Eudaimonic growth: Narrative growth goals predict increases in ego development and subjective well-being 3 years later.

Abstract

We examine (a) the normative course of eudaimonic well-being in emerging adulthood and (b) whether people's narratives of major life goals might prospectively predict eudaimonic growth 3 years later. We define eudaimonic growth as longitudinal increases in eudaimonic well-being, which we define as the combination of psychosocial maturity and subjective well-being (SWB). College freshmen and seniors took measures of ego development (ED; to assess maturity; Loevinger, 1976) and SWB at Time 1 (T1) and again 3 years later (Time 2). ED levels increased longitudinally across that time for men and T1 freshmen, but SWB levels did not change. Participants also wrote narratives of 2 major life goals at T1 that were coded for an explicit emphasis on specific kinds of personal growth. Participants' intellectualgrowth goals (especially agentic ones) predicted increases in ED 3 years later, whereas participants' socioemotional-growth goals (especially communal ones) predicted increases in SWB 3 years later. These findings were independent of the effects of Big Five personality traits-notably conscientiousness, which on its own predicted increases in SWB. We discuss (a) emerging adulthood as the last stop for normative eudaimonic growth in modern society and (b) empirical and theoretical issues surrounding the relations among narrative identity, life planning, dispositional traits, eudaimonia, and 2 paths of personal growth.

Linking Peoples’ Pursuit of Eudaimonia and Hedonia with Characteristics of their Parents: Parenting Styles, Verbally Endorsed Values, and Role Modeling

“…One or both pursuits have been correlated with greater psychological well-being, lower mental illness, and greater physical health (Bauer and McAdams 2010;Chan 2009;Friedman et al 2007;Huta and Ryan 2010;Joshanloo and Ghaedi 2009;Kafka and Kozma 2002;Keyes and Annas 2009;Keyes et al 2002;Nave et al 2008;Park et al 2009;Peterson et al 2005;Ruch et al 2010;Ruini et al 2003;Ryff and Keyes 1995;Ryff et al 2006;Steger et al 2008;Urry et al 2004;Vella-Brodrick et al 2009;Vittersø et al in press;Waterman 1993;Waterman et al 2008;Waterman et al 2003Waterman et al , 2010Wood and Joseph 2010). A few studies have also provided intervention or longitudinal data, demonstrating that eudaimonia and/or hedonia do indeed lead to greater well-being (Bauer and McAdams 2010;Huta and Ryan 2010;Steger et al 2008;Wood and Joseph 2010).…”

The Quiet Ego Scale: Measuring the Compassionate Self-Identity

“…Models of the person in five domains (McAdams and Pals 2006), self-concordance (Sheldon 2004), eudemonic growth (Bauer 2008;Bauer and McAdams 2010), and the quiet ego are more recent examples of this perspective. Humanistic, organismic, and eudemonic perspectives provide the quiet ego with a stance toward the self and others that focuses on fuller notions of persons, their meaningful actions, and their development rather than exclusively on the more outwardly apparent-and personologically limited-markers of status and capital.…”

Counting and recounting happiness and culture: On happiness surveys and prudential ethnobiography

“…It might reasonably be inferred from this that scholars who take a 'hedonistic' approach to the good life (happiness as pleasure) are more likely to be counters, whereas those who insist on 'eudaimonic' approaches (the good life as the achievement of meaningful self-actualization) are more likely to be narrators. Still, many scholars espousing eudaimonic perspectives have shown themselves more than willing to subject eudaimonia to numerical reduction, developing scales to measure ‚Psychological WellBeing‛ (Ryff & Singer, 2008), ‚Self-Determination‛ (Deci & Ryan, 2008), ‚Eudaimonic Growth‛ (Bauer & McAdams, 2010), ‚Personal Expressiveness‛ (Waterman 2011: 371), ‚Eudaimonic Wellbeing‛ (Waterman et al, 2010), and ‚Meaning-In-Life‛ (Steger et al, 2006). This multiplication of measures shows the diversity of this unmanageably residual category of 'eudaimonic' wellbeing.…”

“…Generally, however, the happiness quantifiers -largely social and experimental psychologists Veenhoven, 2012), neuroscientists (Davidson, 2004;Hanson & Mendius, 2009) and economists (Frey, 2008;Helliwell & Wang, 2012) -have worked quite separately from the happiness story-builders and biographical interpreterslargely psychotherapists (Frankl, 1959(Frankl, /1984Pennebaker & Seagal, 1999;Bernstein, 1990), a few narrative psychologists (Bruner, 1986;Baumeister, 1991;McAdams, 2005;Bauer et al, 2008;Bauer & McAdams, 2010), philosophers (Haybron, 2008;Bok, 2010), theologians (e.g. Turner, 2008), and popular self-help and life coaching authors (Riklan, 2004;Swan, 2010).…”