Life in Three Dimensions: How Curiosity, Exploration, and Experience Make a Fuller, Better Life

by Shigehiro Oishi

Overview

From one of our foremost psychologists, a trailblazing book that turns the idea of a good life on its head and urges us to embrace the transformative power of variety and experience.

For many people, a good life is a stable life, a comfortable life that follows a well-trodden path. This is the case for Shigehiro Oishi's father, who has lived in a small mountain town in Japan for his entire life, putting his family's needs above his own, like his father and grandfather before him. But is a happy life, or even a meaningful life, also a good life?

In Life in Three Dimensions, Shige Oishi enters into a debate that has animated psychology since 1984, when Ed Diener (Oishi's mentor) published a paper that launched happiness studies. A rival followed in 1989 with a model of a good life that focused on purpose and meaning instead. In recent years, Shige Oishi's award-winning work has proposed a third dimension to a good life: psychological richness, a concept that prioritizes curiosity, exploration, and a variety of experiences that help us grow as people.

Life in Three Dimensions explores the shortcomings of happiness and meaning as guides to a good life, pointing to complacency and regret as a "happiness trap" and narrowness and misplaced loyalty as a “meaning trap.” Psychological richness, Oishi proposes, balances the other two, offering insight and growth spurred by embracing uncertainty and challenges.

In a lively style, drawing on a generation of psychological studies and on examples from life and literature, Oishi shows how anyone can use the three core dimensions—happiness, meaning, and psychological richness—to build a fuller, more authentic life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780385550390
Publisher:	Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Publication date:	02/04/2025
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.25(h) x 0.72(d)

About the Author

SHIGEHIRO OISHI is the Marshall Field IV professor of psychology at the University of Chicago. He is one of the foremost authorities on happiness, meaning, and culture. He is the author of The Psychological Wealth of Nations, and his research has been featured in major media outlets, including The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.

Editorial Reviews

No one knows more about the science of well-being than Shigehiro Oishi. In this wonderful new book he shares a lifetime of discovery about what it means to live a good life. Life in Three Dimensions is insightful, original, and wise.”
—Daniel Gilbert, Edgar Pierce Professor of Psychology, Harvard University and author of the New York Times bestselling Stumbling on Happiness

"With a new book on happiness and meaning hitting the market seemingly every other week, it’s hard to stand out in this crowded field. Yet, that’s precisely what Shigehiro Oishi, one of psychology’s brightest stars, has managed to do in his compellingly written, refreshingly original and provocative new book. Life in Three Dimensions will change the way you think about what it means to lead a good life."
—Ethan Kross, international bestselling author of Chatter

“Shigehiro Oishi’s idea of the psychologically rich life is my favorite new idea—and the major advance to emerge in happiness science in decades. I truly believe that this book will inspire you to understand—and then live—your best, fullest, and most authentic life. Run, don’t walk, to buy this book.” 
—Sonja Lyubomirsky, Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Riverside and author of The How of Happiness

"The Rich Life, Shigehiro Oishi persuasively argues, is a Good Life, a third major choice over the Happy Life and the Meaningful Life. And Oishi tells us how to get there. An eye-opening book for all who are stuck."
—Dr. Martin E.P. Seligman, Director of the Penn Positive Psychology Center and author of the classic Learned Optimism

“This spectacular book is a page-turner: you will be entranced by the charming narrative and poignant anecdotes. But more importantly, the wisdom it conveys about a psychologically rich life, based on the latest scientific research, will change how you live.”
—Timothy D. Wilson, Sherrell J. Aston Professor of Psychology Emeritus, University of Virginia and author of Redirect: Changing the Stories We Live By


 

From the Publisher