Abstract: Although previous research has shown a strong association between a sense of purpose and well-being, this research has tended to treat purpose as one conceptual entity, without investigating different types and levels of purpose. After summarising some of the previous research on purpose, and suggesting reasons why it is associated with well-being, this paper presents a model of different varieties of purpose, including ‘survival’, ‘self-accumulative,’ ‘altruistic/idealistic’, ‘self-expansive’ and ‘transpersonal’ purposes. Transpersonal purpose can be sub-divided further into three different aspects: spiritual development, creativity and altruism/idealism. Examples of these different aspects are given. Preliminary questionnaire-based research based on this model of varieties of purpose is summarised, suggesting that it is valid to highlight these different varieties, and that they are associated with different levels of self-reported happiness. keywords: purpose, transpersonal, well-being, creativity, idealism, altruism A Model of Purpose: From Survival to Transpersonal Purpose During the Second World War, the psychologist Viktor Frankl spent three years in concentration camps, and was one of the small proportion of people who survived the camps. In his own view, one of the main reasons why he survived was because, as a psychologist, he realised the importance of maintaining a sense of purpose. When he was originally taken to Auschwitz, he lost the manuscript of his first book, which he had been working on for several years. In the camps, he gave himself the purpose of reconstructing the book, writing key words in shorthand on scraps of paper and memorising passages. Reflecting on this later, he was sure that, ‘my deep desire to write this manuscript anew helped me survive the rigors of the camps’ (Frankl, 2004, p. 109). He was determined to survive so that one day the book would be published – as it was two years after the end of the war (under the German title Die Psychotherapie in der Praxis). As he describes in Man’s Search for Meaning, Frankl encouraged other inmates of the camps to do the same – to give themselves a sense of purpose, to keep hold of ideals and hopes, even in the face of such massive hardship and desolation. Time and again, he saw how people who let go of their hopes and aims became vulnerable to disease, and even to death. As he wrote, ‘Woe to him who saw no more sense to his life, no aim, nor purpose, and therefore no point in going on. He was soon lost’ (ibid. p.85). Is it possible that, as Frankl believed, a strong sense of purpose can help to keep us alive? In a survey in 2000, more than 6000 people were asked whether they had a strong sense of purpose and direction, and similar questions. In 2014 researchers at the University of Carleton in Canada did a follow up study. Over those 14 years, around 9% of the participants had died. And the researchers found that people who reported a strong sense of purpose were 15% less likely to be amongst those who had passed away. This applied to every age group. Those who reported a strong sense of purpose were 15% more likely to still be alive (Hill & Turiano, 2014). In an even more recent study, published in The Lancet in November 2014, researchers at University College London found that, for people over the age of 65, a high degree of ‘eudemonic wellbeing’ (including a sense of purpose and meaning) meant that they were less likely to die over a period of eight and a half years. Tracking the well-being and health of over nine thousand people, the study found that, at the end of the eight and a half year period, only 9% of people in the highest quartile of eudemonic well-being had died, compared with 29% in the lowest quartile. Those who reported the highest level of eudemonic wellbeing lived, on average, two years longer (Steptoe et al., 2014). Other studies have shown that subjective well-being correlates strongly with a sense of purpose. Crumbaugh and Maholick (1963) developed the ‘Purpose in Life’ (PIL) test, to research Frankl’s theories. They found that a strong sense of purpose made people less susceptible to stress, substance abuse and depression. While in 1987, Zika and Chamberlain - using the same test - found a strong link between well-being and a sense of purpose and meaning. Similarly, Kass et al. (1991)