The Future

Self: Our
Past, Present,
and Future
Prepared by Dalida, Mata, and Shimogawa
Focuses on the Time Perspective Theory (Philip Zimbardo)
that people are likely to sort, categorize, and analyze their
human experiences into past, present, and future
timeframes, influenced by personal, social, and institutional
factors
Towards an
Optimistic
Future
 The self is understood by using time-oriented lens
which focuses on how the self evolves from being the
self of the past, of the present and the possible self in
the future
 “life can only be understood
backwards, but it must be lived
forwards.”

Soren Kierkegaard
According to
Soren Kierkegaard
An individual has the capability to plan for his/her future
if he/she is able to understand and retrospectively
reflect on experiences, past choices and decisions, and
past behaviors
One may not be able to change what he/she has gone
through in the past but he/she can do something in the
present
TIME PERSPECTIVE
THEORY
(PHILIP ZIMBARDO, 1999)
Explains how people envision their experiences
Warns people against making decisions dominated by
only one time frame
Planning and setting a goal should be based on
something learned from the past and contextualized by
the present which can help people grow and develop
Based on the theory, there are 5 time perspectives:
1. Present-hedonistic: in which individuals tend to be risk takers,
driven by sensory, concrete factors, and driven by pleasurable
sensations. They often disregard negative consequences of
their actions because they are focused on the process rather
than the outcome.
2. Present-fatalistic: individuals are those who feel their lives are
out of their control and that no matter what they do, things will
not turn out as what they plan them to be.
3. Past-positive: individuals are likely to remain in their comfort
zone and their actions are influenced by what has worked in
the past.
4. Past-negative: individuals, like past-positive ones are always
anchored on the past but being on the negative side, they tend to
focus on the wrong decisions they have made in the past and
constantly regret them.

5. Future-oriented: are individuals that base their present choices

and action on long-term consequences. They are likely to
manifest delay of gratification, and endure negative situations if
they are likely to see the benefits of doing such.
According to Zimbardo, a healthy perspective is one
that combines past, present and future time
perspectives