Blackwell Reference Online

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Future mindedness refers to a general orientation toward the pursuit and achievement of future goals. While psychology has historically focused on negative orientations toward the future such as hopelessness and pessimism, psychologists have more recently examined the potential benefits of positive expectations in the form of hope, optimism, and self-efficacy These conceptualizations of positive expectations for the future have been dubbed “Velcro constructs” for their tendency to be associated with positive life outcomes in a wide range of life domains and have been found to be one of the strongest, if not the strongest, predictors of life satisfaction in adults. The ability to conceptualize time in terms of the past, present, and future was a critical development in human evolution. This ability to plan for future goals that are not determined by emotions or instincts is part of what distinguishes humans from other primates (to some extent) and from other creatures more generally. It has been suggested that the human capacity for optimism developed along with these cognitive capacities for future goal-directed thought. Tiger argues that optimism/hope played an integral role in human evolution by providing our ancestors with the motivation and confidence necessary to manage successfully the uncertainty and anxiety that arose as they contemplated and experienced new and unforeseen ... log in or subscribe to read full text