Time Studies

Definitions and Designs

The area of psychological research investigating time and temporal dimensions might be subdivided into other traditional rubrics, such as time-sense (apprehension of duration, change, or order of occurrence), time estimation and perception (attention to, or apprehension of, change through the integration of a series of stimuli and characterized by the ability to conceive of duration, simultaneity, and succession), and time orientation, horizon, or perspective (the totality of one's views of his or her psychological future and past existing at a given time, and is reflective of one's distinctive position in society and one's unique developmental history), among other designations. Additionally, time has served as a basis for several important design strategies in research. For example, the quasi-experimental design called time series is a within-subjects design where the performance of a single group of participants is measured both before and after the experimental treatment is administered; also, in the time design approach called single-group pretest–posttest design, a temporal comparison is made between a single pretest measure or score and a single posttest measure.

Other time-related designs include the interrupted time-series design (employment of several pretest and several posttest measurements to control for normal or natural fluctuation rates), the multiple time-series design (a between-subjects design involving the use of a control group of participants in addition to the experimental participants), the retrospective and ex post facto designs (the use of empirical procedures to suggest meaningful relationships between events that have occurred in the past), the repeated measures design (an application of the within-subjects design that uses repeated measures as one factor in a factorial design), and the mixed designs (a common design used in psychological research that combines a between-subjects design with a within-subjects design, and involves complicated statistical analyses including computations of error terms and F-ratios).

In the case of the concept of time perspective in particular, several research strategies might be suggested: the length of time in which thought is projected ahead (protension), the length of time in which thought is projected back into the past (retrotension), the number of events thought about in past or future (density), the degree of organization within one's past–present–future matrix (cohesive-ness), and the sense of perceived rate of movement toward the future (directionality). Moreover, the basic distinction between retrospective and prospective time is reflected in research designs, most notably in retrospective versus prospective designs and studies. In the former, participants with a particular characteristic or disorder are studied and their histories are examined to determine the relevant causal factors and relationships; in the latter, a cohort of participants is studied currently over a period of time to determine factors that might cause a particular characteristic or disorder to emerge. Typically, the findings of retrospective studies carry less weight (that is, they are more open to alternative explanations of results, alternative interpretations, or rival hypotheses) than those of prospective studies largely because they rely more on the fallible memories of the participants. In general, in retrospective time designs, it has been found that when time is filled with varied and interesting experiences, it seems short in passing but long as one retrospectively looks back (in contrast, a tract of time empty of experiences seems long in passing but short in retrospect), whereas in prospective time designs, findings indicate that tracts of time seem to be shortened in passing whenever one is so fully occupied with their content as not to note the actual time itself (thus, a day full of excitement with no pause is experienced as passing quickly, but a day full of waiting seems to pass slowly).

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