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

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.

Metaphors and Methods

It is widely understood that the development of a teacher identity for individuals transitioning into teaching is important, and therefore substantial research has been produced looking at teacher identity development. Much of this research is conducted using the possible selves theory as its framework. Nevertheless, with the self and identity being widely interpreted concepts with no consentaneous definition, researchers lean on metaphorical language at times to semantically represent the meaning of the future selves. This chapter reviews contemporary literature, discussing how different metaphors used to talk about the self, influence the methodological choices made within the study. Different types of metaphors used led to a heavier emphasis on either the integrative, temporal, or dynamic nature of the possible selves theory.

Living for God

This chapter introduces readers to the childrearing logic of “religious restraint” and distinguishes it from Annette Lareau’s classic class-based childrearing strategies of “concerted cultivation” and “natural growth.” Deeply religious families do not fall into either of Lareau’s categories. Parents who raise their children with religious restraint exist across different social class groups. Children raised with religiously restraint (“abiders”) come to believe in God so deeply that it alters their sense of self—their idea of who they are. Teens believe that they are constantly being evaluated by God, which prompts them to change how they perceive themselves, how they carry themselves, and how they imagine their future selves. Living to please God shapes how teens see themselves and how they behave, which the chapter describes as developing a “God-centered self-concept.” Teens raised with religious restraint who develop a God-centered self-concept come from different genders, social class backgrounds, racial backgrounds, and religious traditions.

Self-efficacy is a story: teachers’ possible selves in a pandemic world

Purpose A The purpose of this study was to better understand how teachers find agency in challenging circumstances. The authors sought to investigate this by examining the developing self-efficacy beliefs of teachers over time. Design/methodology/approach A longitudinal multi-case study methodology is used to investigate the stories of three new teachers over a two-year period spanning the onset of the pandemic. Narrative and thematic analysis was used to identify themes and trends. This was supplemented by teacher self-efficacy survey responses. Findings Teacher self-efficacy is a story that teachers build as they find what is possible. This story is informed by shifting conceptions of possible future selves as teachers interpret the challenges around them. These mutually reinforcing and fluid narratives shape teachers’ developing identities as they find agency during a changing reality. Originality/value Qualitative and case studies of self-efficacy are rare. Our study explores the context and thinking behind individual teacher beliefs at the time of a global pandemic. We offer a unique look at how teachers make sense of agency and possibilities under conditions of change.

A Discriminative Ontology for Future Selves

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.

Hope As A Motivator For Healthy Behaviors In Older Adults: Findings From A Cross-Sectional Survey

Hope can be understood as a motivational state that enables people to move toward their goals. Yet, how hope may act as a motivator for healthy behaviors in older adults is not well-understood. Further, the extant literature utilizes varied conceptualizations of hope, and a better understanding of the constructs that underlie the relationship between hope and health behaviors is needed. This study examined the relationship between hope and health behaviors, explored how this relationship may differ across different socio-demographic groups, and considered how hope relates to perceived future selves among older adults. Community-dwelling adults 55 years and older (n = 711; mean age 67.38 years; 280 men, 431 women) completed an online, cross-sectional survey. Survey measures included, along with the Adult Hope Scale (AHS) and the Herth Hope Index (HHI), a health behaviors checklist, self-reported health, and a future self scale. We found a moderately strong positive correlation between hope and healthy behaviors in older adults (AHS r = 0.46, p < .01; HHI r = 0.50, p < .01). Participants with higher levels of hope also reported more positive future selves and better health. The associations were similar across different racial/ethnic groups and the magnitude of this effect held even after controlling for gender, education, marital status, and income. Of the two hope scales, we recommend the AHS measure given its relative parsimony, greater use in the field, and the fact that the associations were fairly similar to the HHI with respect to health and health behavior.

Using Visual Demonstrations of Learning to Promote Age-Integrated Problem Solving

Working to dismantle the “othering” of older adults requires active effort to reverse deeply ingrained cultural perceptions and attitudes. As gerontology educators, we are uniquely positioned to “move the needle” on this issue by providing students with the opportunity to engage with older adults in meaningful ways and to see the world from their perspective. In this presentation, visual demonstrations of student learning will be shared that allow students to demonstrate their mastery of course concepts in a creative way and to problem-solve a particular issue by engaging with their own future selves. This approach also allows for a deviation from the routine of written demonstrations of learning by appealing to a different set of student skills. Approaches discussed will include concept maps to deconstruct community collaboration; book bentos to explore optimal aging; multimedia presentations on meaning-making in older adulthood; and a photo elicitation project to address outdoor fall hazards.