Future time orientation and its relevance for development as action

Introduction Slogans such as "no future" have frequently been used recently to describe the unattractive situation of adolescents who are faced with enormous eco­ nomic. social, and political problems and insecurities. It should be interest­ ing to study how adolescents themselves anticipate and evaluate their future and which variations may exist among certain groups of adolescents. This should be especially interesting when pursuing the more general question of which function future orientation may have for the development of ado­ lescents. One may assume that the way adolescents anticipate and evaluate their future influences their life planning, decision making, and behavior. One may even hypothesize that adolescents construct their own future ac­ cording to the future orientation they develop. Let us assume that a main developmental task of adolescents is to establish a concept of self identity. This includes subjective theories about one's present but also about one's future self-including wishes, hopes, expectations, and plans for the attainment of one's goals in the future. In the pluralistic value system of our society. adolescents are offered conflicting goals to strive for; clear value priorities are not explicated. and adolescents have to find out themselves which way of life is best for them. Such variety of goals and life styles may create insecurity. especially when criteria for decision making are mlsslllg. Adolescents have to face this insecurity not only with respect to the for­ mation of their present and future self identity but also with respect to their future environment: They cannot develop clear expectations about where they will be living. with \"hom they will interact. what kind of tasks and re­ sponsibilities they will have to fulfill. How will they develop a future orien­ tation'? What qualities does their future orientation have'? Having this gen­ eral question in mind. I will first explain the concept of future orientation, then I will brietly discuss some studies on the development and on the be