This book explores what it means to live a purposeful life and outlines the benefits associated with purpose across different life domains. It also demonstrates that purpose in life is not reducible to constructs such as happiness, well-being, or identity development.
The importance of having a sense of purpose in life is attracting renewed attention in both scientific and social arenas. Mounting evidence from intricately designed experiments and large-scale studies reveals how pursuing a purpose can make a person happier, healthier, and even lengthen their lifespan. However, existing texts on purpose have said little on why having has these effects, how it may influence our ability to navigate diverse environments, or how best to consider the construct from a multidisciplinary approach that moves beyond psychology.
Recognizing this gap in the literature, this book provides multidisciplinary perspectives on the topic of purpose, and examines what we can do as researchers, interventionists, and society as a whole to imbue purposefulness in the lives of people across the lifespan. It includes contributions from key figures on topics such as identity, health, youth programs and youth purpose, diversity, aging and work.
Author(s): Anthony L. Burrow, Patrick L. Hill
Publisher: Springer
Year: 2020
Language: English
Pages: 264
City: Cham
Acknowledgements
Contents
1 Introduction: The Purpose of Studying Purpose and the Need for an Ecological Perspective
1.1 What Is Purpose?
1.1.1 Purpose Through a Lifespan Developmental Lens
1.1.2 Purpose as a Component of Psychological Well-Being
1.2 Why Study Purpose?
1.3 Outline of the Book
References
2 We Meet Again: The Reintroduction and Reintegration of Purpose into Personality Psychology
2.1 Conceptualizing Purpose
2.2 Purpose and Personality
2.2.1 Neo-Socioanalytic Model of Personality
2.2.2 Five Principles of Personality Psychology
2.2.3 Systems Framework of Personality
2.2.4 Narrowing in on Trait Purpose
2.3 The Misunderstood History of Personality Traits and Purpose
2.4 Future Opportunities for Purpose Researchers Through Personality Science
2.4.1 Purpose in Daily Life
2.4.2 The Behaviors of Purpose
2.4.3 Purpose Across the Lifespan
2.5 Conclusion
References
3 Extending Research Linking Purpose in Life to Health: The Challenges of Inequality, the Potential of the Arts, and the Imperative of Virtue
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Aging Trajectories of Purpose and Linkages to Physical Health
3.2.1 Age Trajectories of Purpose in Life
3.2.2 Purpose and Mortality
3.2.3 Purpose and Other Health Outcomes
3.2.4 Potential Underlying Mechanisms
3.3 Purposeful Lives and Widening Inequalities: Understanding Obstacles to Fulfillment of Human Potential
3.4 Connecting Purpose in Life to the Arts and Humanities
3.4.1 Finding Purpose Through the Arts and Humanities
3.4.2 What Is Higher Education for?
3.4.3 Elitism in Higher Education
3.5 Purpose and Virtue
3.5.1 Distinguishing Benevolent from Malevolent Life Purposes
3.5.2 Empirical Translations: Assessing Virtuous Purpose Through Doing
3.6 Concluding Summary
References
4 Transitions and Opportunities: Considering Purpose in the Context of Healthy Aging
4.1 Sense of Purpose Across the Lifespan
4.2 Benefits of Sense of Purpose for Older Adults
4.3 Role-Based Interventions
References
5 Discovering the Possible: How Youth Programs Provide Apprenticeships in Purpose
5.1 Background
5.1.1 Purpose Development in Adolescence
5.1.2 Our Research on Development in Youth Programs
5.2 A Case Example: Imani’s Development of Purpose in a Mural Arts Program
5.3 Youth Programs as Intentional Environments for Purpose Building
5.4 Youth’s Processes Building Competencies for Purpose
5.4.1 Developing Strategic Skills for Achieving Real-World Goals
5.4.2 Building Competencies for Dealing with Emotional-Motivational Downturns
5.5 Developing Direction
5.5.1 Career Direction: Finding Fit
5.5.2 Moral Direction: Embracing Responsibilities Beyond the Self
5.6 Conclusion: Purpose Development in Youth Programs
5.6.1 Taking Stock: Limits and Future Research
5.6.2 Implications for Practice
References
6 Discovering Identity and Purpose in the Classroom: Theoretical, Empirical, and Applied Perspectives
6.1 Defining the Construct of Purpose
6.2 Theoretical Perspectives Linking Identity and Purpose
6.3 Sociocontextual Promoters of Purpose and Applied Empirical Evidence
6.4 School-Based Interventions to Support Purpose Development
6.5 School-Based Purpose Learning Programs
6.6 A Case Example of Purpose Learning: Summit Public Schools
6.7 Implications and Challenges to School-Based Purpose Learning Programs
6.8 Summary and Conclusions
References
7 Supporting Youth Purpose in Adolescence: Youth-Adult Relationships as Ecological Assets
7.1 Introduction
7.1.1 Benefits of Purpose in Adolescence
7.1.2 Purpose and Stage-Environment Fit in Adolescence
7.1.3 An Ecological View of Youth Development of Purpose: Internal and External Assets
7.2 The Youth-Adult Relationship Study
7.2.1 Interview Protocol and Procedures
7.2.2 Youth’s Purpose-Related Goals
7.2.3 The Role of Youth-Adult Relationships in Youth Purpose Development
7.2.4 Case Studies of Youth-Adult Relationships in Mid- and Late Adolescence
7.3 Discussion
7.3.1 Stage-Environment Fit: Youth-Adult Relationships as Ecological Assets for Adolescent Purpose
7.3.2 Strengths, Limitations, and Directions for the Future
7.4 Conclusion
References
8 Coming of Age on the Edge of Town: Perspectives in Growing up in a Rural Trailer Park
8.1 Introduction
8.2 Place and Purpose
8.3 The Original Study
8.4 The Follow-Up Study
8.5 Flourishing in Early Adulthood
8.6 Floundering in Early Adulthood
8.7 Flourishing and Floundering in Emerging Adulthood
8.8 Reflection
8.9 Implications and Future Directions
References
9 The Shape of a Life: Gender and Its Influence on Purpose Development
9.1 Gender and Purpose Development
9.1.1 Purpose Exploration and Gender
9.1.2 Purpose Commitment and Gender
9.2 Gender and Purpose Content
9.3 Three Future Directions in the Study of Gender Identity and Purpose in Life
9.3.1 Pursuing Purpose in a Patriarchal Context
9.3.2 Intersectionality and Purpose in Life
9.3.3 Moving Beyond the Gender Binary
9.4 Conclusion
References
10 “I Just Can’t Be Nothin”: The Role of Resistance in the Development of Identity and Purpose
10.1 Introduction
10.2 Defining Identity and Purpose
10.3 Centering the Sociocultural Context of Dehumanization
10.4 The Role of Resistance
10.5 Strategies of Resistance to Oppression: Finding Identity and Purpose
10.6 Conclusion
References
11 When Passion Serves a Purpose: Race, Social Networks, and Countering Occupational Discrimination
11.1 Background
11.2 What Exactly Is Purpose?
11.3 Research Design and Methodology
11.4 Findings
11.4.1 Establishing the Sense of Purpose: Early Interest in Health Care
11.4.2 Role Modeling: Early Exposure to Health Careers
11.4.3 Reactive Processes to Developing Purpose: Dealing with Illness
11.5 Obstacles to Purpose: Covert Discrimination in Health Care
11.6 Managing Networks, Managing Discrimination
11.7 Summary
References
12 How Practicing Our Purpose Aim Contributes to a Cultural Common Good, and Vice Versa
12.1 How Practicing Our Purpose Aims Contributes to a Cultural Common Good
12.2 Dynamics: Purpose as a Psychological Force
12.3 Ecology: Moving from Contexts to Affordances
12.4 Purpose Practice: Generating Prosocial Effects
12.5 Purpose Aim: Aligning Envisioned and Actual Effects
12.6 Culture: Contributor not Context
12.7 Plurality: Blending Cultures
12.8 Manifesto: All of Us Moving Forward, Intertwined by Purpose Aims
References
13 Youth Purpose: A Translational Research Agenda
13.1 Purpose Defined
13.2 Cultivating Purpose
13.3 Purpose Among Diverse Groups of Youth
13.4 Conclusion
References
Discussion: The Burdens and Promises of Purpose Inquiry
References
