What Makes a Purpose “Worth Having”?

Bronk, Kendall Cotton; Damon, William

doi:10.1159/000515949

Cited by 5 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…However, it is important to point out that marginalized youth will not always fail to be designated as having a purpose based on prevailing strategies. Researchers who use having strategies will note that they have underscored social activists as exemplars of a noble purpose, one that matters beyond the individual (e.g., Bronk & Damon, 2021), and that low-income (Bronk et al, 2020) or low-ability (Bronk et al, 2010) youth are sometimes classified as having purpose. What it does suggest is that researchers must recognize that their own identities, backgrounds, values, and positionality can influence whether youth are identified as having purpose.…”

Section: W H At Doe S H Av I Ng a Pu R Po Se Look L I K E Ac Ro S S Con T E Xt S?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Why youth are more purposeful than we think

Hill

Burrow

2021

Child Dev Perspectives

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Consider for a moment the extent to which you feel that your life has a purpose, and that your daily activities are valuable and worthwhile. Alternatively, consider having to describe what your purpose actually is, what you have done to make progress toward that purpose, and what difference it has made to the world. While both considerations invite reflection on purpose in life, the former captures sense of purpose-the perceptible feeling that one's life is directed and significant. The latter ascertains both purpose content-the aspirational substance of one's life aims-and purpose articulation-the ability to name and explain one's aims in life. For most people, sense of purpose is likely easier to report than either content or articulation, and this ease of assessment has made it the predominant focus in the literature on purpose over several decades. Yet despite its challenges, researchers who work with youth often have asked participants to articulate their purpose and describe its content.The decision to focus on either sense of purpose or its content and articulation has resulted in significant divergence in research on the prevalence of purpose. Adults typically report moderate to high levels of sense of purpose (e.g., Heintzelman & King, 2014;Ryff, 1989;Scheier et al., 2006). In contrast, studies of adolescents suggest that only about one-fifth of youth have a purpose (Bronk, 2013;Damon, 2008). As such, we are left with a conundrum regarding the appropriate inference to be drawn. One possibility is that the data present a developmental story of purpose, characterized by low prevalence before adulthood followed by a striking upward trajectory that peaks in young to middle adulthood (see e.g., Ryff, 1989;Ryff & Keyes, 1995). The other possibility is that the data yield an apples-to-oranges comparison, wherein studies of adults' sense of purpose focus on the degree to which they sense purpose in their lives, while studies of youth's sense of purpose focus on what respondents' purpose is or whether they can articulate it. In this article, we present the case for the second option, which raises the possibility that youth are more purposeful than research suggests.

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Section: W H At Doe S H Av I Ng a Pu R Po Se Look L I K E Ac Ro S S Con T E Xt S?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Why youth are more purposeful than we think

Hill

Burrow

2021

Child Dev Perspectives

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“…Unfortunately, these values are missing from the commentary from Bronk and Damon (2021) where they suggest a third, subjective standard of worthwhileness, through which they believe all purposes should be judged. Suggestion that only some purposes are "worthy" evokes the same concerns that led medical schools to enhance the Hippocratic Oath: placing normative value judgments on an individual's life goals.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We certainly do not disagree with the authors' contention that certain purposes may be destructive or run counter to broader societal aims, which aligns with Burrow et al's (2021) discussion of congruence. Although Bronk and Damon (2021) suggest that purpose can be viewed from the perspectives of "the person who commits to the purpose and the society that bears the consequences of a person's purpose" (p. 113), the centralization of the researcher in the classification of a purpose completely disregards the person to whom the purpose belongs and for whom the criterion of congruence will actually matter. Here, the positionality of the researcher matters, and we need to explicitly acknowledge when our values system is influencing the decisions being levied on participants' purposes.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Accordingly, it is difficult to understand how worthwhileness could even be judged as it will differ based on the level considered. Bronk and Damon (2021) place an emphasis on identifying "exemplars" of purpose, and this strategy has indeed yielded valuable insights about character and purpose development (e.g., Colby & Damon, 1992). However, the exemplar nomination strategy underscores the belief that someone in the microsystem will "know" what purposeful action looks like.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Purpose Should Be in the Eye of the Holder, Not the Researcher

Hill

Pfund²

2022

Human Development

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Researchers have discussed how best to define and measure purpose in life for decades, and this debate has been reinvigorated by recent work by Burrow et al. (2021), in their discussion of how to capture purpose development within a broader ecological context. However, in their commentary, Bronk and Damon (2021) have suggested that researchers also need to consider whether the individual's stated purpose in life merits development. We suggest here that multiple concerns present whenever researchers are placed in the seat of making decisions regarding whether an individual's purpose is "worthwhile," and how in turn this strategy may do more harm than good.

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“…The object of our commentary (Bronk & Damon, 2021, "What makes a purpose 'worth having'?") was a thoughtful Human Development article by Burrow et al (2021) entitled "Are all purposes worth having?"…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Scientific and Ethical Mandates in the Study of Purpose

Bronk

Damon

2022

Human Development

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We appreciate the letter by Hill and Pfund about our commentary and the opportunity to respond to it. It is exactly this type of interchange that advances understanding and clarity of communication in the scholarly community. The object of our commentary (Bronk & Damon, 2021, “What makes a purpose ‘worth having’) was a thoughtful Human Development article by Burrow et al. (2021) entitled “Are all purposes worth having?” It should be clear from the titles of our commentary and the original article that the question explored by both pieces is how to determine whether a purpose chosen by a young person is worth having. The question is not “What makes a purpose a purpose?” Yet the authors of the present letter intermingle the two questions. Our response to their letter explains the important distinction between the two questions and summarize our views on each.

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What Makes a Purpose “Worth Having”?

Cited by 5 publications

References 17 publications

Why youth are more purposeful than we think

Why youth are more purposeful than we think

Purpose Should Be in the Eye of the Holder, Not the Researcher

Scientific and Ethical Mandates in the Study of Purpose

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