The present research explored whether self-control is associated with
the perception of meaning in life. A week-long daily diary study (Study
1) showed trait self-control (but not daily experiences of self-control
failure) to be positively associated with a general sense of meaning in
life and daily experiences of meaning. This association was robust
against controlling for life satisfaction, positive and negative affect.
Study 2 tested two potential mechanisms underlying the association
between trait self-control and meaning in life: Successful goal progress
and experience of structure in life. While self-control was positively
associated with both, only the experience of structure predictedmeaning:
Self-control was positively related to the perception of one's life as
having a clear sense of structure and order, which in turn predicted a
stronger perception of meaning. Study 3 replicated the mediation
path via the experience of structure and showed it to be stronger for
individuals high (vs. low) in the personal need for structure. The
present findings add to the emerging literature on trait (and state)
self-control and dispositional determinants of meaning in life.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VIENNA/oai:epub.wu-wien.ac.at:6743 |
| Date | January 2018 |
| Creators | Kokkoris, Michail, Stavrova, Olga, Pronk, Tila |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis Group |
| Source Sets | Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Article, PeerReviewed |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | Creative Commons: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) |
| Relation | https://doi.org/10.1080/15298868.2018.1558107, https://www.tandfonline.com/, http://epub.wu.ac.at/6743/ |
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