Time Perspective and Career Decision-Making Difficulties in Adults

Abstract

Decision making is not only contingent upon what takes place in the present but also on how one feels about the past and one’s hopes for the future. However, when it comes to time perspective and career decision making, vocational psychology has focused exclusively on future time perspective. The present study examines the relations among past, present, and future time perspectives and career decision-making difficulties in a sample of 195 adults seeking career counseling services. Participants completed the Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory (ZTPI) and the Career Decision-Making Difficulties Questionnaire (CDDQ). Results from canonical correlation analysis produced three significant canonical variates. The results indicate that different patterns in time perspective are associated with different types of career decision-making difficulties. Areas for future research regarding time perspective and career decision making are discussed.

Keywords

time perspective career decision making career development career counseling career decision-making difficulties career indecision

The ability to mentally time travel to the past and to the future is a uniquely human characteristic (Suddendorf & Corballis, 1997). As Lewin (1951) observed, an individual’s behavior does not rely completely on the present situation but rather also upon hopes in the future as well as views on the past. A growing body of research has confirmed Lewin’s proposition that recollections of the past, feelings about the present, and the degree that people can envision the future influences judgments, decisions, expectations, and actions (Zimbardo & Boyd, 1999). Even though past, present, and future temporal zones exert a good deal of influence on a variety of behaviors and psychological processes, vocational psychology has focused primarily on future time perspective in relation to understanding the career decision-making process. To date, no research regarding past and present temporal zones or the combination of various temporal zones has been examined in relation to career decision making. The purpose of the present study is to examine the relations among different temporal zones and career decision-making difficulties.

While the study of past and present temporal zones have been absent in the career decision-making literature, future time perspective characterized by planning and achieving future goals has been explicit in career development theories (e.g., Crites, 1965; Savickas, 2002; Super, 1974). Research on future time perspective in relation to career development has largely supported theoretical expectations. For example, results from a study by Savickas, Silling, and Schwartz (1984) confirmed that future time perspective is a component of career maturity attitudes and negatively related to career indecision in a sample of first year college students. Other studies have confirmed these results. Ferrari, Nota, and Soresi (2010) also reported that adolescents with an orientation toward the future demonstrated less career indecision and had higher levels school achievement. A study by Lennings (1994) reported that a positive attitude toward the future positively predicted career maturity attitudes when controlling for locus of control and generalized self-efficacy in samples of high school seniors and first year college students. More recently, Janeiro (2010) reported that future time perspective was an important determinant in career planning in 9th- and 12th-grade students. Likewise, Marko and Savickas (1998) demonstrated that an intervention designed to enhance future time perspective resulted in the development of career planning attitudes. The pattern of results suggests that future time perspective positively influences career choice readiness, decidedness, and career planning. However, these studies have focused exclusively on the degree to which participants were able to orient themselves toward the future using unidimensional measures of future time perspective. In keeping with Lewin’s view that past, present, and future temporal zones influence behavior, recent developments in the study of time perspective have opened the door to examining how the various time perspectives may influence vocational behavior.

Zimbardo and Boyd (1999) created the Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory (ZTPI) for studying time perspective within a framework that combines past, present, and future temporal orientations and emotional valence. Here, time perspective is defined as an “often non-conscious process whereby the continual flows of personal and social experiences are assigned to temporal categories, or time frames, that help to give order, coherence, and meaning to those events” (Zimbardo & Boyd, 1999, p. 1271). Based on their research, five temporal zones have been operationalized—past-negative, past-positive, future, present-hedonistic, and present-fatalistic. Each of the aforementioned time perspectives delineate characteristic attitudes and behaviors that accompany a particular temporal zone (Zimbardo & Boyd, 1999). Past-negative reflects a pessimistic and aversive view of the past, which may be based on actual negative life experiences or negative reconstruction of past events. Past-positive reflects a warm and sentimental view of the past. Future time orientation denotes concern with achieving goals, delaying gratification, and avoidance of wasting time. Present-hedonistic encompasses living in the moment, immediate gratification, and pleasure seeking. Present-fatalistic reflects a sense of hopelessness toward the future and an inability to connect current behavior to future consequences. The five time perspectives are orthogonal and therefore an individual may be high or low in all of the time perspectives. However, it is also posited that people may in fact develop a temporal bias in which a temporal zone is habitually emphasized in making decisions (Boyd & Zimbardo, 2005). Conversely, people may also habitually underuse one or more time perspectives.

Research has examined the temporal zones in relation to a variety of psychological and behavioral outcomes. Initial research by Zimbardo and Boyd (1999) reported a number of significant relationships between the five temporal zones and a variety of theoretically expected behaviors. For instance, past-negative was positively related to aggressiveness, shyness, and self-reported symptoms of anxiety and depression. Conversely, past-negative was inversely associated with self-reported happiness and self-esteem. Past-positive was positively related to self-esteem and happiness and negatively related with aggression and self-reported symptoms of anxiety and depression. Future time perspective was positively related to conscientiousness, increased likelihood of considering future consequences, hours devoted to academic study, and grade point average and negatively related to sensation seeking and self-reported of symptoms of anxiety and depression. Present-hedonistic was positively related to creativity, novelty seeking, sensation seeking, and increased frequency in lying and stealing and negatively related to preference for consistency. Present-fatalistic was associated positively with sensation seeking, lying, and stealing as well as self-reported symptoms of anxiety and depression. Conversely present-fatalistic was negatively related to less consideration of future consequences and lower grade point average. Subsequent research has demonstrated that the five temporal zones when examined in isolation or in combination explains the variance in other psychological processes and behaviors.

Research has shown that past, present, and future time perspectives relate to a number of desirable and undesirable behavioral and psychological outcomes. Zhang and Howell (2011) reported that research participants high in past-positive and present-hedonism and low in past-negative demonstrated higher levels of life satisfaction when controlling for demographic and personality variables. Similarly, a balanced time perspective (Boniwell & Zimbardo, 2004) typified by moderate to high scores on past-positive, present-hedonistic, and future while being low in past-negative and present-fatalistic has been reported to be associated with well-being (Boniwell, Osin, Linley, & Ivanchenko, 2010). In a study examining time perspective and gambling, Hodgins and Engel (2002) reported that pathological gamblers had a higher degree of present-hedonism and present-fatalism when compared to psychiatric patients and social gamblers and were also higher in past-negative when compared to social gamblers. In a similar vein, present time perspective was positively related and future orientation was negatively related to substance use in elementary school children (Wills, Sandy, & Yeager, 2001) as well as in high school students and adults (Keough, Zimbardo, & Boyd, 1999). The present oriented time perspectives have also been linked to different types of procrastination (Ferrari & Diaz-Morales, 2007). People high in present-fatalism were more prone to avoidant procrastination—the tendency to avoid tasks to prevent negative feedback that may affect self-worth. Whereas those high in present-hedonism and low in future orientation exhibited arousal procrastination—the delay of task completion for the purpose of experiencing pleasurable arousal in the rush to meet a deadline. In short, when time is considered from a multidimensional standpoint, there is an increase in predictive efficiency beyond one-dimensional measures of a single time perspective.

As illustrated above, the examination of time from more than one perspective provides a comprehensive view of how time affects a variety of behaviors and psychological processes. Research in vocational psychology has only considered the degree of future orientation in relation to career decision making (e.g., Ferrari, Nota, & Soresi, 2010; Savickas, Silling, & Schwartz, 1984). This approach fails to consider the multidimensional nature of psychological time perspective in relation to the process of decision making. Multidimensional study of time perspective has the potential to add to vocational psychology’s knowledge base regarding the conceptualization of career decision-making difficulties (cf. Brown & Rector, 2008) beyond the investigation of future time perspective alone. Given that the various temporal zones influence judgment and decisions differently, time perspective can be a precursor to career decision-making barriers and facilitators. Accordingly, the purpose of the current study is to explore how the five temporal zones relate to different types of career decision-making difficulties.

Method

Participants

The participants in the current study consisted of 216 adults (128 women, 86 men, and 1 did not report) seeking career services at a medium sized Midwestern university sponsored career counseling center. Of these, nine did not complete the measures used in the study and were excluded from analyses. Further, an additional 12 participants provided responses on the two validity items of the Career Decision-Making Difficulties Questionnaire (CDDQ) that suggested they were not forthcoming in responding and were also excluded from analyses. Thus, the final number of participants was 195 (116 women, 78 men, and 1 did not report). The ages of participants ranged from 19 to 80 years (M = 39.85; SD = 11.64). Of the 195 participants, 181 (92.8%) self-identified as Caucasian; 5 (2.6%) were Asian; 4 (2.1%) were African American; 2 (1.0%) were multiethnic; 1 (.5%) was Hispanic; 1 (.5%) was Native American, and 1 (.5%) participant did not specify ethnicity.

Measures

Career decision-making difficulties

The 34-item version of the CDDQ (Gati & Saka, 2001) was used to assess problems in career decision making. The CDDQ contains 10 difficulty categories embedded in three major difficulty categories: Readiness (lack of motivation, general indecisiveness, and dysfunctional beliefs), Lack of Information (the stages of career decision-making process, self, occupations, and ways of obtaining additional information), Inconsistent Information (unreliable information, internal conflicts, and external conflicts). The CDDQ uses a 9-point rating scale ranging from 1 (does not describe me) to 9 (describes me well). The 10 difficulty categories were used in the present study. The internal consistency estimate reliabilities for the current sample ranged from α = .58 for internal conflicts to α = .85 for the stages of career decision-making process. The median estimate of internal consistency reliability for the 10 category scales was .73. The CDDQ has demonstrated evidence of construct and criterion validity (Albion & Fogarty, 2002; Amir & Gati, 2006; Gati & Saka, 2001; Kleiman & Gati, 2004).

Time perspective

The ZTPI (Zimbardo & Boyd, 1999) was used to measure participants’ time perspectives. The ZTPI is a 56-item inventory with 5 subscales reflecting the temporal zones of past-positive, past-negative, present-hedonistic, present-fatalistic, and future. The ZTPI uses a 5-point Likert-type scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). Example items of the past time orientations include statements such as “I get nostalgic about my childhood” reflecting past-positive and “I often think about what I should have done differently in my life” reflecting past-negative. Example items of the present time perspective include “I make decisions on the spur of the moment” reflecting present-hedonistic and “You can’t really plan for the future because things change so much” reflecting present-fatalistic. “Before making a decision, I weight the costs against the benefits” is an example of a future time perspective item. Estimates of internal consistency reliability for the current study ranged from α = .71 for the present-fatalistic scale to α = .85 for the past-negative scale. The ZTPI has demonstrated evidence of construct and predictive validity (Zimbardo & Boyd, 1999).

Procedure

Adults seeking career counseling services were invited to participate in the study after the initial intake session. Clients were informed that participation was voluntary. Those that consented to participate in the study completed a brief demographics questionnaire and the CDDQ and the ZTPI. Participants completed the measures in the aforementioned order.

Results

Table 1 shows the means, standard deviations, and correlations among all the variables in the study. To control for Type I error, Bonferroni correction was applied to adjust the alpha level (.05/105). Results of the Pearson correlations indicated a number of significant relations among the time perspective scales and career decision-making difficulty scales. Past-negative time perspective was associated with general indecisiveness (r = .39), dysfunctional beliefs (r = .31), lack of information about self (r = .26), unreliable information (r = .34), and internal conflicts (r = .29). Future time perspective was inversely related to lack of motivation (r = −.31). Both the present-hedonistic and the present-fatalistic time perspectives were positively associated with dysfunctional beliefs. Present-hedonistic was also positively related to internal conflicts (r = .27). Present-fatalistic was also positively related to lack of motivation (r = .33) and general indecisiveness (r = .27). In keeping with Lewin’s views on the multidimensional nature of time perspective, a canonical correlation analysis was performed.

Table 1.

Means, Standard Deviations, and Correlations for Career Decision-Making Difficulties and Time Perspectives (N = 195).

	M	SD	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15
1. RD—Lack of motivation	2.6	1.40	–
2. RD—General indeciveness	5.8	2.10	.12	–
3. RD—Dysfunctional beliefs	3.1	1.56	.26*	.29*	–
4. LOI—CDM process	5.6	2.15	.08	.30*	.21	–
5. LOI—Self	4.7	2.00	.11	.24	.26*	.60*	–
6. LOI—Occupations	6.1	2.12	−.06	.19	.05	.57*	.55*	–
7. LOI—Ways of obtaining info	5.1	2.23	.04	.13	.14	.45*	.50*	.64*	–
8. II—Unreliable Information	4.0	1.93	.12	.33*	.26*	.21	.37*	.22	.28*	–
9. II—Internal conflicts	4.4	1.56	.13	.30*	.24	.26*	.31*	.27*	.28*	.69*	–
10. II—External conflicts	2.7	1.99	.19	.27*	.21	.13	.21	.13	.17	.34*	.34*	–
11. Past-negative	3.1	.72	.01	.39*	.31*	.18	.26*	.19	.14	.34*	.29*	.21	–
12. Past-positive	3.4	.62	−.05	−.09	−.04	−.03	−.15	−.13	−.05	−.09	−.15	−.05	−.45*	–
13. Future	3.7	.51	−.31*	−.16	−.04	−.10	−.02	.07	−.03	−.13	−.09	−.04	−.17	.17	–
14. Present-hedonistic	3.1	.51	.14	.02	.20	−.01	.04	−.06	−.08	.29*	.27*	.05	.09	.00	−.33*	–
15. Present-fatalistic	2.4	.53	.33*	.27*	.24	.07	.14	.04	.09	.25*	.15	.12	.42*	−.15	−.46*	.32*	–

Note. II = Inconsistent Information; LOI = Lack of Information; RD = Readiness.

*p < .05. (Bonferroni correction applied: p < .0005).

Results of the canonical correlation analysis are presented in Table 2. Results of the analysis indicated that three of the five canonical variates were significant: Wilk’s Λ = .438, F(50, 824) = 3.23, p < .001 for the first, Wilk’s Λ = .629, F(36, 680) = 2.49, p < .001 for the second, and Wilk’s Λ = .789, F(24, 528) = 1.87, p < .001 for the third. The first canonical correlation was .55 accounting for 30% of the overlapping variance. The second canonical correlation was .45 accounting for 20% of the overlapping variance. The third canonical correlation was .36 accounting for 13% of the variance.

Table 2.

Canonical Analysis for Career Decision-Making Difficulties Variables With Time Perspective Variables (N = 195).

	Variate 1		Variate 2		Variate 3
	Coef	r_s	Coef	r_s	Coef	r_s
CDM difficulties
RD—Lack of motivation	.16	−.07	−.82	−.79	−.46	−.43
RD—General indeciveness	−.31	−.63	−.45	−.41	.65	.50
RD—Dysfunctional beliefs	−.51	−.69	.25	−.07	−.08	−.06
LOI—CDM process	.17	−.25	−.22	−.16	.11	.29
LOI—Self	−.15	−.44	.20	−.02	.01	.18
LOI—Occupations	−.21	−.27	.34	.13	.00	.33
LOI—Ways of obtaining info	.24	−.16	−.37	−.15	.43	.37
II—Unreliable information	−.44	−.75	−.25	−.13	−.28	−.25
II—Internal conflicts	−.13	−.63	.40	.07	−.50	−.34
II—External conflicts	−.03	−.39	.11	−.07	.27	.17
Time perspectives
Past-negative	−.89	−.89	.19	−.07	.63	.36
Past-positive	−.13	.25	−.19	−.06	.34	.07
Future	−.21	.12	.70	.80	−.06	.25
Present-hedonistic	−.42	−.48	.39	−.02	−.88	−.85
Present-fatalistic	−.13	−.51	−.63	−.72	−.13	−.16
Canonical Correlation		.55		.45		.36

Note. II = Inconsistent Information; LOI = Lack of Information; RD = Readiness.

Noteworthy canonical loadings are indicated in bold.

Variables with a cutoff canonical loading of .30 between the two pairs of canonical variates were interpreted (Tabachnick & Fidell, 2007). Canonical loadings are interpreted in a similar fashion to factor loadings in factor analysis with larger loading values indicating that the variable is a clearer indicator of the variate (Comrey & Lee, 1992). The first pair of canonical variates indicated that lower levels of past-negative (−.89), present-hedonistic (−.48), and present-fatalistic (−.51) was associated with less indecisiveness (−.63), dysfunctional beliefs (−.69), problems regarding information about self (−.44), problems associated with unreliable information (−.75), internal conflicts (−.63), and external conflicts (−.39). The second canonical variate indicated that a higher level of future time perspective (.80) and lower level of present-fatalistic (−.72) was associated with less problems regarding lack of motivation (−.79) and general indecisiveness (−.41). The third variate indicated that those high in past-negative (.36) and low in present-hedonistic (−.85) was associated with less problems related to lack of motivation (−.43) and internal conflicts (−.34) but had more problems associated with general indecisiveness (.50), lack of occupational information (.33), and ways of obtaining information (.37).

Discussion

The purpose of the present study was to examine the multidimensional nature of time perspective in relation to career decision-making difficulties. While theory and research in vocational psychology have focused exclusively on future time perspective, results of the present study indicate that past and present time perspectives are also associated with career decision-making difficulties. Specifically, the results indicated three patterns of relations among the five time perspectives and types of career decision-making difficulties.

The first variate in the canonical correlation analysis indicated that the negative valences of past-negative and present-fatalistic time perspective when coupled with present-hedonistic time perspective accounts for a number of career decision-making difficulties. That is, people who tend to negatively evaluate the past, and did not see themselves as instrumental in shaping the future and focused on present enjoyment were more likely to be indecisive, had more dysfunctional beliefs regarding decision making, had less self-knowledge, and encountered several problems associated with unreliable career information, internal conflict regarding occupational preferences, and external conflicts with significant others regarding career choices. Of the time perspective variables, past-negative had the highest loading suggesting that it dominated the time perspective variable set. It could be that those who either have had an unpleasant past or at least reconstruct the past in aversive terms may consequently feel powerless to control the future and subsequently engage in present oriented hedonistic endeavors since planning and thinking about the future is of no consequence. This pattern of time perspectives in turn indicates greater difficulty associated with both the aspects of readiness to engage in decision making and the difficulties associated with the act of decision making itself.

The second variate indicated that high in future and low in present-fatalism time perspectives experienced less problems with lack of motivation and indecisiveness. The pattern of results indicated that those that are oriented to the future and believe they have control over their destinies are more likely to be motivated and decisive in the career decision-making process. This is largely consistent with results found with adolescents (Ferrari et al., 2010) and college students (Savickas et al., 1984) relating to career maturity and indecision.

The third variate is characterized by low present-hedonistic and high past-negative time perspectives associated with less problems related to motivation and internal conflicts and more problems associated with indecisiveness and lack of information regarding occupations and ways of obtaining information. This suggests that those that are unable to experience pleasure in the present and are distressed by the past may be motivated to make a career decision, yet are still indecisive and lack basic information needed to make a decision and thus are less likely to be internally conflicted over choice. In effect, the pattern of results suggests that there is a sufficient level of distress that warrants the desire to make a decision, yet there is still a sense of uncertainty and lack of resources to do so.

The results have implications for practice. Career counseling assessments and interventions ideally work with people that are oriented toward the future (Meara, 1996; Savickas, 1991). However, not all clients enter career counseling with a future orientation. In fact, as the results from the current study suggests, some clients may indeed be seeking career counseling for the purposes of assistance with career decision making precisely because they are oriented toward other time perspectives. Therefore, as counselors work with clients on issues related to career decision making, it may be important to incorporate interventions that target changes in the aforementioned time perspectives related to decision-making difficulties. For instance, Marko and Savickas (1998) demonstrated that future time perspective can be enhanced through the use of a three-phase group intervention suggesting that time perspective is malleable. This type of intervention would be most beneficial in cases where the decision-making difficulties concern a lack of motivation and indecisiveness as indicated in the second canonical variate. However, it is unknown if enhancing future time perspective does in fact alter other time perspectives since they are presumed to be orthogonal. Zimbardo and Boyd (2008) recommended specific interventions for each of the five time perspectives, but these have yet to be empirically tested.

The results also have implications for research. Brown and McPartland (2005) have underscored the need for research to address sources of client decision-making difficulties. These authors argue that clients’ difficulties have different underlying causes and therefore require different types of interventions. Presumably, targeting interventions specific to the underlying issues should result in the capacity to make better decisions (Phillips & Jome, 2005). To this end, Brown and Rector (2008) integrated empirical research on a number of variables that are related to career indecision in effort to create taxonomy of different types career decision-making difficulties. However, no time perspective variables were included in their investigation. The results from the present study suggest that future research involving the creation of a diagnostic taxonomy for problems in career decision making should examine the role of time perspective in order to enhance understanding of the underlying causes of career decision-making difficulties. Indeed, the various time perspectives appear to constitute a source of psychological facilitators and barriers in career decision making.

The present study has some limitations. First, the nature of the study is correlational and therefore no causal statements can be made about time perspective on career decision-making difficulties. However, this limitation is somewhat mitigated by a few factors. The process of developing time perspective begins in early childhood and continues through adolescence via a number of psychological, cultural, and parental influences (Seginer, 2009) and is assumed to be trait like in terms of stability (Zimbardo & Boyd, 1999). Therefore, it could be inferred that difficulties in the context of career decision making are emblematic of the time perspectives in this sample of adults. A second limitation is that the current sample consisted of primarily Caucasian participants, which limit the generalizability of the results. Zimbardo and Boyd (1999) reported significant differences in time perspective among African Americans, Asians, Hispanics, and Caucasians on three of the five time perspective scales. Accordingly, cross-validation studies need to be conducted in order to examine time perspective in relation to career decision-making difficulties with ethnically diverse participants. A final limitation of the study is that the measures were not counterbalanced. Therefore, ordering effects may have influenced results.

There are a number of areas for future research regarding time perspective and career decision making. While the ZTPI contains scales assessing the hedonistic and fatalistic aspects of present time perspective, it does not assess mindfulness defined as being attentive and aware of what is taking place in the present in a nonjudgmental way (Brown & Ryan, 2003). Mindfulness has also been found to be inversely related to career decision-making difficulties and positively related to vocational self-concept (Zhang & Rottinghaus, 2011). Future research should examine the incremental validity of mindfulness in relation to the five temporal zones used in the present study in order to attain a more comprehensive view of present orientation in relation to career decision making. Time perspective research could also examine what an optimal time perspective profile looks like regarding protective factors against career career-decision making difficulties. This would be similar to research that has examined how a balanced time perspective is associated with well-being (Boniwell et al., 2010). Results from the current study suggest that those low in past-negative, present-hedonistic, and present-fatalistic and high in future time perspective would have the fewest difficulties related to career choice readiness and the act of decision making. However, future research should verify this pattern of results through methods such as latent profile analysis or other person-oriented research methods (Magnusson, 1999). Since time perspective is largely a nonconscious process, other research could examine how time perspective plays a role in occupational engagement, which subsumes rational and intuitive processes presumed to facilitate adaptive decision making (Krieshok, Black, & McKay, 2009). Such research is particularly relevant given the increased precariousness of work today (Kalleberg, 2009) requiring people to make numerous decisions regarding work throughout the life span.

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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