A configural approach to aspirations: The social breadth of aspiration profiles predicts well-being over and above the intrinsic and extrinsic aspirations that comprise the profiles

We conducted a person-centered analysis of the Aspiration Index to identify subgroups that differ in the levels of their specific (wealth, fame and image, personal growth, relationships, health, and community giving) and global intrinsic and extrinsic aspirations. In a Hungarian (N=3370; 77% female; age: M = 23.57), an Australian (N=1632; 51% female; age: M = 16.6), and an American sample (N=6063; 82.2% female; age: M = 21.86), we conducted separate bifactor exploratory structural equation models to disentangle the level of higher-order intrinsic and extrinsic aspirations from the shape of specific aspirations by using the resultant factor scores as indicators in latent profile analyses. The analyses yielded three replicable latent profiles: Disengaged from relationships and health (Profile 1); Aspiring for interpersonal relationships more than community relationships (Profile 2); and Aspiring for community relationships more than interpersonal relationships (Profile 3), with Profile 3 reliably experiencing the highest well-being. To demonstrate the incremental value of our approach to more traditional variable-centered methods, we used profile membership to predict well-being whilst controlling for the aspirations that comprise the profiles. Even in these highly conservative tests, profile membership explained additional variance in well-being. These studies make a unique contribution to the literature by identifying replicable latent profiles of aspiring that account for variance in well-being over and above the constituent variables.