Psychologists Offer A “New Path” To The Good Life

What exactly does it take to live a quote-unquote “good life”? Historically, there have been two schools of thought. The first – the hedonistic camp – emphasizes feelings of happiness and positive emotions. The second – revered by eudaimonics – calls for a life of greater meaning, marked by virtue and purpose. Now, psychologists are proposing a third path that centers on curiosity and challenge, and offers the opportunity to create a life full of “psychological richness”.

“This idea came from the question: Why do some people feel unfulfilled even when they have happy and meaningful lives?” Erin Westgate, an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Florida, said in a statement. “We found that what was missing was psychological richness — experiences that challenge you, change your perspective and satisfy your curiosity.”

So, how exactly does one go about creating a psychologically rich life? The key, according to the researchers, is seeking a wide range of experiences that alter your perspective, whether it is traveling, taking up a new hobby or consuming art. 

Not all experiences have to be as grand as, say, watching the Northern Lights while camping in the Alaskan wilderness. “A psychologically rich life can come from something as simple as reading a great novel or hearing a haunting song,” said Westgate. And not all experiences need to be enjoyable. “College is a good example. It’s not always fun, and you might not always feel a deep sense of meaning, but it changes how you think. The same goes for experiences like living through a hurricane. You wouldn’t call it happy or even meaningful, but it shakes up your perspective.”

Westgate says it’s not that happiness and meaning aren’t important. “They are. But we’re also saying don’t forget about richness. Some of the most important experiences in life are the ones that challenge us, that surprise us and that make us see the world differently.” Even if they are not always pleasant. 

In short, Westgate and her colleague Shigehiro Oishi’s research suggests that the quest for the “good life” might not have a one-size fits all approach. 

“What’s the ideal life look like? I think it requires self-reflection,” Shigehiro Oishi, a Professor of Psychology at the University of Chicago, said on the university’s Big Brains podcast. “What you want is some comfortable, pleasant life and a happy life, or you really want to make a difference in the world? Or you want to experience a lot of different kinds of things regardless of the positive or negative outcomes of it.”

Indeed, their study, which tracked how people respond to challenging situations, suggests your preference for a particular path may be linked to your personality – and your politics. An openness to experience (one of the Big Five personality traits) is the number one personality predictor associated with a psychologically rich life, whereas happy and meaningful lives were linked to more conservative worldviews. 

These preferences could influence all aspects of your life, including your career. Speaking on the Big Brains podcast, Oishi explained that previous research has shown that people satisfied with their career tend to have higher paid roles (a surgeon or data scientist, for example). In contrast, teachers, social workers and police officers reported a greater sense of meaning in their jobs. 

But some professions – including writing and editing – puzzled Oishi because they were associated with low satisfaction and low meaning. “If you had only two dimensions in a good job, then your advice would be, ‘Hey, art director, maybe you should consider becoming a data scientist or funeral director’,” he told the podcast. “I think that there is a third dimension in the job too, that psychologically rich job that they have more freedoms – what they do is different day to day, year to year.” 

This study is published in Trends in Cognitive Sciences.