ON THE CONCEPT OF FUTURE TIME ORIENTATION: CONSIDERATIONS OF SOME FUNCTIONs' AND MEASUREMENTs' IMPLICATIONS*

Empirical studies have revealed contradictory results concerning future time orientation and various other factors. The lack of consensus between the concept and measurements is postulated to be the main reason for the diversity in results. It is necessary to differentiate between (a) experimentally induced future (time) orientation and future time orientation (FTO) considered as a personality trait, and (b) between dimensions of FTO and the manifestation and functional significance of these dimensions in behavior. It is suggested that measurements of FTO should be related to nonspecific situations in order to avoid that certain valences, and thereby different degrees of arousal of FTO, are induced in the FTO measure itself.     

FUTURE ORIENTATION: A MEDIATOR IN TEMPORAL CODING

Influence of future orientation on temporal coding was investigated in two experimental studies. A three by two paradigm involving three conditions of list discrimination and two groups of subjects of high and low future orientation, was used. Story writing technique and list discrimination tasks were employed to assess future orientation and efficiency in using temporal codes, respectively. Results show that in experiment 1, when subjects had been forewarned about an impending memory test and hence there was a competition between these future demands and present demands of an orienting task, performance of high as compared to low future oriented subjects was better on list discrimination tasks; they utilized temporal codes more efficiently. This difference in performance between high and low future oriented groups of subjects was not evident in experiment 2 when there was no forewarning about an impending memory test. Temporal coding was better for different concept rather than same concept lists. It is argued that type of material, as well as perception of future utility of material, influence the amount of temporal coding for both groups of subjects, but dispositional future orientation also mediates the perception of the utility of a material in the future to affect its temporal coding.     

PERCEPTION OF SOCIALIZATION ROLES: A STUDY OF ISRAELI MOTHERS IN TOWN AND KIBBUTZ*

Variations in mothers' role perceptions were studied as a function of (a) the amount of time mothers spend with their children, and (b) the cultural ideology of childrearing that assigns to the mother either sole or shared responsibility for socialization. Four groups of Israeli mothers of toddlers were studied. Among nuclear family mothers 21 had children in nursery school, and 22 had children in fulltime daycare. Among kibbutz mothers 23 lived on Familial kibbutzim where children slept at home, and 22 lived on Communal kibbutzim where children slept apart from their parents. Questionnaires assessed mothers' perceptions of mother and caregiver influence and their use of disciplinary and nurturant techniques. Whereas amount of time did not contribute to variations in role perceptions, childrearing ideology (sole vs shared socialization responsibility) showed strong effects. In accord with nuclear family ideology, daycare mothers perceived mothers as more influential and as using more of all socializing techniques than caregivers. In accord with their ideology of shared responsibilities, kibbutz mothers perceived caregivers to be as influential as mothers. Further, as specified by kibbutz ideology, kibbutz mothers reported that they used nurturance more and disciplinary techniques less than caregivers. The importance of cultural ideology on parents' role perceptions is discussed.     

WOMEN'S SOCIALIZATION AND THE PREVALENCE OF DEPRESSION

No abstract available for this article.     

THE AVAILABILITY AND HELPFULNESS OF SOCIALIZATION PRACTICES

This study reports on the socialization practices most available to new employees and the extent to which these practices are seen by newcomers as being helpful in becoming effective organizational members. The results showed that socialization practices are differentially available to newcomers, and perceptions of their helpfulness vary. The helpfulness of various socialization practices as reported by newcomers appears to affect their feelings of subsequent job satisfaction and commitment.     

SEX AND JOB ORIENTATION

Three samples, each divided into males and females, were asked to indicate to what degree some job characteristics were important to them. The job characteristics represented both intrinsic and extrinsic factors. In the first sample (40 male and 44 female university students) there was no sex difference in job orientation. Both selected the intrinsic factors more than the extrinsic factors. There was also no sex difference in the second sample, which consisted of 68 male and 33 female public school teachers. They, however, stressed as many intrinsic factors as extrinsic. The general results of the third sample showed significant sex differences. The sample of 259 male and 143 female employees represented a technical division of a large service-oriented organization. Education and job level were significantly different for the two subgroups. When these two variables were controlled for a sample of clerks and of first-level supervisors, no sex difference appeared in job orientation. The results also showed that the higher the job level, the more intrinsically-oriented the employees were regardless of their sex.     

DEVELOPMENT OF ORIENTATION TO THE FUTURE DURING EARLY ADOLESCENCE: A FOUR-YEAR LONGITUDINAL STUDY AND TWO CROSS-SECTIONAL COMPARISONS

In 1982, fifty-seven 11-year-old and forty-eight 15-year-old adolescents were interviewed about their hopes and fears for the future. Similarly, in 1987, fifty-seven 11-year-old and fifty-six 15-year-old adolescents were interviewed. The content and extension of each hope and fear as well as the levels of planning, realization, internality, probability estimation and overall emotional evaluation were estimated from the answers. As expected, adolescents' hopes concerned major developmental tasks, i.e. occupation, education, family and property related topics. Both 11- and 15-year-olds extended their thinking to the same stage of their future life, about the age of twenty. A comparison of extension according to hope content showed that adolescents' orientation to the future reflected the ‘cultural prototype’ of expected life-span development. Levels of planning, realization and knowledge concerning hopes increased with age as did internality and optimism concerning the future, especially among boys.     

ORIENTATION AND PERCEPTION OF PICTORIAL DEPTH

Des échantillons d'écoliers zambiens et écossais sont soumis à une épreuve d'interprétation de dessin géométrique simple, présenté selon deux orientations: la figure est symétrique soit par rapport à L'axe vertical, soit par rapport à un axe incliné. Les résultats montrent que L'orientation affecte les réponses de L'échantillon écossais: les réponses bi-dimensionnelles sont plus fréquentes avec L'axe de symétrie vertical; mais ce n'est pas le cas pour les enfants zambiens. On ne constate aucun progrès dans la discrimination des deux orientations avec L'âge ou la scolarité dans L'échantillon zambien. L'auteur discute des implications de ces résultats.     

INTELLIGENCE: PAST AND FUTURE

In this paper it is argued that enquiry concerning intelligence in the 20th century has been dominated by a particular theory which we call the ‘strength’ model of intelligence. After briefly considering the history of the strength model we argue that this dominance has severely distorted the logic of research programmes in the area of intelligence, resulting in the crisis of professional uncertainty and public confidence which we currently find ourselves in. Various illustrations of this distortion of logic are considered in three areas of research, (i) the construction of intelligence tests; (ii) enquiry into the ‘structure’ of intelligence; (iii) nature-nurture research. We go on to examine alternatives to the strength model, and then make a plea for a wider and deeper consideration of concept formation, and concept usage, as the basis of a ‘polyphenic’ cognitive system. Some of the implications of this consideration for the nature of future research programmes are also discussed.     

THE FUNCTION OF FUTURE ORIENTATION AS A DETERMINANT OF HUMAN BEHAVIOR IN STEP-PATH THEORY OF ACTION

Step-path theory of action is used to conceptualize future orientation (FO) as anticipated path characteristics and to derive its function. Study 1 finds that stories written to FO sentences are significantly higher on n Achievement when referring to a young person, while stories written to past orientation sentences tend toward higher scores when referring to an old person. Study 2 finds that extremes on chronological age tend to accentuate these trends. Study 3 supports the “multiplicative rule” for the combination of subjective probabilities of success (Ps) along a contingent path for group data. Individual data show that the predicted accentuation of achievement motivation is mediated by a decrease in path length for nonmultipliers of Ps (time FO), and by an increase in path length for multipliers of Ps (task FO). Path Ps also influences the effects of time and task FO.     

SOCIALIZATION OF THE PHYSICAL ATTRACTIVENESS STEREOTYPE: PARENTAL EXPECTATIONS AND VERBAL BEHAVIORS

Two investigations were completed to study the parental socialization process underlying the intergenerational transmission of the use of the physical attractiveness stereotype. In the first study, preschool (n = 31), first- (n = 27) and third- and fifth-grade children (n = 28) and their mothers and fathers engaged in social choice and attribution tasks directed at stimuli portraying a facially attractive or unattractive, mesomorphic or endomorphic and normal and handicapped child. Children and parents were observed to use a physical stereotype response in their behaviors. Further, a significant correlation was observed between parental expectations of the child's use of a physical attractiveness stereotype and the child's actual use of the stereotype in a social choice context. In the second study 20 mothers were asked to tell a story about a normal, obese, and handicapped child to their own child. Content analysis of the stories, using a coding scheme devised to assess stereotypic verbal messages, revealed parents communicated various types of subtle communications to their children that were consistent with a physical attractiveness stereotype. A combination of research methodologies designed to study parental expectations and subtle verbal communications may provide considerable promise for the study of the socialization of the use of stereotypic based attitudes and behaviors.     

CLIMATE CHANGE AND CONFLICTING FUTURE VISIONS

Dealing with the effects of climate change requires the consideration of multiple conflicting moral claims. The prioritization of these claims depends on the vision of a desired future, eschatology broadly defined. These visions, sometimes implicit rather than explicit, shape our decision making by influencing our sense of how things “ought to be.” The role of future visions in economics, technology, and preservation of nature are explored as secular eschatologies. Four aspects of such visions are especially relevant to climate change decisions: distributive justice, land use, the relationship among humans, and our relationship to the rest of nature. Effectively dealing with such wicked problems requires that we scrutinize our visions of how the future ought to be, both technically and morally. Finally, we must foster a dialogue between competing visions so that we can forge a path that strives for consent.     

ECOLOGY AND SOCIALIZATION AS FACTORS IN FIGURAL ASSIMILATION AND THE RESOLUTION OF BINOCULAR RIVALRY1

L'étude des facteurs culturels en matière de perception et L'étude des facteurs culturels en matière de personnalité ont été, jusqu' à présent, relativement séparées. L'A. propose un modèle qui permet d'intégrer les deux domaines en faisant L'hypothèse d'une relation indirecte entre L'ecologie et les réponses perceptives et d'une relation directe qui correspondrait à celle mise en évidence par les études de laboratoires classiques entre fréquence de L'expérience passée et réponse perceptive. Pour valider le modèle, L'A. utilise les données de deux expériences qui ont été réalisées avec des sujets Temne et Esquimaux et qui portent L'une sur la reproduction de figures ambiguës présentées au tachistoscope et L'autre sur la résolution de rivalités binoculaires.     

SEX ROLE ORIENTATION AND TYPE A BEHAVIOR PATTERN

Male and female college students completed the Bem Sex-Role Inventory (BSRI) and the Jenkins Activity Survey, a part of which is the Type A Scale. Correlational results showed that as Type A scores increased, BSRI scores decreased (more masculine sex role orientation). Analysis of variance showed that males and females with masculine sex role orientations (SROs) had significantly higher Type A scores than those with androgynous SROs, who in turn had significantly higher Type A scores than those with feminine SROs.     

GENDER-ROLE SOCIALIZATION IN CONTEMPORARY RUSSIA

This article represents a collaboration between Russian and Western researchers concerned with the cross-cultural study of gender. A con-temporary Russian psychoanalytic perspective on gender role development in the context of their own culture is presented, and its relationship to the Soviet and Western research literature is explored. Historical changes are noted in the transitions from prerevolutionary peasant society to Soviet socialism and to the new reforms in Russia. A long standing ambivalence toward agentic values is described throughout these phases of Russian history, and its legacy is identified in current social problems. Difficulties inherent in using Western conceptualizations of gender roles in this different context are discussed, as are points of compatibility, and their application to an investigation of Russian gender roles is illustrated.