Is Personal Life Purpose Replacing Shared Worldview as Youths Increasingly Individuate? Implications for Educators

Abstract

This conceptual paper integrates scholarship from psychology, sociology, education, and philosophy to pose and consider important questions regarding how life purpose and worldview relate, especially in turbulent socio-cultural times. This exploration can help educators consider life purpose not as an individual attribute but rather as a practice. Both worldview and life purpose can be given from a culture or can be chosen by the individual, with more cultures increasingly incorporating individualized choice. However, it is important that individualization not become solely self-focused. Individuals' purposes interact to weave a participatory worldview of personal contributions to the common good: "threaded" life purposes compose the social fabric of shared worldviews such that worldview and life purpose reciprocally compose each other to maintain self-regulation despite turbulence or transitions in social institutions. On this view, educators are challenged to design practice opportunities for students to strengthen the prosocial interdependence of their life purposes within the community, by acting in situations in which others are influenced by-and provide feedback on-the student's purpose-pursuing actions. Ideally, students interact with people who have different purposes so everyone can master interweaving diversity to strengthen society. Thereby, educators support skills to value prosocial interdependence.

Life Purpose in Youth: Turning Potential Into a Lifelong Pursuit of Prosocial Contribution

“…A large-scale, multimethod study of 783 seventh graders in Scotland found a strong, reciprocal connection between life purpose and intentional self-regulation (Linver et al, 2018). Life purpose may be particularly self-regulating in how youth appropriate culturally valued goals, imbue those goals with personal meaning (Kawai & Moran, 2017;Moran, 2014b), align their behavior with those goals even in turbulent or ambiguous situations (Moran, 2017(Moran, , 2019aOyserman & James, 2009), and anticipate the impacts of their behavior over time (Lewis & Oyserman, 2015), including beyond their own lifespans (Moran & Gardner, 2018). Life purpose processes information regarding future self-concept to self-regulate behavior in the present (Moran, 2017).…”

“…Thus, life purpose could be viewed as a talented (Gagné, 2004) or excellent (Dai, 2010) form of life goal that stretches individuals' future orientation beyond satisfying their own needs toward making one's mark on the world (Moran, 2017). Whereas generic life goals aim to achieve a desired end to benefit oneself, life purpose recognizes and celebrates how one matters to something greater (Moran, 2009a(Moran, , 2019a. Life purpose focuses on the connection between individual potential and community needs and benefits (Moran, 2018;Tirri & Nokelainen, 2007).…”

“…Helping youth meaningfully and intentionally engage their potentials in worthy aims means everyone can have a place in society and a viable response to "Why am I?" Education shifts to supporting all youth to develop self-regulation and mastery applied to worthy aims (Moran, 2016b(Moran, , 2019aSeider et al, 2009).…”

“…In addition, using life purpose rather than achievement to gauge human potential may increase flexibility and adaptability of societies. As change accelerates, educational institutions may become misaligned with youths' needs for "emerging assets" demanded by a more uncertain future (Moran, 2019a(Moran, , 2019b. Life purpose requires individuals to intentionally consider their anticipated contribution to that future, then to weave their life purpose thread into their community's and society's tapestry of socially connected contributions (Moran, 2018).…”

“…youth may feel like they are forging their own life purpose by themselves while the world has become more complexly interwoven (Moran, 2019a).…”