Value-related goals and vocational choice: The effect of temporal distance

This field study examines the importance that people assign to value-related goals in their vocational decisions. We focused on the interactive effects of temporal distance from the vocational decision and the level of abstraction of the goal. Soldiers rated the importance of value-related goals for their vocational choice following their release from military service. They were presented with value-driven, abstract, decontextualized goals and with value-driven, concrete, job-related goals. For half, vocational choice was temporally close, and for the rest, it was temporally distant. Temporal distance from the vocational decision interacted with the level of abstraction of the goals in predicting their importance: When construed in the abstract, the goals were deemed more important if the vocational decision was distant. When construed concretely, the goals were deemed more important if the vocational decision was proximate.