Broadening the TP profile: Future negative time perspective

Abstract

The importance of the future as an arena for planning, self-regulation and achievement has been of considerable interest in past research. The majority of this research suggests that future-oriented thinking has considerable benefits for psychological adjustment and wellbeing. The future is nevertheless not only a temporal space for goal-setting and positive expectations, it may also be associated with fear, uncertainty and anxiety, which may ultimately have detrimental effects on both mental and physical health. Here we present the outline for the Swedish ZTPI (S-ZTPI) which extends the original ZTPI by separating the Future dimension into two sub-factors: The Future Positive scale and the Future Negative scale. We argue that separating the future into two separate dimensions thus comprehending both a positive and a negative valence of the future, adds important information regarding association between future time perspective and subjective well-being.