Purpose Is Several Thoughts

Sunday evening. The thought asks: what is all this for? It sounds like one question. Researchers who study meaning in life have found it hides more than one. KTT counts what answers the question as thoughts, noticed or not, even when they arrive as a flat or a full feeling. The studies read for this article did not test whether a thought comes first.

Three facets of one word

In 2016, Frank Martela and Michael Steger separated three meanings of meaning in life. Coherence is a sense that life is comprehensible and makes sense. Purpose is a sense of core goals, aims and direction. Significance is a sense of life’s value and worth. Each can be a different thought. A thought of coherence says: this adds up. A thought of purpose says: this is where things are going. A thought of significance says: this matters.

The three do not always move together. In a 2021 conference abstract, Nicole Fung and Helene Fung reported that older adults scored higher than younger adults on coherence and on a sense of cosmic significance, and lower on purpose. In both age groups, purpose scored highest. This is one small study, read here as an abstract only.

A word from Japan

In Japan, a fourth word is in daily use: ikigai, usually translated as a life worth living or a reason for living. The psychiatrist Mieko Kamiya made it widely known in 1966 in a book titled Ikigai ni tsuite. A Japanese health study used it in a plain question. In the Ohsaki Study, researchers followed 43,391 adults for seven years and asked: “Do you have ikigai in your life?” Participants who said no had a higher risk of death from all causes, adjusted for other factors. The study reports an association, and the authors say the pathway is unknown. A later review notes that ikigai is broader than purpose in life, since it includes growth and also pleasure and satisfaction.

What is not known

Whether purpose is one thought or several is not known. The facets are a researcher’s division, and a person may not experience them apart.

Whether the thought comes before the sense of meaning or after it is open.

Whether the facets look the same across cultures is also open. Ikigai has no exact translation, and the Ohsaki measure was a single yes-or-no question. Most of the other studies read here were Western.