Abstract
Interest in the meaningful sides of media entertainment has blossomed over the last decade, with numerous scholars examining how certain media content can enhance social good and well-being. ...Because social scientific work in this area is relatively new and is rapidly evolving, numerous conceptualizations of meaningful media experiences have been introduced. In this paper we argue for the importance of recognizing a unique form of media experience that causes us to look beyond our own concerns, to recognize moral beauty, and to feel unity with humanity and nature—what we label here as “self-transcendent media experiences.”
Despite growing interest in meaning in life, many have voiced their concern over the conceptual refinement of the construct itself. Researchers seem to have two main ways to understand what meaning ...in life means: coherence and purpose, with a third way, significance, gaining increasing attention. Coherence means a sense of comprehensibility and one's life making sense. Purpose means a sense of core goals, aims, and direction in life. Significance is about a sense of life's inherent value and having a life worth living. Although some researchers have already noted this trichotomy, the present article provides the first comprehensible theoretical overview that aims to define and pinpoint the differences and connections between these three facets of meaning. By arguing that the time is ripe to move from indiscriminate understanding of meaning into looking at these three facets separately, the article points toward a new future for research on meaning in life.
Abstract
This experiment, using excerpts from three Hollywood films, indicates that eudaimonic (meaningful) narratives increase willingness to accept delayed rewards (i.e., reduce delay discounting) ...and acceptance of death, mediated by the effect of eudaimonic narratives on perceived closeness to future self. Our findings provide support for the argument, and its derivation from socio-emotional selectivity theory, that the vicarious experience of life’s transience and sources of meaning in eudaimonic narratives has an impact parallel to that of lived experience, which we call the mediated wisdom of experience. We did not find support for proposed interactions with a written reflection exercise.
In recent years, tourism and positive psychology has developed as a humanist-inspired study of individual flourishing in tourism. This conceptual article aims to elaborate on epistemological ...foundations of tourism and positive psychology research and presents an overview of current trends and future directions for this field. The rapid rise of positive psychology within and outside tourism studies is analyzed, noting similarities and tensions between positive psychology and its predecessor, humanistic psychology. We present research highlights from the emerging field in tourism, review extant literature, discuss the limitations of this approach and suggest directions for future research. Greater focus on research about eudaimonic tourist experiences is recommended, through positive psychology lenses. Suggestions are also made to further expand the traditional focus on tourist behavior to include the well-being of host communities and tourism workers.
How well-being changes over the course of a vacation is unclear. Particular understudied areas include the eudaimonic dimension of well-being, the comparison between eudaimonia and hedonia, and the ...role of activity type. Using an integrated model, two studies which combined survey and experiment were conducted to examine the change patterns of eudaimonia and hedonia, the difference of change patterns between eudaimonia and hedonia, and the moderating role of activity type. Hedonia and eudaimonia both significantly changed via a ‘first rise then fall’ change tendency over the course of a vacation. Compared to hedonia, eudaimonia has lower change intensity over the course of a vacation; eudaimonia achieved in a challenging (vs. relaxing) activity is more. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.
•Incorporates eudaimonia into the framework of tourist well-being•Compares the change patterns between eudaimonia and hedonia•Investigates how tourist well-being is stimulated by different activity types•Two studies test a five-stage model.
Arguably, emotion is always valenced—either pleasant or unpleasant—and dependent on the pleasure system. This system serves adaptive evolutionary functions; relying on separable wanting, liking, and ...learning neural mechanisms mediated by mesocorticolimbic networks driving pleasure cycles with appetitive, consummatory, and satiation phases. Liking is generated in a small set of discrete hedonic hotspots and coldspots, while wanting is linked to dopamine and to larger distributed brain networks. Breakdown of the pleasure system can lead to anhedonia and other features of affective disorders. Eudaimonia and well-being are difficult to study empirically, yet whole-brain computational models could offer novel insights (e.g., routes to eudaimonia such as caregiving of infants or music) potentially linking eudaimonia to optimal metastability in the pleasure system.
This research is a Beauvoirian existential feminist study applied to the novel Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert. More specifically, the study on Emma focused on her goal of achieving eudaimonia or ...happiness. By applying the qualitative narrative method, this study focuses specifically on the characters' existence and life experiences to achieve eudaimonic conditions as they are without being weighed down in the form of normative judgments. This study contains novelty and significance because the focus on existential choices to pursue the eudaimonic conditions has not been widely applied to literary works, which will vary the situational experience and setting. As a result, the elusive eudaimonic state remains unattainable by such existential choices that do not include responsibility.
•This study examined modal determinants of multidimensional travel well-being.•Structural equation modeling analyzed surveys from ∼700 Portland, OR, commuters.•Walking/bicycling rated high on health, ...confidence, and positive affect.•Cycling commuters scored higher on distress and fear and lower on security.•Enhancing travel experiential qualities could improve commuters’ well-being.
Although transportation’s impacts on physical health are relatively well-established, the relationship between transportation and subjective well-being (SWB) has been the subject of recent focus. Policymakers attempt to improve the health and well-being of populations through interventions to improve transportation experiences and promote sustainable transport modes, while researchers studying these connections seek valid and reliable measures of SWB in the travel domain. Studies consistently find travel by walking and bicycling to be rated more positively than automobile travel, yet many use single measures of travel SWB, obscuring nuanced variations between modes.
Using the results of a Portland, Oregon, survey of nearly 700 commuters, this study investigates modal differences and other potential determinants of detailed, multidimensional measures of travel SWB. Specifically, the Satisfaction with Travel Scale as well as new measurement models of travel affect (distress, fear, attentiveness, and enjoyment) and travel eudaimonia (security, autonomy, confidence, and health) are examined for variations between modes. Structural equation models predicting the latent variable constructs as a function of trip and traveler characteristics yield valuable behavioral and psychological insights. Walking and bicycling rated much higher on measures of physical and mental health, confidence, positive affect, and overall hedonic well-being, suggesting significant benefits of physically active commutes. However, cycling commuters scored higher on distress and fear and lower on security, highlighting the value of multidimensional measures of travel SWB. Enhancing the quality of the traveling experience by various modes—such as making bicycling feel safer through protected infrastructure—could significantly improve commuters’ well-being.
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