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Purpose and Well-Being in Adulthood
Daniel K. Lapsley and Jay BrandenbergerUniversity of Notre Dame
Anthony BurrowLoyola University-Chicago
Jessica Collado and Patrick HillUniversity 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 withService learning experiences
Freshman surveySenior survey
10-year out survey
Participants
N = 399
Mean age: 35
57% Male
Caucasian/European-American
Subscales Examples
Searching(5-items)
I am seeking a purpose or mission for my life.I am searching for meaning in my life
Identified(5-items)
My life has a clear sense of purposeI have a good sense of what makes my life meaningful
Engagement(5-items)
I do many things that make my life meaningfulI participate in one or more organizations that serve my purpose in life
IdentityCentrality
(5-items)
I have a purpose in life that reflects who I amI have a life purpose that says a lot about the kind of person I am
Rotated Component Matrixa
.893 -.093
.879 -.046
.858 -.038
.820 -.207
.813 -.251
.812 -.073
.782 -.067
.752 -.114
.749 -.201
.707 -.265
.690 -.024
.641 -.147
.584 .171
.517 .052
.476 -.120
-.073 .928
.004 .907
-.070 .904
-.219 .876
-.134 .855
ypidcent1
ypidcent2
ypidcent4
ypidentified3
ypidentified1
ypengage1
ypidcent3r
ypengage2r
ypidentified2
ypidentified5
ypengage5
ypidentified4r
ypidcent5
ypengage3
ypengage4r
ypsearch4
ypsearch3
ypsearch5
ypsearch2
ypsearch1
1 2
Component
Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis. Rotation Method: Varimax with Kaiser Normalization.
Rotation converged in 3 iterations.a.
Reliability Statistics
.944 .945 5
Cronbach'sAlpha
Cronbach'sAlpha Based
onStandardized
Items N of Items
YP Searching
Reliability Statistics
.939 .942 15
Cronbach'sAlpha
Cronbach'sAlpha Based
onStandardized
Items N of Items
YP Identified
How are YP-Identified and YP-Searching related to “well-being”?
Has a sense of mastery and competence in managing environment; controls complex array of external activities; makes effective use of opportunities; chooses or creates contexts suitable to personal needs and values
Environmental Mastery
(11-items, α = .87)
Has a feeling of continued development; sees self as growing and expanding; is open to new experiences; has sense of realizing one’s potential; sees improvement in self….
Personal Growth(11-items, α = .88)
Has goals in life and sense of directedness; feels there is meaning to present and past life; holds beliefs that give life purpose; has aims and objectives for living.
Purpose in Life(14-items, α = .91)
High scorers…Subscales
Psychological Well-Being(C. Ryff, 1989)
“character strength” that reflects steadfast commitment to ethical principles
18 items, α = .83
Integrity Scale(B. Schlenker, 2006))
Passing on knowledge & skills; making a significant contribution to betterment of community; leaving a legacy; being creative & productive
20 items, α = .88
Loyola Generativity Scale
(D. McAdams)
Global appraisal of life-satisfaction drawing upon domains self finds relevant
5 items, α = .87
Satisfaction with Life
(Diener et al., 1985)
DescriptionItemsMeasure
Life Satisfaction, Generativity, Integrity
YP-Identified
r withEnvironmental 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)
I can think of many ways to get out of a jamThere are lots of ways around any problemI can think of many ways to get the things in life that are most important to meEven when others get discouraged, I know I can find a way to solve the problem
Pathways(4-items)
α = .86
I energetically pursue my goalsMy past experience has prepared me well for my futureI’ve been pretty successful in lifeI meet the goals that I set for myself
Agency(4-items)
α = .87
Examples…Subscales
Hope Scale (Snyder et al., 1991)
IdentifiedPurpose
Satisfactionwith Life
HopePathways
β = .66 (.61)
β = .36β = .42
IdentifiedPurpose
Satisfactionwith Life
HopeAgency
β = .66 (.47)
β = .58β = .67
Conclusions
• Youth Purpose scale coalesces around two internally consistent factors– “Identified” and “Searching”
• “Identified” Purpose– strong convergent validity – strong associations with well-being, life-
satisfaction 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”