IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/jhappi/v16y2015i5p1163-1184.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Purpose-Driven Life: Life Goals as a Predictor of Quality of Life and Psychological Health

Author

Listed:
  • Esther Lau
  • Sing-Hang Cheung
  • Jasmine Lam
  • C. Hui
  • Shu-Fai Cheung
  • Doris Mok

Abstract

On the basis of self-determination theory, we predicted that the pursuit of material goals might negatively affect quality of life and psychological outcomes including sleep quality and mood states. We further hypothesized that the link between religious affiliation and these outcome variables could be explained, at least partially, by life goals. Longitudinal data collected from 700 Chinese adults demonstrated that for both Christians and non-believers, material goals had a detrimental effect on outcome variables measured 6 months later. More importantly, material goals partially mediated the effects of religious affiliation. That is, Christians were different from non-believers on the outcome variables partly because the former did not go after material goals. For these believers, moreover, the pursuit of religion-based goals brought psychological benefits. Not only can certain life goals explain why people with religious faiths have better psychological health and quality of life, they can also explain why not every religious person feels good and is content about their lives. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2015

Suggested Citation

  • Esther Lau & Sing-Hang Cheung & Jasmine Lam & C. Hui & Shu-Fai Cheung & Doris Mok, 2015. "Purpose-Driven Life: Life Goals as a Predictor of Quality of Life and Psychological Health," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 16(5), pages 1163-1184, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:jhappi:v:16:y:2015:i:5:p:1163-1184
    DOI: 10.1007/s10902-014-9552-1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s10902-014-9552-1
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10902-014-9552-1?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nicholson, Amanda & Rose, Richard & Bobak, Martin, 2009. "Association between attendance at religious services and self-reported health in 22 European countries," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 69(4), pages 519-528, August.
    2. Bruce Headey, 2008. "Life Goals Matter to Happiness: A Revision of Set-Point Theory," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 86(2), pages 213-231, April.
    3. Leiv Gabrielsen & Pål Ulleberg & Reidulf Watten, 2012. "The Adolescent Life Goal Profile Scale: Development of a New Scale for Measurements of Life Goals Among Young People," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 13(6), pages 1053-1072, December.
    4. Lan Nguyen Chaplin & Deborah Roedder John, 2007. "Growing up in a Material World: Age Differences in Materialism in Children and Adolescents," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 34(4), pages 480-493, June.
    5. Hector W.H. Tsang & Alvin Wong, 2005. "Development and Validation of the Chinese Version of Indiana Job Satisfaction Scale (CV-IJSS) for People with Mental Illness," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 51(2), pages 177-191, June.
    6. Tamás Martos & Mária Kopp, 2012. "Life Goals and Well-Being: Does Financial Status Matter? Evidence from a Representative Hungarian Sample," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 105(3), pages 561-568, February.
    7. J. Ian Norris & Jeff Larsen, 2011. "Wanting more than you have and it’s Consequences for Well-being," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 12(5), pages 877-885, October.
    8. John Horn, 1965. "A rationale and test for the number of factors in factor analysis," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 30(2), pages 179-185, June.
    9. Kau Keng & Kwon Jung & Tan Jiuan & Jochen Wirtz, 2000. "The Influence of Materialistic Inclination on Values, Life Satisfaction and Aspirations: An Empirical Analysis," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 49(3), pages 317-333, March.
    10. Ulf Olsson, 1979. "Maximum likelihood estimation of the polychoric correlation coefficient," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 44(4), pages 443-460, December.
    11. Liman Li & Michael Bond, 2010. "Does Individual Secularism Promote Life Satisfaction? The Moderating Role of Societal Development," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 99(3), pages 443-453, December.
    12. James Roberts & Aimee Clement, 2007. "Materialism and Satisfaction with Over-All Quality Of Life and Eight Life Domains," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 82(1), pages 79-92, May.
    13. Burroughs, James E & Rindfleisch, Aric, 2002. "Materialism and Well-Being: A Conflicting Values Perspective," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 29(3), pages 348-370, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Gawlik, Remigiusz, 2016. "Encompassing the Work-Life Balance into Early Career Decision-Making of Future Employees Through the Analytic Hierarchy Process," MPRA Paper 80260, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Flurry, Laura A. & Swimberghe, Krist & Allen, Juliann, 2021. "Exposing the moderating impact of parent-child value congruence on the relationship between adolescents’ materialism and subjective well-being," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 290-302.
    2. Liselot Hudders & Mario Pandelaere, 2012. "The Silver Lining of Materialism: The Impact of Luxury Consumption on Subjective Well-Being," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 13(3), pages 411-437, June.
    3. Thyroff, Anastasia & Kilbourne, William E., 2018. "Self-enhancement and individual competitiveness as mediators in the materialism/consumer satisfaction relationship," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 189-196.
    4. Jaspers, Esther, 2018. "Opening up on consumer materialism," Other publications TiSEM a21cb1c8-5af1-46cc-9ea0-a, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    5. Dave Webb & Janine Wong, 2014. "Exploring Antecedents of Charitable Giving and Their Impact on Subjective Well-Being in Singapore," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 117(1), pages 65-87, May.
    6. Amy Isham & Caroline Verfuerth & Alison Armstrong & Patrick Elf & Birgitta Gatersleben & Tim Jackson, 2022. "The Problematic Role of Materialistic Values in the Pursuit of Sustainable Well-Being," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(6), pages 1-20, March.
    7. M. Joseph Sirgy & Grace B. Yu & Dong-Jin Lee & Mohsen Joshanloo & Michael Bosnjak & Jinfeng Jiao & Ahmet Ekici & Eda Gurel Atay & Stephan Grzeskowiak, 2021. "The Dual Model of Materialism: Success Versus Happiness Materialism on Present and Future Life Satisfaction," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 16(1), pages 201-220, February.
    8. Amy Isham & Birgitta Gatersleben & Tim Jackson, 2021. "Materialism and the Experience of Flow," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 22(4), pages 1745-1768, April.
    9. Hauck, Jana & Suess-Reyes, Julia & Beck, Susanne & Prügl, Reinhard & Frank, Hermann, 2016. "Measuring socioemotional wealth in family-owned and -managed firms: A validation and short form of the FIBER Scale," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 7(3), pages 133-148.
    10. M. Joseph Sirgy & Eda Gurel-Atay & Dave Webb & Muris Cicic & Melika Husic-Mehmedovic & Ahmet Ekici & Andreas Herrmann & Ibrahim Hegazy & Dong-Jin Lee & J. Johar, 2013. "Is Materialism All That Bad? Effects on Satisfaction with Material Life, Life Satisfaction, and Economic Motivation," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 110(1), pages 349-366, January.
    11. Sundie, Jill M. & Pandelaere, Mario & Lens, Inge & Warlop, Luk, 2020. "Setting the bar: The influence of women’s conspicuous display on men’s affiliative behavior," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 569-585.
    12. Elodie Gentina & L. J. Shrum & Tina M. Lowrey & Scott J. Vitell & Gregory M. Rose, 2018. "An Integrative Model of the Influence of Parental and Peer Support on Consumer Ethical Beliefs: The Mediating Role of Self-Esteem, Power, and Materialism," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 150(4), pages 1173-1186, July.
    13. Shrum, L.J. & Wong, Nancy & Arif, Farrah & Chugani, Sunaina K. & Gunz, Alexander & Lowrey, Tina M. & Nairn, Agnes & Pandelaere, Mario & Ross, Spencer M. & Ruvio, Ayalla & Scott, Kristin & Sundie, Jill, 2013. "Reconceptualizing materialism as identity goal pursuits: Functions, processes, and consequences," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 66(8), pages 1179-1185.
    14. Chin-Siang Ang & Abu Mansor & Kit-Aun Tan, 2014. "Pangs of Loneliness Breed Material Lifestyle but Don’t Power Up Life Satisfaction of Young People: The Moderating Effect of Gender," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 117(2), pages 353-365, June.
    15. Jiah Yoo & Yuri Miyamoto & Uwana Evers & Julie Lee & Nancy Wong, 2021. "Does Materialism Hinder Relational Well-Being? The Role of Culture and Social Motives," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 22(1), pages 241-261, January.
    16. Małgorzata E. Górnik-Durose, 2020. "Materialism and Well-Being Revisited: The Impact of Personality," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 21(1), pages 305-326, January.
    17. Sweeting, Helen & West, Patrick & Young, Robert & Der, Geoff, 2010. "Can we explain increases in young people's psychological distress over time?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 71(10), pages 1819-1830, November.
    18. Weaver, S. Todd & Moschis, George P. & Davis, Teresa, 2011. "Antecedents of materialism and compulsive buying: A life course study in Australia," Australasian marketing journal, Elsevier, vol. 19(4), pages 247-256.
    19. Leonardo Becchetti & Pierluigi Conzo, 2018. "Preferences for Well-Being and Life Satisfaction," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 136(2), pages 775-805, April.
    20. Tan, Yuxuan & Gong, Yanping & Xie, Julan & Li, Jian & Liu, Yongdan, 2022. "More mindfulness, less conspicuous consumption? Evidence from middle-aged Chinese consumers," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:jhappi:v:16:y:2015:i:5:p:1163-1184. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.