The Concept of Future Orientations by Kurt Danziger - its replication and conceptual extension

• Applicant: Dr. Kitty Dumont
• Subject Area: Social Psychology, Industrial and Organisational Psychology
• Term: from 2004 to 2009
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 5429510

This project addresses ideological and utopian belief systems. Based on the concept of Future Orientations introduced by Kurt Danziger and its empirical application in a quasi- longitudinal-study in South Africa carried out since the 1950s, the proposed project pursues two objectives: The first one purposes to continue the quasi-longitudinal-study in order to investigate changes of future orientations of South Africans 10 years after the political transformation processes took place. The second objective aims to extent the theoretical approach of the Concept of Future Orientations by viewing ideological and utopian belief systems in realation to social psychological inter-group processes. To attain the second objective two studies are planned by which data of the quasi-longitudinal-study collected since the 1950s will be re-analysed from the perspektive of Social Identity Theory. The expected gain of the project is to extent our understanding of belief systems by considering their relation to both meso-social factors (e.g. inter-group processes) and macro-social factors (e.g. political transformation processes). The project will be carried out in cooperation with the Department of Psychology at the University of Cape Town and with Kurt Danziger who developed the Concept of Future Orientations.

• DFG Programme: Research Fellowships