Socioemotional Selectivity Theory: A Research On Future Time Perspective, Age, Social Goals And Their Relationship

Socioemotional Selectivity Theory (SST) is a new theory in the field of life-span developmental psychology. Basically, it is a motivational theory. Socioemotional Selectivity Theory is less concerned with which goals are essential than with how social goals function to direct behavior, exploring the relationship between social goals and its factors, in order to explain individual's behavior, and on this basis to make accurate predictions.The theory attempts to find some reasonable relationship between time perspective and social goals. Based on the theory , the cognitive appraisal of time can help people find a balance between the long-term and short-term goals.When people feel that the time is open-ended, they will pay more attention to the future-oriented goals and be willing to choose the knowledge-related goals. While they feel that time is limited ,they will pay more attention to present-oriented goals, including focusing on the feelings of the present, searching for the true meaning of life, and experiencing emotional satisfaction. In short, that is, the assessment of the time, will directly affect the choice of social goals.According to the theory, there are two kinds of social goals: knowledge-related goals and emotion-related goals. The knowledge-related goals means the goals which people purpose to obtain knowledge; while the emotion-related goals is complicated to control the emotional state. On a day-to-day basis, social goals compete with one another.In the study, we overview Socioemotional Selectivity Theory, the related concepts, research methods, and researches which have done at home and abroad. Then we measure the level of people's Future Time Perspective(FTP)and search the relationship among social goals ,age, and FTP. The conclusion of this study are as below :(1) Age and FTP was negatively correlated.(2) Although there are only two kinds of social goals in SST, we can still extract a number of factors.(3)There are predictable relationship between FTP and some social goals' factors; that is, to a certain extent, FTP may explain the choice of social goals.