Presenter(s): Madeleine Smith—Educational Foundations
Faculty Mentor(s): Jenefer Husman
Throughout the years, extensive research has been done on what influences people’s decisions . What prompts a student to apply to one school over another? Do future goals really influence a student’s academic performance in a class? Researchers have found that psychological future and personal goals play a vital role in an individual’s present behavior, decision making, and self-concept . More specifically, future time orientation (FTO) is the degree to which people’s thoughts of the future influence their present-day actions (Husman & Lens, 1999) . Similarly, the theory of Life Project (LP) refers to a set of short to long-term goals that shape self-concept and identity (Little, Salmela-Aro, & Phillips, 2017) . This project will develop an International Future Time Orientation Scale and Life Project Scale working in conjunction with research teams in Portugal, Brazil, Spain, Uruguay, and the United States . FTO and LP constructs have recently been created by Portuguese research teams . The remaining research teams will conduct focus groups for construct evaluation . This evaluation will focus on main constructs such as distance, connectedness, and extension from FTO as well as organization, engagement, and identity from LP . The structures of both scales’ factors will be analyzed quantitatively with exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis . The development of reliable international FTO and LP scales are a necessary instrument as they could be applicable to larger populations . Overall, this exciting research focuses on what influences an individual’s decisions and can greatly benefit prospective psychological and educational studies .