An analysis of future orientation and some of its social determinants
pp. 343-361
in: Fraser, Nathaniel Lawrence (eds), The study of time II, Berlin, Springer, 1975Abstract
Time will be understood here from an internal point of view, that is, as a person's subjective experience. The psychological experience of time contains the experience of the past, the present and the future. This experience can be cognitively represented in the mind of a person; thus, cognitive abilities and intellectual training would be relevant for the way a person conceives of time. Furthermore, the motivational structure of a person determines the experience of time to some extent; past, present and future contain events which are more or less desirable for a person. Hence, the motivational tendency to approach or to avoid specific events is relevant for a person's psychological experience of the future.