Prolonged deprivation and future orientation (FO) were studied in 200 Indian and Nepalese students of 14-16 and 18-20 years with verbal measures. In both cultures low deprived
subjects were significantly more firture-oriented. In the development of FO both age and deprivation were significant with experiential aspect of socialization exerting greater influence than physico-economic deprivation.
Future orientation (FO) or anticipation and evaluation of future is influenced by sociocultural factors and varies with social class (Lamm et al., 1976), institutionalization and delinquency (Trommsdorff and Lamm, 1980). Cross-cultural generality of these sociocultural influences on FO must be established (Lamm et al., 1976), because the same socio-economic groups in different societies may be characterized by different socialization practices. In complex hierarchical societies like India the social and/or economic status alone does not differentiate between high and low social groups neither does it provide insight into deprivation-related processes which influence FO. In the present study the Prolonged Deprivation Scale (PDS) which utilizes multiple criteria was, therefore, used.
It was hypothesized that persons having suffered high prolonged deprivation (HPD) would reveal less future oriented outlook in comparison to !ow prolonged deprivation (LPD) group in two different cultures. Since future orientation increases from adolescence to youth (Webb and Mayers, 1974) a similar trend was expected but it was hypothesized that this increment will be greater in LPD as compared to HPD group of subjects