Templeton Religion Trust
What if practicing patience could help us develop more and more rewarding relationships?
What if all people could cultivate patience with intentional practice?
What if we approached patience as a core component of the successful search for purpose and ultimately, positive societal contributions?
Figuring out one’s purpose in life is not often an easy task. Research suggests it can be anxiety-provoking and stressful. However, uncovering one’s purpose in life is a critical prerequisite to leading a life of meaning that ultimately contributes to individual and societal well-being.
The search for purpose is particularly prevalent among college-age young adults, which is also a pivotal time for identity development. Who am I? What am I supposed to do with the rest of my life? What’s next? These are just a few of the standard “coming of age” questions murmured within dorm rooms and lecture halls. Dr. Kendall Cotton Bronk, professor of psychology in the Division of Behavioral & Social Sciences at Claremont Graduate University, is interested in positive youth development and the moral growth of young people. She has investigated answers to these existential questions posited by young people, and her research has explored the relationship between purposeful commitments and healthy growth, ways young people form purposeful commitments, and the developmental trajectory of youth with strong commitments to various purposes in life.
“In adolescence and adulthood, we make commitments to the things that matter most to us—our families, our jobs, our religious faiths, our work in communities—and these commitments can give our lives purpose,” Dr. Bronk says.
The present study sought to address two related questions: First, what does patience look like and second, how does patience facilitate the search for purpose?
As young people enter adolescence, and increasingly young adulthood, they reflect on who they are and who they hope to become. These important questions guide the process of identity development. At the same time, many also consider questions of purpose; what do I hope to accomplish in my life? Questions of identity and purpose tend to inform and support one another. Although much research has explored the search for identity, comparably little has examined the search for purpose.
The search for purpose can be uncomfortable. Bronk points out that “a recent study of people’s Tweets about purpose suggests that the search for purpose can be anxiety-provoking, especially when individuals believe their friends and family members already know what their purposes are.”
With funding from Templeton Religion Trust, Dr. Bronk’s project builds upon the last twenty years of her research, wherein she and members of her research lab conducted hundreds of interviews with adolescents and young adults. They asked young people to reflect on the things that mattered most to them, the activities they enjoyed, and the ways they most hoped to contribute to the world beyond themselves. Findings indicate the search for purpose is best understood as a process rather than a momentary event. “Individuals develop purposes rather than discover them,” Bronk says. The process can take time—and, it turns out, patience.
To cultivate a purpose for one’s life, individuals interact with the world and the people in it. Following engagement in religious, service-oriented, work-related, and other activities, individuals participate in a social process of reflection, where they talk through what they liked and did not like about the experience, and what they found particularly meaningful about it. Based on these conversations and reflections, individuals may be motivated to deepen their engagement in some purposeful activity or to move onto new activities that will enable them to make personally meaningful contributions to the world beyond themselves. The process can take time, and it can involve lateral as well as forward progress. Patience, Bronk and team proposed, may play a critical role in the search for purpose.
In addition to exploring the role of patience in the search for purpose, the present study also explored the way young adults, including religious and non-religious young adults, understand, value, and experience patience.
“Young adults are often the targets of interventions around patience, so this exploration into how they view it is incredibly interesting. How do they think about it? Do they see it as a good thing? In what ways is it useful? Under what circumstances?” Bronk asks.
To explore these questions, Dr. Bronk and members of her Adolescent Moral Development Lab, conducted a 24-month, qualitative study. During that time, they administered semi-structured interviews to young adults from religious and non-religious backgrounds, gaining important insights into how young adults conceptualize, experience, and value patience.
Understanding the role of religiosity in patience was a critical component of Bronk’s research. Different religious traditions, especially Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism, teach about patience, and they wanted to see if young adults’ religious backgrounds shaped the way they thought about and valued patience. Accordingly, participants came from different religious backgrounds, and to match this, the study team was comprised of individuals from different religious backgrounds. “When you conduct research on a cultural or religious group you’re not a member of, it’s important to have cultural and religious ambassadors and advisors from that group on your research team. They play an important role in ensuring you pose appropriate questions and understand findings in light of the relevant religious and cultural traditions,” she says.
Dr. Bronk’s project has had important theoretical and practical implications. From a theoretical perspective, it has shed light on the way patience may support the search for purpose and on the way young adults understand, experience, and value patience. Findings are useful to scholars interested in studying the role patience plays in pluralism. Understanding how a sample of young adults regard the virtue of patience can shape theories, inform empirical studies, and inspire new insights into the study of patience.
From a practical perspective, findings are useful to practitioners who want to support young adults in their search for purpose, and to practitioners who want to encourage the practice of patience. Rather than viewing patience as a stable trait, Bronk and her team conceive of it as a characteristic adaptation that can be cultivated through habitual and intentional practice.
“We also hope these findings will give young adults, especially those in the midst of their personal search for purpose, some comfort. Recognizing that developing a purpose in life is a process that takes time, we hope, will make the search process a little easier to manage.”
