Self-defining future projections: exploring the identity function of thinking about the future

The act of projecting oneself into meaningful future events may significantly contribute to a
person’s sense of self and identity. Yet, if the role of memories, in particular self-defining
memories (SDMs), in grounding the self is now well established, the identity function of
anticipated future events has received comparatively little attention. This article introduces the
construct of self-defining future projection (SDFP) to address this issue. Two studies show
that people can readily identify significant future events that they frequently think about and
that convey core information about who they are as individuals. Furthermore, a person’s
particular style of constructing SDMs is similarly manifested in SDFPs, suggesting that both
types of events can be used to ground the self. Notably, people who display a stronger
tendency to extract meaning from their past experiences also reflect more about the potential
implications of imagined future events. The results further demonstrate that SDMs and SDFPs
both give rise to a strong sense of personal continuity over time and are meaningfully related
to self-esteem. Together, these findings lend support to the idea that a person’s sense of self
and identity is in part nourished by the anticipation of significant future events.