Aging and the experience of ‘remembered’ time: A biopsychosocial exploration

Abstract

Though considerable research has been conducted on the subjective experience of time periods of short duration, little has been written about acceleration of long intervals of remembered time with age. The author reviews and assesses psychosocial, biological, and mathematical considerations contributing toward a comprehensive understanding of why the years seem to 'fly by' increasingly more rapidly. In particular, it is suggested that the powerful impact of social acceleration on our subjective sense of the passage of time may affect us differently at various stages in the life cycle.

The subjective texture of time. An exploratory and empirical approach to time perspectives in Chile

“…This also occurs for each component in relation to Cronbach’s alpha value and the element count: Past-Negative, .406, 2; Past-Positive, .396, 2; Future, .483, 2; Present, .580, 3. The impact of a small number of items in the low values of Cronbach’s alpha in ZTPI has also been revealed in other studies (D’Alessio et al., 2003).…”

“…The findings in Chile tend to be quite similar to those throughout the world. There is an analogous tendency of groups composed of older respondents toward the Future (Corral et al., 2006; D’Alessio et al., 2003; Díaz Morales, 2006) as is the case in the higher socioeconomic classes (Milfont et al., 2008). However, there are also studies where youth are found to be more future oriented (Liniauskaite and Kairys, 2009) or where there are no significant differences in TPs among individuals related to age or gender (Boniwell et al., 2010).…”

“…The ZTPI has been applied and adapted to gauge the TPs of individuals in various countries (see Table 7). It has been applied not only in the United States (Zimbardo and Boyd, 1999) but also in countries such as Brazil (Milfont et al., 2008), Spain (Díaz Morales, 2006), Italy 9 (D’Alessio et al., 2003), Great Britain (Boniwell et al., 2010), Lithuania (Liniauskaite and Kairys, 2009), Mexico (Corral et al., 2006), and Russia (Boniwell et al., 2010).…”

“…In these studies the original five-factor model consisting of 56 items have been replicated, albeit with a few differences in the number of items per component (Boniwell et al., 2010; Díaz Morales, 2006; Liniauskaite and Kairys, 2009). However, there have also been cases where the model was constructed with fewer items (Milfont et al., 2008), fewer factors (Corral et al., 2006), or fewer factors and items (D’Alessio et al., 2003), as in Chile.…”

“…This emphasis lies on the role future perspectives play in setting long-term goals and displacing rewards, such as academic achievement, the development of a professional career, or building a family. Meanwhile, others have placed greater importance on the meaning of past experiences for biographical construction and the creation of future expectations (Chernus, 2011;Ely and Mercurio, 2011;Roberts, 2004).…”