Editorial Board:
Editor:
George H. Conklin,
 North Carolina
 Central University

Board:
Bob Davis,
 North Carolina
 Agricultural and
 Technical State
 University

Richard Dixon,
 UNC-Wilmington

Ken Land,
 Duke University

Miles Simpson,
 North Carolina
 Central University

Ron Wimberley,
 N.C. State University

Robert Wortham,
 North Carolina
 Central University

Editorial Assistants

Rob Tolliver,
 Duke University

Shannon O'Connor,
 North Carolina
 Central University

John W.M. Russell,
 Technical
 Consultant

® 

Volume 5, Number 2
Fall 2007
 

The Social Construction of Life Meaning: The 2007 North Carolina Sociological Association Presidential Address

by

Stephen J. McNamee
 
University of North Carolina Wilmington

    Human beings are meaning junkies.  It is not enough for people to just experience the world as it is; we are desperate to make sense of it.  By meaning in life, I am referring to a sense that a person has that life is worth living.  Furthermore, I am suggesting that what gives a person a sense of meaning in life is socially constructed.  While meanings that individuals give to their lives vary considerably, I maintain that there are common sources that individuals draw upon to construct a sense of life meaning and that these sources are all ultimately social.

With few exceptions, sociologists have not generally explored the topic of meaning-of-life as a whole (1) . For the most part, the topic of meaning in life has been the intellectual domain of philosophers, psychologists, and theologians.  However, I think a uniquely sociological perspective can provide value added insight to this issue.

    Individuals are not necessarily able to articulate a sense of what gives them meaning in life or to directly identify the sources upon which these usually unexpressed sentiments are predicated.  For the most part, a person's underlying source of life meaning is a form of practical knowledge that is operative in people's lives but which is not usually articulated  (2).  In the same way that children use grammar before they can articulate its rules, I am suggesting that people draw on various sources to sustain a sense of meaning in life without necessarily being conscious of doing so or being able to directly articulate the mechanisms by which this is accomplished. 

    Low level meanings are often taken for granted in the situation and generally not challenged except when intentionally disrupted.  Indeed, in ethnomethodological research, it is typically these low level meanings that are intentionally disrupted in order to observe the processes by which individual actors attempt to reconstruct meaning in the situation (Garfinkel 1967).  Extending this logic, a more general sense of what gives a person meaning in life may normally be taken for granted except when disrupted.  At this higher level, traumatic life events such as the death of a spouse, being fired from a job, or being diagnosed with a terminal illness may prompt individuals to openly question underlying assumptions about the meaning of life in general which at other times remain dormant or unchallenged.  In other words, such traumatic life events may precipitate existential crises which, like lightening bolts, simultaneously stand people up and brilliantly illuminate the meaning landscape, bringing into focus what might otherwise remain unquestioned or hidden from view.

    Lack of life meaning can produce dire epidemiological consequences.  In this sense, meaning in life has a bottom-line, life-and-death quality to it.  If someone can not adequately construct any sense of meaning in life, for instance, then one would likely be suicidal.   Short of suicide, lack of a perceived sense meaning, purpose, and direction in life has other serious epidemiological consequences and is associated with various forms of impaired mental and physical health (Baumeister 1991 2007; Naylor et al. 1994).

    I suggest that there are fundamentally three sources of meaning that people draw upon to construct an overall sense of meaningful existence: 
 

1. emotionally intense relationships with others, 
2. work and leisure activities, and 
3. convictions to idea systems. 

    Intense love relationships with others provide an important source of life meaning for most people.  Love relationships are associated with feelings of happiness (Argyle 1987), subjective well-being (Mirowsky and Ross 1989), and meaning in life (Debats 1999).  These associations are strong and consistent.  The obverse is also well documented; loneliness, isolation, and estrangement are associated with feelings of unhappiness, discontent, and meaninglessness.    If someone constructs a sense of meaning in life predominately from a relationship with a particular significant other, then a disruption in this relationship (e.g. death of a significant other, desertion, divorce) is likely to provoke a major life crisis.   In such circumstances, individuals will typically attempt to reconstruct their disrupted life worlds by establishing a new set of meanings or reordering existing meaning priorities (Becker 1997; Krause 2005).

    A second source which individuals draw upon to construct a sense of what makes life meaningful is work and leisure activities.  There is a substantial literature which attests to the importance of work in peoples' sense of self and well-being (Arglye 1989; Blauner 1964; Rubin 1976; Spector 1997).   People who find their jobs intrinsically satisfying express greater degrees of satisfaction with life in general (Frey and Stutzer 2002).  Conversely, there is also a plethora of evidence which documents the psychologically debilitating effects of work that is alienating.  In general, the research supports the notion that challenging, autonomous, interesting, and varied work is associated with higher levels of job satisfaction in particular and life satisfaction in general whereas routine, mundane, repetitive jobs are associated with correspondingly lower levels of satisfaction. 

    While jobs may be a source of meaningful activity, leisure activities also may be similarly meaningful (Argyle 1996; Parker, S. 1983).  Whether or not one receives economic compensation for the activities in which they engage is not as important as whether the activities are imbued with meaning.  For some, a vocation may also be an avocation.  But for others, a job may be viewed in strictly practical or instrumental terms as a means to an end.  Disruption in work or leisure activity may provoke meaning crises.  Those who have organized their life worlds primarily around the arena of work and for whom occupation is a "master status," for instance, may be devastated by getting fired or being forced into mandatory retirement (Newman 1988).  Debilitating injury or illness that would curtail meaningful work or leisure activities may similarly call for reevaluations and redefinitions of life meaning (Fife 2005).

    A third source of meaning in life is convictions to idea systems.  Idea systems are related sets of values and beliefs which both present an explanation for why things are the way they are and direction about how adherents should orient their own behavior.   An idea system (or ideology), in other words, simultaneously constitutes a worldview and a frame of action.  The most common kinds of idea systems which people draw upon to construct a sense of what makes life meaningful to them are organized around religious and political themes (3) .   Conviction to religious or political ideologies may provide individuals with very powerful sources of meaning, purpose, and direction in life.  There is no more absolute test of conviction to an idea system than willingness to die for what one believes.  Such is the case for religious or political martyrs who are willing to sacrifice their lives for "causes" to which they subscribe.  As with love relationships and work and leisure activities, this source of meaning, however, can also be disrupted.  Redefinitions of meaning may be evoked as the result of religious or political disillusionment.  Scandals which expose deception, fraud, or hypocrisy among religious or political organizations, for instance, might provoke meaning crisis for adherents.

    Most people draw on a combination of sources of meaning in formulating a composite sense of what gives them meaning in life.  Some individuals, however, may rely more heavily on one source than another.  The workaholic, for instance, may become absorbed in work to the neglect of love relationships with significant others.  A dedicated parent may sacrifice a promising career to care for a disabled child.  A contemplative monk or nun may forsake everything else to devote a life entirely to prayer.  If actors put all of their meaning marbles in one basket, however, they may be especially at risk for disruption.  More typically, however, actors diversify their meaning portfolios by drawing simultaneously on a combination of meaning sources.

    No single theory in sociology adequately captures these complexities.   Nevertheless, I think the three major existing theoretical perspectives in sociology contain insights about social reality in general which speak separately to each of the three social sources of life meaning that I have identified.  By eclectically drawing on all three traditions, it may be possible to begin to develop a comprehensive and uniquely sociological approach to the study of life meaning.

    More than any other theoretical tradition in sociology, symbolic interactionism has consistently emphasized the importance of others in the development of the self (Blumer 1969).   The perspective emphasizes the socially constructed nature of meaning itself, arising out of interaction and subject to change over time.  Meaning is derived socially through the exchange of symbols among individuals tapped into a shared (i.e. social) symbol system. The emergent self is a dynamic social product that both acts on the world and is acted upon by the world.  Construction of life meaning through relationships with others, therefore, is consistent with a symbolic interactionist perspective.  The quality and intensity of relationships with others are also likely to be important.  That is, some others are more important to the self than other others.   Conversely, people deprived of these kinds of intense relationships are likely to experience deprivation of meaning.

    The theoretical perspective that is most consistent with an emphasis on work and leisure activities as a potential source for life meaning is conflict theory. The conflict tradition has been unrelenting in the importance placed on the intrinsic and extrinsic aspects of work.  For Karl Marx, for instance, human nature or what he referred to as the "species being" is inextricably related to labor (Marx, 1867/1967).  For Marx, the essence of what it means to be human is to be creative.  Marx viewed factory production associated with capitalism as dehumanizing since it creates conditions of labor that stifle opportunities for creative self expression.   Marx's utopian alternative to capitalism describes a setting in which individuals would be free of these alienating conditions and have maximum opportunity to enhance their creative potential through a combination of work and leisure activities (Marx and Engles 1845-1846/1970)  (4).

    The theoretical perspective in sociology that is consistent with meaning construction through conviction to idea systems is structural functionalism.  For functionalists, society is fundamentally what people agree it ought to be. The norms, values, and beliefs of a group represent the boundaries between insiders and outsiders, complete with rules of inclusion and rules of exclusion.  Baseline consensus regarding these moral sentiments forms the foundation of society.  Individuals develop a profound sense of obligation to the group to uphold and advance whatever ideals the group holds to be sacred.  This perspective is consistent therefore with the construction of life meaning through the internalization of existing cultural values (Parsons and Shils, 1951).  Social constructions of life meaning drawing upon individual attachments to tradition, kinship, community, religion, or politics are examples of the application of functionalist principles.

    Sociological insights regarding meaning construction can be usefully applied to a variety of life circumstances (5) .  One of the areas that I think these insights can be applied is the study of the life course.  Actors continually construct and reconstruct subjective meanings in an attempt to make sense of an historical past, an emergent present, and an anticipated future.  While these constructions are ongoing, evidence suggests that certain stages of the life course may engender both heightened awareness of, and major reassessments to, a person's sense what gives them meaning in life.  Existing research suggests that there may be at least three such junctures or watersheds during the life course associated with fundamental meaning realignments--adolescence, mid-life, and old age.  Meaning realignments may be triggered by meaning uncertainty or meaning crisis experienced during these life course transitions.  Not everyone experiences meaning uncertainty or meaning crisis during these life course transitions and the extent of what meaning realignment takes place could vary considerably.  However, typical life circumstances that commonly occur during these junctures are likely to increase the probability of reassessments and redefinitions.

    In formulating a sense of life meaning, children presumably draw heavily on existing meaning templates.  By meaning templates, I am referring to ways of making sense of life experience provided by the wider culture.  Tradition, kinship, community, and religion are sources of meaning templates that children internalize and largely adopt as their own.  In pre-industrial societies, these meaning templates are relatively stable and children presumably adopt them with little need for individual modification (Hewlett and Lamb 2005).  With industrialization, however, each of these sources of meaning becomes less stable. Furthermore, industrialization tends to extend childhood dependence, resulting in the creation of a new stage of the life course between childhood and adulthood--the "modern" stage of adolescence.  The combination of these social forces may make the social construction of life meaning especially difficult during this period of transition.

    The extended period of childhood dependence in modern industrial societies is generally recognized as an "awkward" stage, involving rapidly changing redefinitions of self (MacMillan 2007).  Besides the onset of puberty, adolescence is also associated with other life conditions and circumstances that can make the construction of life meaning especially difficult.  As children reach adolescence, they approach major life decisions--especially mate selection and occupational choice.  For very young children, these decisions are still remote and relatively abstract.  As children reach adolescence and young adulthood, they are confronted with an increasing sense of the importance and urgency of these decisions.  At the same time, there is typically still a great deal of uncertainty with regard to their ultimate outcomes.  This combination of importance, urgency, and uncertainty is likely to exacerbate adolescence anxiety.   In pre-industrial societies, such anxiety is probably less acute for similarly aged individuals.  In pre-industrial societies, children have limited occupational choices and usually end up doing what their parents did.  Children also have limited freedom of choice in mate selection with marriages either arranged by parents or at least significantly influenced by parental preferences.

    In modern industrial societies, romantic relationships are often turbulent for adolescents and young adults.  Adolescents and young adults become more detached from their parents but have typically not yet pair bonded with potential adult partners.  The romantic lives of adolescents and young adults during this extended "searching period" are often fraught with uncertainty and anxiety.  The second source of life meaning--activities--is also fraught with uncertainty and anxiety.  Adolescents and young adults are confronted with the increasing urgency and importance of "what to be" when they "grow up," but at the same time this central issue typically remains unresolved. 

    At this stage, adolescents and young adults also typically question convictions to idea systems as they struggle to figure out "who they are" and "what they believe in."  During this period, adolescents may enter a "rebellious" stage, increasingly questioning parental authority as well as idea systems and cultural templates adopted in childhood.  This questioning comes, in part, from wider exposure to alternate agents of socialization, as well as increasing physical and emotional detachment from parents.  The experience of a college freshman living away from home for the first time provides a ready example.  Having often led rather culturally homogenous or "sheltered" lives, new college students are suddenly detached from familiar meaning anchors--family, friends, and community.  Being exposed to peers from different social and cultural backgrounds and simultaneously being challenged by professors to rethink many of their most cherished taken-for-granted assumptions of reality, such students may experience a fitful sense of uneasiness and perhaps even ontological insecurity.

    A second stage of the life course which may also be especially problematical in terms of the construction of a sense of life's meaning is mid-life.  This is a stage of the life course in which individuals begin to confront two unsettling aspects of their lives--their own mortality and the fact that their life trajectory is largely established (Sherman, 1987).  As with adolescence, this stage of the life cycle is associated with physiological changes which often trigger reassessments. At mid-life, the natural process of physical entropy becomes more noticeable, signaling an increasing awareness of inevitable mortality.  Going gray, going bald, changes in body morphology, needing reading glasses, and menopause are examples of unwelcome reminders of this natural aging process.  Statistically, this is also a time when mid-lifers are most likely to experience the deaths of their own parents, a further reminder of where the life journey is ultimately headed (Moss and Moss, 1983). These reminders of the inevitability of one's own mortality can be psychologically unsettling.  Perhaps equally unsettling is the realization that one's life trajectory at mid life is mostly set.  Ironically, this is opposite of the meaning dilemma faced by adolescents.  For mid-lifers, the problem is not too much uncertainty but too much certainty. While adolescents remain anxious about the future, the future nevertheless represents hopefulness, unrealized potential, and a prospect for improvement of one's current condition.  For many mid-lifers, there may be a growing and uneasy awareness that what you see is what you are most likely to get. 

    The combination of these realizations and associated sentiments may then evoke what is popularly referred to as a "mid-life crisis."  The important point to note here is that a mid-life crisis is essentially an existential crisis of meaning.  It is a crisis of meaning in which the mid-lifers are prompted to "take stock" and reassess the essentials--love relations with others, activities, and convictions to idea systems.  One kind of resolution of the crisis may include graceful acceptance of growing older and one's station in life.  Alternately, mid-lifers may resort to desperate attempts to cling to youth (e.g. plastic surgery, buying sports cars, having affairs, etc.) or make other drastic changes in life circumstances (e.g. getting divorce, changing jobs or careers, etc.) while time for fundamental realignment remains.  If the latter course is taken, a sense of urgency may accompany the crisis.

    Finally, the end of the life cycle also represents a potential watershed of meaning reconstruction (Fletcher, 2004; Hayslip and Jansson, 2003; Moremen, 2005).  The confrontation with mortality encountered in mid-life becomes progressively more intense. Besides the growing physical deterioration which naturally accompanies the aging process, the elderly are further reminded of their own mortality with the increasing frequency of deaths of friends, relatives, and acquaintances.  As one's immediate social circle shrinks, the ability to draw meaning of life from relationships with others declines.  This source of meaning is especially compromised by the death of spouse.  The second source of construction of life meaning--activities--may also be compromised at this stage of the life course.  The most significant factor here is retirement, especially for those who drew heavily on work as a source of life meaning.  At this juncture in the life course, individuals may reconstruct or redirect meaning attachments in other ways.  Some elderly, for instance, fill this gap through a shift from work to leisure or from paid work to volunteer activities.  Nevertheless, the period of transition is often difficult, especially for elderly who adopt a pattern of disengagement. Physical or mental aliments or injuries associated with aging may further restrict the types and range of work and leisure activities that elderly can engage in and thereby draw upon in the construction of life meaning.

    The third source of life meaning--convictions to idea systems--often takes on increasing importance at this stage of the life course. There is evidence, for instance, of both increased religious (Courtenay et al. 1992) and political (Flanigan and Zingale 2006) involvement and participation among aging populations.  In short, there is ample evidence that old age represents a period of fundamental reassessment of life meaning in each of its dimensions. 

    Meaning in life is an abstract and elusive concept that is fraught with potential theoretical and methodological difficulties.  How people socially construct a sense of life meaning is also a potentially fruitful area of investigation which can be usefully applied to a variety of social circumstances of interest to sociologists.   I have briefly suggested some theoretical angles to consider as well as applications to the study of the life course.  We should not let the psychologists, philosophers, and theologians steal all the thunder on such a fundamental aspect of the human condition.

1. Despite the general lack of sociological work on the topic of meaning in life, meaning in life has evidently been a favorite topic for sociological presidential addresses, at least in the South.  F. Gene Acuff's 1983 presidential address to the Mid-South Sociological Association was centered on the need for sociological research and theorizing on the meaning in life (Acuff, 1993).  Acuff's plea, however, apparently went unheeded as sociology continued to largely ignore the topic.   More than a decade later, Walter Gove's  1994 presidential address to the Southern Sociological Society on "Why We Do What We Do" included consideration of "the importance of a meaningful life" in a general theory of human motivation  (Gove, 1994).  Once again, this plea was largely ignored.  Most recently, Michael Hughes (2006) in his 2005 presidential Address to the Southern Sociological Society renewed the call for more sociological attention on life meaning.  Despite these repeated pleas, there continues to be very little sociological empirical or theoretical work related to this topic.  (Return to text.)

2. Anthony Giddens (1984) makes a distinction between practical and discursive knowledge.  Discursive knowledge is the kind of knowledge that people can talk about; practical knowledge is the kind of knowledge that is operative in people's lives but which is generally not articulated.  (Return to text). 

3. Other idea or belief systems such as science or astrology could also conceivably be themes from which individuals derived life meaning.  (Return to text).

4. Or as Marx and Engles (1845-1846/1970: 52) themselves put it, " …in communist society, where nobody has one exclusive sphere of activity but each can  become accomplished in any branch he wishes, society regulates the general production and thus makes it possible for me to do one thing today and another tomorrow, to hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, criticize after dinner, just as I have a mind, without ever becoming hunter, fisherman, shepherd or critic." (Return to text).

5. Elsewhere (McNamee and Faulkner, 2002), I have applied this general theory to student and faculty international exchanges and study abroad experience. (Return to text).
 
 

Acuff, F. G. 1985. "Diminished Humanity, Society, and Sociology:  The Challenge."   Sociological Spectrum 5: 95-105.

Argyle, M. 1987. The Psychology of Happiness. London:  Methuen.

----- 1989. The Social Psychology of Work.  New York:  Penguin.

----- 1996.  The Social Psychology of Leisure. London:  Penguin Books

Baumeister, R. F. 1991.  Meanings of Life. New York:  The Guilford Press.

----2007. The Cultural Animal: Human Nature, Meaning, and Social Life. Oxford University Press.

Becker, G. 1997.  Disrupted Lives:  How People Create Meaning in a Chaotic World. Berkeley:  University of California Press.

Blauner, R. 1964. Alienation and Freedom.  Chicago:  University of Chicago Press.

Blumer, H. 1969. Symbolic Interaction:  Perspective and Method.  Englewood cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.

Courtenay, B.C., Poon, L. W., Martin, P., Clayton, G.M. and Johnson, M. 1992. "Religiosity and Adaptation in the Oldest-Old." International Journal of Aging and Human Development 34:47-56.

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Fletcher, S. 2004. "Religion and Life Meaning:  Differentiating Between Religious Beliefs and Religious Community in Constructing Life Meaning." Journal of Aging Studies 18:171-185.

Frey, B. S. and A. Stutzer. 2002.  Happiness and Economics:  How the Economy and Institutions Affect Well-Being.  Princeton:  Princeton University Press. 

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Giddens, A. 1984. The Constitution of Society. Berkeley:  University of California Press.

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Hayslip, B. Jr., and R. O. Hansson.  2003 "Death Awareness and Adjustment Across the Life Span."  Pp. 437-447 in Handbook of Death and Dying, Clifton D. Bryant (ed).  Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications. 

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Hughes, M.. 2006. “Affect, Meaning, and the Quality of Life.” Social Forces 85: 611-629.

Krause, N. 2005. "Traumatic Events and the Meaning in Life: Exploring Variations in Three Age Cohorts." Aging and Society 25: 501-524.

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Moremen, R. 2005. "What is the Meaning of Life?  Women's Spirituality at the End of the Life Span." Omega. 50: 309-330.

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Naylor, T. H., W. H. Willimon, and M. R. Raylor. 1994. The Search for Meaning.  Abingdon Press:  Nashville.

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Sherman, E. 1987. Meaning in Mid-Life Transitions. New York:  State University of New York Press.

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