What is a "good" life? How do we measure it? These are old questions, with many possible answers. But a new study focuses on living in a way that is 'psychologically wealthy'.
According to Shige Oishi, a social psychologist at the University of Virginia and Erin Westgate, a University of Florida social psychologist, this richness can be defined as experiences that are unusual, diverse, complex, and, perhaps most importantly, cause a shift of perspective for the person experiencing them.
The new study found that some people consider a psychologically rich lifestyle more important than happiness or finding meaning in life. These are the main areas of psychological research that focus on evaluating a "good" life.
Researchers wrote in a published paper that psychologically rich lives can be characterized not by happy, meaningful lives but rather by many interesting and perspective-changing events.
"We have empirical evidence to show that happiness, meaning and psychological richness are distinct and desirable elements of a happy life. This is supported by unique causes and correlates."
Researchers don't believe that psychological richness is independent of happiness or meaningfulness, but it's an aspect of our wellbeing that deserves more attention.
A happy life means having positive feelings and satisfaction. Finding meaning in your life is about realizing your potential, maximizing your talents, achieving goals, and making a difference.
Oishi and Westgate discovered that psychological richness can be distinguished from happiness and meaning in the assessment of one's own well-being and lives.
They write that "unlike happiness, our conceptions of wealth allow for moments of discomfort or unpleasant emotion."
Analyse of psychological richness, language in obituaries and other surveys across countries further support the importance of this third kind of living a happy life. It extends beyond wealthy, educated, democratic societies, according to the research.
According to a previous study, which included a total of 3,728 respondents from nine countries, the distinction of a psychologically rich life was more popular than a happy or meaningful life.
We show that people would rather live a psychologically rich lifestyle than a meaningful or happy life. Nearly a third of respondents say that they would prefer to have their biggest regrets over their lives.
According to the pair, three of the most important types of psychological richness people seek are moving abroad, changing careers or immersing yourself in challenging art James Joyce's novel Ulysses.
Curiously, they point out that research on the subject "suggests a good lifestyle may not always be pleasant" and that it is worth exploring different perspectives.
The researchers acknowledge, however, that there are other factors to be considered beyond the three main ones: learning, creativity, and caring for others.
Aristotle's psychologically rich life, which goes beyond the pursuit of happiness (hedonic) and meaningful (eudaimonic), life ideas, could be a way to assess whether we are making the most out of our time and finding ways to improve our lives.
Researchers write that "Together this work moves us beyond hedonic and eudaimonic well being, and lays foundations for the study psychological richness, as another dimension to a good life."
Psychological Review published the research.
