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What will I be? The role of temporal perspective on predictions of affect, traits, and self-narratives

What will I be? The role of temporal perspective on predictions of affect, traits, and self-narratives
What will I be? The role of temporal perspective on predictions of affect, traits, and self-narratives
This article examined the effect of temporal perspective on the multifaceted future self (i.e., affect, traits, and self-narratives). Participants imagined themselves in the near versus distant future, and subsequently predicted their affect (Experiment 1), traits (Experiment 2), and naturalistic self-concepts (Experiment 3). Drawing from the Construal Level Theory and self-enhancement literatures, we hypothesized and found across three experiments that predictions of one's self in the distant future are more positive than predictions of one's self in the near future. Furthermore, building upon literature on the existence of normative and culturally sanctioned implicit theories of positive growth throughout the life span, we hypothesized and found that increased temporal distance yielded less variable predictions of affect, traits, and self-narratives (all three experiments) and that higher-level attributions mediated the effect of temporal perspective on the positivity of self-narratives (Experiment 3) and that time distance leads to more positive and less variable future selves.

self-enhancement, construal level theory, self, emotion, personality traits
0022-1031
610-615
Heller, Daniel
ec14338a-f90a-43e9-968f-f91f5f3db3e0
Stephan, Elena
4d379020-be54-4a1c-848a-9b61923648d2
Kifer, Yona
1d9a2ebc-cfbc-4833-8c40-81d27832a002
Sedikides, Constantine
9d45e66d-75bb-44de-87d7-21fd553812c2
Heller, Daniel
ec14338a-f90a-43e9-968f-f91f5f3db3e0
Stephan, Elena
4d379020-be54-4a1c-848a-9b61923648d2
Kifer, Yona
1d9a2ebc-cfbc-4833-8c40-81d27832a002
Sedikides, Constantine
9d45e66d-75bb-44de-87d7-21fd553812c2

Heller, Daniel, Stephan, Elena, Kifer, Yona and Sedikides, Constantine (2011) What will I be? The role of temporal perspective on predictions of affect, traits, and self-narratives. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 47 (3), 610-615. (doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2011.01.010).

Record type: Article

Abstract

This article examined the effect of temporal perspective on the multifaceted future self (i.e., affect, traits, and self-narratives). Participants imagined themselves in the near versus distant future, and subsequently predicted their affect (Experiment 1), traits (Experiment 2), and naturalistic self-concepts (Experiment 3). Drawing from the Construal Level Theory and self-enhancement literatures, we hypothesized and found across three experiments that predictions of one's self in the distant future are more positive than predictions of one's self in the near future. Furthermore, building upon literature on the existence of normative and culturally sanctioned implicit theories of positive growth throughout the life span, we hypothesized and found that increased temporal distance yielded less variable predictions of affect, traits, and self-narratives (all three experiments) and that higher-level attributions mediated the effect of temporal perspective on the positivity of self-narratives (Experiment 3) and that time distance leads to more positive and less variable future selves.

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More information

Published date: 31 January 2011
Keywords: self-enhancement, construal level theory, self, emotion, personality traits

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 194295
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/194295
ISSN: 0022-1031
PURE UUID: 88af733f-dc00-47be-8498-065510b6a837
ORCID for Constantine Sedikides: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-4036-889X

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 27 Jul 2011 08:30
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 03:02

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Contributors

Author: Daniel Heller
Author: Elena Stephan
Author: Yona Kifer

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