Time perspective (Zimbardo, ZTPI)

The Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory (ZTPI) measures the habitual, often unconscious way you sort the flow of experience into past, present and future — a bias Zimbardo argued steers everyday decisions as powerfully as a personality trait. Instead of one type, it places you on five independent dimensions: a negative and a positive relationship with the past, a hedonistic and a fatalistic stance toward the present, and a future, planning orientation. Zimbardo and Boyd held that the healthiest profile is not maxing any single one but a 'balanced time perspective' — high past-positive, fairly high future, moderate present-hedonism, and low past-negative and present-fatalism.

The Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory (Zimbardo & Boyd, 1999) is a validated 56-item measure whose five factors were established by exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis with good reliability; it is among the most widely used individual-differences measures of time orientation. Each factor is a continuous dimension, not a fixed category. (Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory (ZTPI))

Dimensions

• Past-negative (At peace with the past – Haunted by the past) — How much a bleak, regretful view of the past colours your outlook. Leaning high means dwelling on hurt, failure and bad memories; leaning low means recalling the past without lingering bitterness. Of the five, this factor is the one most consistently linked to lower well-being.
• Past-positive (Unsentimental – Warmly nostalgic) — How fondly and sentimentally you hold the past. Leaning high means treasuring happy memories, family and tradition; leaning low means feeling little nostalgic pull toward what has gone.
• Present-hedonistic (Restrained – Living for the moment) — How much you seek pleasure, novelty and excitement in the present. Leaning high means spontaneity, sensation and enjoying now with little thought of consequences; leaning low means a more measured, deferred approach to enjoyment.
• Present-fatalistic (Master of your fate – Resigned to fate) — How much you feel the present is governed by fate rather than your own choices. Leaning high means believing that effort changes little and that what will be will be; leaning low means feeling that your decisions shape what happens.
• Future (Live for today – Plan ahead) — How much you orient toward goals, planning and future rewards. Leaning high means working now for later payoff and weighing consequences; leaning low means giving tomorrow little weight in today's choices.

References

• Zimbardo, P. G., & Boyd, J. N. (1999). Putting time in perspective: A valid, reliable individual-differences metric. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77(6), 1271–1288
• Zimbardo, P. G., & Boyd, J. N. (2008). The Time Paradox: The New Psychology of Time That Will Change Your Life. Free Press

Related topics

• Generational cohort
• Decade you identify with
• Event that shaped your generation
• The age you feel
• Your sense of time

All topics on ArtaQuest