpose, value, efficacy, and self-worth. These provide a framework for how we make sense of our lives.
Purpose provides a goal for our behavior; it gives meaning to our activities. Value or justification is what we want our actions to have; people want to know that their life has true value. We seek to justify our behavior, even when our acts are considered immoral. We have a strong need for justification. Modernization tends to destroy traditional sources of values that clearly distinguished right from wrong, namely religion, morality and tradition. “Modern values are in a state of chaos...The value gap is a pervasive problem for modern society.”
The self or “intensified individualism” has become the basis for replacing lost values. The sense of selfhood or personal identity has expanded from earlier generations. The decline in a social consensus about morality leaves value issues up to individuals. “In the absence of any objectifiable criteria of right and wrong, good or evil, the self and its feelings become our only moral guide,” writes Robert Bellah. Morality used to act as a restraint upon self-interest in favor of the common good. When individuals construct their own morality, however, it is easier to justify pursuing self-interest even at the expense of others.
Efficacy is our desire to have some control over events and to make a difference. It’s the sense that we have some capability to achieve our goals. We feel efficacy by meeting challenges. The sense of control may be a matter of perception rather than reality. For example, people have far more confidence in lottery tickets when they pick the numbers as opposed to randomly picked numbers. People overestimate how much control they have over a successful outcome.
When people and many animals feel they have no control over stressful situations, they suffer more health problems from the stress than when they feel they have some control, even if the feeling is illusory. When we lose some control, we try to reassert it. Consistent absence of control leads to learned helplessness.
Self-worth means the belief that one has value, respects oneself, and gets respect from others. In practice, this typically means feeling superior to others. Without the strict social hierarchies as in past societies, the modern person’s self-worth is less firmly established and is subject to renegotiation. We regularly make downward comparisons, and often find comfort in finding others worse off than ourselves.
When people suffer the loss of one source of meaning, they tend to rely more upon their other sources, rather than immediately seeking new sources. It is clear that people need a sense of purpose in their lives. While life is constantly changing, we want our meaning to have a sense of stability and permanence.
Work helps to satisfy our needs for efficacy and purpose, though not for value/justification. To those who see their work as just a job, it does not seem very meaningful. Those who see work as a career, however, use it for recognition, status and meaning. Careers are one of the most effective sources of self-worth and meaning.
Love relationships are another source of meaning, purpose and value. In modern society, interpersonal relationships are what people are most likely to cite as a vital source of meaning. In most cultures of the past, the primary family bond was between parents and children. This was when the economic and political functions of the family were paramount. In modern times, however, the paramount relationship is between spouses. The main family functions are to provide intimacy, self-expression and communication.
Children are a source of meaning in life, as well as offering a sense of satisfaction and joy. Ironically, the couple’s happiness level drops when the first child is born, and does not rise to the previous level until the couple becomes empty nesters. Nevertheless, parents feel they made a difference in the lives of their children, even if that difference tends to be exaggerated. Older people generally find great satisfaction in their relationships with offspring and grandchildren. In short, parenthood is a significant source of value and fulfillment.
Religion is another major source of meaning in life, “but apparently people can get those same types of meaning elsewhere,” writes Baumeister. “Religion may not always be the best way to make life meaningful, but it is probably the most reliable way.” It can potentially satisfy all four needs for meaning.
Religion satisfies efficacy by helping things make sense. Nonetheless, participation in religious institutions is in sharp decline in Europe, Canada and the U.S. When things make sense, suffering is reduced when people see it linked to desirable future events. Religion responds to the human need for belonging. People who make strong relationships within the religious group tend to stay in the group. In fact, relationships matter more than doctrine.
“Efficacy is the feeling of having control over one’s world.” Religions typically promise to help believers exert some control by influencing the deity to intervene in the natural world, such as helping to heal disease or an army to win a war. Belief in this teaching can satisfy the need for efficacy. The claim that religion produces such influence, however, is subject to scientific testing and disproof, as has happened with the belief that Christian prayer for the sick helps their recovery.
Self-worth is another need that religion can satisfy. For example, Jews once believed they were God’s chosen people and thus superior to the rest of humanity. Most religions teach that they alone have the truth, while believers in other doctrines are condemned. There is evidence that slaves found self-worth in religion. The decline of religion may make it more difficult for many to find meaning.
Purpose and happiness are related. “Feeling that one’s life has meaning…is a centrally important aspect of happiness, seeming to affect one’s satisfaction with almost every aspect of life.” Self-esteem is a powerful predictor of happiness. Efficacy, or feeling in control of one’s life, is also related to happiness. Ironically, depressed people tend to have a more accurate assessment of how much control they have than do non-depressed people.
While people who feel their lives have meaning are happier, people who lack meaning are unhappier. A common response to suffering is to find meaning in it. When suffering has meaning, it seems more tolerable than when it doesn’t. “The context of suffering is crucial to its impact.” We cope better when we find explanations, which may include religious beliefs, than when we don’t. That’s why suffering leads to a search for a meaningful context. “Unanticipated bereavement is more difficult than anticipated bereavement, probably because the search for meaning is delayed.”
We seek meaningful interpretations of painful events to help us cope.
In the face of death, people turn to comforting illusions. The belief in life after death, for example, may have started as long ago as 50,000 BC. Because we have the desire to believe, the lack of objective evidence does not matter. That belief makes life more pleasant and bearable. We embrace the illusion of false permanence because we want things to be permanent. We don’t want to lose the meaningfulness of life, so we find some positive meaning in death. Christians make death into a positive because it means entering heaven for eternity.
When we lose one source of meaning, we seek to fill the vacuum with another. It is almost as if human beings are addicted to meaning. Meaning is a way to impose stability on the impermanence of life. We prefer comforting illusions to harsh reality.
After reading this book, the reader can better understand the current epidemic of meaninglessness affecting growing numbers of Americans. Religious involvement has declined sharply during the past three decades. There is less stability in employment, and a higher proportion of low-paying jobs than there used to be. The marriage rate and the birth rate are at record lows. There is less agreement on basic values. In short, sources of meaning that satisfied Americans during the Twentieth Century are less available today. Failing to find new sources of meaning can lead to depression, meaninglessness, and death. -30-
This book, Meanings of Life, is more timely now than when it was published more than three decades ago. Once we understand where people find meaning, we should find illumination about which sources of meaning are weak or absent in the 2020s.
It’s an ambitious book about a broad topic, written by a prominent psychologist with a deep knowledge of social science research. Roy F. Baumeister breaks down the big topic into bite-sized pieces to make them accessible to readers without PhDs in philosophy. This is not a philosophy book proposing a theory about how human beings should find meaning. Instead, it’s a book based upon the research about how we find meaning, or fail to do so.
Baumeister assumes that people have a need for life to make sense in certain ways, even if most moderns have no well-developed philosophy of life. The modern uncertainty about life’s ultimate meaning is related to the lack of consensus about fundamental values. Baumeister asserts there are four basic needs for meaning: purpose, value, efficacy, and self-worth. These provide a framework for how we make sense of our lives.
Purpose provides a goal for our behavior; it gives meaning to our activities. Value or justification is what we want our actions to have; people want to know that their life has true value. We seek to justify our behavior, even when our acts are considered immoral. We have a strong need for justification. Modernization tends to destroy traditional sources of values that clearly distinguished right from wrong, namely religion, morality and tradition. “Modern values are in a state of chaos...The value gap is a pervasive problem for modern society.”
The self or “intensified individualism” has become the basis for replacing lost values. The sense of selfhood or personal identity has expanded from earlier generations. The decline in a social consensus about morality leaves value issues up to individuals. “In the absence of any objectifiable criteria of right and wrong, good or evil, the self and its feelings become our only moral guide,” writes Robert Bellah. Morality used to act as a restraint upon self-interest in favor of the common good. When individuals construct their own morality, however, it is easier to justify pursuing self-interest even at the expense of others.
Efficacy is our desire to have some control over events and to make a difference. It’s the sense that we have some capability to achieve our goals. We feel efficacy by meeting challenges. The sense of control may be a matter of perception rather than reality. For example, people have far more confidence in lottery tickets when they pick the numbers as opposed to randomly picked numbers. People overestimate how much control they have over a successful outcome.
When people and many animals feel they have no control over stressful situations, they suffer more health problems from the stress than when they feel they have some control, even if the feeling is illusory. When we lose some control, we try to reassert it. Consistent absence of control leads to learned helplessness.
Self-worth means the belief that one has value, respects oneself, and gets respect from others. In practice, this typically means feeling superior to others. Without the strict social hierarchies as in past societies, the modern person’s self-worth is less firmly established and is subject to renegotiation. We regularly make downward comparisons, and often find comfort in finding others worse off than ourselves.
When people suffer the loss of one source of meaning, they tend to rely more upon their other sources, rather than immediately seeking new sources. It is clear that people need a sense of purpose in their lives. While life is constantly changing, we want our meaning to have a sense of stability and permanence.
Work helps to satisfy our needs for efficacy and purpose, though not for value/justification. To those who see their work as just a job, it does not seem very meaningful. Those who see work as a career, however, use it for recognition, status and meaning. Careers are one of the most effective sources of self-worth and meaning.
Love relationships are another source of meaning, purpose and value. In modern society, interpersonal relationships are what people are most likely to cite as a vital source of meaning. In most cultures of the past, the primary family bond was between parents and children. This was when the economic and political functions of the family were paramount. In modern times, however, the paramount relationship is between spouses. The main family functions are to provide intimacy, self-expression and communication.
Children are a source of meaning in life, as well as offering a sense of satisfaction and joy. Ironically, the couple’s happiness level drops when the first child is born, and does not rise to the previous level until the couple becomes empty nesters. Nevertheless, parents feel they made a difference in the lives of their children, even if that difference tends to be exaggerated. Older people generally find great satisfaction in their relationships with offspring and grandchildren. In short, parenthood is a significant source of value and fulfillment.
Religion is another major source of meaning in life, “but apparently people can get those same types of meaning elsewhere,” writes Baumeister. “Religion may not always be the best way to make life meaningful, but it is probably the most reliable way.” It can potentially satisfy all four needs for meaning.
Religion satisfies efficacy by helping things make sense. Nonetheless, participation in religious institutions is in sharp decline in Europe, Canada and the U.S. When things make sense, suffering is reduced when people see it linked to desirable future events. Religion responds to the human need for belonging. People who make strong relationships within the religious group tend to stay in the group. In fact, relationships matter more than doctrine.
“Efficacy is the feeling of having control over one’s world.” Religions typically promise to help believers exert some control by influencing the deity to intervene in the natural world, such as helping to heal disease or an army to win a war. Belief in this teaching can satisfy the need for efficacy. The claim that religion produces such influence, however, is subject to scientific testing and disproof, as has happened with the belief that Christian prayer for the sick helps their recovery.
Self-worth is another need that religion can satisfy. For example, Jews once believed they were God’s chosen people and thus superior to the rest of humanity. Most religions teach that they alone have the truth, while believers in other doctrines are condemned. There is evidence that slaves found self-worth in religion. The decline of religion may make it more difficult for many to find meaning.
Purpose and happiness are related. “Feeling that one’s life has meaning…is a centrally important aspect of happiness, seeming to affect one’s satisfaction with almost every aspect of life.” Self-esteem is a powerful predictor of happiness. Efficacy, or feeling in control of one’s life, is also related to happiness. Ironically, depressed people tend to have a more accurate assessment of how much control they have than do non-depressed people.
While people who feel their lives have meaning are happier, people who lack meaning are unhappier. A common response to suffering is to find meaning in it. When suffering has meaning, it seems more tolerable than when it doesn’t. “The context of suffering is crucial to its impact.” We cope better when we find explanations, which may include religious beliefs, than when we don’t. That’s why suffering leads to a search for a meaningful context. “Unanticipated bereavement is more difficult than anticipated bereavement, probably because the search for meaning is delayed.”
We seek meaningful interpretations of painful events to help us cope.
In the face of death, people turn to comforting illusions. The belief in life after death, for example, may have started as long ago as 50,000 BC. Because we have the desire to believe, the lack of objective evidence does not matter. That belief makes life more pleasant and bearable. We embrace the illusion of false permanence because we want things to be permanent. We don’t want to lose the meaningfulness of life, so we find some positive meaning in death. Christians make death into a positive because it means entering heaven for eternity.
When we lose one source of meaning, we seek to fill the vacuum with another. It is almost as if human beings are addicted to meaning. Meaning is a way to impose stability on the impermanence of life. We prefer comforting illusions to harsh reality.
After reading this book, the reader can better understand the current epidemic of meaninglessness affecting growing numbers of Americans. Religious involvement has declined sharply during the past three decades. There is less stability in employment, and a higher proportion of low-paying jobs than there used to be. The marriage rate and the birth rate are at record lows. There is less agreement on basic values. In short, sources of meaning that satisfied Americans during the Twentieth Century are less available today. Failing to find new sources of meaning can lead to depression, meaninglessness, and death. -30-
November 17, 2020
Baumeister writes long and detailed books. This one is no exception. There is so much in this book that it could keep one busy for a very long time working it through for oneself. He comes at the question from a psychologist point of view and with his scientific tool kit he brings out all the important elements of meaning, such as purpose, self worth, efficacy, value. He discusses the battle between modern times obsession with self / personal identify and Values. How this conflict creates a value gap that is critical to the understanding of meaning. A very good book.
April 27, 2014
Pros:
Very interesting subject to cover.
Identifies the major sources of meaning in life
Attempts to bring evidence from several previous studies in drawing conclusions.
Cons:
Lack of a solid structure. Ideas are not centralized enough.
Too many generalities expressed (major drawback).
The writing style is not rigorous enough.
Contains parts with no connection to the central topic (ex: why women from the Victorian age did not like sex).
Very interesting subject to cover.
Identifies the major sources of meaning in life
Attempts to bring evidence from several previous studies in drawing conclusions.
Cons:
Lack of a solid structure. Ideas are not centralized enough.
Too many generalities expressed (major drawback).
The writing style is not rigorous enough.
Contains parts with no connection to the central topic (ex: why women from the Victorian age did not like sex).
December 22, 2024
Reading such a book on Sunday morning cancelled my lunch.
A couple of postdoc said life is meaningless, they enjoyed making pancakes on the street.
This book said desperate people in urgent need has meaningless life. But considering life meaning steps back ft the moment and see it in a long range context. Feeling good about myself 😄, but being poor drives me back a bit.
Talk about the need of self-esteem, self-explanation, and try to realise it with work, marriage, religion. Finally destroyed by changing parents, divorce, death…
This is so comprehensive talking about this topic. Interesting to read. Although don’t solve much problems.
My opinion is although we seed meaning in life conscientiously, occasional things can make your calculations all wasted. A low salary empowers saving of 10 pounds each day a giant success, which to a richer person means nothing.
The terrorists murdered so many innocent people on German Christmas markets, he must has high self esteem and the people who are killed are robbed of all meaning of life suddenly, compared to elders who choose euthanasia for control of death…
So, all is about meaning of life.
A couple of postdoc said life is meaningless, they enjoyed making pancakes on the street.
This book said desperate people in urgent need has meaningless life. But considering life meaning steps back ft the moment and see it in a long range context. Feeling good about myself 😄, but being poor drives me back a bit.
Talk about the need of self-esteem, self-explanation, and try to realise it with work, marriage, religion. Finally destroyed by changing parents, divorce, death…
This is so comprehensive talking about this topic. Interesting to read. Although don’t solve much problems.
My opinion is although we seed meaning in life conscientiously, occasional things can make your calculations all wasted. A low salary empowers saving of 10 pounds each day a giant success, which to a richer person means nothing.
The terrorists murdered so many innocent people on German Christmas markets, he must has high self esteem and the people who are killed are robbed of all meaning of life suddenly, compared to elders who choose euthanasia for control of death…
So, all is about meaning of life.
August 17, 2015
One of the best psychological book I've ever read.
La confluenta dintre istorie, filosofie si psihologie, o carte argumentata, bazata pe cercetare, foarte interesanta si utila in auto-cunoastere si/sau terapie.
Nivel de dificultate destul de ridicat (a nu se citi seara-n pat inainte de culcare :) )
La confluenta dintre istorie, filosofie si psihologie, o carte argumentata, bazata pe cercetare, foarte interesanta si utila in auto-cunoastere si/sau terapie.
Nivel de dificultate destul de ridicat (a nu se citi seara-n pat inainte de culcare :) )
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews