Purposeful change: the positive effects of a course-based intervention on character

ABSTRACT

Having purpose is linked to lifelong thriving across the lifespan. However, not all aspects of purpose, such as beyond-the-self purpose, are common among emerging adults. Purpose-relevant interventions in higher education, especially when focused on character development, may facilitate purpose development and have a positive effect on emerging adults’ character. Using mixed-method data from college students in a course designed as a character intervention (n = 32), we explored how the course impacted student purpose. Pre- and post-course purpose scores indicated that the average intervention group’s purpose changed significantly over the semester in two subdomains and that these intervention group changes were significantly greater when compared to a control group (n = 49). Qualitative analyses of intervention group assignments revealed four themes related to purpose: beyond-the-self orientation, tools to pursue purpose, individual flourishing, and building relationships. These results show the power of holistic character interventions to foster purpose in emerging adults.

KEYWORDS:

• Purpose
• character
• virtue
• emerging adulthood
• beyond-the-self
• intervention
• college
• education

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to the students who gave of their time to participate in our research. We want to thank our research assistants, especially Kelly Templeton, who helped to code the data. We are also grateful to the John Templeton Foundation, Lilly Endowment, Inc., and Wake Forest University for support of this research and to three anonymous reviewers for helpful suggestions that improved the paper. The views expressed here are those of the authors and do not reflect the position of the John Templeton Foundation, Lilly Endowment, Inc., Wake Forest University, the United States Military Academy, the Department of the Army, or the Department of Defense.

Disclosure statement

We have no known conflict of interest to disclose.

Additional information

Funding

The work was funded by the John Templeton Foundation under Grant 61514 and the Lily Endowment, Inc.