The purpose of the study is to investigate motivational orientations on the basis of subjective and self-referent adult learners in lifelong education. Q methodology was used because it enables measurement of people's attitudes or feelings about any complex issue, condition, or situation. Forty eight adult learners who are in Busan participated in sorting the Q-sample of 47 statements. Results are as follows. First, three factors are considered to be manageable for analysis and interpretation. They are named the first type as “job survival seeker”, the second type as “personal happiness seeker”, and the third type as “self-developer”. Second, the characteristics of each type are quite different from others. Third, even though adult learners have their own educational purposes and attitude, they agreed that their education is performed to be a more informed person, to develop their potentials, to challenge to life and to satisfy the inquiring mind. The study suggests as follows. First, participants' educational motivation could be sorted according to their purpose, but their education is based on the issue of the quality of better life. It testified the interrelations among motivation typologies, which previous studies couldn't tell in terms of scientific method. Second, lifelong education in Korea shows stable with regard to its implement and adult's perception.