Statement of Interests

What makes life worth living? How do people find meaning in their lives and experiences? How do we attain "the Good Life?" What role do intimate relationships play in helping us figure out what the world is all about and find our place in the universe?

These are the questions that drive my research. I am broadly interested in how people achieve well-being in their lives, and more specifically, how people search for meaning in their lives as well as how people find meaning in their lives. My research on meaning in life has included the development of a psychological measure of the search for and presence of meaning, on the personality, well-being, and psychological distress correlates of meaning, and on the role of meaning in life in dealing with stress and trauma. In addition, I have investigated levels and correlates of the search for and presence of meaning across the life span. I have also recently conducted the first known twins study of the heritability of meaning in life and several related constructs. Lingering questions I am pursuing concern the development of effective ways to help people achieve and increase meaning in life, the theoretical nature of the search for meaning, and how other cultures view the importance and nature of meaning and related constructs. I am also interested in what types of interactions and conversations with close others are considered "meaningful" or "deep."

My research on well-being has focused on the role of daily events in fostering well-being, particularly activities that are thought to build character and cultivate relationships. In addition, I have examined the role of pleasure-seeking behaviors in providing short-term boosts to well-being. Lingering questions I am researching include understanding the relationship between psychopathology and daily events in predicting well-being (e.g., do the daily activities that appear to boost well-being in typical samples have a similar, greater, or lesser effect on those experiencing psychological distress?), as well as clarifying the role of emotional self-regulation and acceptance in psychological health and distress.

Selected Publications

Steger, M. F., Frazier, P., Oishi, S., & Kaler, M. (in press). The Meaning in Life Questionnaire: Assessing the presence of and search for meaning in life. Journal of Counseling Psychology.

Steger, M. F., & Frazier, P. (in press). Meaning in life: One link in the chain from religion to well-being. Journal of Counseling Psychology.

Kashdan, T. B., & Steger, M. F. (in press). Expanding the topography of social anxiety: An experience sampling assessment of positive emotions and events, and emotion suppression. Psychological Science.

Steger, M. F. (in press). An illustration of issues in factor extraction and identification of dimensionality in psychological assessment data. Journal of Personality Assessment.

Kashdan, T. B., & Steger, M. F.  (2004). Approaching psychological science with Kuhn's eyes. American Psychologist, 59, 272-273.

Frazier, P., Oishi, S., & Steger, M. (2003).  Assessing optimal human functioning. In W. B. Walsh (Ed.), Counseling  psychology and optimal human functioning (pp. 251-278).  Sage Publications: CA.