A Psychologically Rich Life: Beyond Happiness and Meaning.

Oishi, S., and Westgate, EC (2021). The psychologically rich life: beyond happiness and meaning. Psychology Review. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/rev0000317

Commentary

Psychology is usually considered to conceptualize the good life in terms of hedonic and euphoric well-being. The researchers of this study propose that psychological well-being is another neglected aspect of what people consider to be the good life.

Unlike a happy and meaningful life, a psychologically rich life is characterized by a variety of deeply interesting, perspective-shifting experiences.

The researchers presented empirical evidence that the link between happiness, meaning, and psychological richness is uniquely causal and correlated, and is a distinct and desirable aspect of the good life.

In so presenting, they reported that a non-trivial number of people around the world choose a psychologically rich life at the expense of a happy, meaningful life, and showed that about one-third say that undoing life's biggest regret made their life

We also report evidence that predictors of a psychologically rich life are different from predictors of a happy or meaningful life, and that people who lead psychologically rich lives tend to be more curious, think more holistically, and lean more politically liberal.