Values and Feelings in Young Brazilians’ Purposes

Abstract

Purposes are projections about the future based on past and present actions, including the integration and regulation of values and feelings. In this study, we aimed to analyze these processes in the purposes of young Brazilians. A total of 200 young people between 15 and 19 years of age who were public school students from the five geographical regions of Brazil participated in the survey. We applied a written, individual, and open-ended questionnaire that was constructed by the Stanford Center on Adolescence and adapted for this study. We identified seven different ways by which the future was designed, observing different dynamics of thought and great complexity in the integration of values and feelings. For the vast majority of respondents, family and work constituted central values and appeared in an integrated manner in the feelings they expressed: happiness, welfare, and satisfaction. These results cultivate a greater understanding of psychic organization in purposes, opening up new possibilities for studies in moral psychology.