Derailed by Diversity? Purpose Buffers the Relationship Between Ethnic Composition on Trains and Passenger Negative Mood

Abstract

Many individuals feel socially isolated and distressed in ethnically diverse settings. Purpose in life may buffer this form of distress by fostering one’s sense of having a meaningful direction, which may also be of significance to others. In two experience-sampling studies with ethnically diverse participants, we examined associations between the ethnic composition of urban trains and passenger distress, and tested purpose as a moderator of these relationships. Study 1 showed that participants of all ethnic backgrounds reported greater negative mood when the percentage of ethnic out-group members aboard their train increased. However, individual differences in purpose significantly attenuated this effect. Study 2 replicated and extended these findings experimentally by showing that relative to a control condition, briefly writing about purpose prior to boarding trains also diminished the impact of ethnic composition on negative mood. The discussion addresses strategies for promoting positive adjustment in our increasingly diverse society.

Keywords

purpose in life ethnic diversity mood hierarchical linear modeling

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Alesina

La Ferrara

(2005). Ethnic diversity and economic performance. Journal of Economic Literature, 43, 762-800.

Allport

G. W.

(1954). The nature of prejudice. Reading, MA: Addison Wesley.

Baumeister

R. F.

Vohs

K. D.

(2002). The pursuit of meaningfulness in life. In Snyder

C. R.

Lopez

S. J.

(Eds.), Handbook of positive psychology (pp. 608-618). New York, NY: Oxford.

Boyle

P. A.

Barnes

L. L.

Buchman

A. S.

Bennett

D. A.

(2009). Purpose in life is associated with mortality among community-dwelling older persons. Psychosomatic medicine, 71, 574-579.

Boyle

P. A.

Buchman

A. S.

Barnes

L. L.

Bennett

D. A.

(2010). Effect of a purpose in life on risk of incident Alzheimer disease and mild cognitive impairment in community-dwelling older persons. Archives of General Psychiatry, 67, 304-310.

Bronk

K. C.

(2011). The role of purpose in life in healthy identity formation: A grounded model. New Directions for Youth Development, 2011(132), 31-44.

Bronk

K. C.

Hill

P. L.

Lapsley

D. K.

Talib

Finch

(2009). Purpose, hope, and life satisfaction in three age groups. Journal of Positive Psychology, 4, 500-510.

Bryk

Congdon

(2008). HLM: Hierarchical linear and nonlinear modeling for windows (version 6.34g). Lincolnwood, IL: Scientific Software International.

Bundick

Andrews

Jones

Mariano

J. M.

Bronk

K. C.

Damon

(2006). Revised youth purpose survey (Unpublished instrument). Stanford, CA: Stanford Center on Adolescence.

10.

Bundick

M. J.

(2011). The benefits of reflecting on and discussing purpose in life in emerging adulthood. New Directions for Youth Development, 132, 89-103.

11.

Burrow

A. L.

Hill

P. L.

(2011). Purpose as a form of identity capital for positive youth adjustment. Developmental Psychology, 47, 1196-1206.

12.

Chiricos

Hogan

Gertz

(1997). Racial composition of neighbourhood and fear of crime. Criminology, 35, 107-131.

13.

Damon

Menon

Bronk

K. C.

(2003). The development of purpose during adolescence. Applied Developmental Sciences, 7, 119-128.

14.

Donnellan

M. B.

Oswald

F. L.

Baird

B. M.

Lucas

R. E.

(2006). The mini-IPIP scales: Tiny-yet-effective measures of the Big Five factors of personality. Psychological Assessment, 18, 192-203.

15.

Dovidio

J. F.

Gaertner

S. L.

Saguy

(2009). Commonality and the complexity of “we”: Social attitudes and social change. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 13, 3-20.

16.

Frankl

V. E.

(1959). Man’s search for meaning: An introduction to logotherapy. Boston, MA: Beacon.

17.

Gurin

Dey

E. L.

Hurtado

Gurin

(2002, Fall). Diversity and higher education: Theory and impact on educational outcomes. Harvard Educational Review, 72, 330-366.

18.

Kashdan

T. B.

McKnight

P. E.

(2009). Origins of purpose in life: Refining our understanding of a life well lived. Psychological Topics, 18, 303-316.

19.

King

L. A.

(2001). The health benefits of writing about life goals. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 27, 798-807.

20.

King

L. A.

Hicks

J. A.

Krull

Del Gaiso

A. K.

(2006). Positive affect and the experience of meaning in life. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 90, 179-196.

21.

McGregor

Little

B. R.

(1998). Personal projects, happiness, and meaning: On doing well and being yourself. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 494-512.

22.

McKnight

P. E.

Kashdan

T. B.

(2009). Purpose in life as a system that creates and sustains health and well-being: An integrative, testable theory. Review of General Psychology, 13, 242-251.

23.

McLeod

P. L.

Lobel

S. A.

Cox

T. H.

Jr. (1996). Ethnic diversity and creativity in small groups. Small Group Research, 27, 248-264.

24.

Nygren

Alex

Jonsen

Gustafson

Norberg

Lundman

(2005). Resilience, sense of coherence, purpose in life and self-transcendence in relation to perceived physical and mental health among the oldest old. Aging & Mental Health, 9, 354-362.

25.

Outten

H. R.

Schmitt

M. T.

Miller

D. A.

Garcia

A. L.

(2012). Feeling threatened about the future: Whites’ emotional reactions to anticipated ethnic demographic changes. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 38, 14-25.

26.

Pettigrew

T. F.

Tropp

L. R.

(2006). A meta-analytic test of intergroup contact theory. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 90, 751-783.

27.

Putnam

R. D.

(2007). E pluribus unum: Diversity and community in the twenty-first century. The 2006 Johan Skytte prize lecture. Scandinavian Political Studies, 30, 137-174.

28.

Quinn

(2012). Other-oriented purpose: The potential roles of beliefs about the world and other people. Youth and Society. Advance online publication.

29.

Ryff

C. D.

Singer

(1998). The contours of positive human health. Psychological Inquiry, 9, 1-28.

30.

Ryff

C. D.

Keyes

(1995). The structure of psychological well-being revisited. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69, 719-727.

31.

Schulz

A. J.

Zenk

S. N.

Israel

B. A.

Mentz

Stokes

Galea

(2008). Do neighborhood economic characteristics, racial composition, and residential stability predict perceptions of stress associated with the physical and social environment? Findings from a multilevel analysis in Detroit. Journal of Urban Health-Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine, 85, 642-661.

32.

Sherman

D. K.

Cohen

G. L.

(2006). The psychology of self-defense: Self-affirmation theory. In Zanna

M. P.

(Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 38, pp. 183-242). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.

33.

Smith

B. W.

Dalen

Wiggins

Tooley

Christopher

Bernard

(2008). The brief resilience scale: Assessing the ability to bounce back. International Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 15, 194-200.

34.

Smith

B. W.

Zautra

A. J.

(2004). The role of purpose in life in recovery from knee surgery. International Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 11, 197-202.

35.

Steele

C. M.

(1988). The psychology of self-affirmation: Sustaining the integrity of the self. In Berkowitz

(Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 21, pp. 261-302). New York, NY: Academic Press.

36.

Steger

M. F.

Frazier

Oishi

Kaler

(2006). The meaning in life questionnaire: Assessing the presence of and search for meaning in life. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 53, 80-93.

37.

Stillman

T. F.

Baumeister

R. F.

Lambert

N. M.

Crescioni

A. W.

DeWall

C. N.

Fincham

F. D.

(2009). Alone and without purpose: Life loses meaning following social exclusion. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 45, 686-694.

38.

Stolle

Soroka

Johnston

(2008). When does diversity erode trust? Neighborhood diversity, interpersonal trust and the mediating effect of social interactions. Political Studies, 56, 57-75.

39.

Thoits

P. A.

(2003). Personal agency in the accumulation of multiple role-identities. In Burke

P. J.

Owens

T. J.

Serpe

Thoits

P. A.

(Eds.), Advances in identity theory and research (pp. 179-194). New York, NY: Kluwer.

40.

U.S. Census Bureau. (2011a). Overview of race and Hispanic origin: 2010. Census Briefs. Retrieved from http://www.census.gov/prod/cen2010/briefs/c2010br-02.pdf

41.

U.S. Census Bureau. (2011b). Population distribution and change: 2000-2010. Census Briefs. Retrieved from http://www.census.gov/prod/cen2010/briefs/c2010br-01.pdf

42.

Watson

Clark

L. A.

Tellegen

(1988). Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect: The PANAS scales. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 1063-1070.

43.

Wickrama

K. A. S.

Bryant

C. M.

(2003). Community contexts of social resources and adolescent mental health. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 65, 850-866. doi:10.1111/j.1741-3737.2003.00850.x

44.

Hou

Schimmele

C. M.

(2011). Racial diversity and sense of belonging in urban neighborhoods. City & Community, 10, 373-392.