Science of Purpose
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Science of Purpose in Life[edit]
This page is about Science of Purpose. Here, we will reference knowledge shared by researchers dedicated to this matter. Peer-Reviewed Research published on purpose or subjects closely related to it will be properly cited and credited here.
Definition[edit]
Purpose is best defined as having a clear understanding of personally meaningful aims and values and applying these aims and values progressively throughout everyday life. Moreover, a heightened state of purpose fosters a self-perception that one aims and values and embodies them. Thus, thinking of oneself in this way nurtures one's perception of meaning and derives significance from one's life and aspirations pursued. A state of diminished purpose may involve confusion about one's aims and values or the inability to see that one has clear values and aims and cannot embody them.
Purpose of Life (PIL) vs. Meaning of Life (MIL)[edit]
While controversial, meaning and purpose are often used synonymously and have a slue of different definitions. The most popular one that the author's of this website could find is that purpose is a definite, objective, and specific aim in life while meaning is subjective and anything one deems inspiring and beneficial. Therefore while a chef's purpose in life may be to produce the greatest food on the planet, the meaning he might get during one of his shifts is talking to patrons or smoking a cigarette.
Originally created in 1964 by James Crumbaugh and Learnord Maholick, the PIL (Purpose in Life) was created with the intent of quantitize a person's sense of purpose in response to criticism of Logotherapy. [1] A questionnaire of 20 questions in length, the scale has been used to study the purpose of life in populations since then. In comparison the Meaning of life questionnaire (MIL) was created in 2006 as a 10 question survey by University of Minnesota and University of Virginia researchers due to some of the shortcomings of PIL.[2]
Physical Outcomes[edit]
Overall research tying physical benefits to having more purpose in one's life remains largely correlational in nature. In this section, we highlight a few studies that have been done showcasing a positive relationship between a sense of purpose in one's life and a reduced risk of dementia, stroke, heart attack, and inflammation.
Dementia
In 2010, after following more than nine hundred elderly people for seven years, Patricia Boyle of the Rush University's Alzheimer's Disease Center found, in a proportional hazards model adjusted for for age, sex, and education, that individuals with high PIL was 2.4 times more likely to be free of Alzheimer's in comparison to a person with a lower PIL score. In addition, those that displayed higher PIL were found to have lower rates of mild cognitive impairment (MGI) and less cognitive deficits associated with aging. [3]. In a subsequent study, conducted in the year 2011, Dr. Boyle's group looked at pathological Alzheimer tissue within more than two hundred elders, with prioritization given to the hippocampal regions in particular. The study found that participants with a higher PIL score, had less cognitive decline relative to the amassed amyloid and tangle proteins found in the region of their brains. [4].
While mechanisms behind the overall neuroprotective nature of the findings listed above are poorly understood, it is widely theorized that PIL may serve as an added protector to a person's cognitive reserve. As a general rule, researchers believe that people with more cognitive reserve at baseline are able to withstand more brain injury before developing neurologic symptoms. [5]
Further studies that have attempted to try and pinpoint a specific nuclei for such an effect include one that of the University of Sterling, found that positive well-being (which includes the idea that one has a purpose in life), had significant associations with grey matter volume in the insular cortex, with individuals with a higher sense of purpose experiencing less cortical atrophy.[6]. Additionally, randomized studies from Johns Hopkins University with the elderly, found that an improved sense of purpose that was attained through civic engagement had significantly less hippocampal atrophy when compared to the non-civil engagement group. [7]
Stroke & Heart attack
Increasing evidence suggests that having purpose can serve as a powerful intervention to reduce the burden of stroke. In a study, conducted by Eric Kim at the University of Michigan, 6739 adults who had no history of stroke, had their PIL baseline taken and where followed for four years to determine the amount of strokes each had. The study results suggested, after controlling for a variety of factors, that for each standard deviation of PIL that was increased, the rate of stroke over the 4 year period for an adult dropped by 22%. [8] In a similar study, following 1500 individuals with cardiovascular disease for two years, researchers found that for each unit that was higher on the PIL baseline there was an associated 27% decresased risk of having a heart attack. [9]
Additionally, when looking at cerebral infraction-an atrophied piece of tissue due to a lack of oxygen exposure- after patients had died, patients with higher purpose metrics had significantly less microscopic and macroscopic tissues, pointing again to purpose being a neuroprotective element. [10]
Even when patients had stroke, there was a documented faster recovery time that was experienced by them in comparison to their less purpose driven counterparts. [11]
Managing Inflammation
Associated with a wide variety of nervous system complications, inflammation has been a widely cited factor for contributing to both the severity and onset of neurological symptoms. This is especially true in older populations that are more susceptible to more neurological disorders including things such as stroke, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), dementia, and even Parkinson's. [12] Due to this, studies looking into the role of purpose have often also looked at inflammation markers, such as that of interleukin 6 (IL-6), a cytokine that stimulates proinflammation within the body. What they've found is that individuals that have a higher PIL have both significantly less IL-6 present within their bloodstream and are much less sensitive to it. [13] [14] The correlations imply that in seeking purpose, people can help avoid pro-inflammatory states of their body, which tend to be viewed as a positive step in fighting neurological conditions and diseases.
While the mechanisms for understanding such conditions are not really well researched and understood and most candidates for the studies listed above are relatively old (due to a heightened risk of the morbidities of these diseases), the vast majority of evidence suggests that there is a positive health outcome associated with a higher PIL.
Going forward (Tim) 1. Can someone please go into the section above and see whether or not my writing makes sense, I think that after writing my 50th secondary statement my ability to articulate full sentences has gone to trash. 2. In terms of the actual neurobiology of purpose I'm having a little bit of a hard time organizing my work. Basically, I don't think there's been a really good study where people have identified a center of the brain associated with purpose, so there's kinda a lot of things floating around it that I can speak to these include
A. Purpose as a way of strengthening the connection between the prefrontal cortex and the amygdala, resulting in more rational decisions and strengthening one's ability to handle harsh truths (can talk about Frankl's experience in Nazi camps if you want) B. Pathologies: In two of the studies mentioned above there was some exploration of the brain tissue that showed 1. even with more tau and tangle proteins in AD patients there was less cognitive decline in people that had stronger purpose 2. With the atrophied spots in the brain associated with a lack of oxygen, there was an indication that people with purpsoe experience less stroke
Pathways A. I can go more into the neuroprotective theory that was mentioned (ie: if desiese is like an overflowing cup, providing yourself some purpose in your life will allow for you to empty some of the water before hand or to increase the size of your canister) B. I can talk about how improved blood circulation to the brain helps with cognition, etc
3. Should we potentially just say screw it, and give this to the people that we're sending this draft to?
Mind Training[edit]
Some of the major mind training avenues seen in this space include meditation, mindfulness training, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), volunteering, and values-based training. They are powerful tools that can be used to alter emotionality, as most have the ability to both increase wellbeing and alleviate illness.
Meditation is a practice where an individual uses a technique – such as mindfulness, or focusing the mind on a particular object, thought, or activity – to train attention and awareness, and achieve a mentally clear and emotionally calm and stable state. A study surrounding a three month meditation retreat found that participants had increased mindfulness and purpose in life. Purpose in life in turn increased perceived control and decreased negative emotionality. The meditation retreat increased telomerase activity thereby decreasing chronic psychological distress [2]. Retreat participants received instruction by Alan Wallace, Ph.D., a well-known Buddhist scholar and practitioner, in concentrative meditation techniques and practices used to cultivate benevolent states of mind. Attentional skill practices involve focusing the mind. Generating benevolent mental states involves the following: Loving-kindness meditation practices arouse a heartfelt wish that self and others may experience happiness and its true causes, which serves as an antidote for malice. Compassion practices arouse a heartfelt wish that self and others may be free from suffering and its true causes.
Mindfulness is the practice of purposely bringing one's attention in the present moment without judgment, a skill one develops through meditation or other training. A study centered around a two-week mindfulness training program found improved cognitive function and working memory [3]. Furthermore, one study found that mindfulness was associated with higher levels of happiness and purpose in life, as well as lower levels of anxiety and depression [4]. Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) is an eight-week evidence-based program that offers secular, intensive mindfulness training to assist people with stress, anxiety, depression and pain. Another study used MBSR, where participants completed an 8 week course as well as 6 weeks of video support for meditation practice during an extreme adverse event (the first COVID lockdown in Italy) at Rome’s Beck Institute. Those that used this technique showed improved self-acceptance and higher purpose in life [5]. The participants with higher mindfulness levels had higher psychological wellbeing [6]. Finally, in another MBSR study, participants in the experimental group showed decreased anxiety and depression as well as improved self esteem [7].
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT, typically pronounced as the word "act") is a form of psychotherapy and a branch of clinical behavior analysis. It is an empirically based psychological intervention that uses acceptance and mindfulness strategies mixed in different ways with commitment and behavior-change strategies, to increase psychological flexibility. A study utilizing ACT found improvements in depressive symptoms as well as mental health [8]. Treatment targeted the six key processes of ACT and was delivered by an ACT-trained therapist (mental health nurse, clinical psychologist or social worker). Another ACT study was shown to be an effective treatment for those dealing with chronic pain, improving both emotional resilience and physical functioning [9].
Volunteering is a voluntary act of an individual or group freely giving time and labour for community service. Studies that use volunteering as a way of mind-training found that self-transcendent motivations are related to more beneficial outcomes relative to those that are self-oriented, according to Australian volunteers that were asked about their motivations using the Volunteer Functions Inventory [10]. Volunteering-based interventions improve self-regulation, with increased activity in the lateral PFC and anterior cingulate cortex associated with gains in executive function [11]. These interventions buffer age-related declines in brain function in at-risk adults [12], according to this study on individuals within the Baltimore Experience Corps Trial.
Values-based training
Values-based training can encompass many different kinds of training, including affirming personal values. Affirming personal values has been found to decrease psychological distress and depression [DOI: 10.1007/s10879-017-9367-6] and to bolster resilience to psychosocial stress, due to a reduced cortisol response [13]. Furthermore, affirming self transcendent personal values specifically bolsters well being, and is linked to positive outcomes such as increased self-control [14], reduced self-focused rumination [15], and less bias against personally challenging information [16]. Inducing self-transcendent values led to healthier behaviors in the following month, as well as corresponding activity in a region of the vmPFC linked to positive evaluations and reward processing. [17]. In addition to affirming values, research further suggests that enacting values in everyday situations may play an especially important role in human flourishing [18], while behaving in a way that is inconsistent with personal values is associated with higher levels of negative affect and lower overall well-being [19].
Phenomenology[edit]
The subjective, lived experience of having purpose in life is philosophical, psychological, and physiological in nature. Researchers have demonstrated how the types of values that comprise PIL can impact mental and physical well-being. In a study that evaluated the role of intrinsic versus extrinsic values on young adults’ well-being, scientists found that intrinsic values provided greater health benefits [15]. These self-transcendent, intrinsic values were purposeful in nature. More specifically, intrinsic values were associated with the pursuit of self development, affiliation, and community contribution. Extrinsic values were typically associated with financial success and status. Drawing from a diverse sample of young adults from 54 countries, researchers demonstrated that intrinsic values were correlated with greater scores of happiness and life satisfaction. Interestingly, subjects from countries where extrinsic values predominated were more satisfied when acting upon extrinsic values. This finding suggests that aligning one’s values to match those of the environment may yield short-lived cognitive benefits. Overall, adults who had extrinsic values in extrinsic environments scored lower on total well-being than their intrinsic counterparts.
Through a machine learning approach, another study found that perceived social support, social activity, greater years of education, higher income, normal cognition, and middle-age cognitive activities were associated with higher PIL among a sample of 1,839 elderly participants [16]. Conversely, loneliness, harm avoidance, depressive symptoms, and old age were factors associated with lower PIL. Loneliness was found to be the strongest predictor of PIL. Researchers attributed this finding to the fact that individuals with high PIL are able to reappraise negative stimuli as less threatening. Lonely individuals, by contrast, pay more attention to negative stimuli [17]. Researchers suggested that despite these predictive factors, behavioral interventions like meditation and life crafting could modify PIL outcomes. During life crafting, participants construct goals for meaningful areas of their lives and break these goals down into actionable steps that align with their values. Digital forms of life crafting may be an effective and accessible option to enhance PIL.
PIL has been found to increase emotion regulation over time [18]. This emotion regulation is shown to help people respond to unfamiliar information in a more open–minded manner [19]. A review found that self-affirmed individuals were more likely to respond to unfamiliar information in an accepting way. Unfamiliar information may seem threatening to an individual’s self identity. Therefore, practicing self-affirmation for an aspect of identity, like one’s career, can reinforce their sense of purpose while boosting mood and self-esteem. The ability to consider and potentially accept unfamiliar information can provide people with the flexibility to improve their health behaviors and life choices.
Only a few surveys currently exist to assess self-reported PIL. The most prevalent survey is the Six-factor Model of Psychological Well-being. This assessment was developed in 1989 to measure six dimensions of human flourishing, one of which is the degree to which one has a sense of purpose in life. Researchers found that PIL was more active within eudaimonic well-being, which refers to the realization of one's potential [20]. Hedonic well-being, focused on the experiences of happiness and satisfaction, was less correlated with PIL. Another 20-question PIL scale was developed by James Crumbaugh and Leonard Maholick in 1964 [21]. This PIL scale countered the concept of logotherapy, based on the argument that a person could not search for a life purpose without first defining what their purpose was going to be.
Relation of Purpose to Self-Transcendence[edit]
Books deriving knowledge from the ongoing science of purpose[edit]
- "A Man's Search for Meaning" by Viktor Frankl
- "Positive Psychology" Martin P. Seligman
- "Grit" by Angela Duckworth
References[edit]
- ↑ ( Crumbaugh J, Maholick L. “An experimental study in existentialism: The psychometric approach to Frankl’s concept of noogenic neurosis”. Journal of Clinical Psychology. 1964;20(2):200–207. [PubMed] [Google Scholar])
- ↑ Steger, M. F., Frazier, P., Oishi, S., Kaler, M. (2006). The meaning in life questionnaire: Assessing the presence of and search for meaning in life. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 53(1), 80-93. doi: 10.1037/0022-0167.53.1.80
- ↑ Boyle PA, Buchman AS, Barnes LL, Bennett DA. Effect of a Purpose in Life on Risk of Incident Alzheimer Disease and Mild Cognitive Impairment in Community-Dwelling Older Persons. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2010;67(3):304–310. doi:10.1001/archgenpsychiatry.2009.208
- ↑ Boyle PA, Buchman AS, Wilson RS, Yu L, Schneider JA, Bennett DA. Effect of purpose in life on the relation between Alzheimer disease pathologic changes on cognitive function in advanced age. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2012;69(5):499-505. doi:10.1001/archgenpsychiatry.2011.1487
- ↑ Kaplin A, Anzaldi L. New Movement in Neuroscience: A Purpose-Driven Life. Cerebrum. 2015;2015:7. Published 2015 Jun 1.
- ↑ Lewis GJ, Kanai R, Rees G, Bates TC. Neural correlates of the 'good life': eudaimonic well-being is associated with insular cortex volume. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. 2014 May;9(5):615-8. doi: 10.1093/scan/nst032. Epub 2013 Mar 19. PMID: 23512932; PMCID: PMC4014105.
- ↑ Carlson MC, Kuo JH, Chuang YF, et al. Impact of the Baltimore Experience Corps Trial on cortical and hippocampal volumes. Alzheimers Dement. 2015;11(11):1340-1348. doi:10.1016/j.jalz.2014.12.005
- ↑ Kim ES, Sun JK, Park N, Peterson C. Purpose in life and reduced incidence of stroke in older adults: 'The Health and Retirement Study'. J Psychosom Res. 2013 May;74(5):427-32. doi: 10.1016/j.jpsychores.2013.01.013. Epub 2013 Feb 28. PMID: 23597331.
- ↑ Kim ES, Sun JK, Park N, Kubzansky LD, Peterson C. Purpose in life and reduced risk of myocardial infarction among older U.S. adults with coronary heart disease: a two-year follow-up. J Behav Med. 2013 Apr;36(2):124-33. doi: 10.1007/s10865-012-9406-4. Epub 2012 Feb 23. PMID: 22359156.
- ↑ Yu L, Boyle PA, Wilson RS, Levine SR, Schneider JA, Bennett DA. Purpose in life and cerebral infarcts in community-dwelling older people. Stroke. 2015 Apr;46(4):1071-6. doi: 10.1161/STROKEAHA.114.008010. PMID: 25791714; PMCID: PMC4461202.
- ↑ Ostir GV, Berges IM, Ottenbacher ME, Clow A, Ottenbacher KJ. Associations between positive emotion and recovery of functional status following stroke. Psychosom Med. 2008;70(4):404-409. doi:10.1097/PSY.0b013e31816fd7d0
- ↑ Lucas SM, Rothwell NJ, Gibson RM. The role of inflammation in CNS injury and disease. Br J Pharmacol. 2006 Jan;147 Suppl 1(Suppl 1):S232-40. doi: 10.1038/sj.bjp.0706400. PMID: 16402109; PMCID: PMC1760754.
- ↑ Friedman EM, Hayney M, Love GD, Singer BH, Ryff CD. Plasma interleukin-6 and soluble IL-6 receptors are associated with psychological well-being in aging women. Health Psychol. 2007 May;26(3):305-13. doi: 10.1037/0278-6133.26.3.305. PMID: 17500617.
- ↑ Rohleder N. Stimulation of systemic low-grade inflammation by psychosocial stress. Psychosom Med. 2014 Apr;76(3):181-9. doi: 10.1097/PSY.0000000000000049. PMID: 24608036.
- ↑ A. Van Den Broeck, B. Schreurs, K. Proost, A. Vanderstukken, M. Vansteenkiste, I want to be a billionaire: How do extrinsic and intrinsic values influence youngsters’ well-being? Ann. Am. Acad. Pol. Soc. Sci. 682, 204–219 (2019).
- ↑ Mei Z, Lori A, Vattathil SM, Boyle PA, Bradley B, Jin P, Bennett DA, Wingo TS, Wingo AP. Important Correlates of Purpose in Life Identified Through a Machine Learning Approach. Am J Geriatr Psychiatry. 2021 May;29(5):488-498. doi: 10.1016/j.jagp.2020.09.018. Epub 2020 Sep 28. PMID: 33046355; PMCID: PMC8004535.
- ↑ Cacioppo S, Balogh S, Cacioppo JT. Implicit attention to negative social, in contrast to nonsocial, words in the Stroop task differs between individuals high and low in loneliness: Evidence from event-related brain microstates. Cortex. 2015 Sep;70:213-33. doi: 10.1016/j.cortex.2015.05.032. Epub 2015 Jul 2. PMID: 26195152.
- ↑ Schaefer SM, Morozink Boylan J, van Reekum CM, Lapate RC, Norris CJ, Ryff CD, Davidson RJ. Purpose in life predicts better emotional recovery from negative stimuli. PLoS One. 2013 Nov 13;8(11):e80329. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0080329. PMID: 24236176; PMCID: PMC3827458.
- ↑ Sherman, D. K., & Cohen, G. L. (2002). Accepting Threatening Information: Self–Affirmation and the Reduction of Defensive Biases. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 11(4), 119–123. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8721.00182
- ↑ van Reekum CM, Urry HL, Johnstone T, Thurow ME, Frye CJ, Jackson CA, Schaefer HS, Alexander AL, Davidson RJ. Individual differences in amygdala and ventromedial prefrontal cortex activity are associated with evaluation speed and psychological well-being. J Cogn Neurosci. 2007 Feb;19(2):237-48. doi: 10.1162/jocn.2007.19.2.237. PMID: 17280513.
- ↑ Kaplin, A., & Anzaldi, L. (2015). New Movement in Neuroscience: A Purpose-Driven Life. Cerebrum : the Dana forum on brain science, 2015, 7.
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