Characteristics of Personal Strivings and Their Relationship with Life Satisfaction

This study examined the applicability of broader thematic categories for coding personal strivings, and tested the relationship between both dimensions and contents of personal goals and life satisfaction. We also applied the psychosocial theory of Erikson (1963) to evaluate personal goals. These issues were explored on a Hungarian youth sample of 48 subjects (mean age 23.4). Participants generated 534 personal strivings and rated them along certain dimensions of Strivings Assessment Scales (Emmons, 1986), and two life satisfaction measures were used. Goals were grouped into broader thematic categories. For goal contents, coding system was used successfully. There were significant differences between avoidant and approach goals, between intrapersonal and interpersonal, and Eriksonian and non-Eriksonian goals on some strivings dimensions. The proportion of generativity strivings had positive, while the proportion of uncoded strivings (reflecting goals about daily routine) had negative association with life satisfaction. Our findings underscore the importance of using qualitative and quantitative mix method in analysing personal strivings.