THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FUTURE TIME PERSPECTIVE AND MEMORY CONTROL BELIEFS IN OLDER ADULTS

Abstract

In studies with older adults, future time perspective (FTP) is most frequently assessed using the Carstensen and Lang FTP scale. However, it has been proposed that that this scale is actually composed of three interrelated subcomponents. Within a sample of 189 community-dwelling older adults (aged 60–85), we replicated a three-component structure. We also found that these subscales vary in their relationships to other measures of time perspective (i.e., future time attitudes and perceived life progress), and in their relationships to control beliefs about memory. These findings complement prior research documenting a link between FTP and control beliefs by showing that the magnitude of this association varies across FTP components. Understanding the interplay between FTP and memory control beliefs is also important as both predict important age-related outcomes and may be modifiable via intervention. The reciprocal relationship between these factors and the implications for successful aging are discussed.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. We repeated the analyses reported using the three-factor structure proposed by Kuppelweiser and Sarstedt (2014). For the future time perspective analyses, the results were almost identical to those reported here. However, a different pattern emerged for the memory control belief analyses. Potential Improvement, Effort Utility, and Inevitable Decline scores were all significantly predicted by Kuppelwieser and Sarstedt’s Focus on Life subscale but not by their Focus on Opportunities subscale. This discrepancy is likely because the question “There is plenty of time left in life to make new plans” is more strongly correlated with memory control beliefs than are many of the other items on the Carstensen and Lang (1996) scale.