Maciej Stolarski

Time perspective, emotional intelligence and discounting of delayed awards

Although the tendency to delay gratification is by definition the core feature of twoincreasingly popular—within the scope of individual differences at least—constructs: emotional intelligence (EI) and time perspective (TP), the role of the latter two in its development has never been investigated before. Moreover, none of existing research reports consider mutual relationships between EI and TP. Our research investigated relationships between TP, EI and the rate of discounting of delayed awards, understood as one of the forms of gratification delay. We also applied a new method of assessing balanced time perspective—the Deviation from the Balanced Time Perspective (DBTP). 126 university students participated in the study. The results obtained suggest the existence of several important connections between TP and EI and moderate impact of DBTP on the process of discounting. Future studies on temporal orientation could be enriched by utilizing this integrative measure of balanced time perspective (the DBTP coefficient) and by partitioning award delays into stages when analyzing temporal discounting strategies.

Morning is tomorrow, evening is today: relationships between chronotype and time perspective

The present study explores the relationship between Morningness–Eveningness and five personality dimensions for Time Perspective (TP), representing psychological attitudes toward time. Although these constructs are related to different time horizons (i.e., daytime vs. life-time horizon), existing empirical data regarding their personality and behavioral correlates allows for the prediction that some of the TP dimensions are significantly related to diurnal preference. A sample of 309 university students (30.1% male) aged between 19 and 26 completed the Polish adaptation of the morningness–eveningness questionnaire (MEQ) and the Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory (ZTPI). Our research confirmed the main hypotheses, that Morningness is positively related to Future TP, whereas Eveningness correlates positively with Present-Hedonistic TP. Moreover, chronotype proved to be significantly related to other TP scales, as well as to the Deviation from Balanced Time Perspective (DBTP) coefficient, an indicator of a balanced time perspective, showing that Morning-types generally tend to express a more adaptive attitude toward psychological time. The possible mechanisms of the relationship, as well as implications for practice and theory are discussed in respect to the obtained data. The paper contributes to the knowledge about the relationship between circadian typology and personality in young adults.

Assessing Temporal Harmony: The Issue of a Balanced Time Perspective

This chapter provides a detailed analysis of one of the central concepts of Zimbardo and Boyd’s time perspective theory: the balanced time perspective. Since their earliest works in the area, the issue of temporal harmony attracted attention of researchers and practitioners alike, especially within the field of positive psychology. Here, we provide a deepened consideration of the nature of balanced time perspective, its origins, and consequences. Moreover, we review the existing empirical operationalizations of temporal harmony, both those derived from the Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory and those created independently from it. We analyze the strengths and weaknesses of each method and reflect on future directions in research on the balanced time perspective issue.

Emotional Processes in Development and Dynamics of Individual Time Perspective

All five of Zimbardo’s dimensions of time perspective are associated with emotional experience. Well-being may be associated especially with those dimensions associated with vivid emotions, including past time perspectives. Relationships between time perspective and emotion may be mediated by both explicit and implicit cognitive processes. These processes include accessing autobiographical memory, cognitive appraisal and reappraisal, modeling future events in working memory, and strategic emotion regulation. Such processes may be adaptive in enhancing the quality of life or maladaptive in promoting and perpetuating negative affect. The concept of balanced time perspective captures the notion of an optimum configuration of the various perspectives described by Zimbardo. Conversely, severe imbalance may increase vulnerability to emotional psychopathology. Better understanding of the role of time perspective in the emotional dynamics of the individual may contribute both to enhancement of life satisfaction and social functioning and to therapy for disorders such as posttraumatic stress.

TIE: An Ability Test of Emotional Intelligence

The Test of Emotional Intelligence (TIE) is a new ability scale based on a theoretical model that defines emotional intelligence as a set of skills responsible for the processing of emotion-relevant information. Participants are provided with descriptions of emotional problems, and asked to indicate which emotion is most probable in a given situation, or to suggest the most appropriate action. Scoring is based on the judgments of experts: professional psychotherapists, trainers, and HR specialists. The validation study showed that the TIE is a reliable and valid test, suitable for both scientific research and individual assessment. Its internal consistency measures were as high as .88. In line with theoretical model of emotional intelligence, the results of the TIE shared about 10% of common variance with a general intelligence test, and were independent of major personality dimensions.

Emotional Intelligence and Mismatching Expressive and Verbal Messages: A Contribution to Detection of Deception

Processing facial emotion, especially mismatches between facial and verbal messages, is believed to be important in the detection of deception. For example, emotional leakage may accompany lying. Individuals with superior emotion perception abilities may then be more adept in detecting deception by identifying mismatch between facial and verbal messages. Two personal factors that may predict such abilities are female gender and high emotional intelligence (EI). However, evidence on the role of gender and EI in detection of deception is mixed. A key issue is that the facial processing skills required to detect deception may not be the same as those required to identify facial emotion. To test this possibility, we developed a novel facial processing task, the FDT (Face Decoding Test) that requires detection of inconsistencies between facial and verbal cues to emotion. We hypothesized that gender and ability EI would be related to performance when cues were inconsistent. We also hypothesized that gender effects would be mediated by EI, because women tend to score as more emotionally intelligent on ability tests. Data were collected from 210 participants. Analyses of the FDT suggested that EI was correlated with superior face decoding in all conditions. We also confirmed the expected gender difference, the superiority of high EI individuals, and the mediation hypothesis. Also, EI was more strongly associated with facial decoding performance in women than in men, implying there may be gender differences in strategies for processing affective cues. It is concluded that integration of emotional and cognitive cues may be a core attribute of EI that contributes to the detection of deception.

Morningness–eveningness and performance-based emotional intelligence

The aim of the present article is to determine whether recently shown positive relationships between self-reported emotional intelligence (EI) and morningess preference exist when EI is measured with an ability-based test. In two studies (study 1: N = 206 and study 2: N = 184), we applied two different morningness–eveningness questionnaires and a performance test of EI consisting of four dimensions (perception, understanding, assimilation, managing). The two studies provided similar results indicating that “night owls” have higher EI than “larks”; specifically, evening-oriented subjects showed greater ability in emotion perception and understanding, as compared to morning-oriented individuals. The obtained results were in line with hitherto existing research on chronotype and general intelligence. The results provide further evidence for a cognitive character of ability-based EI and accentuate its different nature when compared to self-reported EI. The main findings are discussed in terms of evolutionary theories of circadian preferences, EI and mental abilities.

Wise “birds” follow their clock: The role of emotional intelligence and morningness-eveningness in diurnal regulation of mood

ABSTRACT Emotional intelligence (EI) and morningness–eveningness (M-E) preference have been shown to influence mood states. The present article investigates the way in which these two constructs may interact, influencing morning and evening mood levels. A sample of 172 participants completed a multidimensional mood scale measuring energetic arousal (EA), tense arousal (TA), and hedonic tone at 7:00 and at 22:00. As expected, morning and evening types experienced higher EA at their preferred time of day; effects of M-E on other mood dimensions were weaker. EI was found to correlate with lower TA, but the association was stronger at 22:00, perhaps reflecting the role of EI in managing the social events characteristic for the evening hours. An interactive effect of EI and M-E was found for both diurnal changes and morning levels of EA. Namely, in individuals higher in EI, there appeared a more marked synchrony effect between chronotype and EA, which was absent in those low in EI; individuals higher in EI showed more pronounced diurnal changes in EA characteristic for their chronotype (i.e., higher EA at morning hours in morning chronotypes; higher EA at evening hours in evening chronotypes), while in participants low in EI, diurnal changes in EA were smaller. Moreover, the characteristic positive association between morningness and EA during morning hours was apparent only in those high in EI. These findings suggest that individual differences in circadian variation in mood reflect several factors, including an endogenous rhythm in energy, the distribution of social activities throughout the day, and the person’s awareness of their own energy level.

Time for love: Partners’ time perspectives predict relationship satisfaction in romantic heterosexual couples

The aim of the present research was to explore the role of individual differences in time perspective (TP) in predicting two relationship quality indicators: general relationship satisfaction and sexual satisfaction, in romantic heterosexual couples. A total amount of 100 dyads took part in the study. Our study revealed that relationship satisfaction indices are predicted by partners’ time perspectives; both actor and partner effects proved significant. For instance, past-negative was related to lower general relationship satisfaction, whereas past-positive proved detrimental to sexual satisfaction. Higher relationship (but not sexual) satisfaction was related to a more balanced time perspective. Moreover, we demonstrated that the role of some time perspective dimensions may change with relationship length, e.g., a relationship between future-positive (FP) time perspective and females’ relationship satisfaction proved to change across relationship course from significantly negative to strongly positive. Contrary to our hypotheses, we found no evidence for assortative mating effects for time perspective dimensions. The present results provide evidence for the role of psychological temporality in relationship functioning and suggests potential utility of time perspective theories in practical interventions aimed to improve romantic relationships’ quality.

Time Perspective Theory: The Introduction

The aim of this introductory chapter is fourfold. First, it introduces two fundamental reasons that lead us to undertake works on this volume. Second, it provides a brief description of the Time Perspective Theory, giving a theoretical background for the whole present book. Third, it reviews the most important empirical findings regarding the respective area of research in a nomological network, providing a brief overview of the core correlates of time perspective. Finally, it briefly presents issues raised by all the brilliant Authors that decided to take part in this project.