Comparative analysis of the psychological content of the «time perspective», «image of the future» and «goal» concepts

Abstract

Semantic and systematic (psychological) analysis of scientific and specialized literature allowed to conduct mental reality research which is hidden behind the concepts of time perspective, image of the future and goal. It is proved that the main bearing, mostly unconscious formation is the image of the future, while the time perspective turns out to be a strategic characteristic that sets the ultimate guidelines of the image of the future, and the goal is the point of transcending this image from subjective reality into objective reality, which is accomplished starting with verbalization the idea. From this point of view, the goal acts as a tactical aspect of transcendence (self-realization). According to the results of the theoretical study, a hypothesis was put forward that in a situation of uncertainty, the formation of an image of the future is mostly heuristic and reliable process, which was verified in a preliminary study in the form of a formative experiment using the T-IGR method. In this experiment, perspective acted as a qualitative characteristic of the image of the future. His results confirmed that by itself the formulation of the desired future in the form of a goal does not provide support for resisting the flow of random events. Whereas the connection of the image of the future makes a person face the need for integration, coordination of the image at all levels of subjective regulation, starting with mental representation and ending with the adequacy of actions.