Gallery Presentation International Positive Psychology Association 7th IPPA World Congress 2021

Background

The sense that one’s life matters is theorized to be a constituent of felt meaning in life, and low levels of mattering are associated with suicidality. However, past research has not distinguished between mattering to others ("social mattering") and mattering in the grand scheme of things ("cosmic mattering").

Hypotheses

We predicted that social and cosmic mattering are distinct constructs. Moreover, if asked to explain their feelings of mattering, most people would mention social impact rather than cosmic relevance. Finally, we predicted that feeling like one matters to others would show stronger associations with wellbeing outcomes than cosmic mattering.

Sample

In two studies, we recruited over 1,000 participants from Amazon's MTurk (M_age = 39.00, SD_age = 13.35, 59% women, 70% White), and undergraduate participant pools (M_age = 18.97, SD_age = 1.63, 73% women, 63% White).

Design

Participants completed a “context-free” mattering scale (sample item: “My life matters”), and then explained their answers to that questionnaire. They then completed a social mattering scale (“My life matters to other people”), cosmic mattering scale (“My life matters in the grand scheme of the universe”), and several wellbeing measures, including the Perceived Personal Meaning Scale, and the Depressive Symptom Index - Suicidality Subscale.

Results

Consistent with our hypotheses, factor analyses revealed that social and cosmic mattering were indeed distinct constructs. Moreover, content-coding of the text-entries revealed that most participants cited their social impact as a reason for their feelings of mattering. Very few mentioned anything about "the grand scheme of things". However, contrary to our hypotheses, cosmic mattering proved to be a stronger predictor of wellbeing outcomes than social mattering.

Contribution

We conclude that researchers should make more fine-grained distinctions between different kinds of mattering. There are different ways in which individuals can feel that their lives matter, and these differences matter.