Abstract
The aim of this study was to empirically verify a series of hypotheses on the role of time perspective (TP) in predicting aggression, formulated on the basis of TP Theory and models of aggression. Three hundred participants completed the Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory (ZTPI) and the Aggression Questionnaire (AQ). Analysis revealed numerous significant relationships between TP dimensions and aggression. In particular, individuals scoring high on Past Negative, Present Fatalistic, and Present Hedonistic were more prone to aggressive feelings, and, in consequence, aggressive behavior. These relationships were, however, strongly attenuated in individuals with high levels of two remaining TPs – Past Positive and Future. The results provide evidence that the temporal perspective people use to structure their experience into time horizons may play a significant role in the intensity and dynamics of aggression. We discuss our results from the perspectives of psychological theories of aggression and TP.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Apter, A., Van Praag, H. M., Plutchik, R., Sevy, S., Korn, M., & Brown, S. L. (1990). Interrelationships among anxiety, aggression, impulsivity, and mood: a serotonergically linked cluster? Psychiatry Research, 32(2), 191–199.
Barratt, E. S. (1991). Measuring and predicting aggression within the context of a personality theory. Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, 3, 35–39.
Berkowitz, L. (1990). On the formation and regulation of anger and aggression: A cognitive neoassociationistic analysis. American Journal of Psychology, 45, 494–503.
Berkowitz, L. (1993). Aggression: Its causes, consequences, and control. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Bettencourt, B. A., Talley, A., Benjamin, A. J., & Valentine, J. (2006). Personality and aggressive behavior under provoking and neutral conditions: A meta-analytic review. Psychological Bulletin, 132(5), 751–777.
Bookwala, J., Frieze, I. H., & Grote, N. K. (1994). Love, aggression and satisfaction in dating relationships. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 11(4), 625–632.
Brady, K. T., Myrick, H., & McElroy, S. (1998). The relationship between substance use disorders, impulse control disorders, and pathological aggression. American Journal on Addictions, 7(3), 221–230.
Burgoon, J. K. & Hale, J. L. (1988). Nonverbal expectancy violations: model elaboration and application to immediacy behaviors. Communication Monographs, 55(1), 58–79.
Buss, A. H. & Perry, M. (1992). The aggression questionnaire. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 63, 452–459.
Campbell, A. (2006). Sex differences in direct aggression: What are the psychological mediators? Aggression and Violent Behavior, 11(3), 237--264.
Carver, C. S. & Harmon-Jones, E. (2009). Anger is an approach-related affect: evidence and implications. Psychological Bulletin, 135(2), 183–204.
Depue, R. A. & Zald, D. H. (1993). Biological and environmental processes in nonpsychotic psychopathology: A neurobehavioral perspective. In C. G. Costello (Ed.), Basic issues in psychopathology (pp. 127–237). New York: Guilford Press.
Feldman, S. & Stenner, K. (1997). Perceived threat and authoritarianism. Political Psychology, 18(4), 741–770.
Ferguson, C. J., Rueda, S. M., Cruz, A. M., Ferguson, D., Fritz, S., & Smith, S. M. (2008). Violent video games and aggression. causal relationship or byproduct of FamilyViolence and intrinsic violence motivation? Criminal Justice and Behavior, 35, 311–332.
Gross, J. J. & John, O. P. (2003). Individual differences in two emotion regulation processes: implications for affect, relationships, and well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85(2), 348–362.
Gruber, J., Cunningham, W. A., Kirkland, T., & Hay, A. C. (2012). Feeling stuck in the present? mania proneness and history associated with present-oriented time perspective. Emotion, 12(1), 13–17.
Hayes, A. F. (2015). An index and test of linear moderated mediation. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 50, 1–22.
Holman, E. A. & Zimbardo, P. G. (2009). The social language of time: the time perspective–social network connection. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 31(2), 136–147.
Joireman, J., Anderson, J., & Strathman, A. (2003). The aggression paradox: understanding links among aggression, sensation seeking, and the consideration of future consequences. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84(6), 1287.
Keough, K. A., Zimbardo, P. G., & Boyd, J. N. (1999). Who’s smoking, drinking, and using drugs? time perspective as a predictor of substance use. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 21(2), 149–164.
Kozak, B. & Mażewski, M. (2007). Past or future? Functional meaning of time perspective. Kolokwia Psychologiczne [Psychological Colloquia], 16, 225–233.
Lee, S. & Song, E. (2011). Influences of time perspective on impulsive purchase tendency. Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science, 21(4), 210–217.
Lewin, K. (1939). Field theory and experiment in social psychology. American Journal of Sociology, 44(6), 868–896.
Lewin, K. (1943). Defining the ‘field at a given time’. Psychological Review, 50(3), 292–310.
MacKillop, J., Anderson, E. J., Castelda, B. A., Mattson, R. E., & Donovick, P. J. (2006). Convergent validity of measures of cognitive distortions, impulsivity, and time perspective with pathological gambling. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 20(1), 75–79.
Manuck, S. B., Flory, J. D., McCaffery, J. M., Matthews, K. A., Mann, J. J., & Muldoon, M. F. (1998). Aggression, impulsivity, and central nervous system serotonergic responsivity in a nonpatient sample. Neuropsychopharmacology, 19(4), 287–299.
Matthews, G. & Stolarski, M. (2015). Emotional processes in development and dynamics of individual time perspective. In M. Stolarski, W. van Beek, & N. Fieulaine (Eds.), Time perspective theory; review, research and applications (pp. 269–286). Switzerland: Springer International Publishing.
Milfont, T. L. & Schwarzenthal, M. (2014). Explaining why larks are future-oriented and owls are present-oriented: self-control mediates the chronotype–time perspective relationships. Chronobiology International, 31(4), 581–588.
Rucker, D. D., Preacher, K. J., Tormala, Z. L., & Petty, R. E. (2011). Mediation analysis in social psychology: current practices and new recommendations. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 5(6), 359–371.
Schlarb, A. A., Sopp, R., Ambiel, D., & Grünwald, J. (2014). Chronotype-related differences in childhood and adolescent aggression and antisocial behavior–A review of the literature. Chronobiology International, 31(1), 1–16.
Schnitker, S. A. & Emmons, R. A. (2007). Patience as a virtue: religious and psychological perspectives. Research in the Social Scientific Study of Religion, 18, 177–207.
Seligman, M. E. (1972). Learned helplessness. Annual Review of Medicine, 23(1), 407–412.
Shipp, A. J., Edwards, J. R., & Lambert, L. S. (2009). Conceptualization and measurement of temporal focus: the subjective experience of the past, present, and future. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 110(1), 1–22.
Sircova, A. & Mitina, O. V. (2008). Vozrastnaya dinamika vremennyh orientacii lichnosti [Age dynamic of a person’s time orientations]. Voprosy Psichologii [Issues of Psychology], 2, 41–54.
Spielberger, C. D. (1999). Professional manual for the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory-2 (STAXI-2). Odessa: Psychological Assessment Resources.
Stolarski, M., Bitner, J., & Zimbardo, P. G. (2011). Time perspective, emotional intelligence and discounting of delayed awards. Time & Society, 20(3), 346–363.
Stolarski, M., Ledzińska, M., & Matthews, G. (2013). Morning is tomorrow, evening is today: relationships between chronotype and time perspective. Biological Rhythm Research, 44(2), 181–196.
Stolarski, M., Matthews, G., Postek, S., Zimbardo, P. G., & Bitner, J. (2014). How we feel is a matter of time: relationships between time perspectives and mood. Journal of Happiness Studies, 15(4), 809–827.
Stolarski, M., Fieulaine, N., & van Beek, W. (Eds.) (2015a). Time perspective theory; review, research and applications. Switzerland: Springer International Publishing.
Stolarski, M., Wojtkowska, K., & Kwiecińska, M. (2015b). Time for love: partners’ time perspectives predict relationship satisfaction in romantic heterosexual couples. Time & Society. doi:10.1177/0961463X15596703.
Sword, R. M., Sword, R. K., Brunskill, S. R., & Zimbardo, P. G. (2014). Time perspective therapy: A new time-based metaphor therapy for PTSD. Journal of Loss and Trauma, 19(3), 197–201.
Tamir, M., Mitchell, C., & Gross, J. J. (2008). Hedonic and instrumental motives in anger regulation. Psychological Science, 19(4), 324–328.
van Beek, W., Kerkhof, A., & Beekman, A. (2009). Future oriented group training for suicidal patients: a randomized clinical trial. BMC Psychiatry, 9(1), 65.
Van Praag, H. M. (1986). Affective disorders and aggression disorders: evidence for a common biological mechanism. Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, 16(2), 103–132.
Webster, J. D. (2011). A new measure of time perspective: initial psychometric findings for the balanced time perspective scale (BTPS). Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science, 43(2), 111–118.
Wills, T. A., Sandy, J. M., & Yaeger, A. M. (2001). Time perspective and early-onset substance use: A model based on stress–coping theory. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 15(2), 118–125.
Zajenkowski, M., Carelli, M. G., & Ledzińska, M. (2015). Cognitive processes in time perspective. In I. M. Stolarski, W. van Beek, & N. Fieulaine (Eds.), Time perspective theory; review, research and applications (pp. 243–255). Switzerland: Springer International Publishing.
Zhang, J. W., Howell, R. T., & Stolarski, M. (2013). Comparing three methods to measure a balanced time perspective: the relationship between balanced time perspective and subjective well-being. Journal of Happiness Studies, 14, 169–184.
Zimbardo, P. G. & Boyd, J. (1999). Putting time in perspective: A valid, reliable, individual differences metric. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77, 1271–1288.
Zimbardo, P. G. & Boyd, J. N. (2008). The time paradox. New York: Free Press.
Zimbardo, P. G., Keough, K. A., & Boyd, J. N. (1997). Present time perspective as a predictor of risky driving. Personality and Individual Differences, 23(6), 1007–1023.
Acknowledgments
The work of Maciej Stolarski was supported by the grant no 2014/13/D/HS6/02951 from the National Science Centre in Poland; the work of Marcin Zajenkowski was supported by the grant no 2014/13/B/HS6/04083 from the National Science Centre in Poland.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study. This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors.
Conflict of Interest
The authors declare that there are no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Stolarski, M., Zajenkowski, M. & Zajenkowska, A. Aggressive? from Time to Time… Uncovering the Complex Associations between Time Perspectives and Aggression. Curr Psychol 35, 506–515 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-016-9422-6
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-016-9422-6