EAPSI: The Effect of Accessible Cultural Values on Meaning in Life Judgments

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People derive meaning in their lives from various life domains, such as family, friends, religion and work. When these concepts are activated and easily accessible, they can influence one?s judgment of meaning in life. The value that one places on such life domains can also influence a subjective feeling of meaning in life, and these values vary by culture. The goal of the present research is to compare the effect of accessible values on meaning in life judgments in the US and South Korea to understand more completely why Americans find more meaning in life than Koreans and how accessible cultural values influence meaning in life more broadly. To explore this area, important life domains that vary by culture (e.g., academic achievement in South Korea and social relationships in the US) will be brought to mind either before or after participants rate how meaningful they find their lives. The research will be conducted at Seoul National University in South Korea in collaboration with Professor Incheol Choi, an expert in cross-cultural psychology and well-being.Drawing from research in social cognition, the researcher?s hypotheses were derived from a culture-as-situated-cognition perspective. According to this theory, cultural cues can be primed to influence a subsequent judgment. One such judgment that has not received much attention in this field is a measure of how meaningful a particular individual finds his or her life. Meaning in life judgments are influenced by contextual factors, such as the coherence of environmental stimuli. Thus, the researcher hypothesized that cultural cues that match a culture?s values would positively influence a meaning in life judgment. The implications of this research could help researchers understand the construct of meaning in life more fully. The findings could also influence the way practitioners, counselors, and policy leaders interpret cross-cultural well-being data. This award under the East Asia and Pacific Summer Institutes program supports summer research by a U.S. graduate student and is jointly funded by NSF and the National Research Foundation of Korea.