The Quest for Purpose

Byron R. Johnson, Jonathan P. Hill, Perry L. Glanzer

Description

While the search for meaning and purpose appears to be a constant throughout human history, there are characteristics about our current time period that make this search different from any other previous time, particularly for college students. In this book, Perry L. Glanzer, Jonathan P. Hill, and Byron R. Johnson explore college students' search for meaning and purpose and the role that higher education plays. To shed empirical light on this complex issue, the authors draw on in-depth interviews with four hundred college students from different types of institutions across the United States. They also analyze three sets of national survey data: the National Study of Youth and Religion, College Students Beliefs and Values, and their own Gallup-conducted survey of 2,500 college students. Their research identifies important social, educational, and cultural influences that shape students' quests and the answers they find. Arguing against a utilitarian view of education, Glanzer, Hill, and Johnson conclude that colleges and universities can and should cultivate and aid students in their journeys, and they offer suggestions for doing so.
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction Searching for Meaning and Purpose in College: A Dying Quest?

Part I: The Context of the Quest

1. Are Colleges Giving Up on Life’s Meaning and Purpose? The Historical and Cultural Context

2. The Adolescent Journey: The Precollege Path to Finding Meaning and Purpose

3. Mapping the Presence of Purpose: How Identity, Social Context, and Education Matter

Part II. Figuring Out College Students’ Quest

4. Developing Purpose in the Contemporary University: Four Stories

5. Mapping What Makes Life Meaningful

6. The Diverse Purposes of College Students

7. Is Purposelessness a Problem?

Part III. Questing in the University

8. Encountering Purpose in the Classroom

9. Looking for Purpose Outside of Class

Part IV. The Heart, Hope, and Soul of Purpose

10. Purpose with Soul: The Religious

11. Finding Purpose in a Universe without One: The Nontheists

12. How Does the Story End? Purpose, the Good Life, and the Future

Conclusion

Appendix A: Methods
Appendix B: Interview Guide: 110 Students at 10 Campuses
Appendix C: Statistical Supplement to Chapters 3 and 10

Notes
Bibliography
Index

Sujets

• Tertiary education

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 07 août 2017
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781438466866
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

The Quest for Purpose
The Quest for Purpose
The Collegiate Search for a Meaningful Life
Perry L. Glanzer, Jonathan P. Hill, and Byron R. Johnson
Cover photo courtesy of Matthew Minard / Baylor Marketing Communications
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2017 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.
For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY
www.sunypress.edu
Production, Diane Ganeles
Marketing, Anne M. Valentine
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Glanzer, Perry L. (Perry Lynn), author. | Hill, Jonathan P., author | Johnson, Byron R., author.
Title: The quest for purpose : the collegiate search for a meaningful life / Perry L. Glanzer, Jonathan P. Hill, and Byron R. Johnson.
Description: Albany : State University of New York Press, [2017] | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016052227 (print) | LCCN 2017018250 (ebook) | ISBN 9781438466859 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781438466866 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: College students—Conduct of life. | College students—Religious life—United States. | College students—United States—Interviews. | Self-actualization (Psychology)—Religious aspects. | Education, Higher—Moral and ethical aspects. | Christian universities and colleges—United States. | Christian education—United States.
Classification: LCC LB3609 (ebook) | LCC LB3609 .G58 2017 (print) | DDC 378.1/980973—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016052227
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction Searching for Meaning and Purpose in College: A Dying Quest?
P ART I T HE C ONTEXT OF THE Q UEST
Chapter 1 Are Colleges Giving Up on Life’s Meaning and Purpose? The Historical and Cultural Context
Chapter 2 The Adolescent Journey: The Precollege Path to Finding Meaning and Purpose
Chapter 3 Mapping the Presence of Purpose: How Identity, Social Context, and Education Matter
P ART II F IGURING O UT C OLLEGE S TUDENTS ’ Q UEST
Chapter 4 Developing Purpose in the Contemporary University: Four Stories
Chapter 5 Mapping What Makes Life Meaningful
Chapter 6 The Diverse Purposes of College Students
Chapter 7 Is Purposelessness a Problem?
P ART III Q UESTING IN THE U NIVERSITY
Chapter 8 Encountering Purpose in the Classroom
Chapter 9 Looking for Purpose Outside of Class
P ART IV T HE H EART , H OPE, AND S OUL OF P URPOSE
Chapter 10 Purpose with Soul: The Religious
Chapter 11 Finding Purpose in a Universe without One: The Nontheists
Chapter 12 How Does the Story End? Purpose, the Good Life, and the Future
Conclusion
Appendix A: Methods
Appendix B: Interview Guide: 110 Students at 10 Campuses
Appendix C: Statistical Supplement to Chapters 3 and 10
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Illustrations
Tables Table 1.1 Faculty Goals for Undergraduates Noted as “Essential” or “Very Important” Table 3.1 Statistically Significant Factors in “Kitchen Sink” Model Ordered from Largest to Smallest Effect Size Table 6.1 Significant Racial Correlates of Purpose ( N = 2,503) Table 6.2 Significant Religious Correlates with Purpose—Religious Identity ( N = 2,503) Table 6.3 Significant Religious Correlates with Purpose—Importance of Religion and Religious Service Attendance ( N = 2,503) Table 6.4 Significant College and Demographic Correlates of Purpose—Perception of Family income ( N = 2,503) Table 6.5 Significant College and Demographic Correlates of Purpose—Political ID ( N = 2,503) Table 6.6 Significant College and Demographic Correlates of Purpose—Political ID ( N = 2,503) Table 10.1 Self-Reported Religious or Nonreligious Identity of Students ( N = 110) Table 12.1 Percentage of Emerging Adults Mentioning Particular Purposes or Goals ( N = 230) Table 12.2 Percentage Mentioning Certain Five-Year and Before You Die Goals ( N = 110) Table A.1 Demographic Characteristics of Qualitative Sample ( N = 110) Table A.2 Descriptive Statistics for Variables of Interest in National Quantitative Survey ( N = 2 503) Table A.3 Confirmatory Factor Analysis of Purpose in Life Indicators Table A.4 Model Fit Indices for Measurement Model and Structural Equation Model
Figures Figure 3.1 Predicted probabilities from demographic variables (from table C1, model 1) Figure 3.2 Predicted probabilities from family variables (from table C1, model 2) Figure 3.3 Predicted probabilities from religion variables (from table C1, model 3) Figure 3.4 Predicted probabilities from education variables (from table C2, model 1) Figure 3.5 Predicted probabilities from earnings/employment variables (from table C2, model 2) Figure 3.6 Predicted probabilities from sex and relationship variables (from table C2, model 3) Figure 3.7 Predicted probabilities from health/body variables (from table C3, model 1) Figure 3.8 Predicted probabilities from deviant behavior variables (from table C3, model 2) Figure 3.9 Predicted probabilities from helping behavior variables (from table C3, model 3) Figure 3.10 Predicted probabilities from materialism variables (from table C3, model 4) Figure 5.1 Reker and Wong Theory of Meaning Figure 6.1 Percent of students who strongly agree or strongly disagree with various purposes ( N = 2,503) Figure 8.1 Percent change in actively searching for meaning/purpose in life by institutional type, weighted ( N = 13,271) Figure 8.2 Percent change in actively searching for meaning/purpose in life by weekly time spent talking to faculty outside of class, weighted ( N = 13,191) Figure 8.3 Percent change in actively searching for meaning/purpose in life by student report of how often faculty encourage them to ask questions of meaning and purpose, weighted ( N = 13,180) Figure 8.4 Percent change in actively searching for meaning/purpose in life by institutional mean-level faculty response to importance of facilitating student search for meaning and purpose, weighted ( N = 10,867) Figure 8.5 Percent change in actively searching for meaning/purpose in life by institutional type, including additional controls for student-faculty interaction, weighted ( N = 13,101) Figure 9.1 Percent change in actively searching for meaning/purpose in life by participation in campus religious organization, weighted ( N = 13,271) Figure 9.2 Percent change in actively searching for meaning/purpose in life by frequency of faculty acting as spiritual models, weighted ( N = 13,163) Figure 9.3 Percent change in actively searching for meaning/purpose in life by frequency of religious/spiritual discussions with friends, weighted ( N = 13,245) Figure 9.4 Percent change in actively searching for meaning/purpose in life by institutional type, including additional controls for co-curricular activity, weighted ( N = 13,138) Figure 10.1 Percent actively searching for meaning/purpose in life as incoming freshman by religious commitment, weighted (N = 13,210) Figure 10.2 Percent change in actively searching for meaning/purpose in life by institutional type, including additional controls for student religiousness as first years, weighted ( N = 11,972) Figure 10.3 Percent change in actively searching for meaning/purpose in life by how interactions with faculty have altered religious or spiritual beliefs, weighted ( N = 13,139) Figure 10.4 Percent change in actively searching for meaning/purpose in life by how often the student experiences a conflict between course work and religious beliefs, weighted ( N = 13,206) Figure 10.5 Percent change in actively searching for meaning/purpose in life by how often the professors encourage discussions of religious and spiritual matters, weighted ( N = 13,179) Figure 10.6 Percent change in actively searching for meaning/purpose in life by institutional type, including additional controls for religious experiences at college, weighted ( N = 13,027)
Acknowledgments
We are thankful for the encouragement of family, friends, colleagues, students, and institutions that provided valuable support to us throughout this research and writing process.
Their support allowed us to travel to various universities and listen to the voices of students from around the nation, as well as survey or examine surveys of college students from across the nation. First, we wish to thank the foundations that made this work possible. This work was supported by the John Templeton Foundation under Grant 36656, the Templeton World Charity Foundation under Grant 0060, and the Louisville Institute under Grant 2012004. We also wish to note that these organizations had no role in the study design, data collection and analysis, or final conclusions and recommendations.
We also wish to thank those groups and organizations that helped us gather data or that allowed us to use data they collected. We are thankful for the Gallup® organization and Stephanie Kafka in particular who assisted with our large quantitative data and seventy-five of the national qualitative interviews. In addition, we are thankful for the Higher Education Research Institute for granting us access to data from their College Students’ Beliefs and Values surveys. Furthermore, we are grateful to Christian Smith for access to interviews conducted as part of the National Study of Youth and Religion.
A large research project like this also benefits from numerous others. To begin, we are thankful to Lois Mulder, Olivia Copeland, and the staff and students at the Center for Social Research at Calvin College (Tom Sherwood, Katie Talsma, Taylor Soderling, Taylor Libolt, and Michael Kelly) who assisted with the transcription of 110 of our in