中華心理衛生協會

Purpose: Long-term orientation (LTO) is defined as the extent to which an individual interprets current life experiences with an extended time horizon. It can be past-oriented or future-oriented. We constructed an LTO scale based on Chinese culture and used it to examine the relationship between LTO and psychological adjustment and to test possible mediation and suppression processes. Methods: In Study 1, 113 National Taiwan University undergraduates evaluated their future-oriented LTO, current satisfaction of basic psychological needs, and psychological adjustment. In Study 2, 269 National Taiwan University undergraduates evaluated their past- and future- oriented LTO, tendency to be judgmental, and their psychological adjustment. Results: Study 1 revealed that participants who reported a higher future-oriented LTO had more need satisfaction (i.e., their intrinsic motivation in the learning domain was higher), which corresponded to improved psychological adjustment. Study 2 replicated the relationship between future-oriented LTO and positive psychological adjustment, and found that although past-oriented LTO was positively correlated with future-oriented LTO, it was also related to the tendency to be judgmental, resulting in inconsistent prediction of psychological adjustment. Conclusions: The results suggest that LTO relates to psychological adjustment through increasing intrinsic motivation. However, the relationship between past-oriented LTO and psychological adjustment is much more complicated. The beneficial effect of past-oriented LTO on psychological adjustment is only evident when excluding the covariate effects of judgmental tendency.