The infernal now: Linking temporal inefficacy to cognitive ability and social adjustment.

Abstract

In three studies with younger and older adults, we examined the correlates of temporal inefficacy (TI), that is, discontent with the uncontrollability of the passage of time experienced as linear. Among young adults, high versus low TI was related to greater subjective salience of the present, but guided focus on either conception or death eliminated this relationship. Among older adults, higher TI was inversely related both to the capacity to engage in mental time travel—as assessed by an autobiographical recall task, suggesting that the salience of the present associated with TI reflects chronic difficulty in accessing past and future—and to working memory capacity, illustrating the pivotal role of cognitive resources in effective coping among older adults. Reflecting the perceived lack of control inherent to TI, higher TI was linked to compensatory efforts to reassert personal control in other domains—specifically, a heightened tendency to personalize and overattribute meaning to random events, a greater expressed willingness to subordinate a spouse's well-being to one's own, and a callous, manipulative attitude toward other people in general. Finally, TI was inversely related to age, suggesting that maturation may include reconciling oneself to the existential limits imposed by linear time.