ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses a new operational definition of purpose that distinguishes it from meaning in an internalistic sense, and it reviews the existing psychological studies pertinent to the development of purpose during youth. It identifies a number of urgent questions concerning how—and whether—young people today are acquiring positive purposes to dedicate themselves to and, if so, what the nature of today ‘s youth purposes might be. Youth is a formative period for cultivating a sense of purpose. Identity theorists, from E. H. Erikson to J. Loevinger, have marked adolescence as the period in the life-span when people first begin to dedicate themselves to systems of belief that reflect compelling purposes. Studies of youth purpose have been scattered across inquiries into cognitive, emotional, moral, motivational, and religious development. Cultural and ethnic differences in purpose are difficult to determine with great certainty from current research.
