Extending Future Time Perspective Theory through Episodic Future Thinking Research: A Multidisciplinary Approach to Thinking About the Future

This chapter considers expanding the work on time perspective to include both imagining and planning for the future. Specifically, the authors argue that Future Time Perspective (FTP) and motivation researchers have focused on how we set and achieve goals, but have failed to consider how imagining the future affect can influence our motivation in the present. The authors also dispute the representation of FTP and other future-oriented motivation as cold and rational, highlighting the empirical neglect of how thinking of the future may support positive emotions. Additionally, they assert that neurocognitive research on episodic future thinking may provide FTP researchers with a path to bring thinking about the future together with feeling about the future.