3. Results
Four purpose profiles were identified among the study participants, namely, beyond-the-self purpose (
N = 180, 54.4%), self-oriented life goal (
N = 142, 42.9%), daydreamer (
N = 6, 1.8%), and purposeless (
N = 3, 0.9%). For some of these profiles, qualitatively different sub-groups also emerged.
Table 2 lists brief descriptions and occurrences of each profile. The profiles are then explained in more depth, with statement examples rendered in English.
3.1. Beyond-the-Self Purpose
When expressing their reasons for and the importance of their life purpose, student teachers who discussed any entity other than the self as beneficiaries were recognized as having an altruistic purpose in life (coded as “purpose beyond-the self” being present). As explained earlier, the beyond-the-self (BTS) attribute of purpose mainly indicated that participants involved impacting entities other than themselves (i.e., imparting positive benefits) when they responded to questions about the reasons or importance of their purpose. These entities included families, friends, their students, a certain field, society, the country, or even the world. Further analysis showed that people with altruistic purpose repeatedly emphasized the benefits to other entities when they discussed the content, reasons for, and importance of their life purpose. In addition, coders found interesting differences between participants in this category, resulting in three sub-categories: active BTS purpose, less active BTS purpose, and action-directed BTS purpose. These subcategories are differentiated based on the clarity of the life purpose and on the engagement and planning related to pursuit and achievement of the purpose. They are described in more detail below.
3.2. Active Beyond-the-Self Purpose (N = 127, 38.4%)
Participants identified within the active BTS purpose profile made statements that were coded as “mentioned”, “described” or “storied” on both reason/importance and engagement of life purpose along with “purpose beyond-the-selfness” for answers to reason/importance questions (see Materials and Methods). Participants in this category had very explicit ideas about their ultimate goals in life, and their ultimate goals shared the common feature of altruistic concerns, though this was sometimes in concert with self-related aims. When they discussed their purpose in life, they expressed a clear understanding of their mission for being in the world, striving for the well-being and benefit of others. Student teachers in this category also had very specific plans for how to achieve their purposes and were acting upon these plans directed toward their ultimate aims in life. This active engagement differentiates them from the less active BTS purpose group.
In summary, student teachers coded as members of this group had a clear understanding of BTS-oriented purposes and had planned for and were actively pursuing those plans. This may indicate that student teachers in this sub-category have a mature cognitive understanding of their purpose and have reached a level of behavioral maturity, leading them to engage in relevant activities actively [
57] (pp. 1–13). Thus, the active BTS purpose sub-category is seen as the most mature state of BTS purpose development in this study. Below is an example of statements written by a student teacher from this sub-category as they describe their efforts to positively influence students, which is their ultimate aim:
“I am searching for my ideals in life. As a teacher, my life should be able to make a lot of changes to others. In this sense, in my life I hope to constantly improve myself, update my thinking, and maximize the positive impact on my students. I want to have a happy family and a healthy body, which are also close to my life ideals. The reason I chose this purpose is multiple. My life purpose comes from the university I attended and my clear future career as a teacher, with a combination of what I read from books and various media. Making changes among my students is important to me because human beings have their emotions. And every individual has the value of his/her own existence in life. This ideal of mine will help me achieve the value of my existence. At the same time, life purpose related to my self exists because human life occurs only once. We must not only think of others, but also be able to find our own happiness in connection with external things.” (Participant 5135; coded as “storied” purpose and “purpose beyond-the-self” present).
This quotation demonstrates that the participant had a comprehensive understanding of what makes their life meaningful and valuable: exerting positive influence on their students and bringing changes to their lives. The same participant responded to questions about purpose plans and actions (engagement) as follows:
“The activities I am taking now are the same as those I personally plan to take in order to achieve my ideals in life. I want my plans to be consistent with my current situation, and they should be. I’m reading many books and enriching my mind. I am participating in voluntary teaching services to improve my teaching skills, communication skills with students, and the ability to better understand students. Also, I’m also participating in various clubs to exercise my impromptu speech ability and organizational skills. I’m participating in many lectures and I made my own career plan. Now, I’m trying my best to study hard and gain enough expertise. I always consult my teachers about their suggestions on how I can improve myself.” (Participant 5135; coded as “storied” purpose).
Participant 5135 was a typical example in this sub-category. Beyond having a clear BTS purpose in life, they had explicit plans about how to realize that purpose and is currently acting upon these plans. In this sense, they are already on the way towards achieving their ultimate goal in life. Though all our participants are student teachers, their purposes vary widely due to a differing personal understanding of meaning in life and their respective choices. Another example from this sub-category illustrates an entirely different purpose, but also explicitly discussed the ultimate aim of benefiting people in the world with very specific plans and actions. The following statements were written in response to the three questions about purpose content:
“The ideal of life is to use one’s strength and the creation of computer science and software to influence others and change people’s way of life in the future. It’s not a world of information that can’t be opened or peered into from the outside, as Steve Jobs described, but a world where we can provide others with a platform that we can create. Now the development of the Internet and computer science just provides such an opportunity to make the world a better place, letting human beings live in harmony with nature. Change some people’s thinking mode. Change the world with the Internet, and conquer people’s hearts with logic and happiness. I work hard step by step and start with a program. Because I want to see a world where everyone can give full play to their abilities, a world of invention and creation, a world of progress, a world based on cyberspace, a world where virtual and reality are integrated, and a world where everyone can create without being shackled by books.” (Participant 5588; coded as “storied” purpose and “purpose beyond-the-self” present).
In making the following statements, participant 5588 then explained their plans and actions (purpose engagement):
“I plan to learn professional knowledge well. Besides, I learn more coding knowledge in extracurricular classes. I plan to practice first with the school website, and gradually improve the rules and regulations of the studio in charge. I plan to do a good job on the website of the students’ affairs office and the school website, deal with the relationship between studio members, divide work fairly and correctly and be a good person in charge. While learning from senior schoolmates, I also plan to help the lower class-men to learn, helping them making progress together and doing a better job together. I’m striving for more opportunities for exercise and internships for my classmates. At the beginning of the next semester, I plan to publicize the studio among new comers of this university.
After graduating from this University, I plan to find a good job, and strive for the opportunity to study abroad, so that I can learn the latest and best coding knowledge. And then I’ll start to build my desired cyberspace.” (coded as “storied” purpose).
3.3. Less Active Beyond-the-Self Purpose (N = 31, 9.4%)
Participant profiles of less active BTS purpose wrote statements about the reason and importance of their purpose that were coded as either “mentioned”, “described”, or “storied” and were also coded as “purpose beyond-the-selfness”. Their statements about their plans and actions pertaining to their purpose were coded as “mentioned”. These codes indicate that student teachers who report a less active BTS purpose had BTS aims, such as those in the active BTS purpose sub-category, and their understanding of the reasons and importance of their BTS life purpose was rather clear and complex. However, engagement of their life purpose, although present, includes only simple plans and actions. Therefore, their purpose mainly manifested at the cognitive level and was lacking detailed plans and corresponding actions in their lives. These participants showed high levels of BTS-oriented intention, but lower levels of engagement. An example of this sub-category is demonstrated in the following response to questions about purpose content (what, why, and importance):
“I want happiness and freedom in my life. My purpose is becoming a teacher and making my own contribution to society. This is because of my own experience. I met a very good teacher when I was in middle school. This teacher made me understand that education was very important to children. It makes a lot of sense for me to recognize that educating children and cultivating them to become the future of our country is such a great thing.” (Participant 5645; coded as “described” purpose and “purpose beyond-the-self” present).
Yet, when asked the questions about plans and actions, participant 5645 wrote: “Study hard to build a solid foundation; Accumulate experience and make contributions to the teaching career.” (coded as “mentioned”). The above example illustrates that participant 5645 had a clear understanding of an ultimate far-reaching goal for their life, which exhibited a BTS reason for helping their future students by offering them good education, so that they were able to contribute to the bright future of the country. Yet, the plan and actions they mentioned were quite general, without specific plans articulated beyond vague expressions that are applicable to any student teacher.
3.4. Action-Guiding Beyond-the-Self Purpose (N = 22, 6.6%)
In this group, codes of “mentioned”, “described” and “purpose beyond-the-self” (present) were assigned to statements to questions related to the reasons and importance of purpose, and codes of “described” and “storied” were assigned to responses that answered the questions related to purpose plans and action. Participants with action-guiding BTS purpose showed BTS concern when discussing their purpose. The most distinctive characteristic of participants in this sub-category is that their purposes are largely plan and action oriented, with less clear intentions apparent. Thus, they may mention their purpose, the reasons for this purpose and its personal importance, but describe their plans and engagement in more detail. This means that their life purpose is described in a relatively general way, despite high involvement in planning and action related to that purpose. This makes the action-guiding BTS sub-category distinct from those mentioned above, in that participants in this profile seem to have action rather than intention driving their pursuit of a purpose. Thus, through their actions they may be clarifying or confirming their commitment to their purpose. A good example of this profile type is illustrated by the following quotation, arising in response to questions about the content of one’s purpose (what, why, and importance):
“I want to be a favorite teacher who can help students. My childhood experience in rural areas made me realize the gap in education between urban and rural areas. I want to narrow the gap. I want to influence others, and contribute to China’s education. I hope China’s education can be in the forefront of the world.” (Participant 5540; coded as “described” and “purpose beyond-the-self” present).
We can see from this statement that this participant described a future life through narrative in regard to how reducing rural–urban educational divides was personally meaningful and valuable. In this, this participant expressed that this purpose entailed working to address this inequality. Regarding specific actions and plans, this participant responded:
“My general direction is to enter a high-quality high school and become a teacher there through hard work. I’ll expand my influence through working hard there. And then I will start to teach in rural areas. In my junior year, I will learn English in addition to the professional courses, and learn to play another instrument, such as the zither. I’ll find a desirable job in my senior year. In the first ten years after I start working, I will have worked hard to improve my professional skills and accumulate my influence in this profession. Within 20 years after I start working, I’ll have made an influence on rural education. And after that, I will continue to devote myself wholeheartedly to rural education.” (Participant 5540; coded as “storied” purpose).
These responses are typical of this subcategory. When asked about achieving their purpose, participants in this sub-category expressed complex and detailed plans and aims. However, this is in contrast to the less elaborate reasons and meanings they express in speaking about their intentions. Here, while these participants have been coded as having a BTS purpose, their statements do not seem to be as qualitatively intricate, involved, or elaborate in this purpose as active BTS purpose participants, largely because of this less complex intentionality.
3.5. Self-Oriented Life Goal
If student teachers’ responses tended to express self-involvement in the absence of a focus on others, they were classified under the profile of self-oriented (SO) life goal. Participants in this group are primarily pursuing intentions with regard to benefits to the self, rather than those that involve others in their statements to explain the reasons for or importance of their purpose. These individuals seem to be largely concerned with their own affairs and to have plans and actions related to the achievement of these goals. The data illustrated that student teachers with SO life goals pursue their own interests and benefits psychologically, materially, or both, as the most important pursuits in their lives. Self-satisfaction is an important indicator for these statements in judging whether or not students in these profiles feel they have achieved their goals. The expression of what they see as their life purpose reinforces their sense of the self as important. One hundred and forty-two participants were coded into this category, with three sub-categories, related to the categories for BTS purpose: active self-oriented life goal, less active self-oriented life goal, and action-directed self-oriented life goal.
3.6. Active Self-Oriented Life Goal (N = 70, 21.1%)
Participants with active SO life goals had similar coding and descriptive features to those with active BTS purpose, except that their statements were coded as “purpose beyond-the-self” absent. Student teachers in this sub-category clearly articulated their life goals and were actively pursuing detailed plans to make progress toward those goals. They strived to satisfy their own needs and to pursue their own good with motivation and determination. Here is an example of a quotation from a student teacher in this sub-category, responding to prompts regarding what their purpose was, why that was their purpose, and why it is important:
“I want to have a stable job with passion instead of boredom. What I want to do most is to travel around the world in my spare time, and visit the world’s famous mountains and rivers and places of interest. I want to see the scenery with my own eyes, and then write down some thoughts and what I think when I travel all over the world. It’s best to live in every place for a few months and experience the local customs with my heart. I want to feel life where the ancients left traces and purify my heart in the mountains and rivers. Maybe it’s because I like Chinese classical culture. I like to experience the joys and sorrows of ancient characters. I’m fond of walking, writing, yearning for a free and unrestrained life and pure mountains and forests.” (Participant 5400; coded as “storied” purpose).
In the above response, the participant explains their life goals explicitly and logically, demonstrating a clear understanding of what was most significant and meaningful in their life. The focus of attention is also self-oriented, emphasizing personal enjoyment and gratification. This participant, like others in this subcategory, focused on personal feelings and interests, aiming to achieve personal happiness. In response to questions about plans and actions relating to their purpose, the same participant wrote:
“Now, I will study hard and read more books on other aspects when I have time. I will also work hard for my purpose. I will strive to become an excellent lecturer to accomplish my own research. Meanwhile, I will also concentrate on my work in order to save enough money and time for myself, so that when I want to go out, I could go.” (Participant 5400; coded as “storied” purpose).
This participant is very clear about the kind of efforts they will make to pursue important life goals. This participant made specific plans regarding future work and research, but the ultimate reasons for doing so are to save time and money to allow for the SO pursuits of enjoying traveling and experiencing the world. This participant understood the importance of their life goals and oriented their pursuits to emphasize possibilities for traveling. Thus, even work plans are directed toward the possibility of traveling when not working. This pattern is typical of those in the active SO life goal sub-category.
3.7. Less Active Self-Oriented Life Goal (N = 68, 20.5%)
Participants with less active SO life goals were also coded as “purpose beyond-the-self” absent on questions related to the reason for and importance of purpose. Similar to the active SO life goal sub-category, student teachers with less active SO life goals possess a clear and complex understanding of what they would strive for in their lives and why these strivings are important to them. However, they demonstrated a comparatively lower level of purpose engagement, with more general and superficial plans and actions, lacking detail when asked about purpose-related plans and actions. This combination of high intention amidst lower engagement contributed to less mature life goal pursuit for those in this sub-category as compared to the active SO life goal sub-category. We infer that the general developmental processes for these participants are in some ways similar to those in the less active BTS purpose sub-category. The following is an example of the kind of response given by participants in this category to questions about the content, reasons, and importance of their purpose:
“I hope that I can have a happy family in the future. In addition, I also want to improve my ability at present to have a job with high salary and high position in my future. At the same time, I want to have a few close friends and we could go into politics together. This is how I understand my life ideals.” (Participant 5379; coded as “storied” purpose).
When asked about his/her plans relating to this purpose, the same participant wrote: “I plan to work hard to learn professional knowledge and read more extracurricular books. I will participate in as many meaningful practical activities as possible.” (Participant 5379, coded as “mentioned” purpose).
This example illustrates that the participant regarded their stated life goals as a means to achieve personal meaning. Mention of friends in the future is largely described in terms of the benefits of having these friends for the self, not the benefits of their life goals for friends. The response to questions about future plans and actions were very general and routine, with little mention of current activity. In this, Participant 5379 is representative of others in this subcategory who have strong SO intentions, but did not clearly articulate complex plans for engagement with those intentions.
3.8. Action-Guiding Self-Oriented Life Goal (N = 4, 1.2%)
Participants in the action-guiding SO life goal sub-category expressed their SO intentions in comparatively general ways, when compared to those in the less active SO life goal and active SO life goal subgroups. They did, however, exhibit detailed plans and specific actions to achieve their life goals. Thus, they show greater evidence of engagement than intention. They are also similar, in many ways, to the action-guiding BTS purpose sub-category. The following quotation is an example of the ways that members of this sub-category describe the content, reasoning and meaning of their life goals:
“I want to be a chemistry teacher because I love chemistry and chemistry education. Also, I admire several chemistry teachers.” (Participant 5350; coded as “described” purpose).
This demonstrates relatively simple and unelaborated reasoning for wanting to be a chemistry teacher compared to those in other sub-categories of SO life goal. Little detail is provided about reasons for a love of chemistry or the reasons for admiring teachers. The same participant had much more elaboration with regard to plans and actions:
“My major is chemistry at a normal (teacher) university. I plan to try my best to study chemistry knowledge at college and constantly review chemistry knowledge I learned at middle school. I will continue to be a volunteer teacher in the chemistry group until I leave this University. Later, I plan to take a master’s degree in education and be a chemistry tutor. Finally, I plan to be a chemistry teacher at a middle school.” (Participant 5350; coded as “storied” purpose).
The above statements demonstrate that this participant had clear and elaborate plans about upcoming years and post-collegiate life. Like others in the action-direct SO life goal sub-category, this participant has a clear plan for achieving their most personally important life goals and was actively engaged in pursuing these goals. However, participants in this sub-category are less articulate about their purpose than the active SO life goal sub-category, as the reasons for and meaning of these pursuits are less elaborated and distinct.
3.9. Daydreamers
The third profile, which we labeled daydreamers, includes two subgroups, one exhibiting BTS oriented dreams (N = 1, 0.3%), the other with SO dreams (N = 5, 1.5%). These participants clearly discussed answers to questions about the content (what), reasons, and importance of their purpose. Those in this profile, however, did not report any plans or actions concerning their purpose or goals. This means that these individuals show evidence of having thought about meanings and goals, but lacked the behavioral motivation or a sense of pathways to engage in relevant activity pertaining to their stated purposes. Below is an example of statements of BTS-oriented purposes written by participant 5126:
“I want to be filial to my parents and be busy in my career and family because I must return the kindness of parents. Also, I want to open my mind to new things and keep learning in order to living out of myself to complete the current study and future improvement.” (Participant 5126; coded as “described”). No plans or actions were mentioned in the answer.
Participant 5216’s responses to questions about reason/importance were coded as self-oriented purpose: “I want to achieve individual values to get spiritual satisfaction of myself.” (Participant 5216; coded as “described”). Here, again, no further plans or actions were provided in the answer.
Daydreamers like this are more closely related to the less active BTS purpose and SO life goal sub-categories than to the others above, though their lack of activity and engagement means that they appear less mature than those sub-categories.
3.10. Purposeless
The final profile identified in this dataset is those student teachers who had little to say in answering the questions about what their purpose is and why that purpose is personally important. Further, these individuals gave little detail regarding plans or actions related to these reported purposes. As such, they were coded as purposeless. These individuals seem to be engaged in various activities, but without considering the relationship between those activities and personal meanings and goals. Their descriptions of plans and actions were also brief, indicating relatively simple plans without explicit and elaborated ideas about how they wanted to pursue a meaningful life. For example, Participant 5184 only responded to questions about plans and actions (engagement) concerning purpose as follows:
“I will study hard and enrich myself.” (Participant 5184; coded as “mentioned”). No purpose was provided or elaborated in the purpose what/why/importance parts. This category, as it lacks clear intention or engagement, seems to be the least articulate category of participants in the sample as pertains to explaining a purpose for their lives.
4. Discussion
This study examines student teachers’ responses to inquiries about their purpose in life, within a Chinese context. The results suggest that Chinese student teachers could be divided into four broad categories based on their expressions of the content, reason for and importance of their perceived purpose, and plans and actions relating to that purpose. These four profiles are BTS purpose, SO life goal, daydreamers, and the purposeless. The first two categories comprise 95% of cases, which is a solid majority of the sample. These two categories were also subdivided into three parallel subcategories: active, less active, and action-driven BTS purpose and SO life goals.
These findings are different from those of prior studies, with a greater proportion pf participants in the sample categorized as BTS purpose than has been found in large scale interview studies; we found over 70% to constitute BTS profile cases as compared to roughly 25–30% in other studies [
11,
13] (pp. 715–733; pp. 143–159). Studies based on fewer questions derived directly from longer interviews to identify purpose have found larger proportions, rising to nearly 40% [
42] (pp. 1–24). One might conclude that the present sample is highly purposeful, in that the vast majority can identify their purpose, such that student teachers may be a special population with higher levels of purpose development than other youth. This possibility is in line with some prior evidence [
19] (pp. 186–199), though the level may also be driven by the relative clarity of and reasons supported by participants’ career choice in education, the open-ended statement method, the cultural context, or the coding criteria of this study.
In this study, the most distinctive difference between the two largest categories, BTS purpose and SO life goal, lay in the actual intended beneficiaries of the goal. For the BTS purpose group, participants showed distinct BTS or prosocial orientation in describing the intended beneficiaries or consequences of their pursuits. For BTS purposeful youth, their future students, their families and friends, society, and country were intended beneficiaries of their purposeful pursuits. In contrast, participants with SO life goals expressed their goals as primarily benefiting themselves, through personal achievement, gratification, or meaning. In concrete terms, this means that BTS purposeful youth think about the reasons or importance of their pursuit of purpose as contributing to the betterment of future students, society, or reducing social inequalities, while youth with SO life goals emphasize reasons regarding time, money, amusement, and personal status.
The three sub-categories of BTS purpose and SO life goals are also important to more fully consider. According to one theory of mature purpose [
57] (pp. 1–13), these profiles may constitute developmental steps on the way to full active BTS purpose, which manifests all three key components of purpose: intention, engagement, and BTS orientation [
13] (pp. 143–159). This theory has still to be further validated empirically, such as in longitudinal studies, and it includes additional components than those included here. Nonetheless, there is some logic to the idea that mature functioning includes the capability of exhibiting and coordinating all three features of purpose across and within one’s life. This is to say that less active BTS purpose is intermediate between what Damon [
10] (pp. 59–61) called dreaming and active purpose, manifesting some engagement, but not mature engagement, just as action-driven BTS purpose is intermediate between dabbling and active purpose, manifesting some intention but not mature intention. Similar claims can be made with regard to SO life goals, with less active SO life goals and action-driven SO life goals as potential developmental precursors to more mature SO life goals. Further, Reilly and Mariano [
57] (pp. 1–13) would suggest that BTS purpose is more mature than SO life goals, as implied by the three key components of purpose.
This leaves two further categories, daydreamers and the purposeless. Daydreamers were those who expressed their understanding of their ultimate goals in life, including both BTS-oriented and SO manifestations. These student teachers were similar to Damon’s [
10] (p. 59) dreamer profile, though SO daydreamers, the most common form in this sample, lack the BTS orientation of Damon’s dreamer profile. The purposeless, lacking clear personal goals and so unable to relate actions to those goals, could be akin to either Damon’s dabbler or drifter profiles. However, among the present sample, these categories were quite small, representing, across daydreamers and the purposeless, roughly 3% of the sample. This may be a result of the age, culture, and context of the participants, as the participants are older than many of those in Damon’s [
10] (pp. 52–53) study and in normal college. This is also unlike the more educationally diverse young adults in Glanzer and colleagues’ [
11] (pp. 715–733) study, which found roughly 30% in the directionless category, which was most similar to the purposeless category in the present study.
This research provides preliminary evidence of varied purpose profiles among student teachers in China. Further, this analysis highlights purpose profiles on a continuum, with subcategories not present in prior research, such as inactive BTS purpose and action-guiding BTS purpose, rather than merely noting the presence or absence of purpose. Based on data analysis, this sample showed evidence of greater maturity than those in other research, based both on the high rate of active BTS purpose, higher rates of other subcategories of BTS purpose, and lower rates of daydreamers and purposeless than in other studies. As such, we anticipate that this group is more likely to be developing optimally, in line with other studies of purpose development [
19,
30] (pp. 186–199; p. 52).
Limitations and Future Directions
In this study, data collection about life purpose from student teachers was mainly based on the written content of answers to an online survey. This provided an opportunity to share the content, reasons for, importance of, plans, and actions related to their perceived purpose. However, this should be understood in comparison with the methods of other studies, as, for instance, no interviewer was able to prompt for elaboration with the online survey as they might with an online or in-person interview. Additionally, other samples of student teachers and those preparing for other professions would provide additional information regarding how broadly the findings of the present study generalize. For instance, is this sample similar to student teachers from other regions of China, or of students studying to enter business, politics, engineering, or health fields?
Future research would do well then to adopt different methods, engage with varied samples, test interventions, and to retain participants longitudinally. Different methods might help to understand the differences between experiences that contribute to the different sub-categories of BTS purpose and SO life goal found in this study and provide more efficient ways of assessing them (e.g., with surveys such as that of [
51] (pp. 47–71), and others). Longitudinal research may clarify if it is the case that youth who have active BTS purpose prior to college are more likely to pursue education as a student teacher rather than some other educational goal. Additionally, it would be valuable to determine if student teachers’ expression of purpose becomes more mature over time, such that freshmen are more likely to be identified in the less mature categories, and the same individuals respond in more mature ways as juniors and seniors. Intervention research could add to this consideration of the specific experiences and processes that support or hinder the development of more mature purpose.