Investigating Balanced Time Perspective in Adults across the Life Span

Abstract

The current study investigated balanced time perspective (BTP) in adults across the life span (N = 400, 43.3% males). Boniwell and Zimbardo (2004) defined BTP as the flow and flexibility of connecting to the past, living in the present, and looking forward to the future and argued that is an optimal time perspective associated with happiness and well-being. Using Time Attitude Scale (Mello & Worrell, 2012), younger (M = 26.09 years), middle-aged (M = 46.72 years), and older (M = 64.25 years) adults subjective ratings of their positive and negative attitudes towards the past, present, and future were used to identify individuals who had a BTP.

Examining whether Time Orientation Mediates or Moderates Age Effects on Goal Selection and Pursuit

“…However, age was not significantly correlated with any of the other time perspectives: positive past (r = .11), positive present (r = .10), negative present (r = -.10), positive future (r = .00), and negative future (r = -.06). In the current study there is little to no relationship between age and future time perspective, these results may be contrary to Pichayayothin's (2014) results showing that older adults viewed their future as more negative and less positive.…”

“…A multi-group analysis showed that the factor loadings of the TAS were invariant across the three age groups. Pichayayothin (2014) also found that all six subscales had a strong correlation with subjective well-being. Showing that the TAS may measure temporal well-being.…”

“…With these exploratory analyses we found that the moderating effects were concentrated on the highest levels of positive time (past, present, and future) and the lowest levels of negative time, but only for future). These results may, first, be very telling about the TAS (Pichayayothin, 2014;Mello & Worrell, 2012). Even though the correlations showed highly significant associations between the subscales, these scales may not be polar opposites of each other but rather tapping into different aspects of time.…”

“…Showing that the TAS may measure temporal well-being. In an age-mixed sample (Pichayayothin, 2014), construct validity of the TAS was shown to correlate with other time scales. Specifically, positive future was strongly correlated with focusing on opportunities (r = .8) whereas negative future was strongly correlated with focusing on limitations (r = -.70) (Cate & John, 2007).…”

“…In addition, we assessed valence of time orientation. Using the modified TAS (Pichayayothin, 2014;Mello & Worrell, 2012), we can begin to differentiate the effects of both temporal orientation and valence. As shown in the shaded section of Table 5, Thus, these correlations might provide support for the continued use of Lang and Carstensen's (2002) unidimensional conceptualization of time orientation.…”