APA Convention 2024 - American Psychological Association

Shigehiro Oishi, PhD

Department of Psychology, University of Chicago

Shigehiro Oishi is the Marshall Field IV Professor of Psychology at the University of Chicago. He received his B.A. at International Christian University inTokyo, Ed.M at Teachers College, Columbia University, and Ph.D. at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2000. He taught at the University of Minnesota (2000-2004), Columbia University (2018-2020), and the University of Virginia (2004-2018;2020-2022) before joining UChicago. He won the 2017 Society of Experimental Social Psychology Career Trajectory Award, the 2018 Carol and Ed Diener Award in Social Psychology from the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, and the 2021 Outstanding Achievement Award for Advancing Cultural Psychology. His research focuses on culture, social ecology, and well-being.

A Psychologically Rich Life

Friday, August 9

2:00-2:50 p.m. PDT

Seattle Convention Center, Arch Building,
Ballroom 6BC

Psychological science has typically conceptualized a good life in terms of either hedonic or eudaimonic well-being. I propose that psychological richness is another, neglected aspect of what people consider a good life. Unlike happy or meaningful lives, psychologically rich lives are best characterized by a variety of interesting and perspective-changing experiences. People leading psychologically rich lives tend to be more curious, think more holistically, and lean more politically liberal. Together, this work moves us beyond the dichotomy of hedonic versus eudaimonic well-being, and lays the foundation for the study of psychological richness as another dimension of a good life.