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; Mage = 21.25 years, 77% female) and community (n = 755; Mage = 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.
Data availability
The data that support the findings of the study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Disclosure statement
The authors have no conflicts of interest to report.
Supplementary material
Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.