Przyszłościowa perspektywa czasowa w starości

Data udostępnienia wersji cyfrowej na licencji CC-BY-SA: wrzesień 2024

The future time perspective in old age

The core of the presented research includes the assumption that for an old man the future time perspective is comparable to the past time perspective. We assume that a positive attitude towards the future plays an important role in the development of the old man. Setting goals and making activities aimed at achieving these goals provide a man at every stage of life with a sense of satisfaction and is a condition for obtaining a meaning of life. The future determined by adopted plans allows for answering the fundamental existential question: Who am I? What do I live for? Lack of or limitation of the future time perspective forces adaptation behaviors, limited to “here and now”.

Drawing attention to the importance of the future in the life of old people leads to question about opportunities and barriers in shaping the future time perspective in old age. Determinants of its development can be seen both in the external factors – relating to a widely understood social and cultural contexts, as well as in internals factors – related to the level of human development, his experience and subjective properties, most of all with autonomy, introspectiveness, desire for value, independence, desire for self-improvement, optimism, satisfaction with life accomplishments.

The aim of this study was to recognize how the future time perspective of old people developing is and what relationship exists between the formal and content aspects of the future time perspective and selected aspects of internal life. The formal aspects of future time perspective include: the length of the future time perspective, planning of implementation of long-time goals, focusing on current goals, the number of close and far goals and the number of categories of those goals. The content aspects of the future time perspective include: the content of goals for different periods of life, predicting their execution, intensity of emotions related to those goals, dreams, fears and attitude towards death. The selected aspects of internal life include: autonomy, introspectiveness, desire for value, independence, desire for self-improvement, optimism and satisfaction with life.

The research was conducted on 351 persons, including 119 men (34%) and 232 women (66%). The group was divided into three age subgroups: the sixty year olds, i.e. people between 65 and 69 – there were 109 of them (31%), the seventy year olds, i.e. people between 70 and 79 – 178 of them (51%) and eighty year olds, i.e. people in the age of 80 and more – 64 persons (18%).

The research used the following test tools: the survey for measuring the future-time perspective – experimental version of B. Bugajska and C. Timoszyk- Tomczak, the Future-Time Perspective Questionnaire of W. Lens (1986), the Scale of introspectiveness – experimental version of B. Bugajska and C. Timoszyk-Tomczak, the Scale of general attitudes towards future – experimental version of B. Bugajska and C. Timoszyk-Tomczak, the Scale of Satisfaction with Life of E. Diener, R.A. Emmons, R.J. Larson, S. Griffin, the Life Orientation Test, M.F. Scheier, Ch.S. Carver, M.W. Bridges.

By summing up the obtained results related to the future time perspective in the old age, it can be stated that in the formal aspect the future horizon is shortened with age. The more advanced are people in terms of age, the less far goals they have and therefore they have less plans to implement such goals. Focus of persons between 60 and 90 years of age on the present does not significantly change. During late adulthood, in terms of content, goals of old people for the nearest future mainly concern the family, health and everyday issues, while far goals focus on health, family, goodness and happiness and material aims. Older people are rather convinced that they will be able to execute their goals and therefore feel positive emotions.

The aims of old people, distributed in the future, constitute the active aspect of the future time perspective. Another significant aspect is the notional aspect, which can include the meaning of life – accompanying people during most of their existence and executed continually; dreams, fears, attitude towards future and transcendental aims. The research showed that most old people formulated the meaning of life, which is connected to family, with values as goodness, happiness or health. Dreams are also shared by most of the respondents and they relate to health, happiness, family, material issues and recreation. According to the respondents, the inability to execute them results from material, time and health limitations. Fears connected with the future are located by old men mainly in the area of family and their own selves. The older are the respondents, the often they think about death and about half of them want to realize, still before death, some important goals, most often related to their families. The respondents rather believe in some kind of life after death and almost half of them formulate transcendental goals related to meeting with their dears, with religion, e.g. achieving salvation or with realization of such values as happiness, relief, peace. As far as attitude towards the future is concerned, older people declare the most realistic potential and transcendental attitudes, while the older they are, the more of their attitudes is transcendental.

Analyses related to formal and content aspects of the future time perspective and the selected aspects of internal life leads to the fact that the shape and content of future time perspective of old people is more or less related to satisfaction with life, optimism/pessimism, autonomy, self-control, selfimprovement, introspectiveness and striving for values. And so, those with long time perspective and those creating plans to achieve the long objectives, at the same time have a high desire for values, they are independent, oriented towards self-improvement, they also have greater satisfaction with life and are characterized by higher introspectiveness and are rather optimistic. Persons who are in late adulthood, who are focused on current issues are at the same time more autonomous and more satisfied with life.

Relationship between the content of the future time perspective and selected aspects of the inner life have many themes, therefore in the summary only the most important relations will be referred to. The most of significant correlations appeared with such categories of close goals as social, recreational and goals related to interests. Determination of these objectives is combined with a high desire for values, the tendency for self-improvement and greater introversion of an old man. Additional aims directed towards recreation correlated with independence and more satisfaction with life and social aims with optimism and independence. In the category of far goals the ones related to family and health relate to high strive for values and high self-control. Additionally the aims related with family correlate with optimism and autonomy and aims concerning health correlate with introversion.

More concerned for the future are those, who also are not very satisfied with life, are pessimistic and are more introspective. Death is in the thoughts of those, who are less satisfied with life, are not inclined to realize the values, are pessimistic and have low introspectiveness. Old people, who are more satisfied with life, optimists, more independent ones, inclined to realization of values and those with higher self-control, as well as those directed at self-improvement and with more introspectiveness have the meaning of life. Those who prefer a realistic attitude to the future have developed all aspects of inner life. Preference of transcendental attitudes is associated with low desire for values.

The subject matter of the research of the future time perspective in the old age consists of numerous aspects. The future in the life of old people, as well as the future of old people is a relatively neglected area of practice and scientific reflection. Most of discussion on this important subject ignores individual human fate and focuses on the old age as a social problem, presenting it as a threat, a burden, or even as a demographic disaster.

From the perspective of a psychologist and teacher, it is essential to shift “the center of gravity” in thinking about old age from “negatives” into “positives” of this period of development. We hope that this work will help to control the process of exclusion of older people from the future and will allow seeing the potential lying in the old age.