On the distinction between subjective well-being and meaning in life: Regulatory versus reconstructive functions in the face of a hostile world

In the present chapter, we follow psychological inquiries of happiness and meaning in life that derived from, as well as further elaborated, the aforementioned dilemmas of the philosophical accounts (Ryan & Deci, 2001; Ry , 1989). Particularly, we propose a psychological view that departs from the tradition that has treated happiness and meaning mainly as end results or outcomes of such antecedent factors as ways of life, psychological dispositions, biographical events, sociodemographic characteristics, and situational factors. As presented here, happiness and meaning constitute two dynamic systems designed to deal with the adverse contingencies of life. With this agentic role, happiness and meaning respectively provide distinct, yet complementary, functions of regulation and reconstruction. In this view, the individual’s shaping of the good life must be examined in conjunction with the existential, o en dialectical, task of living within a hostile world. Following a preliminary overview, the chapter describes the distinct functions of happiness and meaning in this conceptual framework. Before concluding, in a nal section the chapter presents the a ermath of trauma endured by Holocaust survivors as a most pertinent example.