Meaning and Purpose: A Study of Spiritual Quest Amongst Stanford Students
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- The college years can be a critical period of self-formation for some students, as they develop their sense of identity, values and independence. For some students, major life events provoke pressing questions of meaning and purpose, which may be interpreted as spiritual questions. Against a backdrop where topics of spirituality and faith are seen as taboo and anti-intellectual, there was a gap in our understanding of how Stanford students engaged in questions of meaning and purpose. This study interviewed 39 students and 4 members of the Stanford faculty and staff with the intention of understanding the process by which students undertook Spiritual Quest, defined and informed by reference to a nation-wide longitudinal study undertaken by Astin, Astin and Lindholm (2011). Student participants also took a short survey that determined their level of Spiritual Quest, using the measure validated by Astin et al. (2011). Generally, the results weakly suggested that this sample of convenience of Stanford students underperformed the national norm established in the 2007 Astin et al. (2011) study for reasons unknown. High Spiritual Quest scores were associated with participants for whom questions of meaning and purpose where highly salient. This study also identified patterns in events that catalyzed questing; these events were largely negative, such as the death of a loved one or major injury. Major Stanford-related factors that supported and obstructed quest included conversations with good friends and a culture of busyness, pressure, stress, and materialism respectively. There was a complex and highly variable relationship between Quest and students’ mental and psychological well- being, adding to the conclusion that individuals undertook Quest in vastly different ways and so needed many flexible points of support. When asked what could be improved at Stanford in order to better facilitate Spiritual Quest, participants suggested more secular spaces and communities where questions of meaning and purpose could be discussed, and better access to existing resources.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Date created | [ca. May 2014] |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Tan, Xin Hui Sharon |
|---|---|
| Advisor | Damon, William |
| Advisor | Stipek, Deborah |
Subjects
| Subject | Graduate School of Education |
|---|---|
| Subject | Stanford University |
| Subject | Spiritual Quest |
| Subject | Spirituality |
| Subject | Meaning |
| Subject | Purpose |
| Genre | Thesis |
Bibliographic information
| Related item |
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|---|---|
| Location | https://purl.stanford.edu/wt616hr2328 |
Access conditions
- Use and reproduction
- User agrees that, where applicable, content will not be used to identify or to otherwise infringe the privacy or confidentiality rights of individuals. Content distributed via the Stanford Digital Repository may be subject to additional license and use restrictions applied by the depositor.
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
Preferred citation
- Preferred Citation
- Tan, Xin Hui Sharon and Damon, William (2014). Meaning and Purpose: A Study of Spiritual Quest Amongst Stanford Students. Stanford Digital Repository. Available at: http://purl.stanford.edu/wt616hr2328
Collection
Undergraduate Honors Theses, Graduate School of Education
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- Contact
- sharontanxh@gmail.com
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