People who strive to lead a spiritual or religious life -- searching for significance -- tend to experience higher levels of well-being, indicates a new UC Davis study. For women, in particular, the correlation is especially strong. The findings reveal yet another aspect of the overall relationship between important life goals and psychological well-being, says Robert A. Emmons, a UC Davis psychology professor. In the current study, authored by Emmons and Matthew Dank and presented this month at the Western Psychological Association annual meeting, spiritual strivings are defined as those personal goals concerned with ultimate purpose, ethics, commitment to a higher power and recognition of the transcendent. The positive states of well-being experienced by those committing to spiritual goals may stem from the coherence provided by a spiritually oriented lifestyle; a framework for interpreting life's challenges; increased respect for oneself; and feelings of spiritual support -- freeing a person from relying too much on others or on material possessions as validators of self-worth, theorize Emmons and Dank. The sex differences in the results may stem from women seeing spirituality as a way of relating to life while men see it more as an intellectual journey, Emmons and Dank say. The overall study findings support the idea that a spiritual component to peoples' lives can be reliably and objectively assessed and that it has measurable consequences for psychological well-being.