Heroism and the Pursuit of a Meaningful Life

Elaine L. Kinsella, Eric R. Igou, Timothy D. Ritchie

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Individuals and groups of individuals are motivated to find meaning in their activities and in life, generally. That is, when events or affective states threaten or reduce a person’s sense of meaning, psychological processes are mobilized to serve the goals of meaning maintenance and meaning reestablishment, respectively. We examined two avenues for meaning maintenance: First, we considered psychological resources from the enhancing, moral modelling, and protecting functions of heroes, and second, we considered engagement in heroic behavior as a means to create meaning. We addressed contemporary heroes via conceptual and empirical literatures to discuss a variety of ways that heroes derive meaning from their own actions, and the extent to which others could glean personal meaning from a hero’s characteristics and actions. We present a meaning regulation framework that explains how heroes and heroic behavior each boost meaning and the meaning maintenance processes, such as heroism as a buffer against meaning threats. We synthesized relevant literatures on meaning and heroism, and offer a framework that illustrates heroic functions in the context of meaning in life: a central, superordinate psychological variable that is familiar to many individuals and groups. This framework offers many opportunities for future research and practical application of heroism.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)474-498
Number of pages25
JournalJournal of Humanistic Psychology
Volume59
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jul 2019

Keywords

  • existential psychology
  • heroes
  • meaning
  • positive psychology
  • self-regulation

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Heroism and the Pursuit of a Meaningful Life'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this