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RIGSS Podcast | Episode 13

The Science of Purpose

-Prof. Kendall Bronk

Kendall Cotton Bronk is a professor of psychology at the Claremont Graduate University in California. She is a developmental psychologist interested in understanding and supporting the positive development and moral growth of young people.

Sometimes, figuring out what is meaningful to you changes the course of your life and leads you to benefit people around you.  This in turn drives you to do more for the good of the larger world.  Such a profound drive a Purpose can be in one’s life.

Professor Kendall Bronk defines purpose as “a stable and generalised intention to accomplish something that is at once personally meaningful and at the same time leads to a productive engagement with some aspect of the world beyond self.”  She has studied purpose in young adolescents for years. Her research has explored the relationship between purpose and healthy growth, the ways young people discover purpose, and the developmental trajectory of youth with strong commitments to various purposes in life. Further, she explored how passion and purpose contributed to the success of people like Blake Mycoskie and Steve Jobs in their leader developmental readiness. These leaders identified personally meaningful aims which they were passionate about and their purpose inspired others to follow them.