The effect of age and time perspective on implicit motives

Abstract

People differ in how open-ended or limited they perceive their future. We argue that individual differences in future time perspective affect the activation of implicit motives. Perceiving the time remaining for the satisfaction of one's motives as limited should be associated with a higher activation of these motives than perceiving one's future as more open-ended. Given that future time perspective decreases across adulthood, older adults should score higher on implicit motives than younger adults. This hypothesis was supported in a study with young (n = 53, age M = 25.60 years) and older adults (n = 55, age M = 68.05 years). Additionally, an experimental manipulation of future time perspective showed that age-related differences in implicit motives are influenced by future time perspective. These findings demonstrate that future time perspective is an important factor to explain the strength of motives. and older adults (n = 55, age M = 68.05 years). Additionally, an experimental manipulation of future time perspective showed that age-related differences in implicit motives are influenced by future timeperspective. These findings demonstrate that future time perspective is an important factor to explain the strength of motives.Keywords: implicit motives, future time perspective, adult age differences, lifespan development AGE, TIME PERSPECTIVE, AND IMPLICIT MOTIVES one's goals but also one's motives, perceiving one's future as limited might also be associated with an increased urgency to satisfy implicit motives. In other words, perceiving the time for the satisfaction of one's motives as limited should be associated with a stronger activation of these motives than believing that the satisfaction of one's motives is possible in an extended future.Given that future time perspective decreases across adulthood (Lang & Carstensen, 2002), older adults should show a higher intensity in their implicit motives than younger adults. We tested this hypothesis in a study with young and older adults. Additionally, we manipulated future time perspective in the same sample to compare the intensity of implicit motives between individuals with an experimentally extended and reduced future time perspective. The results of the current study will help to clarify if and why implicit motives change across adulthood. Implicit Motives and Their Development across AdulthoodImplicit motives are relatively enduring preferences for a broadly defined class of incentives that direct and energize behavior (McClelland, Koestner, & Weinberger, 1989). They are related to the intrinsic enjoyment of and affective preference for activities congruent with the AGE, TIME PERSPECTIVE, AND IMPLICIT MOTIVES 4 motive (Brunstein, 2006;McClelland et al, 1989). Three distinct motives are often referred to as the "big three," namely achievement, power, and affiliation/intimacy (Winter, 1994).Achievement motives denote the desire to accomplish something difficult and to attain a high level of excellence (Pang, 2010a;Winter, 1994). At the core of p...