ABSTRACT
Thinking about and acting upon the future is a key characteristic of the human mind. People typically think about what is likely to happen in the future, they have future preferences and aims, they make a great deal of effort to realize some of their future options, and, sometimes, they may have regrets that the future did not turn out in accordance with their hopes. This orientation toward the future requires the deployment of a wide range of psychological tools. These include cognitive processes, such as anticipation, planning, and the regulation of behavior, as well as emotions and attitudes, like optimism, pessimism, hope, and despair. Similarly, motivation, expressed as interests, values, and goals, plays an important part in acting upon the future. Future orientation is also closely connected to the development of the individual: Anticipating the future is to predict one's own development; aiming at a particular future is to direct it.
