Motivation and emotion/Tutorials/Time perspective

Tutorial 10: Time perspective
This is the tenth tutorial for the motivation and emotion unit of study.

Overview

Figure 1. Anyone can travel through time by using their imagination?

This tutorial is about:

the psychology of time and, more specifically,
Zimbardo's model of time perspective and how it relates to motivation and emotion

Would you like to time travel?

It turns out, you already a time traveller simply do by adopting different cognitions about time—or time perspectives (e.g., past, present, future).

Time perspectives relate to cognitive psychology, personality, motivation, and emotion.

Humans are unconsciously influenced by their cognitions about time. By understanding this, we can optimise our time perspective to live better lives.

Take-home messages:

Time perspective unconsciously influences our thoughts, feelings, and behaviour
The ideal profile involves balanced and flexible use of past, present, and future time perspectives

What is time perspective?

Did you know that we can travel through time (see Figure 1)?

Time travel is very simple to do and we do it "all the time".

Figure 2. People unconsciously adopt different time perspectives - whether past, present, or future.

For example, close your eyes and think about what happened:

10 minutes ago
yesterday
many years ago

Similarly, you imagine various futures for yourself e.g., in:

1 hour
1 year
30 years

Or you could focus all your thought and attention could be focused on what is happening in the present.

Time perspective (TP) refers to how we think about time. It can be broadly divided into (see Figure 2):

Past
Present
Future

ZTPI

Activity: ZTPI

Complete the Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory (ZTPI)
Discuss the underlying theory
Discuss class results

Theory

Time perspective theory considers:

the types of time perspective
time perspective principles

Types

Figure 3. Six possible time perspective factors, based on Zimbardo (2009).

Time perspective can be conceptualised in terms of whether it focuses on past, present, and future, but also by the valence of that focus (e.g., positive or negative). This leads to the five time perspectives suggested by Zimbardo (2009; see Figure 3):

Past Negative
Past Positive
Present Hedonistic
Present Fatalistic
Future

It is unclear whether future should be separated into future negative and future positive (there is mixed evidence).

Zimbardo also suggests another time perspective:

Transcendental (TFTPI)

which is about focusing on time beyond one's lifetime.

For more information, see an overview of time perspective types (thetimeparadox.com)

Principles

Time perspective influences thoughts, feelings, and behaviour unconsciously
Each time perspective has benefits, but excesses create negative consequences
Time perspectives are learned through personal experience
We can learn to change our time perspectives

Results

Compare your ZTPI scores with the:

Norms:
- Past Negative (Mdn = 3.0)
- Past Positive (Mdn = 3.2)
- Present Hedonism (Mdn = 3.9)
- Present Fatalism (Mdn = 2.3)
- Future (Mdn = 3.4)
Ideal profile
- Past Positive - High (like your past)
- Present Hedonism - Moderate (choose when to select pleasure in the present) [1]
- Future - Moderately high (work for the future)
Worst profile:
- Past Negative - High
- Present Fatalism - High
- = living in a negative past and believing you can do nothing to change it[2]

Multimedia

Figure 4. Phillip Zimbardo, one of the most famous 20th-21st century psychologists.

Does the name, Philip Zimbardo ring a bell (see Figure 4)?

It should for psychology students!

Maybe something about a prison experiment?

In the early 1970s Zimbardo tackled a fundamental question that had plagued psychologists since World War II – are humans fundamentally evil – or do extreme circumstances mean that normal people can be made to act inhumanely?

Fast forward a few decades and Zimbardo has worked on many other areas of psychology including, more recently, time perspective.

Watch: Philip Zimbardo prescribes a healthy take on time (Philip Zimbardo, 5:36 min, TED talk, 2009)

Discussion

How could your time perspective be improved?
How could time perspective be applied?

Books

Zimbardo's two books on this topic are:

Recording

Tutorial 10 (2024)

References

Sword, R. M., Sword, R. K., Brunskill, S. R., & Zimbardo, P. G. (2014). Time perspective therapy: A new time-based metaphor therapy for PTSD. Journal of Loss and Trauma, 19(3), 197-201. https://doi.org/10.1080/15325024.2013.763632 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/15325024.2013.763632

Zimbardo, P. G. & Boyd, J. N. (2009). The time paradox: Using the new psychology of time to your advantage. Free Press.

Zimbardo, P. G., Sword, R. M., & Sword, R. K. M. (2012). The time cure: Overcoming PTSD with the new psychology of time perspective therapy. Jossey-Bass.