Purpose

The scale assesses an individual’s tendency to function, behave, evaluate situations, and make decisions influenced by the past, present, and future.

Brief Description

This is a self-report scale consisting of 56 statements. Participants indicate the extent to which each statement characterizes them, using a scale from 1 (does not characterize me at all) to 5 (completely characterizes me). The scale includes five distinct time perspectives: Negative Past, Positive Past, Hedonistic Present, Fatalistic Present, and Future Orientation. It is useful in research and in assessing an individual’s psychological state, as it relates to behaviors such as procrastination, impulse control, and decision-making.

Validity

Exploratory factor analysis indicated that the scale demonstrates good construct validity.

Reliability

The Cronbach’s alpha reliability index was satisfactory for all subscales. For the Negative Past subscale, α = 0.81, for Positive Past α = 0.72, for Future Orientation α = 0.76, for Fatalistic Present α = 0.80, and for Hedonistic Present α = 0.65.

Data Analysis and Use

The analysis was initially conducted on a sample of 100 individuals and was confirmed with further exploratory factor analysis on a sample of 271 individuals, 68.3% of whom were women with a mean age of 19.85 years. Responses are rated from 1 to 5. The overall score for each subscale is calculated by taking the average of the corresponding items.

Bibliography

Zimbardo, P. G., & Boyd, J. N. (1999). Putting time in perspective: A valid, reliable individual-differences metric. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77, 1271–1288.