From Shattered Goals to Meaning in Life: Life Crafting in Times of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Elisabeth de Jong, Niklas Ziegler and Michaéla Schippers

ERIM Report Series Research in Management from Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM), ERIM is the joint research institute of the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University and the Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) at Erasmus University Rotterdam

Abstract: The novel COVID-19 pandemic has created an extraordinary situation for our generation, with many countries being on lockdown. With this new situation comes many psychological challenges, not only for health care workers and people suffering from COVID-19, but also for the general population. Adapting to the new situation can be demanding. Experts have suggested that emotions during this situation are very similar to grief, and people experience emptiness and sadness about the loss of their normal lives, which can even lead to a loss of meaning in life. In this paper, we argue that life crafting could offer a way to help people cope with the situation and renew their sense of meaning. A life crafting intervention is based on theoretical insights from multiple areas of research, like positive psychology, expressive writing, and the salutogenesis framework. Life-crafting interventions help people find meaning in life by focusing on their ideal future, and helping them set goals, make concrete plans to achieve those goals and overcome obstacles. Since having a clear purpose or meaning in life has been shown to have many benefits, we propose that it can also help people to cope with the psychological effects of the pandemic. A life-crafting intervention can offer people a chance to evaluate their goals in a time of uncertainty and rediscover meaning in life to guide them through these difficult times.

Keywords: COVID-19; pandemic; life crafting; grief; collective trauma; meaning in life; purpose in life; goal setting (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 10
Date: 2020-07-21
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea
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