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”

www.nd.edu/~dlapsle1

danlapsley@nd.edu

jbranden@nd.edu