Purpose in Life as a System that Creates and Sustains Health and Well-Being: An Integrative, Testable Theory

By Patrick E. McKnight, T. Kashdan. 2009

861 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Subfields: Applied Psychology, Experimental and Cognitive Psychology, Social Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/fb9d4e9d203437c995f00c0639458dcf8fdfe433

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Citations in the corpus

Hope and emotional well-being: A six-year study to distinguish antecedents, correlates, and consequences (2015, background): “…a lack of effort and progress toward personally meaningful goals is often the cause of reductions in emotional well-being – less positive emotions and more negative emotions (Deci & Ryan, 1985; Little, Salemla-Aro, & Phillips, 2007; McKnight & Kashdan, 2009) across the globe (Sheldon et al., 2004).”
How Supportive of Their Specific Purposes Do Youth Believe Their Family and Friends Are? (2013, background): “Purpose is a referent within a dynamic psychological selfregulation system (Marken, 2002; McKnight & Kashdan, 2009).”
Are meaning and purpose distinct? An examination of correlates and predictors (2013, background): “In contrast, purpose is the subjective experience of possessing a system of overarching goals that provide a sense of direction in life (McKnight & Kashdan, 2009).”
Viewing Purpose Through an Eriksonian Lens (2012, background): “A recent review by McKnight and Kashdan (2009) described the construct as ‘‘a central, self-organizing life aim that organizes and stimulates goals, manages behaviors, and provides a sense of meaning’’ (p. 242).”
Meaningful Work, Employee Engagement, and Other Key Employee Outcomes (2011, neutral): “Second, meaning has been linked to well-being (Brunstein, Schultheiss, & Grässmann, 1998; Diener, Suh, Lucas, & Smith, 1999; Keyes, 2007; McKnight & Kashdan, 2009).”
A dynamic approach to psychological strength development and intervention (2011, neutral): “Thus, talents (or strengths) are not enough in themselves, they interact with a person's interests and values (Kashdan & McKnight, 2009 ; McKnight & Kashdan, 2009 ).”
Forgiveness and purpose in life as spiritual mechanisms of recovery from substance use disorders (2010, background): “McKnight and Kashdan also propose that the sense of meaning (significance) derived from the pursuit of purpose-directed goals is used to further refine and develop one’s purpose in life, which in turn creates further goals (McKnight and Kashdan 2009).”
Meaning in Life as Comprehension, Purpose, and Mattering: Toward Integration and New Research Questions (2016, background): “The relevant literature suggests that purpose conveys important information about individuals’ underlying goal hierarchies, and this information may have significant implications for phenomena such as goal adjustment, health, and well-being (Carver & Scheier, 1998; McKnight & Kashdan, 2009).”
A Meaningful Life is a Healthy Life: A Conceptual Model Linking Meaning and Meaning Salience to Health (2018, background): “However, in a more specific sense, purpose refers to behavioral engagement in life goals and valued activities (McKnight & Kashdan, 2009).”
Persevering with Positivity and Purpose: An Examination of Purpose Commitment and Positive Affect as Predictors of Grit (2016, neutral): “Having a purpose in life entails a commitment to an ultimate life goal that serves to organize and plan the individual’s daily and long-term activities (McKnight and Kashdan 2009), and individuals oriented toward a set of life goals tend to demonstrate consistency (i.”
Classifying adolescents’ conceptions of purpose in life (2010, background): “…and direction for achieving their goals in life, a theme not only mentioned in all four definitions from past research (Damon et al., 2003; Kosine et al., 2008; McKnight & Kashdan, 2009; Ryff, 1989a) but also discussed frequently in related literatures (e.g., Emmons, 1999; Nurmi, 1991, 1993, 2001).”
Identity and Purpose as Predictors of Subjective Well-Being in Emerging Adulthood (2015, background): “Purpose, described as ‘‘a central, selforganizing life aim that organizes and stimulates goals, manages behaviors, and provides a sense of meaning’’ (McKnight & Kashdan, 2009, p. 242), answers the question ‘‘Where am I going in life?’’”
The three meanings of meaning in life: Distinguishing coherence, purpose, and significance (2016, neutral): “And both Mcknight and Kashdan (2009) and George and Park (2013) argue that it should be explicitly separated from a general sense of meaning in life, and have started empirical efforts to do precisely that.”
Origins of Purpose in Life: Refining our Understanding of a Life Well Lived (2009, methodology): “Given our definition, conceptual model (see McKnight & Kashdan, 2009), along with a few necessary ingredients, we now speculate on the broader development process of purpose.”
What Predicts Positive Life Events that Influence the Course of Depression? A Longitudinal Examination of Gratitude and Meaning in Life (2017, background): “Having meaning in life may counter the anhedonia common in depression and sustain intrinsically motivated behavior (McKnight and Kashdan 2009).”
The unbearable lightness of meaning: Well-being and unstable meaning in life (2013, background): “In his writing about meaning in life, Frankl (1963) extended Nietzsche’s claim that ‘he [sic] who has a why can endure any how,’ to argue that finding a meaningful purpose for our existence gives us the psychological resources and motivation to persevere through hardship (McKnight & Kashdan, 2009).”