Future Orientation (Time)

For researchers, future orientation is the picture individuals construct about the future. This picture includes the hopes to be fulfilled and fears to be avoided, thus creating a platform for setting goals, making plans, regulating behavior, and consequently achieving control over life. This entry describes the meaning and relevance of future orientation to human development from early childhood to old age. This entry opens with the ancient wisdom roots of future orientation as regulating human behavior and controlling the environment and then proceeds to explain the future orientation concept as one of the several conceptualizations of future thinking. This entry then discusses the two focal issues guiding future orientation research and also discusses future orientation in cultural context, guided by findings on cultural diversity in ...