Year: 2009
Type: dissertation
Abstract: How individuals think about the future is a topic of interest in psychology. There has been considerable research on how predictions and expectations in the short term future???within an individual???s lifetime???influence current behavior. However, there has been relatively little research examining levels of concern over the longer term future, including time intervals beyond an individual???s expected lifespan (posthumous future). This research examined how far into the future people feel personally invested. To the best knowledge of the author, this psychological trait has not been examined in any published research. \n \n Evolutionary psychology examines psychological traits from the point of view of the selective forces that shaped them during evolutionary history. The goal of evolutionary psychology is to reveal regularities in the content and function of mind, i.e., ???human nature.??? This thesis argues that an individual???s concern for the distant and posthumous future is influenced by innate cognitive mechanisms that were shaped by natural selection during human evolution. One of these innate cognitive mechanisms is the ability to imagine the future from an autobiographical perspective (mental time travel), which is argued to be a uniquely human cognitive adaptation. A second cognitive adaptation suggested to influence concern for the future is kinship love, a cognitive trait that arises as a consequence of the evolutionary selection mechanisms known as inclusive fitness. \n \n These evolutionary theories suggest specific hypotheses about the temporal limits of concern for the future in the general population, as well as factors influencing individual differences in concern for the future. Specifically, the theoretical analysis described supported the hypothesis that concern for the future among the general population would reach a nadir after four generations, or about 140 years. This is the point at which one???s descendants are no more genetically similar than a random person from the population. The theory also led to the hypotheses that parenthood status and age would influence individual differences in concern for the future. \n \n A six question survey was created to test these hypotheses. Results were in line with predictions that distant concern for future generations is modulated by the parent-offspring relationship, suggesting the origin of prospective thinking as an evolutionary psychological adaptation. The implications of this evolutionary psychological analysis of future thinking for long-term planning and mental health are discussed.
Author: E. M. Wilcox
Language: English
Subfield: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1574797936