Fuhrer, J., Bezat, M., & Cova, F. The everyday experience of meaning in life: an empirical perspective on what it is like to experience one’s life as meaningful or meaningless. (Mixed methods: two qualitative studies and one quantitative study; paper written but not submitted yet.)
Phase: Written, not ready to be submitted.
Content: We all sometimes experience moments where our life feels meaningful or meaningless. But in which situations do these experiences arise? How do we feel? Our findings suggest that the experience of meaningfulness is about others: it occurs in situations where we are bonding with others, having a positive impact on our surroundings or on society, and helping others. The positive emotions associated with this experience include being moved, feeling part of a whole, being touched, feeling grateful, proud, motivated, experiencing awe, and feeling enlightened. Conversely, we tend to feel that our life is meaningless in situations where we feel unfulfilled, lack connections, feel useless, struggle with our mental health, experience negative emotions, or face a lack of direction in life. The negative emotions include feeling lost, sad, powerless, stressed, overwhelmed, and devastated.

Fuhrer, J. Fifty Shades of Well-being: The Cost of Confusion.
Phase: Paper written, submitted, waiting for decision.
Content: This paper analyzes the case of subjective/hedonic and eudaimonic well-being in psychology, and its genealogy, as a paradigmatic example of how philosophical confusions have muddied the waters of well-being science. These confusions have led to a proliferation of conceptual frameworks and measurement tools. I argue that, despite significant advancements, the science of well-being suffers from a crisis of epistemic coherence, driven by two interrelated factors: (1) the uncritical adoption of philosophically dense terminology into empirical psychology, and (2) academic practices that incentivize theoretical novelty over clarity and consensus, thereby favoring interdisciplinary siloing.

Fuhrer, J., Jeancolas, C., Vantard, M., Nourrit, D., Thon, R., & Knoop, M. Psychology of Interdisciplinarity
Phase: Data collection.
Content: This project, conducted in collaboration with the MITI (Mission for Cross-cutting and Interdisciplinary Initiatives) team at the CNRS, aims to draw a "psychological portrait" of interdisciplinary researchers: better understanding their experiences, quality of life, personality traits, and psychological dispositions. The approach is primarily quantitative and inferential, with an additional open-ended qualitative question. Data collection is ongoing, and we are targeting the entire CNRS researcher mailing list to ensure a robust and representative dataset.