Abstract

BackgroundOver the last decade, international research has produced a large number of studies that have stressed the importance of temporal focus in various aspects of the lives of individuals, groups and organizations. This first Italian validation study of the Temporal Focus Scale (TFS) has shown a reliable measurement to assess the tendency of individuals to characteristically think about different periods of their lives.MethodsTFS/I was administered to a sample of 1458 participants, while three other convenience samples (N1 = 453; N2 = 544; N3 = 168) were used for convergent validity testing.ResultsConfirmatory factor analysis confirmed a three-factor solution (including 10 items) with good indices of fit to data, e.g., χ2 = 49.533, CFI = 0.992, TLI = 0.986, RMSEA = 0.034, RMSEA 90% CI .018–.048. Convergent validity assessment confirmed predictive indications with variables such as life satisfaction, optimistic/pessimistic orientation, perceived general self-efficacy, self-regulatory modes, anxiety, depression.ConclusionThe temporal focus has proven to be a significant feature associated with various aspects of both well-being and personal discomfort. By virtue of its good psychometric properties, the TFS can be an integrative tool along with others for a better evaluation of the person’s profile in different contexts such as education, coaching, psychotherapy, counseling and career guidance.

Highlights

  • Over the last decade, international research has produced a large number of studies that have stressed the importance of temporal focus in various aspects of the lives of individuals, groups and organizations

  • In order to measure the convergent validity of the scale, we have considered it appropriate to verify the associations with the main constructs already used in previous international studies: anxiety [32,33,34,35], depression [32, 36], life satisfaction and subjective well-being [37,38,39,40,41], optimism [21], self-efficacy [42], regulatory modes [43, 44]

  • The calculation of the Mardia Index produced a coefficient (180.46) lower than the limit value (195). This selection of cases from the original matrix implied the elimination of 168 participants, whose high values of the outliers made us assume that the compilation was not very accurate and reliable, considering that the administration was done in telematic mode and not in the presence of the operators

Read more

Summary

Introduction

International research has produced a large number of studies that have stressed the importance of temporal focus in various aspects of the lives of individuals, groups and organizations. Despite the unidirectional progression of time, individuals can mentally move back and forth between a fixed past and a more or less vague preview of what awaits them in the future This premise reinforces the distinction between objective and subjective time. International research has produced a large number of studies that have shown the importance of temporal focus in various aspects of the lives of individuals, groups and organizations [3,4,5]. For example, investigated temporal aspects related to attitudes [6,7,8], motivations [9,10,11], individual behaviours [12,13,14], the effects of time on team processes and performance [15, 16], the role of time in organizational and strategic decisions [17,18,19] and the dimensions of socio-cultural influence that shape the shared representations of time [20].

Objectives
Methods
Results
Discussion
Conclusion

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call

Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.