Purpose and WellBeing in Adulthood Daniel K Lapsley
Purpose and Well-Being in Adulthood Daniel K. Lapsley and Jay Brandenberger University of Notre Dame Anthony Burrow Loyola University-Chicago Jessica Collado and Patrick Hill University of Notre Dame Association for Moral Education, New York, 2007
Two Research Goals Report evidence on the measurement properties and convergent validity of the Stanford Center of Adolescent “Youth Purpose Scale” Examine whether the linkage between Purpose and life satisfaction is mediated by agency and pathways of “Hope”
“A stable and generalized intention to accomplish something that is at once meaningful to the self and is of consequence to the world beyond the self” --Damon, Menon & Bronk (2004)
There is an ethical dimension bound up with the desire to live a purposive life Purpose may be the ground of living well the life that is good for one to live and point in the direction of classical sources on eudemonia and what it means to flourish
Two claims about purpose crucial for understanding adolescent development not necessarily related to well-being struggle to live purposive life not restricted to adolescence relation to well-being an open empirical question
ND Moral Purpose Study Survey ND Class of ’ 94 (purpose, well-being, life-satisfaction, generativity, integrity, ‘hope’) Aligned with Service learning experiences Freshman survey Senior survey 10 -year out survey
Participants N = 399 Mean age: 35 57% Male Caucasian/European-American
Subscales Searching (5 -items) Identified (5 -items) Engagement (5 -items) Identity Centrality (5 -items) Examples I am seeking a purpose or mission for my life. I am searching for meaning in my life My life has a clear sense of purpose I have a good sense of what makes my life meaningful I do many things that make my life meaningful I participate in one or more organizations that serve my purpose in life I have a purpose in life that reflects who I am I have a life purpose that says a lot about the kind of person I am
YP Identified YP Searching
How are YP-Identified and YP-Searching related to “well-being”?
Psychological Well-Being (C. Ryff, 1989) Subscales High scorers… Purpose in Life Has goals in life and sense of directedness; feels (14 -items, α =. 91) there is meaning to present and past life; holds beliefs that give life purpose; has aims and objectives for living. Personal Growth Has a feeling of continued development; sees self (11 -items, α =. 88) as growing and expanding; is open to new experiences; has sense of realizing one’s potential; sees improvement in self…. Environmental Has a sense of mastery and competence in Mastery managing environment; controls complex array (11 -items, α =. 87) of external activities; makes effective use of opportunities; chooses or creates contexts suitable to personal needs and values
Life Satisfaction, Generativity, Integrity Measure Items Satisfaction with Life 5 items, α =. 87 Global appraisal of life-satisfaction drawing upon domains self finds relevant Loyola Generativity Scale (D. Mc. Adams) 20 items, α =. 88 Passing on knowledge & skills; making a significant contribution to betterment of community; leaving a legacy; being creative & productive Integrity Scale 18 items, α =. 83 “character strength” that reflects steadfast commitment to ethical principles (Diener et al. , 1985) (B. Schlenker, 2006)) Description
YP-Identified r with Environmental Mastery. 593** Personal Growth. 565** Purpose in Life. 810** Satisfaction with Life. 656** Generativity. 660** Integrity. 304** YP-Searching -. 233
YP-Searching r with Environmental Mastery -. 260** Personal Growth ns Purpose in Life -. 234** Satisfaction with Life -. 226** Generativity ns Integrity ns
Is the relationship between Youth Purpose and Life Satisfaction mediated by “hope”? Hope Scale (Snyder et al. , 1991. JPSP, 60, 570 -585)
Hope is fueled by: perception of successful agency with respect to goals or sense of successful determination in meeting goals in past, present & future “agency” (goal-directed determination)
Hope is fueled by: perceived availability of successful pathways related to goals or sense of being able to generate successful plans to meet goals “pathways” (planning of ways to meet goals)
The agency and pathways of hope are “reciprocal, additive and positively related, although they are not synonymous” --Snyder et al. , 1991) “Where there is a will there is a way” (is only partly true)
Hope Scale (Snyder et al. , 1991) Subscales Agency (4 -items) α =. 87 Pathways (4 -items) α =. 86 Examples… I energetically pursue my goals My past experience has prepared me well for my future I’ve been pretty successful in life I meet the goals that I set for myself I can think of many ways to get out of a jam There are lots of ways around any problem I can think of many ways to get the things in life that are most important to me Even when others get discouraged, I know I can find a way to solve the problem
Identified Purpose β =. 66 (. 61) β =. 42 Satisfaction with Life β =. 36 Hope Pathways
Identified Purpose β =. 66 (. 47) β =. 67 Satisfaction with Life β =. 58 Hope Agency
Conclusions • Youth Purpose scale coalesces around two internally consistent factors – “Identified” and “Searching” • “Identified” Purpose – strong convergent validity – strong associations with well-being, lifesatisfaction and integrity • “Searching” Purpose – not so much (at least in adulthood)
“Identified” purpose is robustly related to indices of well-being but “Searching” for purpose is not
But Identified Purpose“ contributes to life satisfaction only when there is “hope” (or the agentic aspect of hope)
Agentic-Hope mediates the relationship between Identified Purpose and Life Satisfaction Life satisfaction seems to require both “purpose” and “agency”
www. nd. edu/~dlapsle 1 danlapsley@nd. edu jbranden@nd. edu
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