Sex and social class as determinants of future orientation (time perspective) in adolescents.

Abstract

Hypotheses concerning the effects of sex and class On future orientation were tested on 100 boys and girls between the ages of 14 and 16. Future orientation was measured in various domains of life, constituting either private or public areas of concern (e.g., family, environment), on the dimensions of density (number oi hopes and fears voiced by the subject), extension, and optimismpessimism. As predicted, middle-class adolescents, as compared with lowerclass adolescents, voiced more hopes and fears relating to public life and fewer in the private sphere, and they manifested a more extended future orientation in the private as well as the public spheres. They also judged the distant future more optimistically in two out of three public areas of concern. The lower-class girls were more optimistic than the middle-class girls in the occupational domain. As predicted, ,the lower-class boys voiced more hopes and fears in the occupa{ional domain and manifested a more extended future orientation than the lower-class girls. On the other hand, the girls of both classes voiced more hopes and fears in the private sphere than ,the boys of either class. The results are interpreted through theories of socialization and role behavior. This research was carried out at tbe Sonderforschungsbereich 24 (Sozial-und wirtschaftspsychologische Entscheidungsforschung, Universitat Mannheim) with funds from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. The data were collected and in part analyzed by Henning Eckel, who reported about them in his diplom (master's) thesis at the Universitat Mannheim. The three authors have contributed equally to this article. We thank Henning Eckel for his collaboration and his discussion contributions in the earlier phases of this study. Further, we are grateful to W. A. Scott and to an anonymous reviewer for their helpful comments. Requests for reprints should be sent to Helmut Lamm, SFB 24, Universitiit, 68 Mannheim, 'West Germany.

Future Time Perspective in Sociocultural Contexts: A Discussion Paper

“…The Pacific sociocultural context, in particular, serves as a critical point in which FTP may apply and assist individuals in their academic learning and professional development. There is evidence to indicate that FTP originates in a sociocultural context (Lamm, Schmidt, & Trommsdorff, 1976;Seijts, 1998;Vázquez & Rapetti, 2006). Accordingly, as an outcome of socialisation, individuals who are more 'socialised' will have learned that their social and cultural class as well as society, in general, expect certain goals and events, some of which are more time specific than others.…”

Gender and Orientations Toward the Future: Links to Motivation

“…Lower class young women were more optimistic about the future than their middle class same-sex peers. Lamm et al (1976) suggested that the optimism of the lower class young women indicated that these young women had less knowledge of the struggles ahead of them than did the middle class young women. They wrote that concerns about balancing career and family might be more salient for the middle class women than the lower class women because the former are likely striving for more challenging careers.…”

“…This work, which examines sociocultural phenomena in addition to gender, is reviewed next. Lamm et al (1976) studied the FTO of lower and middle class West German male and female students who were 14 and 16 years old. The adolescents were asked about their future orientation in regard to the private (e.g., family), career, and public service domains.…”

Future orientation and planning in forestry: a comparison of forest managers’ planning horizons in Germany and the Netherlands

“…The criticism on this approach-that the LSS technique assumes that an individual has only one time horizon that functions for every area in his life (Kasakos 1971)-can be avoided by focusing only on one of the six areas where a certain time perspective may be maintained, namely family, personal development, work Weld, economics, environment, and politics (Lamm et al 1976). In the context of this research, this means focusing on the work Weld of forest managers.…”