Journal Article

Back to the Consideration of Future Consequences Scale: Time to Reconsider?

Rappange, David R., Brouwer, Werner B.F., van Exel, N. Job A.

2009

Overview

The Consideration of Future Consequences (CFC) Scale is a measure of the extent to which individuals consider and are influenced by the distant outcomes of current behavior. In this study, the authors conducted factor analysis to investigate the factor structure of the 12-item CFC Scale. The authors found evidence for a multiple factor solution including one completely present-oriented factor consisting of all 7 present-oriented items, and one or two future-oriented factors consisting of the remaining future-oriented items. Further evidence indicated that the present-oriented factor and the 12-item CFC Scale perform similarly in terms of internal consistency and convergent validity. The structure and content of the future-oriented factor(s) is unclear. From the findings, the authors raise questions regarding the construct validity of the CFC Scale, the interpretation of its results, and the usefulness of the CFC scale in its current form in applied research.

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group,Taylor & Francis,Taylor & Francis Inc
• Subject: Academic Achievement / Adolescent / Adolescent Behavior / Adolescents / Applied research / Attitudes / Behavior / Biological and medical sciences / Child / Colorectal cancer / consideration of future consequences / Construct Validity / Consumer behavior / Consumer Economics / Convergence / Convergent validity / Decision Making / Developmental psychology / Diabetes / Early Adolescents / Evidence / Experiments / Factor analysis / Factor Analysis, Statistical / Factor Structure / Female / Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology / Future / Health Behavior / Humans / individual behavior / Individual behaviour / Individual Characteristics / Individual Differences / Information Processing / Likert Scales / Male / Measurement / Measures / Medical screening / Netherlands / Personality / Political behavior / Preferences / Principal components analysis / Psychological Tests / Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry / Psychology. Psychophysiology / Psychometrics / Reproducibility of Results / Researchers / Sexual behavior / Social psychology / Social Science Research / Structural analysis / Studies / Time Factors / Time Perspective / time preference / Usefulness / Validation studies / Validity / Writers