What Feelings Do People Want to Feel When Future Time Is Limited?
Year: 2017
Type: article
Abstract: Socioemotional selectivity theory suggests that people prioritize emotionally meaningful goals and are motivated to experience their desired emotion, when they perceive future time as more limited (e.g., at an advanced age). Then, what affective states do people desire to feel when future time is limited? The present research examined the relationship between future time perspective and the affective states that people ideally want to feel (ideal affect) using a combination of survey, experience sampling, and experimental methods. Two hundred Ninety-nine Hong Kong Chinese aged 18 to 80 years (M = 46.64 years, SD = 20.81 years; 46% female) participated in the survey and 106 of them participated in the experience-sampling study. Across two methods, we found that people who perceived their future time as more limited valued low-arousal positive states (e.g., calm and peaceful) more than did people who perceived future time as more expanded. Such finding was robust in both trait (from the survey) and momentary (from the experience-sampling) ideal affect. Then, we conducted an experiment among 258 Hong Kong Chinese aged 18–80 years (M = 43.31 years, SD = 20.66 years; 57% female), in which participants were primed with either a limited future time perspective or an expanded future time perspective. We found that participants in the limited future time condition valued low arousal positive sates more and high arousal positive states (e.g., excited and enthusiastic) less than did participants in the expanded future time condition. These findings broaden our understanding of emotional goals in limited (vs. expanded) future time perspective.
Source: Innovation in Aging
Authors: D. Jiang, H.H. Fung, T. Sims, J.L. Tsai
Language: English
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $3,977
OpenAlex ID: W2733016432