Dreams worth pursuing: how college students develop and articulate their purpose in life PDF
Preview Dreams worth pursuing: how college students develop and articulate their purpose in life
University of Iowa Iowa Research Online Theses and Dissertations Spring 2013 Dreams worth pursuing: how college students develop and articulate their purpose in life Michael Edward Schluckebier University of Iowa Copyright 2013 Michael Schluckebier This dissertation is available at Iowa Research Online: https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/2625 Recommended Citation Schluckebier, Michael Edward. "Dreams worth pursuing: how college students develop and articulate their purpose in life." PhD (Doctor of Philosophy) thesis, University of Iowa, 2013. https://doi.org/10.17077/etd.q5gontba Follow this and additional works at:https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd Part of theStudent Counseling and Personnel Services Commons DREAMS WORTH PURSUING: HOW COLLEGE STUDENTS DEVELOP AND ARTICULATE THEIR PURPOSE IN LIFE by Michael Edward Schluckebier An Abstract Of a thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in Counseling, Rehabilitation, and Student Development in the Graduate College of The University of Iowa May 2013 Thesis Supervisor: Associate Professor Debora L. Liddell 1 ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to describe the experiences undergraduate students cite as helping them develop and articulate their purpose in life. Purpose in life, as a construct, is associated with many positive attributes associated with life in general, and the college experience specifically; however, it is also closely related to other concepts such as meaning, spirituality, and vocation. For the purposes of this study, purpose in life was defined as a set of goals or actions, informed by a belief system or set of values, that provides a sense of direction to an individual’s life. This study sought to answer the question: What are the experiences of traditional-aged undergraduate students at a large, Midwestern, public university who have an articulated purpose in life? In this way, experiences were defined as a necessary, but not sufficient, building block in developing purpose in life. An orientational qualitative approach was used to answer the question. Participants were identified using maximum variance and theory-based purposeful sampling. Senior students close to graduation were recruited to participate using the Student Developmental Task & Lifestyle Assessment (SDTLA; Winston, Miller, & Cooper, 1999), an online assessment that operationalized Chickering and Reisser’s (1993) sixth developmental vector, developing purpose. Twelve students with high scores on that assessment were selected to continue in the study. Face-to-face interviews focused on the experiences and relationships that helped them develop and articulate their purpose in life. The results were organized into three major themes: 1) support systems upon which students relied in developing purpose in life; 2) exemplars who they sought to 2 emulate when living their purpose in life; and 3) the critical importance of experiential learning in developing purpose in life. A discussion of the findings asserted that developing purpose in life is a continual skill-building process, rather than definable end goal or product. Existing theories were connected to developing purpose in life to provide educators ideas for helping affect the lives of students. Research implications were discussed with a call to study how individuals’ multiple aspects of identity influence developing purpose in life. Overall, this study contributes to the literature, adding breadth in specifically targeting undergraduate students and their shared experiences developing purpose in life and depth in its confirmation of Chickering and Reisser’s twenty-year-old revised theory. Abstract Approved: Thesis Supervisor Title and Department Date DREAMS WORTH PURSUING: HOW COLLEGE STUDENTS DEVELOP AND ARTICULATE THEIR PURPOSE IN LIFE by Michael Edward Schluckebier A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in Counseling, Rehabilitation, and Student Development in the Graduate College of The University of Iowa May 2013 Thesis Supervisor: Associate Professor Debora L. Liddell Copyright by MICHAEL EDWARD SCHLUCKEBIER 2013 All Rights Reserved Graduate College The University of Iowa Iowa City, Iowa CERTIFICATE OF APPROVAL PH.D. THESIS This is to certify that the Ph.D. thesis of Michael Edward Schluckebier has been approved by the examining committee for the Thesis requirement for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in Counseling, Rehabilitation, and Student Development at the May 2013 graduation. Thesis Committee: Debora L. Liddell, Thesis Supervisor Tarrell Awe Agahe Portman Sherry K. Watt Saba R. Ali Andrew K. Beckett To Lindsey ii There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge. Bertrand Russell, In Praise of Idleness iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Thank you to Lindsey who has been nothing short of the perfect partner over the last ten years, but especially these last six. Thank you to Deb whose support has been consistent and encouraging throughout my doctoral program, but also throughout my assistantship, my professional development, and my parenting. Thank you to my committee who challenged me at both the proposal meeting and thesis defense in ways that continue to energize me about this topic and the branches that will emerge as a result. Thank you to my family who made a real effort to understand what this process was about and why I did it. And thank you to Jef Mallett whose comic Frazz served as the catalyst for this study, introducing me to Bertrand Russell and the virtue of idleness. iv
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