Facing social identity change: Interactive effects of current and projected collective identification on expectations regarding future self-esteem and psychological well-being

A test of a triadic conceptualization of future self-identification

People encounter intertemporal decisions every day and often engage in behaviors that are not good for their future. One factor that may explain these decisions is the perception of their distal future self. An emerging body of research suggests that individuals vary in how they perceive their future self and many perceive their future self as a different person. The present research aimed to (1) build on and extend Hershfield's et al. (2011) review of the existing literature and advance the conceptualization of the relationship between the current and future self, (2) extend and develop measures of this relationship, and (3) examine whether and how this relationship predicts intrapsychic and achievement outcomes. The results of the literature review suggested that prior research mostly focused on one or two of the following components: (a) perceived relatedness between the current and future self in terms of similarity and connectedness, (b) vividness in imagining the future self, and (c) degree of positivity felt toward the future self. Additionally, differences in how researchers have labeled the overall construct lead us to propose future self-identification as a new label for the three-component construct. Our research built on existing measures to test the validity of a three-component model of future self-identification. Across three samples of first-year undergraduates, this research established the psychometric properties of the measure, and then examined the relationships between the components and four outcome domains of interest: (1) psychological well-being (self-esteem, hope), (2) imagination of the future (visual imagery of future events, perceived temporal distance), (3) self-control, and (4) academic performance. We demonstrated that the three components of future self-identification were correlated but independent factors. Additionally, the three components differed in their unique relationships with the outcome domains, demonstrating the utility of measuring all three components of future self-identification when seeking to predict important psychological and behavioral outcomes.

Does age group identification differentially influence younger and older adults' intergenerational perceptions?

People's knowledge that they will change age groups over time likely makes relations between age groups function differently from relations between racial or gender groups. We tested this possibility by examining whether people's identification with their current age group influenced their responses to threats to the status of their current age group. We found that age group identification was a good predictor of responses to status threat, particularly among young adults. Specifically, young adults who were strongly identified with their age group showed patterns of bias typically found in strongly identified members of other groups, whereas older adults did not. These results provide further evidence that age groups function differently from other group memberships and that models of intergroup conflict need to be tested in groups for whom memberships change over time.