Awareness of age-related change, future time perspective, and implications for goal adjustment in older adulthood

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Bethany Wilton-Harding ◽  
Tim D. Windsor
Keyword(s):  
Time Perspective ◽  
Future Time Perspective ◽  
Future Time ◽  
Older Adulthood ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Goal Adjustment

scholarly journals Awareness of Age-Related Change, Future Time Perspective, and Implications for Goal Management in Older Adulthood

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 479-480
Author(s):  
Bethany Wilton-Harding ◽  
Tim Windsor
Keyword(s):  
Time Perspective ◽  
Future Time Perspective ◽  
Future Time ◽  
Older Adulthood ◽  
Goal Management ◽  
Engagement Strategies ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Goal Disengagement ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract How people manage their goals is central to adaptation across the lifespan. However, little is known about the individual difference characteristics that predict how and why people use different self-regulatory strategies. The present study aimed to investigate associations of perceived age-related gains and losses, and their interaction, as predictors of flexibility in goal management in older adulthood. We also examined whether future time perspective (FTP) mediated the relationship between AARC and goal flexibility, such that awareness of aging impacts perceptions of time remaining, impacting how individuals evaluate and manage their goals. A community-based sample of 408 adults aged between 60 and 88 years was recruited via an internet-based research platform. Participants completed questionnaire measures of AARC-gains, AARC-losses, FTP, goal disengagement, and goal re-engagement. A flexibility index reflecting tendencies toward use of both goal disengagement and re-engagement strategies was also analyzed. Although AARC-losses was associated with lower goal re-engagement and goal flexibility, this association was weaker among those with higher AARC-gains, indicating that AARC-gains may be protective in the relationship between AARC-losses and goal management. Furthermore, the association between AARC and goal management was mediated by FTP. Higher AARC-gains were associated with more open-ended FTP, which was associated with higher goal re-engagement and lower goal disengagement. On the other hand, higher AARC-losses was associated with more restricted FTP, which was associated with lower goal re-engagement, and higher goal disengagement. Results suggest that subjective awareness of aging (particularly awareness of gains), has important implications for goal management in older adulthood.

Contrasting the Effects of Mortality Salience and Future Time Limitation on Goal Prioritization in Older and Younger Adults

2019 ◽  
Vol 75 (10) ◽  
pp. 2112-2121
Author(s):  
Helene H Fung ◽  
Steven Tsun-Wai Chu ◽  
Da Jiang ◽  
Amber Xuqian Chen ◽  
Carson Chuen Ng
Keyword(s):  
Time Perspective ◽  
Mortality Salience ◽  
Future Time Perspective ◽  
Future Time ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Socioemotional Selectivity ◽  
Cultural Worldview ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Cultural Worldviews ◽  
Study Participants

Abstract Objectives This study aims at contrasting the effects of limited future time perspective and mortality salience on goal prioritization across adulthood. Socioemotional selectivity theory (SST) argues that people increasingly prioritize emotionally meaningful goals when they perceive future time as more limited. Terror management theory (TMT) suggests that mortality salience (i.e., the awareness of one’s mortality) drives people to prioritize the goal of perpetuating own existence through affirming cultural worldview. Method In this study, participants (N = 438) were randomly assigned to six conditions that primed (a) limited future time, (b) mortality salience, (c) death reflection, (d) both limited future time and mortality salience, (e) both limited future time, and death reflection, or (f) none. Results Results showed that older adults allocated significantly more resources to emotionally close recipients who supported their cultural worldviews in conditions involving future time limitation and death reflection. They also allocated less resources to emotionally not close recipients who did not support their cultural worldviews in conditions involving future time limitation. Younger adults did not show these differences. Nor did mortality salience have any effect. Discussion These results suggest that future time perspective and death reflection shift age-related goals more than mortality salience.

Extension of Future Time Perspective in Motivational Goals of Different Age Groups

1980 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Willy Lens ◽  
Antoine Gailly
Keyword(s):  
Time Perspective ◽  
Adult Population ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Life Time ◽  
Future Time Perspective ◽  
Future Time ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Future Extension ◽  
The Mean

Age related differences in extension of future time perspective in motivational goals are studied at three socio-economic levels in a representative sample of the French speaking adult population in Belgium. The hypothesis of an inverted U-shaped relationship between age and extension of future time perspective is tested statistically. It cannot be maintained when using two indices of future extension that are borrowed from earlier studies in this field: (a) the proportion of number of references to the near future to the number of references to the distant future, and (b) the mean future extension score in number of years. The proportion of the mean future extension score to the statistically calculated expected life time is proposed as a new and better index of future extension for comparing different age groups. With this new index the hypothesis is confirmed at the three socioeconomic levels. The limits of the cross-sectional method that is used and the relative value of the new index of extension of future time perspective are discussed.

On the Social Life and Motivational Changes of Aging Monkeys

Gerontology ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 63 (6) ◽  
pp. 572-579 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Fischer
Keyword(s):  
Social Interactions ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Nonhuman Primates ◽  
Time Perspective ◽  
Future Time Perspective ◽  
Future Time ◽  
Barbary Macaques ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Social Partners ◽  
Motivational Changes

Although nonhuman primates have been used in biomedical research to develop a better understanding of physiological aging processes, their value as models for studying age-related differences in motivation, cognition, and decision-making has only recently been appreciated. This paper reviews the state of the art, with a focus on a recent study on Barbary macaques. A number of studies reported that with increasing age, Old World monkeys spend more time resting, have fewer social partners, and/or spend less time in social interactions, though other studies found no such effects. Less was known about changes in cognitive performance and shifts in interest in the physical and social environment across age. A recent comprehensive study of motivational changes in a large age-heterogeneous population of Barbary macaques (Macaca sylvanus) living at “La Forêt des Singes” in Rocamadour explicitly tested predictions from social selectivity theory, which posits that in light of a shrinking future time perspective, humans become increasingly selective in terms of their social interactions. Given that nonhuman primates most likely have no conception of their limited lifetime, this allowed disentangling the effects of cognitive insights and basal physiological processes that contribute to changes in the valuation of different activities. The Barbary macaques under study revealed marked and differential motivational shifts with age: while they interacted with fewer social partners, they continued to attend to social information. In contrast, they revealed a marked loss of interest in novel objects in early adulthood, unless these were baited with a food reward. Some of the motivational changes observed during human aging may thus be shared with our closest living relatives. The awareness of a limited future time perspective in humans may enhance the effects of these ancestral processes, but it does not appear to be the only explanation. Future studies should employ a broader array of different cognitive tests to delineate the trajectories of different cognitive processes such as attention, memory, and behavioral flexibility more clearly. Taken together, an evolutionary developmental psychology perspective that combines life span psychology with evolutionary biology appears to be a promising avenue for investigations of age-related changes in motivation and cognition.

scholarly journals Future time perspective and awareness of age-related change: Examining their role in predicting psychological well-being.

2016 ◽  
Vol 31 (6) ◽  
pp. 605-617 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allyson Brothers ◽  
Martina Gabrian ◽  
Hans-Werner Wahl ◽  
Manfred Diehl
Keyword(s):  
Time Perspective ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Future Time Perspective ◽  
Future Time ◽  
Psychological Well Being ◽  
Age Related

scholarly journals Perceiving More Age-Related Losses? The Role of General Control Beliefs and Daily Disturbance to Plans

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 286-287
Author(s):  
Xianghe Zhu ◽  
Shevaun Neupert
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Time Perspective ◽  
Future Time Perspective ◽  
Control Beliefs ◽  
Future Time ◽  
Daily Stress ◽  
Daily Diary Study ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Future Plans

Abstract We examined daily fluctuations in future time perspective within the daily stress and awareness of aging processes. Awareness of age-related change (AARC) focuses on everyday experiences that highlight changes in behavior and functioning as a result of growing older. We integrated individual differences in control beliefs because those with higher control tend to be more resilient to stressors. We conducted a daily diary study of 112 older adults (aged 60-90) who completed measures of control beliefs at baseline and then daily measures of stressor exposure, appraisal (e.g., threats to future plans), and AARC for eight consecutive days. Increases in threats to future plans were associated with increases in AARC losses, and those with low control were especially vulnerable to increases in threats to future plans. With a constricted future time perspective, any threats to future plans may be especially harmful for older adults who are low in control beliefs.

scholarly journals Occupational Future Time Perspective Mediates Age Differences in Conflict Strategies

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 406-406
Author(s):  
Dannii Yeung ◽  
Alvin Ho
Keyword(s):  
Age Differences ◽  
Older Workers ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Time Perspective ◽  
Future Time Perspective ◽  
Future Time ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Age Variations ◽  
Conflict Strategies

Abstract Building on the theoretical framework of socioemotional selectivity theory (Carstensen, 2006), this presentation reports the findings of two studies conducted in Hong Kong Chinese workers to examine whether occupational future time perspective (OFTP) can account for the age differences in conflict strategies. Study 1 is a cross-sectional study with 416 working adults completed an online survey on conflict management (Mage=39.1 years, SD=12.1), and Study 2 is a laboratory study with 123 workers (Mage=40.1 years, SD=12.1) indicated their behavioural responses after watching hypothetical workplace conflict videos. In both studies, five conflict strategies (integrating, compromising, obliging, avoiding, and dominating) and OFTP (focus on opportunities and focus on limitations) were assessed. Parallel mediation analyses were performed. The results of Study 1 showed that both focus on opportunities and focus on limitations mediated the effects of age on obliging (b = -.006, SE=.002; and b = .006, SE=.002, respectively), avoiding (b = -.005, SE=.002; and b =.008, SE=.002, respectively), and dominating (b = -.014, SE=.003; and b = .009, SE=.002, respectively). Focus on opportunities could only account for the effects of age on integrating and compromising. The results of Study 2 showed that only focus on limitation could account for the age variations in the use of avoiding (b = .196, SE = .058) when facing intergenerational conflicts. The findings of this project reveal that the age-related focus on limitations increases older workers’ likelihood to utilize maladaptive conflict strategies, such as dominating and avoiding, to deal with conflicts occurred in the workplace.

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