Future Time Perspective and Real-Life Utterances About the Future in Young and Older Adults

Abstract

Abstract. Future time perspective (FTP) refers to an individual’s global perception of the future. It has been found to be positively related to life satisfaction. FTP is traditionally assessed via self-report, but recently a few studies have used observable behaviors for assessing FTP. We focused on two real-life behaviors (frequency and qualities of talking about the personal future) and explored whether they could be used as behavior-based measures of FTP. We examined the association between these behaviors and self-reported FTP, and their relationships with life satisfaction. The sample included 55 young (aged 18–31) and 47 older adults (aged 62–83) who completed questionnaires on future time perspective and life satisfaction. Over 4 days, participants carried an electronically activated recorder, which randomly captured 30-second sound snippets from their daily lives – a total of 30,656 sound snippets were collected. Participants’ utterances were coded for temporal orientation. Linguistic inquiry word count was used to analyze the qualities of future-oriented utterances. Structural equation models showed that self-reported FTP was not associated with the two real-life behaviors. It was positively associated with life satisfaction for the whole sample. The frequency of future-oriented utterances and family-related words were positively related to young adults’ life satisfaction. Achievement-related words were positively related to older adults’ life satisfaction.

Eavesdropping on autobiographical memory: A naturalistic observation study of older adults' memory sharing in daily conversations

“…In sum, in the present study, we used a new technology that has been recently applied to study memory sharing in natural social contexts (Brianza & Demiray, 2019;Demiray et al, 2018;2019) and found that cross-sectionally, older individuals in the sample demonstrated lower frequencies of autobiographical memory sharing in everyday conversations, a relationship that affected both episodic and semantic memories. For episodic memories, older age was also linked to a reduction in the level of detail at which events were described.…”

“…Prior laboratorybased research has extensively studied how the sharing of autobiographical memories appears to change with older age, with one key finding being that there is a robust age-related reduction in episodic memories that is evident in both the frequency at which such memories are retrieved (Ford et al, 2014;Piolino et al, 2006;Ros et al, 2009Ros et al, , 2017 and how much episodic detail is shared to describe unique life events (Addis et al, 2008;Devitt et al, 2017;Gaesser et al, 2011;Levine et al, 2002). The present study utilized the EAR, a method that has recently been applied to capture memories being shared in everyday conversations as they happen (Brianza & Demiray, 2019;Demiray et al, 2018;2019), in order to extend the assessment of episodic specificity out of the laboratory and shed light on how older age and episodic specificity are related in the real-world.…”

“…Recently, the EAR has been applied to assess autobiographical sharing in natural, everyday social life, revealing outcomes that replicate and go beyond findings from the laboratory. For instance, prior work using the EAR has shown that in everyday social interactions, older adults tend to be past-oriented (Demiray et al, 2018) and share fewer future thoughts than young adults (Brianza & Demiray, 2019). Older adults also appear to share autobiographical memories in their natural social relationships for specific motives .…”

Eavesdropping on Autobiographical Memory: A Naturalistic Observation Study of Older Adults’ Memory Sharing in Daily Conversations

“…Prior laboratory-based research has extensively studied how the sharing of autobiographical memories appears to change with older age, with one key finding being that there is a robust age-related reduction in episodic memories that is evident in both the frequency at which such memories are retrieved (Piolino et al, 2006 ; Ros et al, 2009 , 2017 ; Ford et al, 2014 ) and how much episodic detail is shared to describe unique life events (Levine et al, 2002 ; Addis et al, 2008 ; Gaesser et al, 2011 ; Devitt et al, 2017 ). The present study utilized the EAR, a method that has recently been applied to capture memories being shared in everyday conversations as they happen (Demiray et al, 2018 , 2019 ; Brianza and Demiray, 2019 ), to extend the assessment of episodic specificity out of the laboratory and shed light on how older age and episodic specificity are related in the real-world.…”

“…Recently, the EAR has been applied to assess autobiographical sharing in natural, everyday social life, revealing outcomes that replicate and go beyond findings from the laboratory. For instance, prior work using the EAR has shown that in everyday social interactions, older adults tend to be past-oriented (Demiray et al, 2018 ) and share fewer future thoughts than young adults (Brianza and Demiray, 2019 ). Older adults also appear to share autobiographical memories in their natural social relationships for specific motives (Demiray et al, 2019 ).…”