Intuition and meaning in life in persons with varying level of depressive symptoms and impairments in personality functioning

Abstract

Objectives: The current research explored the interplay between intuition, meaning in life, and psychopathology. Specifically, we investigated whether experiential and reflective components of meaning in life are associated with depressive symptoms and personality pathology, whether intuition is related to the experience of meaning, and whether psychopathology has disruptive effects on intuition as well as on the link between intuition and the experience of meaning. Methods: We tested our preregistered hypotheses in two independent studies. In Study 1, N = 448 participants completed self-report instruments assessing the experiential and the reflective dimensions of meaning in life, depressive symptoms, and impairments in personality functioning. Intuition was operationalized as the ability to intuitively detect semantic coherence in an experimental task. Additionally, self-reported confidence in intuition was assessed. In Study 2, we aimed to replicate our findings and hypotheses that emerged from Study 1 with a new sample of N = 1189 participants. Results: In both studies, participants with more depressive symptoms or higher levels of personality pathology experienced life as less meaningful but reflected significantly more about meaning in life. The intuitive ability to discriminate between coherence and incoherence in the experimental task was neither related to the experience of meaning in life nor to psychopathology, but more confidence in intuition was associated with experiencing life as more meaningful and with less psychopathological symptoms. It was tentatively supported that the association between meaning in life and intuition was moderated by psychopathology. Conclusion: The findings are discussed in terms of their clinical implications and regarding the cognitive-affective processes potentially underlying people's experience of life being meaningful.