CONSTRUCT REPRESENTATION OF SELF-REPORT FUTURE TIME PERSPECTIVE FOR WORK AND RETIREMENT SCHOLARSHIP A Dissertation Thesis Presented to The Academic Faculty By Matthew James Kerry In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology Georgia Institute of Technology May, 2015 Copyright © Matthew James Kerry 2015 Construct Representation of Self-Report Future Time Perspective for Work and Retirement Scholarship Dr. Susan E. Embretson, Advisor Dr. Rustin Meyer School of Psychology School of Psychology Georgia Institute of Technology Georgia Institute of Technology Dr. Jack M. Feldman Dr. David M. Sluss School of Psychology College of Management Georgia Institute of Technology Georgia Institute of Technology Dr. Audrey Duarte School of Psychology Georgia Institute of Technology Date Approved: December 10th, 2014 For Larry For Kathrin For Ludo ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I must first thank my advisor, Susan Embretson, for the immense encouragement, patient mentoring, and steadfast support rendered to me in a delicate time. I am grateful for the provocative engagements as much as for the congenial conversations. I am further humbled and privileged as a student to the field of psychometric assessment – innervating me to rediscover rational inquiry-cum-legitimate empiricism in the social sciences. A new plane for practice and research. I am grateful now and always - thank you. I would also like to acknowledge and give special thanks to my committee members – Drs. Rustin Meyer, David Sluss, Jack Feldman, and Audrey Duarte. All of these members have influenced my maturation as a scientist and the development of this thesis. To my family, thank you for seeing me through. To my mom, for your unwavering compassion. To pops, for instilling that I can always leave something better than I found it while being exactly where I should be. To all my brothers, Johnny, Stephen, Allie - I am proud to be a compilation of all your strengths. To Kathrin. Thank you for staying (again). We have much ado about anything. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .............................................................................................. iv LIST OF TABLES .......................................................................................................... viii LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................... x LIST OF SYMBOLS AND ABBREVIATIONS ............................................................ xii SUMMARY xiii INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 Overview of Construct Representation in Validation Research 4 1.2 Psychometrics of Modern Test Theory for Response Process Decomposition 5 1.3 Psychological Research on Self-Report Response Processes 7 1.4 Sources of Validity Evidence in the Universal System 10 1.5 Design, Measuremennt, and General Statement of Purpose 12 CHAPTER 2 WORK, RETIREMENT, AND FUTURE TIME PERSPECTIVE 16 2.1 Specific Statement of Purpose 20 CHAPTER 3 FUTURE TIME PERSPECTIVE 22 3.1 Early Scholastic Development 22 3.2 Overview of Socioemotional Selectivity Theory 23 3.3 Overview of Psychomotivational Model of Retirement Planning 24 3.4 Internal Sources of Validity Evidence 24 3.5 Theoretical Analysis 25 3.5.1 Hershey’s FTP Scale (H-FTP). ....................................................................... 26 3.5.2 Carstensen’s FTP Scale (C-FTP). .................................................................. 27 3.6 Domain Structure 28 3.7 Psychometric Properties 29 CHAPTER 4 EXTERNAL SOURCES OF VALIDITY EVIDENCE ............................ 31 4.1 Age Correlates 31 4.2 Retirement Planning Correlates 32 4.3 Intended Retirement Correlates 33 CHAPTER 5 RETROSPECTIVE-OBSERVATION STUDY ........................................ 36 5.1 Overview 36 5.2 Retro-Obs Methods (IRT) 36 5.3 Retro-Obs Results (IRT) 41 5.3.1 Comparative Model Fit ................................................................................... 42 v 5.3.2 Retro-Obs IRT Hypothesis Tests ..................................................................... 43 5.4 (SEM) Methods 57 5.4.1 Data Treatment ............................................................................................... 57 5.4.2 Measurement Model Specification .................................................................. 72 5.5 Retro-Obs Results (SEM) 89 5.5.1 Structural Model Estimation for Main-Effect Hypothesis Testing ................. 89 5.5.2 Approach to Latent Interactions ..................................................................... 93 5.5.3 Sample Contrasts ............................................................................................ 99 CHAPTER 6 EXPERIMENTAL STUDY .................................................................... 109 6.1 Overview 109 6.2 Methods 109 6.3 Results 112 6.3.1 Tests of Main-Effect Hypotheses ................................................................... 112 6.3.2 Tests of Interaction-Effect Hypotheses ......................................................... 114 6.3.3 ‘Pre – Post’ Conditions and Big-Five Correlates with FTP ........................ 118 CHAPTER 7 GENERAL DISCUSSION ...................................................................... 122 7.1 Summary of Empricial Findings 123 7.2.1 Practical Implications ................................................................................... 126 7.2.2 Theoretical Implications ............................................................................... 127 7.2.3 Limitations .................................................................................................... 129 7.3 Testable Propositions for Future Integration of Work – Retirement Scholarship 131 7.4 Conclusion 133 APPENDIX A ................................................................................................................ 135 APPENDIX B 137 APPENDIX C 146 APPENDIX D 154 APPENDIX E 165 APPENDIX F 184 vi REFERENCES .............................................................................................................. 191 vii LIST OF TABLES Table 1 Summary of Directional Empirical Findings. ................................................18 Table 2 Comparison of Two Future Time Perspective Questionnaires: Construct Conceptualization, Theoretical Postulates, and Item Content..................... 30 Table 3 Comparison of External Correlates of Two Future Time Perspective Questionnaires...…………………………………………………………… 34 Table 4 Summary Sample Characteristics over Hierarchical Strati ......……………. 38 Table 5 Summary Job Status Proportions, MCAR-Tests of FTP Instrument, and SLE Summary Descriptives over Sample Strati………...……………………… 40 Table 6 Model Fit Indices for Models using the FTP Questionnaire. ........................42 Table 7 Stepwise- Compact-Augmented Model Comparisons of Future Time Perspective Item Measurement Invariance across Workers and Retirees… 45 Table 8 Summary DIF Statistics by Slope and Location Parameter Estimates for Anchor-All-Items ..........................................................................................46 Table 9 Summary DIF Statistics by Slope and Location Parameter Estimates for Anchor-All-Other Items .................................................................................47 Table 10 Item Information Function Values by Workers and Retirees at Five Levels of Theta ……………………………………………………………………55 Table 11 Summary Statistics for Pattern Analyses of System-Missing Data across Datasets ........................................................................................................59 Table 12 Para-data Summary of Unconditional System- and User-missing Data ......64 Table 13 Pairwise Binomial Tests of Unit-Response as Function of FTP Unit-Response……………………………………………………………. 65 viii Table 14 Item non-responses probabilities as a function of FTP-unit non-response.. 66 Table 15 Summary Statistics for Pattern Analyses of User-Missing Data (Item Non- Response) in the Base Sample (N = 434) ....................................................67 Table 16 Summary Results of Little MCAR Chi-square Tests ..................................68 Table 17 Summary Descriptives, Non-Parametric, and Parametric Paired-Sample Tests for Retirement Plan Imputation in Base Sample (N = 434) ...............71 Table 18 Summary of Restricted Backward-search Measurement Model Respecification in Listwise Sample (N = 279). ...........................................77 Table 19 Nested-Measurement Model Comparisons for Listwise Sample (N =279). 80 Table 20 Measurement Model Restricted-Forward Search Respecification Criteria for Listwise Sample (N =279) ....................................................................81 Table 21 Measurement Model Modification Fit Indices and Configural Comparisons for Listwise Sample (N =279) .....................................................................83 Table 22 Summary Descriptive Statistics of All Observable Variables for Listwise Sample……………………………………………………………………..85 Table 23 Bivariate Correlation Matrix and Summary Descriptive Statistics for the Listwise Sample (N = 279) ..........................................................................86 Table 24 Summary of Obtained Structural Parameter Estimates Across Samples, Measurement Model Specification and Structural Model Estimation Methods........................................................................................................98 Table 25 Summary Descriptive Statistics by Community and Online Samples .......111 Table 26 Intercorrelation Matrices