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A broad interest in finding purpose is understandable, as having purpose is situated in notions of “the good life” and is linked in studies to greater health and wellbeing. Yet, the empirical basis for whether purpose is truly findable is inadequate, lacking guidance from theories predicting behavioral capacities that drive its acquisition. If feeling purposeful is as favorable as studies suggest, then more transparent and precise explanations of how it is derived are needed; otherwise, the field risks illuminating this resource while leaving the pathways to it unlit. Here, I call for a translational science of purpose acquisition directed at gathering and disseminating evidence of the processes by which this sense can be cultivated. I introduce a minimal viable framework for integrating basic and applied investigations into purpose by bridging laboratory research, intervention and implementation efforts, community-engaged practices, and policies to accelerate testing and strategies for enhancing this salubrious sense in people’s lives.

Grit, defined as a passion and perseverance for one’s goals, has been consistently demonstrated as an adaptive resource across multiple domains. Less explored, however, are the correlates of and sources from which grit is derived. The current studies examined two plausible candidates for promoting grit, positive affect and commitment to a purpose, using college student samples from Canada and the United States. Study 1 confirmed our predictions that grittier students tended to report greater positive affect and purpose commitment, and demonstrated that these variables appear to be unique and independent predictors of grit. Study 2 examined these claims using two-wave data collected across a semester, and found that while both purpose and positive affect were initially correlated with grit, only initial levels of purpose predicted grit at wave two. In other words, having a life direction may help more than positive affect when predicting who is likely to become grittier over a college semester. Implications of these findings are discussed.

While opportunities for adolescents to drive their own learning are increasing, differences in motivations for and engagement in these opportunities are rarely investigated. The current study employed a sample of adolescents ( N  = 580, M age  = 16.53) enrolled in GripTape , a 10-week self-driven learning program in which youth pursue topics of their choosing. Cluster analysis classified adolescents based on their personal (e.g., resilience, competence) and ecological (e.g., adult support, safe environments) assets, resulting in two distinguishable groups. A High Asset group scored more favorably on these indicators than a Lower Asset group. Between-cluster comparisons revealed that compared to the Lower Asset group, the High Asset group reported greater levels of motivation for self-driven learning (i.e., intrinsic, extrinsic, and competence demonstration), but not engagement (i.e., positive learning experience, commitment to learning topics and activities). Subsequent tests showed that extrinsic motivation and competence demonstration negatively correlates with youth commitment to learning topics and activities. These findings enrich the literature concerning adolescents’ motivations for and engagement in self-driven learning, and how to support youth self-driven learning.

Racial microaggressions and their influence on mental health were examined among African American doctoral students and graduates of doctoral programs. Using a mixed-methods approach, the current study first identified the types of microaggressions reported by African American participants (N = 97) and then investigated the mechanism by which these experiences influence mental health over time with a separate sample of African Americans (N = 107). The qualitative findings revealed three categories of microaggressions including Assumption of Criminality/Second-Class Citizen, Underestimation of Personal Ability, and Cultural/Racial Isolation. The quantitative analyses found support for a moderated-mediational model by which Underestimation of Personal Ability was associated with greater perceived stress at one-year follow-up, which in turn was related to greater depressive symptoms. Active coping was found to moderate the racial microaggression-perceived stress link such that individuals who endorse active coping behaviors reported lower perceived stress. These findings are discussed in terms of practical and theoretical implications regarding the role of racial microaggressions in the lives of high-achieving African Americans and the mechanisms by which these experiences contribute to mental health problems. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]

This study examined whether individual differences in affective reactivity, defined as changes in positive or negative affect in response to daily racial discrimination, predicted subsequent depressive symptoms. Participants were African American graduate and postgraduate students (N = 174; M age = 30 years) recruited for a measurement-burst study. Data on depressive symptoms were gathered at two assessment points 1 year apart. Affective reactivity data was obtained from participants via a 14-day diary study of daily racial discrimination and affect. Participants who experienced pronounced increases in negative affect on days when racial discrimination occurred had elevated depressive symptoms 1 year later. Heightened positive affect reactivity was also associated with more depressive symptoms at follow-up. The results suggest that affective reactivity (either greater increases in negative affect or greater decreases in positive affect in the context of racial discrimination) may be an underlying psychological mechanism that confers vulnerability to future depressive symptoms.

Despite being a valued resource for adolescent health and development, the field maintains an incomplete view of how youths’ sense of purpose in life corresponds with their subjective well-being (SWB; i.e., greater life satisfaction and positive affect, lower negative affect). These blind spots are especially noticeable at the daily level, and the field further fails to consider how daily associations between purpose and SWB might vary across important individual differences. This study addresses these gaps in the literature using a daily diary approach to track adolescents (N = 204; Mage = 16.42 years; 70.1% female) across approximately 70 days of enrollment in GripTape, a U.S.-based out-of-school time program that supports engagement with personally meaningful activities. We found that on days teens felt more purposeful than usual, they tended to report greater SWB. Moreover, we failed to find evidence that subclinical autistic traits, an individual difference that corresponded with lower daily SWB ratings, moderated the observed daily benefits of feeling more purposeful than usual. With one of the longest consecutive studies of youth well-being to date, our work shows that day-to-day fluctuations in purpose are a useful addition to the adolescent SWB landscape. Following this necessary observational groundwork, future research may invest in creating and testing purpose opportunities for a more inclusive range of youth.

A prevailing belief is that a sense of purpose in life is worth having, based on evidence that it predicts greater psychological functioning, social relationships, physical health, and longevity. Yet, whether the benefits of having a sense of purpose persist across all contents – or the actual substance of one’s aspirations – lingers as a critical blind spot within this literature. Here, we contend that an ecological systems perspective is needed to contextualize how purpose content either enables or extinguishes the benefits of feeling purposeful. We nominate congruence (the fit between a purpose and ecological conditions) and feasibility (the ease with which a purpose can be pursued) as measurable features of purpose content that fuse people and contexts and potentiate whether a sense of purpose proves favorable. Greater congruence and feasibility should orchestrate support for purpose-related goals, actions, and justifications, thus amplifying the likelihood of positive outcomes. Practical strategies for integrating the congruence and feasibility of individuals’ aspirations within the study of purpose are discussed.

Abstract Social relationships imbue life with meaning, whereas loneliness diminishes one's sense of meaning in life. Yet the extent of interdependence between these psychological constructs remains poorly understood. We took a multivariate network approach to examine resting-state fMRI functional connectivity’s association with loneliness and meaning in a large cohort of adults (N = 942). Loneliness and meaning in life were negatively correlated with one another. In their relationship with individually parcelled whole-brain measures of functional connectivity, a significant and reliable pattern was observed. Greater loneliness was associated with dense, and less modular, connections between default, frontoparietal, attention and perceptual networks. A greater sense of life meaning was associated with increased, and more modular, connectivity between default and limbic networks. Low loneliness was associated with more modular brain connectivity, and lower life meaning was associated with higher between-network connectivity. These findings advance our understanding of loneliness and life meaning as distinct, yet interdependent, features of sociality. The results highlight a potential role of the default network as a central hub, providing a putative neural mechanism for shifting between feelings of isolation and purpose.

Psychologists use the term microaggressions to describe subtle forms of bias and discrimination experienced by members of marginalized groups. Lilienfeld (2017, this issue) makes an important contribution to the literature by presenting a critical review of the meaning and measurement of microaggression experiences. In this commentary, we argue that advancing the construct of microaggressions rests on research approaches that move beyond static representations of individuals to dynamic frameworks that observe people’s lives as they unfold day to day. We discuss the conceptual potential of microaggressions as a bridging concept across multiple levels of analysis. We conclude that the intensive study of individuals over time can contribute to theory evaluation and offer new insights into the nature of unfolding processes that are theorized to be central to the manifestation of microaggressions in everyday life.

Multiple studies have focused on the role of psychosocial factors as predictors of COVID-19 vaccination willingness and uptake, with less attention paid to whether vaccination itself could influence wellbeing. The current study evaluated this possibility with respect to sense of purpose, the perception one has goals and a direction in life, building on previous evidence this factor may influence vaccination willingness and decision-making. Across seven waves of monthly data from February to August 2021, participants (n = 2169, mage = 48.0 years) across Canada and the United States reported on their sense of purpose and vaccination status. Using piecewise regression models, results indicated that sense of purpose did not appear to fluctuate in the month prior to, during, or following COVID-19 vaccination. However, across most months of the survey, vaccinated participants did report greater sense of purpose relative to unvaccinated participants. These findings are discussed with respect to whether health behaviors, such as vaccination, should be viewed as behaviors indicative of leading a purposeful life.