The Psychology of Ultimate Concerns Motivation and Spirituality in Personality [Paperback]

Proposing that personal goals are what give meaning to life, this volume explores the role played by spirituality and religion in investing goals with significance. The concept of ultimate concerns is developed as a scientific construct and an innovative framework is presented for their assessment and measurement. Marshaling important findings from his own and others' research, Robert A. Emmons provides compelling insights into the links between spirituality, subjective well-being, and personality integration. He demonstrates how locating religion and spirituality within accepted scientific parameters can deepen our understanding of these pervasive dimensions of human experience. Further, the book makes a powerful case for the inclusion of ultimate concerns in any attempt to build a motivational theory of personality.

Students and researchers in social, personality, clinical, and health psychology; counseling; religious studies; and related fields. Serves as a text in advanced undergraduate- and graduate-level courses in the psychology of religion, personality theory and research, the psychology of motivation, adult development, and related topics.

I. Personal Goals: An Approach to Personality and Subjective Well-Being
1. Introduction: Motivation and Spirituality in Personality
2. Personal Goals as Units of Analysis
3. Personal Goals and Subjective Well-Being
4. Goal Conflict and Personality Fragmentation
II. Spirituality, Goals, and Intelligence
5. Spiritual Strivings as Ultimate Concerns
6. From Goal to Whole: Spiritual Strivings and Personality Integration
7. Personal Goals and Life Meaning
8. Spiritual Intelligence: Toward a Theory of Personality and Spirituality
*Appendix A: Personal Striving Assessment Packet
*Appendix B: Personal Striving Coding Manual

"Emmons has done a great service to psychology with this book....He has connected two previously unconnected lines of thoughtl