Extension temporelle des buts et âge chronologique au cours de la vieillesse

Abstract

Future time perspective (FTP), defined as the temporal extension of goals, is considered, by some authors, to be increasingly limited in older age. Restriction in FTP is sometimes observed in the elderly but could be explained by various factors other than age. In order to verify this hypothesis, the aspirations or goals of 708 elderly (aged 65 to 90 years) were collected with a sentence completion technique. An index of future extension was established after the analysis of answers. The results confirm that there is no relationship between FTP and chronological age for the elderly. A reduced FTP is observed for women. A similar tendency is found for subjects of low socio-economic status and for subjects of low educational level. FTP is also relatively stable for healthy and autonomous subjects and it increases in subjects of low autonomy who are still living at home. This research shows that, even in the presence of negative factors and with individual differences taken into account, elderly persons have goals and are open to the future.