scholarly journals Letters from my future self

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashleigh Larratt
Keyword(s):  
Personal History ◽  
Present Moment ◽  
Experimental Film ◽  
Creative Practice ◽  
Future Selves ◽  
Future Self ◽  
Self Discovery ◽  
Mystical Vision ◽  
Point Of Departure ◽  
Making Art

What does it mean to become the person you are meant to be? How can embodied wholeness be realized, no matter what happened, and become an exhilarating point of departure for creative practice, and ultimately, life. In Letters From my Future Self, my thirty-six minute experimental film, I try to answer this question with material from my own life. By making art out of my personal history, and the mystical vision of a Future Self, trauma becomes a portal for healing, and discovering the beauty of the present moment. In doing so, I offer my story as a template for others’ healing. I encourage viewers to embark on their own inward journeys of self-discovery. To enlighten that which they most wish to hide from and push away. To merge their divinity with their humanity, becoming their own Future Selves.

scholarly journals Letters from my future self

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashleigh Larratt
Keyword(s):  
Personal History ◽  
Present Moment ◽  
Experimental Film ◽  
Creative Practice ◽  
Future Selves ◽  
Future Self ◽  
Self Discovery ◽  
Mystical Vision ◽  
Point Of Departure ◽  
Making Art

What does it mean to become the person you are meant to be? How can embodied wholeness be realized, no matter what happened, and become an exhilarating point of departure for creative practice, and ultimately, life. In Letters From my Future Self, my thirty-six minute experimental film, I try to answer this question with material from my own life. By making art out of my personal history, and the mystical vision of a Future Self, trauma becomes a portal for healing, and discovering the beauty of the present moment. In doing so, I offer my story as a template for others’ healing. I encourage viewers to embark on their own inward journeys of self-discovery. To enlighten that which they most wish to hide from and push away. To merge their divinity with their humanity, becoming their own Future Selves.

A Discriminative Ontology for Future Selves

2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 372-381
Author(s):  
Juraj Odorčák ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Second Order ◽  
Practical Advantage ◽  
Future Selves ◽  
The Future ◽  
Future Self ◽  
The Right ◽  
Practical Feasibility

The article presents a critique of the commonly held assumption about the practical advantage of endurantism over perdurantism regarding the problem of future-directed self-concern of a person. The future-directed self-concern of a person crucially depends on the possibility of the right differentiation of diverging futures of distinct persons, therefore any theory of persistence that does not entail a special nonbranching relation of a person to only their future self seems to be counterintuitive or unrealistic for practical purposes of personal persistence. I argue that this pragmatic rationale about future-directed self-concern is equally challenging for both theories of persistence. Moreover, I indicate, that both of these theories fall and stand on the practical feasibility of hidden ontological presuppositions about specific second-order notions of concerns of persons for their future.

Letters to our Future Selves? High-Powered Replication Attempts Question Effects on Future Orientation, Delinquent Decisions, and Risky Investments

2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (6) ◽  
pp. 521-554
Author(s):  
Laura Quinten ◽  
Anja Murmann ◽  
Hanna A. Genau ◽  
Rafaela Warkentin ◽  
Rainer Banse
Keyword(s):  
Problem Behavior ◽  
Related Problem ◽  
Future Orientation ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Sample Sizes ◽  
Replication Studies ◽  
Future Selves ◽  
The Future ◽  
Future Self ◽  
Letter Task

Enhancing people's future orientation, in particular continuity with their future selves, has been proposed as promising to mitigate self-control–related problem behavior. In two pre-registered, direct replication studies, we tested a subtle manipulation, that is, writing a letter to one's future self, in order to reduce delinquent decisions (van Gelder et al., 2013, Study 1) and risky investments (Monroe et al., 2017, Study 1). With samples of n = 314 and n = 463, which is 2.5 times the original studies' sample sizes, the results suggested that the expected effects are either non-existent or smaller than originally reported, and/or dependent on factors not examined. Vividness of the future self was successfully manipulated in Study 2, but manipulation checks overall indicated that the letter task is not reliable to alter future orientation. We discuss ideas to integrate self-affirmation approaches and to test less subtle manipulations in samples with substantial, myopia-related self-control deficits.

Conclusion

Kathy Acker ◽  
2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Georgina Colby
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Distinctive Feature ◽  
Art World ◽  
Experimental Practice ◽  
Creative Practice ◽  
Early Twentieth Century ◽  
Surface Content ◽  
Making Art

Reflecting in 1990 on her early adult years immersed in the New York art world, Acker remembered ‘being taught that it’s not an art work’s content, surface content, that matters, but the process of making art. That only process matters.’1 Attention to the manuscript practice and compositional processes of Acker’s works, alongside the question of experimental practice and meaning, brings to light the new forms of creative practice that Acker’s works embody. This book opened with Acker’s declaration ‘FORM HAS MEANING’ and the importance of the imbrication of form with content to modernist and late modernist experimental writers. Acker’s experimental practices – exercises in writing asystematically, collage, topological intertextuality, montage, ekphrasis, and literary calisthenics – reveal a body of compositional strategies that continue to uphold this distinctive feature of early twentieth-century experiment and preserve the radical force of her writings....

Identity-Based Motivation

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daphna Oyserman
Keyword(s):  
Self Esteem ◽  
The Self ◽  
Personal Traits ◽  
Underlying Process ◽  
Self And Other ◽  
Future Selves ◽  
The Future ◽  
Identity Based ◽  
Future Self ◽  
Over Time

People experience themselves across time—recalling who they were and imagining who they will become. This consciousness of the self over time (Tulving, 1985; Wheeler, Stuss, & Tulving, 1997) and the ability to mentally “time travel” is a general human capacity (Epstude & Peetz, 2012) that develops by about age five (Atance, 2008; Atance & Jackson, 2009; Atance & Meltzoff, 2005; Russell, Alexis, & Clayton, 2010). For this reason, the future self can play a role in current choices from an early age. Indeed, when asked, people report imagining their future selves; they can describe both positive and negative possible identities their future selves might have (Dalley & Buunk, 2011; Norman & Aron, 2003). People say they care about whether they are making progress toward attaining their positive and avoiding their negative future identities (Vignoles, Manzi, Regalia, Jemmolo, & Scabini, 2008). They even report that their future selves are truer versions of themselves than their present selves, which are limited by the demands of everyday life (Wakslak, Nussbaum, Liberman, & Trope, 2008). Given all that, it might seem unnecessary to test whether people’s current actions are influenced by their future identities. Surely it has to be the case that future identities matter. Yet uncovering the circumstances in which the future self and other aspects of identity matter for behavior has turned out to be difficult. It is not always apparent that identities matter in spite of people’s feelings that they must. Figuring out the underlying process is critical to reducing the gap between aspirations and attainments and is the focus of this book. Does the future self really make such a difference in behavior? In the next sections, I provide a perspective and research evidence to answer the question. While often used interchangeably, the terms self, self-esteem, and identity are based on different concepts (Oyserman, Elmore, & Smith, 2012). Self-esteem is the positive or negative regard one has for oneself. Identities are descriptors (e.g., homeowner, middle-aged), personal traits (e.g., shy, outgoing), and social roles (e.g., mother, daughter) and the content that goes with these traits, descriptors, and roles (e.g., proud, worried).

scholarly journals Introduction: When Difference Makes a Difference

Episteme ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 3 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alison Wylie
Keyword(s):  
Personal History ◽  
Cognitive Capacity ◽  
Access To Information ◽  
Social Dimensions ◽  
The Social ◽  
Point Of Departure

Taking seriously the social dimensions of knowledge puts pressure on the assumption that epistemic agents can usefully be thought of as autonomous, interchangeable individuals, capable, insofar as they are rational and objective, of transcending the specificities of personal history, experience, and context. If this idealization is abandoned as the point of departure for epistemic inquiry, then differences among situated knowers come sharply into focus. These include differences in cognitive capacity, experience, and expertise; in access to information and the heuristics that make it intelligible; and in motivating interests and orienting standpoint. Dissent takes on rather different significance, as a potentially productive feature of epistemic life rather than evidence of a failure of aperspectivality or an indication of error. The central questions are, then, what forms of diversity are epistemically consequential, and how can they best be deployed to ensure that the beliefs we warrant as knowledge are as well grounded and truth-tracking as possible.

To Know and to Care: How Awareness and Valuation of the Future Jointly Shape Consumer Spending

2015 ◽  
Vol 41 (6) ◽  
pp. 1469-1485 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel M. Bartels ◽  
Oleg Urminsky
Keyword(s):  
Behavioral Interventions ◽  
Opportunity Costs ◽  
Consumer Spending ◽  
Time Discounting ◽  
Discount Factors ◽  
Future Selves ◽  
The Future ◽  
Future Self ◽  
Future Outcomes

Abstract Reducing spending in the present requires the combination of being both motivated to provide for one’s future self (valuing the future) and actively considering long-term implications of one’s choices (awareness of the future). Feeling more connected to the future self—thinking that the important psychological properties that define your current self are preserved in the person you will be in the future—helps motivate consumers to make far-sighted choices by changing their valuation of future outcomes (e.g., discount factors). However, this change only reduces spending when opportunity costs are considered. Correspondingly, cues that highlight opportunity costs reduce spending primarily when people discount the future less or are more connected to their future selves. Implications for the efficacy of behavioral interventions and for research on time discounting are discussed.

scholarly journals Testing the Effectiveness of a Future Selves Intervention for Increasing Retirement Saving: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Mexico

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Avni Shah ◽  
Hal Hershfield ◽  
David Munguia Gomez ◽  
Alissa Fishbane
Keyword(s):  
Field Experiment ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Decision Aids ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Retirement Savings ◽  
Future Selves ◽  
Saving Behavior ◽  
Future Self ◽  
Positive Effect

Abstract One psychological barrier impeding saving behavior is the inability to fully empathize with one’s future self. Future self interventions have improved savings by helping people overcome this obstacle. Despite the promise of such interventions, previous research has focused predominantly on hypothetical contexts and western settings where the target sample has been predominantly undergraduate. Do interventions that encourage people to more concretely consider their future selves during retirement still have a positive effect on behavior in consequential, real-world savings decisions? Using a field experiment in Mexico (N = 7,603), where less than 1% make a voluntary savings contribution annually, we developed a low-cost, easy-to-implement intervention to test whether concrete thinking about one’s future life improves recurring retirement savings signups relative to a status quo, control group. We find that future self decision aids significantly improved the likelihood of signing up for an automatic recurring savings plan by nearly four times compared to the control.

scholarly journals Between Subjectivity and Flourishing: Creativity and Game Design as Existential Meaning

2021 ◽  
pp. 155541202110480
Author(s):  
Tim Newsome-Ward ◽  
Jenna Ng
Keyword(s):  
Design Process ◽  
Game Design ◽  
The Self ◽  
Generative Capacity ◽  
Existential Meaning ◽  
Creative Practice ◽  
Personal Histories ◽  
Self Discovery

This article explores how the process of designing videogames may be meaningful–that is, accomplish a larger existential fulfilment or purpose. We use a reflective methodology which triangulates the creative practice of making a videogame with reflections both during and post-practice against philosophical ideas of meaningfulness. Two ideas of meaningfulness emerged. The first is the generative capacity of subjectivity, where meaningfulness is anchored to our investment as creators, as well as in the intertwining of personal histories, experiences and memories between reflection and action. The second is the flourishing of the self in terms of inner growth and self-discovery out of journeying inherent in the game design process. The significance of our enquiry is three-fold: to more holistically understand videogames as being meaningful, to present a reflective methodology to facilitate such understanding, and to more broadly consider videogames as an instantiation of how media is itself existential.

scholarly journals Temporal Distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic: Letter Writing with Future Self can Mitigate Negative Affect

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuta Chishima ◽  
I-Ting Huai-Ching Liu ◽  
Anne E Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Negative Affect ◽  
Mental Distress ◽  
Effective Means ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Letter Writing ◽  
Temporal Perspective ◽  
Future Selves ◽  
The World ◽  
Future Self ◽  
Novel Coronavirus

Novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is spreading across the world, threatening not only physical health but also psychological well-being. We reasoned that a broadened temporal perspective may attenuate current mental distress and tested a letter-writing manipulation designed to connect people to their post-COVID-19 future selves. Participants were randomly assigned to either send a letter to their future self (letter-to-future), send a letter to present self from the perspective of future self (letter-from-future), or a control condition. Participants in both letter-writing conditions showed immediate decrease in negative affect and increase in positive affect relative to the control condition. These effects were mediated by temporal distancing from the current situation. These findings suggest that taking a broader temporal perspective can be achieved by letter-writing with a future self and may offer an effective means of regulating negative affect in a stressful present time such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

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