Life Worth Research Articles

The paths to subjective and eudaimonic well-being: which aspects of leisure matter?

ABSTRACT Despite the increased recognition of leisure’s significance, there remains a general lack of understanding about which aspects or types of leisure contribute to higher levels of subjective and eudaimonic wellbeing. The purpose of this study was to examine how diverse aspects of leisure, such as free time availability, leisure activity participation, and subjective experiences, are associated with both subjective wellbeing (SWB; e.g. positive affect, negative affect, happiness, and life satisfaction) and eudaimonic wellbeing (EWB; ikigai). Ikigai is a Japanese concept that approximates ‘life worth living’, whereupon we explored leisure’s relevance to a non-Western well-being concept. We analyzed online survey data from 674 Japanese university students through hierarchical regressions to investigate the potential influence of leisure-related variables on SWB and EWB. The outcomes revealed that SWB was associated with free time availability, leisure activity participation, and subjective experiences, whereas EWB was primarily linked to leisure activity participation and subjective experiences.

Veterinary ethics and companion animal euthanasia: what can we learn from critical disability studies?

Within veterinary ethics and practice around companion animal end-of-life and euthanasia, the political and cultural dimensions of death and dying are rarely addressed. This reduces the ability to engage with questions like: what future potential goods (positive affective states, meaning) could an animal experience by continuing to live; what constitutes a life worth living; and how can we make this decision for another being? These are questions that have been subject to extensive dialogue within Critical Disability Studies. The aim of this paper is to provide an analysis of how core considerations from Critical Disability Studies could be useful in veterinary ethics when considering companion animal end of life and euthanasia. First, critiques of the dis/ability binary and associated hierarchies raise questions about how animal disability and illness are understood, and around challenging questions like psychological illness and behavioural euthanasia. Second, nuanced engagements with questions of a life worth living and Quality of Life emphasise the importance of individual animal experiences, personality, and the foregrounding of ‘what is important for the animal’. Third, dialogues around choice and agency critique the tendency to focus on owner choice, rather asking what opportunities there are to listen to the preferences of animals themselves. Finally, engaging with care and power highlights the ambivalent nature of caregiving, of euthanasia as a practice of care, and the power intrinsic to making End of Life decisions on behalf of another. Overall, perspectives from Critical Disability Studies allow us to engage with challenging questions of veterinary ethics and end-of-life care in companion animal practice with more nuance and complexity.

Seemingly Senseless Acts

In the book Ritual: How Seemingly Senseless Acts Make Life Worth Living, Dimitris Xygalatas walks the reader through what the social/cognitive sciences can teach us about the underlying function of ritual, and why it has persisted as an enduring feature of the human species. This thoughtful book covers a wide range of topics but mostly stays quiet on providing the reader with some understanding of what predicts ritual practice within communities. In this paper, we take the insights provided by Xygalatas throughout the book and attempt to construct several categories based on the core functions that ritual provides. Then, using a nationally representative sample of 1,000 U.S. participants, we attempt to test several of the predictions that come out of the book, finding support for some claims, while finding little to none for others.

Some of the Understudied Dimensions of Ritual

Ritual: How Seemingly Senseless Acts Make Life Worth Living by Dimitris Xygalatas offers a popularized accounting of an adaptationist view of ritual. By highlighting the author’s own work on the topic, the text itself primarily addresses questions of public rituals’ often extreme costs and its relationship to cooperation. This emphasis, though, comes at the expense of other interesting and/or downstream aspects of ritual that, in my view, deserve more attention. In this commentary, I address a handful of the most relevant to the target text, namely: 1) religious vs. secular rituals; 2) the spatio-temporal distribution of ritual; 3) ritual frequency and timing; 4) the demographic structuring of ritual; 5) ritual’s complicated relationship to control and chance; and 6) ritual as a significant generator of meaningful models about the world.

The New Anthropology of Ritual

Rituals evolve socially over time, become powerful cultural technologies in their communities of practice, and offer several individual and societal benefits, including group cohesion and coordination. It is therefore tempting to consider the power of rituals and how to harness them to address current sociocultural crises. However, as scholars of religion and human rights, we wish to concentrate further on the potential harmful impacts of rituals and attempts (perhaps by policymakers) to harness rituals for some envisioned benefits. In this article, we center our discussion around Dimitris Xygalatas’ new book, Ritual: How Seemingly Senseless Acts Make Life Worth Living (2022), which raises compelling evidence and methodologies for what we describe as the “new anthropology of ritual” but also intriguing arguments about the power of ritual. We argue that Ritual offers new insights that invite scientists of religion and cultural anthropologists to revisit longstanding debates over dangerous rituals, cultural intervention, and the limits of human rights.

An Overview of Dimitris Xygalatas’ Ritual: How Seemingly Senseless Acts Make Life Worth Living (2022)

In his latest book Ritual: How Seemingly Senseless Acts Make Life Worth Living (2021), Dimitris Xygalatas brings together his various research programs with colleagues and the history of ritual theory to explain why humans engage in apparently pointless rituals. His core thesis is that rituals are not pointless activities whatsoever but rather cultural technologies that make our lives better, whether they assuage anxieties or render our communities more prosocial. Drawing from an interdisciplinary body of scholarship, Xygalatas offers a compelling argument as to why we humans are a ritual species. Furthermore, Xygalatas’ extensive laboratory and ethnographic research from over the last two decades provides strong empirical evidence for his thesis and other longstanding theories in ritual studies. The result is a book that delivers a captivating introduction to ritual studies, reasons for seriously considering the power of rituals, and how to research rituals with philosophical rigor and methodological precision.

Invisible Rituals

Dimitris Xygalatas’s Ritual: How Seemingly Senseless Acts Make Life Worth Living (2022) provides a much-needed ethnographically informed cognitive science of rituals. Among other things, the book tries to outline common cognitive grounds for such diverse practices as the calm Japanese tea ceremony and the emotionally arousing, physically painful Thaipusam ritual in Mauritius. Acknowledging the hallmark features of prototypical rituals discussed by Xygalatas, this paper further discusses the common grounds. Specifically, I suggest that prototypical rituals are continuous with cultural models. That is, much of the internalized cultural models contain the same cognitive features of ritualized behaviour and are the source of silent rituals of everyday life. More specifically, at its deeper cognitive core lies normative cognition, which might be a source of much of the compulsive urge to act properly and in a scripted, rigid manner. To illustrate the point, an ethnographic example from Mongolia will be briefly described.

The impact of austerity on the delivery of an NHS mentalisation-based therapy service

Historically, a group of people experiencing distress were largely viewed by health services as untreatable, because of a chronic sense of mistrust and difficulties in being cared for. This group of people have attracted labels such as ‘Emotionally Unstable Personality Disorder’ and ‘Complex Emotional Needs’. However, the recent developments in so-called evidenced-based psychological treatments offer hope that these patients can ‘recover’, or what one therapy has called ‘a life worth living’. It follows that these newer psychological treatments hold the promise of keeping hope alive, that even the most traumatised and disturbed people may be coached into functioning, and, perhaps more cynically, to reduce their burden on already-stretched health services. This cultural shift towards optimism is not the target of the paper. Instead, this paper offers an insider clinician’s perspective to outline how austerity has negatively affected the capacity to offer care and containment to patients presenting with life-threatening behaviours.

Mental, emotional and social dimensions of quality of life and their relationship with physical and functional status in adults with haemophilia

IntroductionA comprehensive treatment for patients with haemophilia (PwH) should focus on how the disease interferes with their mental, emotional and social environment to analyse if all the therapeutic efforts invested in their physical status have positive impact on a life worth living. AimTo analyse the correlation between the physical status of a cohort of adults with haemophilia and their mental, emotional and social states regarding their treatment modality; Also, to investigate which variables are most related to quality of life (QoL), joint health and emotional, mental and social states. MethodsIn this cross-sectional, 102 adults with haemophilia divided into a prophylactic group (G1, n = 77) and on-demand group (G2, n = 25) were included. Demographic and clinical characteristics, health joint (HJHS), presence of synovitis with ultrasound, self-perceived functionality (HAL) and QoL (A36-HaemoQoL), were analysed. ResultsIn G1 all the variables that defined the physical status correlated (rho: 0.33 to 0.72) to the mental and social spheres. The emotional state correlated with the self-perceived ones. In G2 physical status did not correlate with the three states. According to the regression models, HAL was the variable that most influenced the QoL (together with the bleedings in the last year, R2 = 0.61), emotional (R2 = 0.16), mental (together with HJHS, R2 = 0.41) and social states (R2 = 0.39). In addition, the HJHS was influenced by synovitis, HAL, mental health, age and the bleeding history (R2 = 0.83). ConclusionEmotional, mental and social states of PwH in prophylaxis are correlated to their physical status, being the self-perceived functionality the variable that most influenced in their QoL.

Examining the relationship between different physical activities and health and well-being in middle-aged and older men: an isotemporal substitution analysis

BackgroundWell-being declines during men’s middle years, and while physical activity (PA) can have a positive influence, the type of PA that provides the greatest benefit is not clear. This cross-sectional...

Focused, Flourishing, but Not in Flow: Achievement Strivers’ Experiences of Competence, Flow, and Well-Being During Personally Expressive Activities

One effective route to increasing well-being is through the pursuit of activities which suit a person’s personality strengths (i.e., person-activity fit). People who strive for achievement tend to organize their behaviors in ways that promote goal attainment and well-being. We tested the hypothesized process that achievement striving would lead to increased well-being over time through feelings of competence and flow. A secondary aim was to describe the types of personally valued activities and whether activity type facilitates competence and flow. Undergraduate students (N = 346 at Time 1; N = 244 at Time 2) completed an online survey measuring personality, personally expressive activities, basic psychological need satisfaction, flow, and well-being at two timepoints ~ 4 months apart. Two coders thematically coded activities into seven types (e.g., reading and writing, hobbies). We used cross-sectional and longitudinal serial mediation models to test our hypothesis with eudaimonic (life worth) and hedonic (life satisfaction) well-being, controlling for sample characteristics (recruitment source and term). Achievement striving was positively correlated to competence and well-being, but the indirect effects did not show that well-being is boosted by feeling competent and in flow during in personally expressive activities, cross-sectionally or longitudinally. Perceived competence was comparable across activity types, although flow was highest in reading and writing activities. While achievement strivers tended to feel happy and competent at personally expressive activities, the mechanistic pathway to well-being is not yet clear. Future studies might recruit larger sample sizes and utilize smaller time lags (e.g., ecological momentary assessment).

Procreative Obligations and the Directed Duty of Care

ABSTRACTThere is much dispute about what we owe the children we are responsible for creating. Some argue that so long as we provide offspring with lives worth living we do no wrong. Others argue that our procreative obligations are weightier and oblige us to provide (or attempt to provide) our offspring with a reasonable opportunity to thrive, or meet some other standard beyond merely providing a life worth living. Our practices and intuitions on this matter are inconsistent. For example, gamete donors who intentionally participate in the project of creating a child are thought to have few obligations to their offspring, but those who create a child accidentally are thought to have weighty obligations. Furthermore, a justification for why we are obliged to provide offspring with more than a life worth living has been elusive. To resolve this puzzle I argue that an under‐theorized element of morality, the directed duty of care, explains why we owe our offspring more than a life worth living.

“How long is life worth living for the horse?” A focus group study on how Austrian equine stakeholders assess quality of life for chronically ill or old horses

BackgroundQuality of life (QoL) provides a comprehensive concept underpinning veterinary decision-making that encompasses factors beyond physical health. It becomes particularly pertinent when seeking responsible choices for chronically ill or old horses that emphasise their well-being and a good QoL over the extension of life. How different stakeholders use the concept of QoL is highly relevant when considering the complexity of these decisions in real-life situations.MethodsSeven focus group discussions (N = 39) were conducted to gain insights into how stakeholders assess and use equine QoL in veterinary care decisions for chronically ill and/or old horses. The discussions included horse owners (n = 17), equine veterinarians (n = 7), veterinary officers (n = 6), farriers (n = 4), and horse caregivers (n = 5). The combination of deductive and inductive qualitative content analysis of the group discussions focused on identifying both similarities and differences in the views of these groups regarding QoL for old and/or chronically ill horses.ResultsFindings show agreement about two issues: the importance of the individuality of the horse for assessing QoL and the relevance of QoL in making decisions about veterinary interventions. We identified differences between the groups with respect to three issues: the time required to assess QoL, stakeholders’ contributions to QoL assessments, and challenges resulting from those contributions. While owners and caregivers of horses emphasised their knowledge of a horse and the relevance of the time they spend with their horse, the veterinarians in the study focused on the differences between their own QoL assessments and those of horse owners. In response to challenges regarding QoL assessments and decision-making, stakeholders described different strategies such as drawing comparisons to human experiences.ConclusionsDifferences between stakeholders regarding equine QoL assessments contribute to challenges when making decisions about the care of chronically ill or old horses. The results of this study suggest that individual and collaborative reflection about a horse’s QoL should be encouraged, for example by developing practicable QoL assessment tools that support relevant stakeholders in this process.

Ritual: How Seemingly Senseless Acts Make Life Worth Living, by Dimitris Xygalatas

Dimitris Xygalatas is an anthropologist and cognitive scientist interested in religion, ritual, music, and sports fanship among other topics. Xygalatas’s book Ritual: How Seemingly Senseless Acts Make Life Worth Living (Profile Books, 2022; henceforth Ritual) results from years of rigorous ethnographic and experimental work. Ritual follows the perspective of the cognitive and evolutionary science of religion (hereafter referred to as CESR) and brings the reader up-to-date findings in the naturalistic study of religion and rituals. Xygalatas follows a neo-Darwinian and functionalistic approach to the study of religion, whose theoretical premises he describes in a way that is accessible even to the lay public throughout the book, but mainly in its second chapter.

Does a Patient’s Ability to Pay For Health Care Make Their Life Worth Saving?

Does a Patient’s Ability to Pay For Health Care Make Their Life Worth Saving?

Virtues as protective factors for adolescent mental health.

This paper explores the decline in adolescent mental health and the weakening of traditional moral frameworks, positing education in the virtues as protective of mental health due to the intrinsic link between moral/existential wellbeing and psychological health. By integrating character education into school curricula, a continuous "dosage" of moral guidance may be an optimal way to ensure a gradual and ever-clearer articulation of a life worth living and how to live well. The paper critiques popular clinical and positive psychological approaches to promoting wellbeing, which often miss the existential and moral dimensions of adolescent growth. The conclusion emphasizes the need for integrating moral education into mental health interventions to address the comprehensive existential and moral dimensions of adolescent development. This paper advocates for a proactive character developmental model that nurtures moral and existential growth, recognizing challenges with virtue and meta-virtue development as integral to personal and moral evolution, and enhancing the moral and psychological fortitude of adolescents.

Exploring interests: A pathway to ikigai and eudaimonic well-being among people with serious mental illness.

Ikigai is a Japanese concept of a life worth living and related to eudaimonic well-being. Supporting the pursuit of ikigai is of central importance to recovery-oriented psychiatric rehabilitation for people with serious mental illnesses (SMI). While research suggests that work, leisure, and social relationships are potential sources of ikigai, people with SMI have restricted access to these as they encounter systemic barriers to participating in such activities. This study investigated how people with SMI in Japan pursued sources of ikigai in the face of barriers. A total of 21 community-living individuals who had SMI and were recruited from community psychiatric rehabilitation service providers in Japan participated in the study. Photo-elicitation interviews were conducted, and the interview transcripts were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis. Three themes were generated: (a) self-determination as a key to ikigai, (b) explorations needed to identify sources of ikigai, and (c) navigating the challenges to engage in the explorations. It was found that a self-determined activity tends to be a source of ikigai. However, participants had to grapple with challenges because identifying a source of ikigai involved the exploration of their personal interests, and the exploration could not be continued without managing the stigma of mental illness. Results suggest that ikigai cannot be achieved instantly. To achieve eudaimonic well-being outcomes, psychiatric rehabilitation professionals should allow consumers to choose activities based on their personal interests and encourage them to try out various activities while they provide continued support to overcome stigma. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Losing, regaining, and continuing to build self-confidence – a qualitative, phenomenological study of being physically active with a type B aortic dissection

Purpose To gain a comprehensive understanding of experiences related to being physically active in participants with an uncomplicated type B aortic dissection. Materials and methods We performed a qualitative, phenomenological study. First-person accounts of adults, who at least one year ago had an uncomplicated type B aortic dissection, were collected using semi-structured interviews. The audio recordings of the interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed with interpretative phenomenological analysis. Results We collected, in total, 644 min interview data from 14 participants. Three patterns were interpreted: losing self-confidence, regaining self-confidence, and continuing to build self-confidence. Experiencing symptoms when pushing limits, challenges with energy management, and side effects of medication caused loss of self-confidence. Changes in identity, reaching milestones that reflect improvement, and support from others and tools helped participants regain self-confidence. To continuing to build self-confidence, participants indicated they needed success experiences and activities make life worth living. Conclusions Self-confidence in adults with an uncomplicated type B aortic dissection changes immediately after the diagnosis of the aortic dissection. Rehabilitation professionals can support adults regaining and continuing to build self-confidence, aiming for the perfect balance between blood pressure regulation, quality of life, and being physically active. Implications for rehabilitation Rehabilitation professionals should support regaining and continuing to build self-confidence related to being physically active in adults with type B aortic dissection in the early stages of recovery and beyond. Adults with an uncomplicated type B aortic dissection want rehabilitation professionals to tell them primarily what is possible (recommendations) rather than what is not allowed (rules). Rehabilitation professionals should help adults with an uncomplicated type B aortic dissection to explore, push and, ultimately, accept limits related to exercise tolerance.

“In the middle of up and down ikigai is there”: Japanese women’s embodied narratives of personal crisis

This study focuses on Japanese women’s embodied narratives of personal crisis and explores notions of self and understandings of ikigai, loosely translated as “meaning in life” or “life worth living,” as a result of the crisis. I draw on notions of illness narratives by Arthur Frank and Havi Carel’s phenomenological study of illness and extend Carel’s framework to examine broader personal crisis as an embodied disruption of normality, referred to as “bodily doubt.” Data analysis suggests that women’s crisis experiences and ideas of self and ikigai are influenced by dimensions such as culture, society, language, sense of self and moral constructions. I use ikigai studies, particularly Gordon Mathews’ work, to argue that although women describe an emerging new sense of self and ikigai derived from crisis, their ideas still present a tension between a self that navigates socio-cultural norms and internal desires. This study argues that studying embodied narratives of personal crisis offers us a way of thinking more actively about such narratives in interrelational, socio-cultural-bodily terms, in other words, as a process constructed in conversation between self, culture, society and moral beliefs.

Suicidal thoughts and self-destructive tendencies among adolescents

One must not ignore or underestimate it when adolescents say that they feel like a burden to those around them or that their life has no meaning. Suicidal thoughts in young people can be a signal of a threat to health or life or of a weakened mental condition. Increasing awareness of the frequent thoughts of giving up and the experience of a lack of meaning in life, characteristic of adolescents, helps to develop standards and preventive strategies in the field of mental health care. The article is an attempt to define terms related to suicide, data regarding the magnitude of the phenomenon among young people and discuss the causes of self-harm and suicide. It is also a reference to the approach of dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT), which considers, for example, emotional dysregulation and suicidal tendencies as a transdiagnostic problem. The characteristics of the transactional model in DBT emphasise that what is most important for a favourable prognosis is the provision of adequate support from the close environment, especially parents and professionals. Suicide prevention among children and adolescents is possible through scientific conferences, suicidological research and preventive programmes. Multidisciplinary cooperation to prevent suicidal intentions during childhood and adolescence is essential. In conclusion, as far as working with patients with emotional dysregulation and suicidal tendencies is concerned, the guiding motto of DBT should be stressed, which is to shape “a life worth living”.