Kendall Cotton Bronk

The Development of Purpose During Adolescence

The field of psychology has been slow to recognize the importance of purpose for positive youth development. Until recently, purpose was understood, if at all, as a means of adapting to threatening conditions rather than as a motivator of good deeds and galvanizer of character growth. Moreover, in most psychological studies, purpose has been conflated with personal meaning, a broader and more internally oriented construct. This article offers a new operational definition of purpose that distinguishes it from meaning in an internalistic sense, and it reviews the existing psychological studies pertinent to the development of purpose during youth. The article identifies a number of urgent questions concerning how-and whether-young people today are acquiring positive purposes to dedicate themselves to and, if so, what the nature of todays youth purposes might be.

Purpose, hope, and life satisfaction in three age groups

Using the Revised Youth Purpose Survey (Bundick et al., 2006), the Trait Hope Scale (Snyder et al., 1991), and the Satisfaction with Life Scale (Diener, Emmons, Larsen, & Griffin, 1985), the present study examined the relationship among purpose, hope, and life satisfaction among 153 adolescents, 237 emerging adults, and 416 adults (N = 806). Results of this cross-sectional study revealed that having identified a purpose in life was associated with greater life satisfaction at these three stages of life. However, searching for a purpose was only associated with increased life satisfaction during adolescence and emerging adulthood. Additionally, aspects of hope mediated the relationship between purpose and life satisfaction at all three stages of life. Implications of these results for effectively fostering purpose are discussed.

Conducting Confirmatory Latent Class Analysis Using M"plus".

Latent class analysis (LCA) is an increasingly popular tool that researchers can use to identify latent groups in the population underlying a sample of responses to categorical observed variables. LCA is most commonly used in an exploratory fashion whereby no parameters are specified a priori. Although this exploratory approach is reasonable when very little prior research has been conducted in the area under study, it can be very limiting when much is already known about the variables and population. Confirmatory latent class analysis (CLCA) provides researchers with a tool for modeling and testing specific hypotheses about response patterns in the observed variables. CLCA is based on placing specific constraints on the parameters to reflect these hypotheses. The popular and easy-to-use latent variable modeling software package Mplus can be used to conduct a variety of CLCA types using these parameter constraints. This article focuses on the basic principles underlying the use of CLCA, and the Mplus programming code necessary for carrying it out.

A grounded theory of the development of noble youth purpose.

Having a noble purpose in life is an important component of positive youth development; however, little is known about how noble purposes develop over time. Therefore, using three waves of interviews over a 5-year period with 9 adolescents (N = 9) who demonstrated intense commitments to various noble purposes, the present study developed a grounded theory of the development of noble purpose, including a focus on how commitment was initiated, sustained, increased, and changed over time. Results revealed the exemplars made commitments early in life. With the exception of triggering experiences, which immediately intensified their level of commitment, commitment generally grew slowly but steadily in response to positive feedback. Mentors and like-minded peers played an important role in supporting noble purposes over time, and access to new resources led exemplars to expand their focus. Implications for supporting the development of noble purposes are addressed.

Adolescent Characteristics by Type of Long-Term Aim in Life

Surveys were administered to adolescents (N = 144) to determine if young people varied based on the type of long-term aims they held. Using cluster analysis, four groups emerged from the data: youth without clear long-term aims, youth with self-oriented long-term aims, youth with other-oriented long-term aims, and youth with both self- and other-oriented long-term aims. The latter two clusters represent potentially purposeful youth and the self-oriented cluster represents youth with meaning in their lives. Therefore, the authors were able to compare potentially purposeful youth to youth with meaning and to youth with neither purpose nor meaning in their lives. Youth with other-oriented long-term aims were more likely to be searching for a purpose, to have identified a purpose, to report higher levels of life satisfaction, and to score higher on openness. Implications for understanding the purpose construct and for fostering purpose among adolescents are addressed.

Purpose in life among high ability adolescents

Leading high ability scholars have proposed theories that suggest a purpose in life may be particularly prevalent among high ability youth; however, the prevalence of purpose has not been empirically assessed among this population. Therefore using in‐depth interviews the present study established the prevalence of purpose among a sample of high ability adolescents and compared it to the prevalence of purpose among a sample of typical youth (N= 203). Results revealed that purpose was present among high ability early and late adolescents at roughly the same rate as among more typical youth. However, high ability youth reported embracing self‐oriented life goals earlier than more typical youth, and they identified different types of inspiring life purposes. Implications, including steps practitioners can take to foster purpose among high ability youth, are addressed.

The exemplar methodology: An approach to studying the leading edge of development

The exemplar methodology is a useful, but to date underutilized, approach to studying developmental phenomena. It features a unique sample selection approach whereby individuals, entities, or programs that exemplify the construct of interest in a highly developed manner form the study sample. Studying a sample of highly developed individuals yields an important view of the leading edge of development that cannot be gleaned using other methodologies. A picture of the full range of development requires not only an understanding of typical and deficient growth, as provided by existing methodologies, but also of complete or nearly complete development, as provided by the exemplar methodology. Accordingly, the exemplar methodology represents a critical tool for developmental psychologists. In spite of this, because it has rarely been written about, the exemplar methodology has only been used to study a relatively narrow range of developmental constructs. Therefore, the present article defines the exemplar methodology, addresses key conceptual issues, and briefly outlines steps to utilizing the approach.

An Introduction to Exemplar Research: A Definition, Rationale, and Conceptual Issues

The exemplar methodology represents a useful yet underutilized approach to studying developmental constructs. It features an approach to research whereby individuals, entities, or programs that exemplify the construct of interest in a particularly intense or highly developed manner compose the study sample. Accordingly, it reveals what the upper ends of development look like in practice. Utilizing the exemplar methodology allows researchers to glimpse not only what is but also what is possible with regard to the development of a particular characteristic. The present chapter includes a definition of the exemplar methodology, a discussion of some of key conceptual issues to consider when employing it in empirical studies, and a brief overview of the other chapters featured in this volume.

Passion & mastery in balance: toward good work in the professions

true ‘profession’ as sociologists de1⁄2ne the term, they usually consider professionalism to be a quality worth striving for. To call someone a pro implies that the person knows what to do and does it well. Professionals don’t act naively, make stupid mistakes, or get easily flustered. Professionals have staying power and can be counted on: they ‘go on with the show’ no matter how they’re feeling. It is this attitude that journalist Alistair Cooke had in mind when he said, “A professional is a person who can do his best at a time when he doesn’t particularly feel like it.” Professionalism in any 1⁄2eld–medicine, law, sports, butchery, baking, or candlestick making–implies dependable work reflecting a solid mastery of occupational knowledge, standards, and methods. Mastery of this sort matters greatly to clients. Who would go into surgery with a doctor who had not acquired professional skill? Or hire a lawyer with an ‘unprofessional’ reputation? Or, for that matter, buy from a butcher who didn’t know a pork chop from a short rib? Yet the prestige of professionalism, especially during recent times, has been tarnished by the indifferent, self-serving, and sometimes unethical work of some professionals. No doubt the high-pressure demands of today’s professional 1⁄2elds have a lot to do with this. In a world of hmos, mandated billed-hour

The Role of Purpose in Optimal Human Functioning

Early research on purpose focused on the negative effects associated with leading a life devoid of personal significance. Accordingly, the present chapter opens with a discussion of the theoretical and empirical research on the relationship between purposelessness and boredom, depression, apathy, anxiety, substance abuse, and suicide ideation. More recently, research on the construct has focused on the ways in which leading a life of purpose has been found to be associated with a wide range of positive developmental outcomes, including psychological well-being, happiness, and hope. This chapter synthesizes the growing body of empirical research on the psychological and physical indicators of well-being that correlate with purpose and closely related constructs. It also includes a discussion of the complex relationship between purpose and stress and a discussion of the way purpose contributes to optimal human development. Lastly, purpose has been linked to academic and professional success, and this literature is reviewed.