The Psychological Quest for Meaning

Kentaro Fujita, Ayelet Fishbach, Nira Liberman (Herausgeber)

Buch | Hardcover

349 Seiten

2026
Guilford Press (Verlag)
978-1-4625-5856-8 (ISBN)

Lieferbar (Termin unbekannt)
Versandkostenfrei
Auch auf Rechnung

Artikel merken

How do we transform scattered experiences into a coherent narrative? What drives us--consciously or unconsciously--to seek patterns, purpose, and understanding? This is the first volume explicitly devoted to the creation of psychological meaning, which has not been systematically defined and studied until recently. Leading authorities from multiple subdisciplines of psychology explore the mechanisms by which humans figure out the world around them, find direction in personal striving, and make sense of the self and one’s life. Cutting-edge theories, methods, and findings are clearly explained, as is the key role of meaning making in the functioning of both individuals and societies.

Kentaro Fujita, PhD, is Professor of Psychology at The Ohio State University (OSU), where he studies social psychology, decision making, and consumer behavior. His work seeks to help people achieve their goals to live a fuller, healthier, and more productive life. Dr. Fujita is an elected Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science, the Society of Personality and Social Psychology, the Society for Experimental Social Psychology, and the Midwestern Psychological Association. He is a recipient of numerous awards for his research and mentoring/teaching, including the Sage Young Scholars Award from the Foundation for Personality and Social Psychology and the Susan M. Hartmann Mentoring and Leadership Award from OSU. Dr. Fujita has published over 100 articles and chapters. Ayelet Fishbach, PhD, is the Eric J. Gleacher Distinguished Service Professor of Behavioral Science and Marketing at The University of Chicago Booth School of Business, where she studies social psychology, management, and consumer behavior. She also studies self-control, intrinsic motivation, feedback, patience, and promoting a healthy lifestyle. Dr. Fishbach’s work shows how people can live up to their highest aspirations. She is past president of the Society for the Science of Motivation and the International Social Cognition Network. Dr. Fishbach is a recipient of the Best Dissertation Award and the Career Trajectory Award from the Society of Experimental Social Psychology, the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award from the Society for Consumer Psychology, and the Fulbright Educational Foundation Award. Nira Liberman, PhD, is Professor of Social Psychology at Tel Aviv University in Israel and an International Faculty member in the area of Behavioral Economic Engineering and Social Cognition at the University of Cologne, Germany. She studies mental representation, motivation, self-control, decision making, and psychological distance. Dr. Liberman also studies obsessive–compulsive behavior, in particular how it may reflect deficient access to internal states. She is a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science and the Society of Experimental Social Psychology, from which she received the Career Trajectory Award. An elected member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Dr. Liberman is a recipient of the Kadar Family Award for Outstanding Research from Tel Aviv University and of the Rothschild Prize.

1. Introduction: The Psychology of Creating Meaning, Ayelet Fishbach, Kentaro Fujita, & Nira Liberman
I. Creating Meaning to Understand the World
2. The Idiosyncratic Nature of Evaluation, Alexander Todorov & Daniel N. Albohn
3. Means and Meanings in Measurement, Sam J. Maglio
4. From Words to Bonds: The Science of Meaningful Conversations, Sebastian Speer, Laetitia Mwilambwe-Tshilobo, Lily Tsoi, Shannon Burns, Abigail S. Weber, Emily B. Falk, & Diana I. Tamir
5. Constructing Meaning through Communication: On Distance and Gender and Their Impact on Communicative Abstraction, Cheryl Wakslak
II. Creating Meaning to Find Direction in Personal Striving
6. Making Meaning through Motivated Perception: The Role of Construal, Jenna P. Landy, Jordan S. Daley, & Emily Balcetis
7. The Meaning of Multitasking: Why Activity Identification Matters When Engaging in Multiple Activities, Emily Nakkawita & E. Tory Higgins
8. Goals Shape Meaning, Ayelet Fishbach & Jiabi Wang
9. On Control Readiness: The Constant Interplay between Conflict and Control, Tali Kleiman
10. What People Understand about Expanding and Contracting Regulatory Scope, Jessica J. Carnevale & Kentaro Fujita
III. Creating Meaning in Life
11. Changing Views of Implicit Cognition and Conscious Thinking, Melissa J. Ferguson & Ran R. Hassin
12. From Self-Discontinuity to Meaning through Nostalgia, Constantine Sedikides & Tim Wildschut
13. Continuity in Psychological Space Creates a Sense of Meaning in Life, Nira Liberman
14. Significance-Questing or Awe-Stricken: On Two Paradigms of Meaning, Sophia Moskalenko & Arie W. Kruglanski
IV. Closing Remarks
15. Meaning Making in the Mind and Society, Yaacov Trope
Index

Erscheinungsdatum	09.11.2025
Verlagsort	New York
Sprache	englisch
Maße	152 x 229 mm
Themenwelt	Geisteswissenschaften ► Psychologie ► Sozialpsychologie
ISBN-10	1-4625-5856-9 / 1462558569
ISBN-13	978-1-4625-5856-8 / 9781462558568
Zustand	Neuware