The last few decades have seen a growing body of research on narcissism, however few studies have examined the relationship between subclinical narcissism and future orientation. The proposed study will examine how grandiose and vulnerable types of narcissism influence future orientation, and whether anxiety, depression, impulsivity and sense of control play mediating roles in this relationship. It is hypothesized that anxiety will play a mediating role between future orientation and vulnerable narcissism, but not between grandiose narcissism and future orientation. Finally, it is hypothesized that grandiose and vulnerable narcissism will be correlated within individuals. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) will be used to test the hypotheses, and the a priori model is expected to have a good fit to the data. This study will further our understanding about how narcissists view their futures, and whether this is influenced by mediating factors.

Decisions made during the transitional age of 18-30, may influence the health and well being of individuals for many years to come. Perhaps more than any earlier life stages, emerging adults have the potential to explore new opportunities, develop their own autonomy, and play a more conscious role in shaping their own development, while overcoming difficulties that may have contributed to their vulnerability in an earlier period of life or the present. To date, few studies have focused on the positive or health promoting, psychosocial factors that contribute to future orientation, particularly among emerging adults. Guided by the Theory of Possible Selves and Social Capital Theory, this quantitative study explored the contribution of perceived discrimination, hope, and social connectedness to future orientation, using a web-based survey. The present study found that perceived racial/ethnic discrimination and social connectedness were significantly and hope was marginally related to the future orientation of 151 emerging adults who were current or former members of the AmeriCorps program in the state of New Mexico. The findings remained significant after controlling for race/ethnicity. Social connectedness served as a resource factor in its association between perceived racial/ethnic discrimination and the outcome of future orientation. Social connectedness also served a protective function, thereby moderating the association between perceived racial/ethnic discrimination and future orientation. Findings suggest that further examination of the potential buffering effects that may offset the negative effects of a risk, such as perceived racial/ethnic discrimination, is warranted. Attention should be given to other potential moderating and/or mediating effects in the relationship between perceived racial/ethnic discrimination and future orientation in subsequent studies. Given the uniqueness of the sample in this study, future researchers should continue to examine populations participating in programs such as AmeriCorps. Results from the current study may have important implications for the value of programs that aim to build civic engagement, social connectedness, and leadership among its members and the communities that are served. / text

OBJECTIVE: This study explores psychological experiences that may influence service members’ self-concepts and future orientations. As stable, optimistic, future orientations have been associated with resilience to psychological distress and suicidality (Johnson, et al., 2011), it is worthwhile to explore how service members’ attitudes toward the future might be shaped in the context of intrapersonal and interpersonal experiences. METHOD: Data were collected from service members of the Virginia National Guard (N = 192) and included a Transportation unit, an Engineer unit, an Infantry unit and a group with no specific unit affiliation or substantive military experience. The study is a cross-sectional design that seeks support for the hypothesis that interpersonal and intrapersonal psychological needs differentially influence one’s future orienation. RESULTS: Analysis demonstrated that autonomy, competence and relatedness each play partial mediating roles with respect to the identity style-identity commitment relationship. Further analysis demonstrated that all three psychological needs also significantly predict identity commitment, but that the intrapersonal needs of autonomy and competence are stronger predictors than the interpersonal need, relatedness. The competing hypothesis that psychological needs balance would outperform the psychological needs variables as predictors of identity commitment was not confirmed. CONCLUSIONS: The data indicate that all three psychological needs variables are significantly influential (by degree and category) with regard to protective factors that involve identity-based processes and identity-based beliefs. Implications and areas for future research are discussed.

Purpose: Temporal perspective, including views about future goals, may influence motivational processes related to health. An adaptive sense of future orientation is linked to better health, but little research has examined potential underlying factors, such as vitality. Method: In a sample of 101 primary care patients, we examined whether belief in the changeability of the future was related to mental and physical energization and, in turn, to health-related quality of life. Participants were working, uninsured primary care patients, who completed self-report measures of future orientation, vitality, and health-related quality of life. Results: Mediation models, covarying age, sex, and race/ethnicity indicated that vitality significantly mediated the association between future orientation and the outcomes of general health, mental health, social functioning, bodily pain, and role limitations due to emotional and physical reasons. Vitality exerted an indirect-only effect on the relation between future orientation and physical functioning. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that adaptive beliefs about the future may promote, or allow access to, physical and mental energy and, in turn, may result in better mental and physical health functioning. Individual-level and public health interventions designed to promote future orientation and vitality may beneficially influence quality of life and well-being.

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Background: Gratitude is an orientation towards the positive in life that increasingly is shown to have relevance for physical health. Less is known about how gratitude relates to health behaviours. The self-regulation resource model (SRRM) posits that future-orientation is a resource that promotes selfregulation of health behaviours. Accordingly, we meta-analytically tested whether gratitude was associated with the practice of health-promoting behaviours, and if future-orientation explained the association. Methods: Data from 14 samples (N = 4,111) from our labs were included in the meta-analysis as there was no published data. All samples completed measures of state or trait gratitude, and a measure of health behaviour frequency; six samples completed a measure of future orientation/self-continuity. Random effects metaanalysis was conducted on the correlations of gratitude with health behaviours, with subgroup analyses. Indirect effects through FO were tested and meta-analysed. Findings: Across all 14 samples, gratitude was significantly associated with more frequent health behaviours, avg. r = .261, [.22, .31]. The effects did not vary significantly across sample type (student/community), or gratitude measure (state/trait). Mediation analyses revealed significant indirect effects of gratitude on health behaviours through future-orientation in the six samples tested (N = 2,828), with an average index of mediation of beta = .068 [.05, .08]. The direct effects remained significant. Discussion: Findings are consistent with the SRRM and demonstrate that gratitude is associated with the practice of health-promoting behaviours, due in part to future-orientation. Further research is warranted to more fully investigate the potential of gratitude for promoting health behaviours.

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This study examined loneliness and future orientation as predictors of suicidal risk, namely, depressive symptoms and suicide ideation, in a sample of 228 college students (54 males and 174 females). Results of regression analyses indicated that loneliness was a significant predictor of both indices of suicidal risk. The inclusion of future orientation was found to significantly augment the prediction model of both depressive symptoms and suicide ideation, even after accounting for loneliness. Noteworthy, beyond loneliness and future orientation, the Loneliness × Future Orientation interaction term was found to further augment both prediction models of suicidal risk. Consistent with the notion that future orientation is an important buffer of suicidal risk, among lonely students, those with high future orientation, compared to low future orientation, were found to report significantly lower levels of depressive symptoms and suicide ideation. Some implications of the present findings for studying both risk and protective factors associated with suicidal risk in young adults are discussed.

Forgiveness, a cognitive-emotional and behavioral reduction of negative responses to offenses, is directly related to less suicide risk, but may be indirectly related via its relation with future orientation, the ability to envision a positive future. In 100 rural primary care patients, we examined the association between self-forgiveness, other-forgiveness, and forgiveness by God and suicidal behavior, with future orientation as a mediator. Forgiveness was related to greater future orientation and, in turn, to, less suicidal behavior. Addressing the past may promote adaptive views of the future and reduce suicide risk, results suggesting potential temporal and forgiveness-based points for suicide prevention.

We examined the role of basic psychological needs as a mediator of the association between future orientation and depressive symptoms in a sample of 202 (159 female and 43 male) multiethnoracial adults. Multiple mediation analysis with 10,000 bootstraps was conducted to test for mediation. The association between future orientation and depressive symptoms was found to be accounted for by dimensions of basic psychological needs. Specifically, future orientation was negatively related to depressive symptoms through positive associations involving autonomy and competence, but not relatedness. The present findings are the first to not only point to the importance of examining future orientation in understanding depressive symptoms in multiethnoracial adults, but they are also the first to suggest possible mechanisms by which believing in a changeable future might foster stronger satisfaction of basic psychological needs, especially autonomy and competence, that might help multiethnoracials garner greater protection when encountering stressful situations in their lives.