Studying Human Purpose through a Positive Psychology Lens Breaking the Shackles of Time

Dr. Kendall Cotton Bronk, associate professor of Psychology at Claremont Graduate University joins the podcast to discuss the unique approach Psychology and Positive Psychology take to research as well as some of the great work she is doing through her Adolescent Moral Development Lab on understanding and developing purpose in youths.
TRANSCRIPT
Marcus Weakley:
Hello, this is breaking the shackles of time. My name is Marcus Weakley, we are beginning a new chapter today in reimagining the podcast with a broader focus than just writing. And I couldn’t be happier than to welcome Dr. Kendall Cotton Bronk, to this inaugural new reimagining episode. In terms of a brief introduction, Dr. Bronk, is an associate professor of psychology in the division of behavioral and social sciences at Claremont Graduate University. She’s a developmental psychologist interested in understanding and supporting the positive development and moral growth of young people.
Marcus Weakley:
To this end, she leads the Adolescent Moral Development Lab, which focuses on addressing primary questions around purpose and youth. Her work has been funded by the Spencer Foundation, the John Templeton Foundation, the Fulbright Foundation. We’re going to go more in-depth about her specific research focus in terms of purpose in youth. But in addition to her substantive interest, she has also helped define and outline the parameters of something called the exemplar methodology, which we’ll talk about more. And of course, teaches masters in doctoral classes on a range of topics at Claremont Graduate University. Thank you so much for joining me.
Dr. Kendall Cotton Bronk:
Thanks for having me, Marcus. I’m glad to be here.
Marcus Weakley:
Great, awesome. Before we jump in, I just wanted to give our listeners a bit of a background into this shift in the podcast. What I’m thinking of doing now, moving away from just talking about topics around writing, the last episode on transdisciplinary thinking, which was supposed to be an integration of transdisciplinary thinking and writing, kind of inspired me, I’m really interested in different epistemologies, ways of approaching knowledge and building knowledge and how those transfer into the tools of academic study, right? Or even professional studies.
Marcus Weakley:
How those transfers into theories, practices, assumptions, methods and definitely different standards of reliability, verification, the things that when we learn how to research the world, or a phenomenon through a discipline, we might learn in practice and take for granted. I’m interested in looking at those, in folks that are doing work in different areas of academic research, and having some good discussions around that and what interesting elements we can bring to light in honing and focusing in on the background, the theories behind pursuits of knowledge and understanding.
Marcus Weakley:
For our episode today, that means we’re going to look at psychology and positive psychology more specifically. I would like to start general and then move more specific, if that’s okay. The first question Dr. Bronk is, psychology is a science or often considered a social science. What does typical psychological research do to study phenomenon?
Dr. Kendall Cotton Bronk:
That’s a good question. Psychologists we’re really interested in understanding human behavior, and in order to do that, we tend to use a mix of quantitative and qualitative research methods. We also use experimental research and quasi experimental research. So just a little bit about each of those, quantitative research methods often employ surveys, you might go and administer a bunch of surveys to people to get a sense of how many people across the country, how many young people have a sense of purpose in their lives.
Dr. Kendall Cotton Bronk:
Qualitative research more often relies on things like interviews, or focus groups, or observations. If