Purpose in life and our health
I admit that I am freakishly interested in questions related to purpose in life but believe that everyone wants to know that their lives matter in some way. Many people aren’t sure whether or not they have “purpose in life,” in part, because they unsure of what that phrase means. Purpose in life, as defined in the two important papers that I summarize here, has to do with the extent to which people report that they have goals, a direction in life, and aims for living; see meaning in their lives – past and present; have an outlook or set of beliefs that frame how they think about meaning and purpose in their lives.
Research question: Should I care about whether or not I have a sense of purpose in life?
How researchers studied the question: Researchers analyzed people’s responses to self-report questionnaires and their psychological and health status over long periods of time, as exemplified by these two scientific papers.
Carol Ryff is the principal investigator of the MIDUS study (Midlife in the United States), a national longitudinal study of factors that influence health and well-being as people age. Since 1995, over 7,000 people have enrolled in the study and the MIDUS dataset has yielded hundreds of scientific papers, 35 pertaining to purpose in life.
Aliya Alimujiang and colleagues analyzed data from the Health and Retirement Study, a national database study in which adults over age 50 living in the United States provide information on their health and wellness status over a long period of time. In this study, researchers examined the statistical association between self-reported purpose in life and death rates for over 6,900 people.
Answer: Yes. We should care about whether or not we have a sense of purpose in life because it matters to our mental well-being and overall health. Ryff found that purpose in life is one of six factors that contribute to psychological well-being, which generally refers to having positive mental health, fulfillment, and connectedness. Alimujiang and colleagues found that people who reported having a sense of purpose in life lived longer than those who did not. These and a host of other studies make it clear that having a sense of purpose is important to our health, so much so that Alimujiang suggests that purpose in life is a “modifiable health risk factor.”
So What? This is why my colleagues and I created the Compass Course and, in part, why I created this website. Everyone is entitled to figure out what it means to live with purpose because our health and joy depend upon it.
How about you? To what extent do you endorse a sense of purpose in life? If you’re not sure, what might you do to invest in figuring this out?
Sources:
Alimujiang A et al. (2019). Association between life purpose and mortality among US adults older than 50 years. JAMA Network Open, 2(5), e194270. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2019.4270.
Find the abstract here: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31125099/
Ryff CD (2014). Psychological well-being revisited: Advances in the science and practice of eudaimonia. Psychother Psychosom, 83, 10-28. doi:10.1159/000353263
Find the abstract here: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24281296/
MIDUS homepage http://midus.wisc.edu/scopeofstudy.php
MIDUS publications http://midus.wisc.edu/findings/index.php