ABSTRACT

Purposeful living involves planning daily life around personal pursuits. However, it is unclear whether people expect to have more purposeful days than they actually do, and which factors influence discrepancies. A pandemic is a valuable context for examining expectations, as it institutes a less predictable environment. The current studies asked a university (n = 330; M_age = 21.25 years, 77% female) and community (n = 755; M_age = 45.99 years, 89% female) sample to complete seven daily diaries during the first weeks of the COVID-19 response. Each morning, participants reported on how purposeful they expected to be, and each evening, they reported on how purposeful they felt and on daily events. Participants tended to overestimate their daily purposefulness from morning to evening, with students being more discrepant. Higher neuroticism and more stressors (both COVID-related and not) predicted greater discrepancies, while positive events and support provisions were associated with less discrepancy.

摘要

有目的的生活包括围绕个人追求规划日常生活。然而，目前尚不清楚人们是否期望比实际拥有更多有目的的日子，以及哪些因素会影响差异。大流行是检查预期的宝贵背景，因为它建立了一个不太可预测的环境。目前的研究询问了大学（n = 330；M_年龄 = 21.25 岁，77% 为女性）和社区（n = 755；M_年龄 = 45.99 岁，89% 女性）在 COVID-19 响应的前几周完成七份每日日记的样本。每天早上，参与者都会报告他们希望自己有多么有目的性，每天晚上，他们都会报告自己感觉有多么有目的性和日常活动。参与者从早到晚都倾向于高估他们每天的目标，学生的差异更大。更高的神经质和更多的压力源（与 COVID 相关和无关）预示着更大的差异，而积极事件和支持条款与更少的差异相关。