Identity Over Time: Perceived Similarity Between Selves Predicts Well-Being 10 Years Later

Reiff, Joseph; Hershfield, Hal E.; Quoidbach, Jordi

doi:10.1177/1948550619843931

Cited by 18 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 35 publications

(43 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Prior work has shown that low future self-continuity is a liability for psychological health. For example, low future self-continuity is regarded as a causal factor in depression (Roepke & Seligman, 2015) and is related to severity of psychiatric symptoms (Sokol & Serper 2019a); in contrast, higher future selfcontinuity is positively associated with subjective well-being (increased positive affect, reduced negative affect; Blouin-Hudon & Pychyl, 2015) and satisfaction with life (Reiff et al, 2020;Sokol & Serper, 2019b). Here, we illustrated that high future self-continuity augments meaning by raising authenticity.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 59%

Future Self-Continuity Promotes Meaning in Life Through Authenticity

Hong,

Zhang,

Sedikides

2023

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 59%

Future Self-Continuity Promotes Meaning in Life Through Authenticity

Hong,

Zhang,

Sedikides

2023

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…The capacity to generate a positive future might be essential for psychological health and adaptive coping. For example, effective prospection is related to higher subjective well-being (i.e., increased positive affect, decreased negative affect; Blouin-Hudon & Pychyl, 2015) and satisfaction with life (Reiff et al, 2020; Sokol & Serper, 2019; Szabó, 2022), whereas faulty prospection—deficient generation of possible futures, poor evaluation of possible futures, and pessimistic beliefs about these futures—might be a causal factor in depression (Roepke & Seligman, 2015). Faulty prospection might damage self-integrity and thus compromise adaptive functioning.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mental Time Travel as Self-Affirmation

Stephan,

Sedikides

2023

Pers Soc Psychol Rev

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Academic Abstract This article integrates and advances the scope of research on the role of mental time travel in bolstering the self. We propose that imagining the self in the future (prospection) or in the past (retrospection) highlights central and positive self-aspects. Thus, bringing to mind one’s future or past broadens the perceived bases of self-integrity and offers a route to self-affirmation. In reviewing corresponding research programs on self-prospection and nostalgia, we illustrate that mental time travel serves to affirm the self in terms of self-esteem, coherence, and control. Mental time travel could be implemented as a source of self-affirmation for facilitating coping and behavior change in several domains such as relationships, health, education, and organizational contexts. Public Abstract People can mentally travel to their future or to their past. When people imagine what they will be like in the future, or what they were like in the past, they tend to think about themselves in terms of the important and positive attributes that they possess. Thinking about themselves in such an affirming way expands and consolidates their self-views. This broader image of themselves can increase self-esteem (the extent to which one likes who they are), coherence (the extent to which one perceives life as meaningful), and control (the extent to which one feels capable of initiating and pursuing goals or effecting desirable outcomes). Mental time travel, then, has favorable or affirming consequences for one’s self-views. These consequences can be harnessed to modify one’s behavior in such life domains as relationships, health, education, and work.

show abstract

“…The long-term associations between future self-identification and later behavioral/psychological outcomes is a relatively unexplored topic. In a recent article, Reiff, Hershfield, and Quoidbach [ 142 ] found that the relatedness component was positively correlated with a measure of well-being (life satisfaction) ten years later. The current results demonstrated that the future self-identification components had different unique relationships with psychological well-being (e.g., self-esteem, hope).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A test of a triadic conceptualization of future self-identification

et al. 2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

People encounter intertemporal decisions every day and often engage in behaviors that are not good for their future. One factor that may explain these decisions is the perception of their distal future self. An emerging body of research suggests that individuals vary in how they perceive their future self and many perceive their future self as a different person. The present research aimed to (1) build on and extend Hershfield’s et al. (2011) review of the existing literature and advance the conceptualization of the relationship between the current and future self, (2) extend and develop measures of this relationship, and (3) examine whether and how this relationship predicts intrapsychic and achievement outcomes. The results of the literature review suggested that prior research mostly focused on one or two of the following components: (a) perceived relatedness between the current and future self in terms of similarity and connectedness, (b) vividness in imagining the future self, and (c) degree of positivity felt toward the future self. Additionally, differences in how researchers have labeled the overall construct lead us to propose future self-identification as a new label for the three-component construct. Our research built on existing measures to test the validity of a three-component model of future self-identification. Across three samples of first-year undergraduates, this research established the psychometric properties of the measure, and then examined the relationships between the components and four outcome domains of interest: (1) psychological well-being (self-esteem, hope), (2) imagination of the future (visual imagery of future events, perceived temporal distance), (3) self-control, and (4) academic performance. We demonstrated that the three components of future self-identification were correlated but independent factors. Additionally, the three components differed in their unique relationships with the outcome domains, demonstrating the utility of measuring all three components of future self-identification when seeking to predict important psychological and behavioral outcomes.

show abstract

Identity Over Time: Perceived Similarity Between Selves Predicts Well-Being 10 Years Later

Cited by 18 publications

References 35 publications

Future Self-Continuity Promotes Meaning in Life Through Authenticity

Future Self-Continuity Promotes Meaning in Life Through Authenticity

Mental Time Travel as Self-Affirmation

A test of a triadic conceptualization of future self-identification

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About