Life goals, self-defining life-goal memories, and mental time travel among young women and men going through emerging versus entering adulthood : An exploratory study

• The aim of this study was to investigate effects of gender and age in emerging (M = 22 years of age) versus entering (M = 28 years of age) adulthood on participants’ ratings of life goals, self-defining life-goal memories, and goal-related mental time travel, as well as the relations within the goal category (i.e., home, work/education, money, social life, close relationships, health/fitness, and emotions/feelings). Life goals in the present age cohort were predominantly about health/fitness, and the self-defining life-goal memories were mostly about emotions/feelings, close relationships, work/education, and social life containing mostly the phenomenology of emotional intensity and coherence. Age effects on life-goal ratings and goal-related mental time travel showed that life goals and mental monitoring of personal future may vary across the psychosocial maturation periods of emerging and entering adulthood. No effects of gender were obtained, probably due to similar concerns shared by males and females in terms of goals and aspirations in the age cohort assessed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved)

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Psykologi -- Tillämpad psykologi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Psychology -- Applied Psychology (hsv//eng)

Keyword

gender

life goals

self-defining memory

mental time travel

emerging and entering adulthood

Goals

Human Sex Differences

Memory

Self-Concept

Emerging Adulthood

Age Differences

Time Perspective

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)