Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T03:20:37.677Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Adolescents' orientations towards the future: An alternative approach to assessing personal goals

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 October 2015

Teresa M. Senserrick
Teresa M. Senserrick*
Affiliation:
University of Melbourne
*
School of Behavioural Science, Department of Psychology, University of Melbourne, PARKVILLE 3052, Email: teresa_senserrick%psychology%[email protected]
Get access

Abstract

As personal goals continue to be emphasised in theories and research on motivation and future orientation, methods for assessing such goals have diversified. Research with adolescent students shows limitations in prevalent methodologies for eliciting and classifying the content of personal goals. The Future Time Perspective (FTP) model of Joseph Nuttin (1984, 1985) offers an alternative approach. The advantages of the FTP approach are demonstrated by examining the goal profiles of one student using both the FTP and a contrasting methodology (Seginer, 1988). This example is taken from a pilot study of 100 Year 7 and Year 11 secondary school students.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Educational and Developmental Psychologist , Volume 11 , Issue 1: Special Issue: Adolescence , May 1994 , pp. 24 - 33
Copyright
Copyright © Australian Psychological Society 1994

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ainley, M. (1993). Styles of engagement with learning: Multidimensional assessment of their relationship with strategy use and school achievement. Journal of Educational Psychology, 85, 395–405.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ames, C., & Ames, R. (1981). Competitive versus individualistic goal structures: The salience of past performance information for causal attributions and affect. Journal of Educational Psychology, 73,411–418.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ames, C, & Ames, R. (1984). Systems of student and teacher motivation: Toward a qualitative definition. Journal of Educational Psychology, 76, 535–556.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought andaction: A social cognitive theory. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Buzwell, S. (1994). Future time perspective and adolescents’ sexual risk taking. Manuscript submitted for publication.Google Scholar
Cantril, H. (1965). The pattern of human concerns. New Jersey: Rutgers University Press.Google Scholar
Dweck, C. S. (1986). Motivational processesaffecting learning. American Psychologist, 41, 1040–1048.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elliott, E. S., & Dweck, C. S. (1988). Goals: An approach to motivation and achievement. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 5–12.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ford, M. E. (1987). Processes contributing to adolescent social competence. In Ford, M. E. & Ford, D.H. (Eds.), Humans as self-constructing living systems: Putting the framework to work (pp. 199–234). Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Greene, A. L. (1986). Future-time perspective in adolescence: The present of things future revisited. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 15, 99–113.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Greene, A. L. (1990). Great expectations: Construction of the life course during adolescence. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 19,289–306.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Havighurst, R. J. (1974). Developmental tasks and education, (3rd ed.). New York: McKay.Google Scholar
Lamm, H., Schmidt, R. W., & Trommsdorff, G. (1976). Sex and social class as determinants of future orientation(time perspective) in adolescents. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 34,317–326.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nicholls, J. G., Patashnick, M., & Nolen, S. B. (1985). Adolescent theories of education. Journal of Educational Psychology, 77, 683–692.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nurmi, J.E. (1991). How do adolescents see their future? A review of the development of future orientation and planning. Developmental Review, 11,1–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nuttin, J. (1984). Motivation, planning and action: A relational theory of behaviour dynamics. Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum. (Original work published 1980, Theorie de la motivation humaine: du besoin au projet d’action. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France)Google Scholar
Nuttin, J. (1985). Future time perspective and motivation: Theory and research method. Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum. (Original work published 1980, Motivation et perspectives d’avenir. Louvain: Presses Universitaires de Louvain)Google Scholar
Paris, S. G., & Newman, R.S. (1990). Developmental aspects of self-regulated learning. Educational Psychologist, 25,87–102.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pervin, L. (1982). The stasis and flow of behaviour: Towards a theory of goals. In Page, M. M. (Ed.), Nebraska symposium on motivation (pp. 1– 53). Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.Google Scholar
Seginer, R. (1988). Adolescents’ orientation toward the future: Sex role differentiation in a sociocultural context. Sex Roles, 18, 739–757.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Simmons, W. (1979). The relationship between academic status and future expectations among low-income blacks. Journal of Black Psychology, 6,7–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Skinner, E. A., Wellborn, J. G., & Connell, J. P. (1990). What it takes to do well in school and whether I’ve got it: A process model of perceived control and children’s engagement and achievement in schools. Journal of Educational Psychology, 82,22–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trommsdorff, G., Lamm, H., & Schmidt, R. W. (1979). A longitudinal study of adolescents’ future orientation (time perspective). Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 8,131147.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Valsiner, J. (1992). Interest: A metatheoretical perspective. In Renniger, K. A., Hidi, S., & Krapp, A. (Eds.), The role of interest in learning and development (pp. 27–41). Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Verstraeten, D. (1980). Level of realism inadolescent future time perspective. Human Development, 23, 177–191.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weiner, B. (1986). An attributional theory of motivation and emotion. New York: Springer-Verlag.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wentzel, K. R. (1991a). Relations between social competence and academic achievement in early adolescence. Child Development, 62, 1066–1078.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wentzel, K. R. (1991b). Social and academic goals at school: Motivation and achievement in context. In Maehr, M. L. & Pintrich, R R. (Eds.), Advances in motivation and achievement (Vol. 7, pp. 185–212). Greenwich, Connecticut: JAI Press.Google Scholar