Ultimate concerns from existential and positive psychological perspectives

Abstract

Each individual is free, and inevitably responsible, to determine the parameters of his or her life, what is best to suffer for, connect with, choose, and believe. This chapter explores how two different traditions have examined such ultimate concerns of life. The existential perspective and the positive psychology perspective are evaluated with an eye toward how each has probed the interplay between the uniqueness and the universality of being human. The existential perspective highlights the tentative nature of existence: we are fragile in our mortality; fragile in our legacy; and fragile in our beliefs about the world. According to existentialism, we must forge our own path in the arbitrary, senseless, and often cruel world. A central challenge for each of us is to confront such realizations, acknowledge that only we have the ability to create our own identities, choices, and lives. The positive psychology perspective does not necessarily disagree with this emphasis on the freedom and responsibility of individuals, and it also prizes the forging of meaning as a cornerstone of a life worth living. However, positive psychology seeks to establish empirically those factors that help people find meaning. This empirical quest to document facets of the meaningful life has revealed that individual agency is an important component, but so too are genuine, intimate relationships, positive emotions, and a sense of expressing one’s true self. We conclude that the positive psychology perspective provides a hopeful, data-driven view on how people can answer the pressing questions central to our existence.