Other-Oriented Purpose: The Potential Roles of Beliefs About the World and Other People

This article reports on a qualitative study of youth interviews representing different types of other-oriented purpose. In order to better understand youth contribution, differences in the directness of responses to community needs were examined in youth who demonstrated other-oriented purpose. Implicit theories about the world and other people were investigated as potential determinants of these different types. First, results supported a relation between incremental world theories and indirect-response other-oriented purposes. Second, results showed that participants with direct-response other-oriented purposes displayed evidence of either entity or incremental theories. Agency and compassion are suggested as explanations for why implicit theories functioned differently between the identified types of other-oriented purpose.