Thinking Clearly Versus Frequently About the Future Self: Exploring This Distinction and its Relation to Possible Selves

Abstract

This work documents important distinctions between thinking clearly and thinking frequently about one's future self. In Study 1, responses from 648 college students on a scale assessing future self thoughts revealed two factors, Clarity and Frequency, which differentially predicted measures of psychological functioning. Greater clarity predicted higher levels of positive states and attributes such as optimism and lower levels of negative states and attributes such as anxiety, whereas greater frequency predicted more anxiety and negative affect. Study 2 explored the roles of clarity and frequency in possible selves. Clarity predicted endorsing fewer negative possible future outcomes and greater psychological closeness to the hoped-for self. Frequency predicted listing more feared possible selves, feeling less capable of preventing the feared self, and thinking more frequently about possible selves. Implications for further understanding of self-system processes are discussed.

Keywords:

• Future orientation
• Possible selves
• Self-cognition
• Well-being

Acknowledgments

The authors thank George Yonge for permission to use the items from the Inventory of Temporal Experience and for helpful discussion during the formative stages of this research. The authors extend appreciation to Beth Morrow-Lucas, Jessica Morgan, Jennifer Walker, Mary Hamilton, Lee Foraker, and Jennifer Farnum for their assistance with data collection and coding.