TIME ORIENTATION AND TIME 2 "   I
PERSPECTIVE m PSYCHOTHERAPY- f .

Thesis for the Degree ofPh; D. 4
~ ~~ = MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY
* w _ WILLIAME.SMELT_ZER,,‘ ,

   

  
 
  

 

Wungum;m7ugmumggmu ""

  
 

217”“ V. N ‘m‘
N3: li',)L..m- ham

University

_¢,~.E»mm-

This is to certifg that the
thesis entitled

TIME ORIENTATION AND ' TIME'
PERSPECTIVE IN PSYCHOTHERAPY

presented by

William E . Smeltzer

has been accepted towards fulfillment
of the requirements for

Mdegree in Psychology

MEAL j

0—169

 

"IQ-h- -

 

 

ABSTRACT

TIME ORIENTATION AND TIME
PERSPECTIVE IN PSYCHOTHERAPY

by William E. Smeltzer

The purpose of this research was to determine the changes
in time orientation and future time perspective in the course of
psychotherapy. Recent research has demonstrated that, generally,
most forms of psychopathology cause the individual to cling to
a dominant past orientation and to have a constricted future time
perspective. It was, therefore, predicted that there is a dim-
inution in past orientation, and an increase in present and in
future orientation in successful as compared to unsuccessful
psychotherapy. It was also predicted that there is a significant
positive relationship between the degree of success of psycho-
therapy and increase in future time orientation and future time
perspective.

The subjects were 19 (10 female; 9 male) students who had
received treatment for emotional problems at the Michigan State
University Counseling Center. The data, which had been collected
several years earlier, consisted of tape recorded interviews of
all the therapy sessions, pre- and post—therapy Semantic Differ-
ential ratings of several concepts by the clients, and ratings
of success of psychotherapy by the counselors. Every second
tape of each of the subjects' psychotherapy sessions was scored

for time orientation and future time perspective. Time

William E. Smeltzer

orientation was determined by noting the time reference of each
of the verbs used by the subject (Past, Present, or Future).
Future time perspective was the longest span of years into the
future mentioned by the client. Outcome was determined in two
ways: (a) each counselor rated outcome on his own client on a
four point scale--Successful, Partly Successful, Partly Unsuc-
cessful, and Unsuccessful (there were 14 subjects with such rat-
ings); (b) a Semantic Differential Change score was developed
based on norms from an "adjusted" college population. There

was no significant relationship between the two outcome measures
(-.O6). They were, therefore, used independently.

A Wilcoxon-Signed-Rank test indicated that there was a
significant decrease in past orientation, a significant in-
crease in present orientation, and a significant increase in
future orientation across all subjects from the first part to
the second part of psychotherapy. A comparison of successful
versus unsuccessful cases, using both success measures, demon—
strated that this change in temporal orientation was not re—
lated to success when a Mann-Whitney U was applied. However,
when the five subjects who changed time orientations most were
compared with those five who changed least, the counselor-rated
success measure indicated a significant difference; that is, the
subjects rated successful in psychotherapy changed significantly
in the predicted directions in past and future time orientation.

Increase in future time orientation did not correlate
significantly with either success measure, but the correlation

with the counselor-ratings approached significance. Neither

William E. Smeltzer

of the success measures correlated significantly with increase
in future time perspective.

Additional findings are that the changes hypothesized in
time orientation occur across most content areas of the inter-
views (Family Relationships, Other Social Relationships,
Therapist-Client Relationship, and Self), but significantly so
in those areas of particular importance to the individual.

There was little relationship between the emphasis placed by the
therapist on any particular time orientation and the changes in
time orientation in the client. Further, it appears upon in-
spection of individual profiles that the entire pattern of de-
crease in past, increase in present, and increase in future time
orientation may be the important factors in successful psycho-
therapy.

The results are considered to be suggestive enough to war-
rant further exploration. The methods of measuring time orien-
tation, time perspective, and success in psychotherapy as used
in this study were evaluated critically and suggestions were

made for future research.

TIME ORIENTATION AND TIME

PERSPECTIVE IN PSYCHOTHERAPY
By

William E. Smeltzer

A THESIS

Submitted to
Michigan State University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

Department of Psychology

1968

 

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The writer wishes to express his most sincere appreciation
to Dr. A. I. Rabin, the chairman of his Guidance and Dissertation
committees, whose assistance and suggestions in all phases of the
research were a true learning experience. It has been very fruit-
ful, as many previous Ph.D. candidates have found, to associate
and work with him.

Special thanks are also due to Dr. W. Mueller for his as-
sistance on the research design and presentation of the manu-
script, and to Dr. N. Abeles and Dr. D. Thornton for their help-
ful suggestions.

Kathy De Sautel gave of her time freely to assist in the
scoring of the data; the writer hopes that it was as rewarding
to her as it was helpful to him.

Last, but certainly not least, my wife, Helen - Keith,
deserves much credit for this presentation. Her faith and con-
fidence in my abilities at times exceeded my own; this was a

great sustaining influence.

ii

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page
INTRODUCTION I O O O I C O D O O I O O O O O O I D I O O O 1

REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Time Orientation, Time Perspective and Related

Studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Time Orientation, Time Perspective and

Psychopathology .

Adjustment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Psychopathology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Neurosis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Psychosis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Time and Psychotherapy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

HYPOTI—ESES o o a o o o o o o a o o o o a o o o o o o O O o 18

PROCEDURE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Subjects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Tape Sampling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Scoring Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Time Orientation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Time Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Outcome Measures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Reliability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Exploratory Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

RESULTS 0 o o o o o o o o o o o o a o o o o o o o a o o I 29

Time Orientation . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Time Perspective - Hypothesis III . . . . . . . . . 33
Additional Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

DISCUSSION I o o o a o o o o o a n o o o o o o a o o a u o 39

Time Orientation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Time Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Implications and Suggestions for Further Research . 44

SUWARY O o o o o o o o o o I a o I o o o o o o O o o o o 47
REFERENCES 0 o o o o I o a O o a O O O o O O I o o o O o o 5 2

APPENDICES O O o o o o o o o o I a o o o o o I o I I o o o 56

 

ltrk

Table

LIST OF TABLES

Comparison of Semantic Differential (SD) and Coun-
selor Ratings of Psychotherapeutic Success . . . .

Median Proportions (in percentages) of Past, Pre-
sent, and Future Time References: First Half of
Psychotherapy Compared with Last Half of Psycho-
therapy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Significance of Differences between Proportions of
Past, Present, and Future References During the
First and Second Half of a Psychotherapeutic
Series (Semantic Differential) . . . . . . . . . .

Significance of Differences between Proportions of
Past, Present, and Future References During the
First and Second Half of a Psychotherapeutic
Series (Counselor Rating) . . . . . . . . . . . .

Median Change (Positive and Negative) in Propor-
tionsof Past, Present, and Future Time References
of Successful 'vs Unsuccessful Cases (Semantic
Differential) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Median Change (Positive and Negative) in Propor-
tions of Past, Present, and Future Time References
of Successful 'vs Unsuccessful Cases (Counselor
Rating).....................

Changes in Past, Present, and Future Time Orienta-
tion in Relation to Counselor Rating (CR) of Suc-
cess and Semantic Differential (SD) Adjustment
Score . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Mean Proportion (in percentages) of Time References
by Content Category for the First Half of Psycho-
therapy Compared with the Last Half of Psycho-
therapy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Comparison of Subjects with Patterned Outcome Time
References with Subjects Demonstrating Mixed Out-
come in Terms of Therapist Derived Success . . . .

Changes in Past, Present, and Future Time Orienta-
tion in Relation to Therapist Rating (TR) of Suc-
cess and Semantic Differential (SD) Adjustment
Score: A Comparison of the Five Subjects Who
Changed Most with the Five Subjects Who Changed
Least in the Hypothesized Directions . . . . . . .

iv

Page

27

29

30

30

31

32

33

35

37

38

LIST OF APPENDICES

Appendix Page
A Scoring Manual . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Scoring Sheet 0 I D O O O O I O 0 O O O O O O O O 63
B Subjects, Interviews, Success Ratings . . . . . . 66
Semantic Differential and Norms . . . . . . . . . 67
C Graphs of Time References Across Interviews
and subjects 0 C 0 O 0 O 0 O O O B I I I O O O O 71

Graphs of Individuals' Time References Across
Interviews 0 O O I O O O O O O C O O O O O I C ' 74

 

INTRODUCTION

Time has long been an area of concern to philosophers,
biologists, physicists, and psychologists (Nichols, 1891).
Only in the last decade, however, have psychologists intensely
investigated man's conception of time. Two of the concepts that
have evolved from this study of man's internal View of time are
(a) Time Orientation--the direction in time of the individual's
thoughts, concerns, verbalizations, and fantasies, and (b) Time
Perspective-—the span of time from the most remote past to the
most projected future covered by the individual's thoughts.
Presently, there are numerous studies available on the relation-
ship between these two concepts and psychopathology as well as
other personality traits (Barndt and Johnson, 1955; Dilling
and Rabin, 1967; Einstein, 1964; Wallace, 1956; Wallace and
Rabin, 1960). The importance assigned to this area of study
is illustrated by a quote from Frank (1948, p. 343):

. . .Probably the most important differentiating

aspect of these private worlds (each individual's)*

is the value (or significance) we give to the

various constituents of the surrounding world, ac-

cording to our individual time perspective.

If, as Frank, we consider time perspective (and time orien-
tation) of importance in the development of an understanding of

man, then we become interested, not only in its relationship to

*
My clarification.

 

personality, but, also, in its possible modification. Lewin
(1951, p. 76) has stated that there appears to be no experimental
evidence available on ways in which time perspective can be
changed other than through normal development. It is this writer's
belief, supported by a few studies of a limited number of cases
(Grummon, 1950; Jaffe, 1961; Matulef, 1964; Ricks, Umbarger &
Mack, 1964; Seeman, 1949), that time perspective and time
orientation are modified in cases of successful psychotherapy.
Research has demonstrated a relationship between psychopathology
and distorted time orientation and constricted time perspective,
e.g. (Wallace, 1956); in fact, at least one writer (Minkowski,
1958, p. 132) has stated that the basic disorder in schizophrenia
"is a distorted attitude toward the future." If psychotherapy
has an ameliorative effect upon psychopathology, then it is quite
possible that it has a similar effect upon a narrow time perspec-
tive or a rigid time orientation. The purpose of this study,
then, is to determine if changes in time perspective and time
orientation do occur in the course of psychotherapy, and, if so,
what form do these changes take°

My initial concern with this problem grew out of an inter—
est in time perspective and time orientation rather than out of
a desire to develop a measure of process or outcome in psycho—
therapy. As a result, this study is directed toward the de-
velopment of an understanding of the changes in time perspective
and time orientation that may occur in the course of successful
psychotherapy, and not toward a determination of the nature of

the psychotherapeutic interaction which effected these changes.

 

REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

Time Pers ective, Time Orientation
and Related Studies

 

The molar approach to the study of time includes such areas
as pimp perspective and pimp orientation. Other terms for the
same or similar aspects of the study of temporal experience have
been used, such as "retrospective span," "prospective span"
(Epley and Ricks, 1963) and "temporal horizons" (Fraisse, 1963).
In order to avoid the confusion resulting from the use of these
various terms we shall use only pimp perspective and pimp orien-
tation as defined by Wallace (1954), i.e., Zimg Perspective
refers to the span of time covered by the individual's thoughts,
fantasies, feelings, etc., into the past and into the future; and
limp Orientation refers to the direction in time of the indivi-
dual's thoughts, fantasies, and feelings—-past, present, or

future. Under time perspective we may speak of future time per—

 

spective--the distance into the future that the individual is able
to project himself, and p§§£ pimp perspective-—the time span into
the past that the individual can conceptualize. The term that
Wallace has suggested for the distance mentioned above is exten—
pipm, which can refer to either past or future time perspective.
Coherence, as suggested by Wallace, refers to the orderly arrange-
ment of events as they have happened or may happen in the past or

in the future. The above delineation of terms used to deal with

temporal matters appears to be the best suggested at this point.
Kastenbaum (1961), for example, found that future time perspec-
tive is a unidimensional concept even though some differences
may be found in practice if one compares structured methods of
assessment with unstructured methods.

Kastenbaum's findings bring the question of methods of
assessment of time orientation and time perspective to the fore—
front. The first techniques used were those developed by Israeli
(1936). He simply had his subjects fill out a questionnaire with
statements such as "Is the past more important than the present?".
He also developed the future biography technique which has the
subject write on his personal expectations of the future. Later,
story completion methods were used by Barndt & Johnson (1955),
Wallace (1956), Davids and Parenti (1958), and Davids, Kidder and
Reich (1962). Fink (1953) and Teahan (1958) employed pictures
from the TAT to assess time orientation and time perspective.
Laffey (1963) used a verb count procedure for assessing the
dominant time orientation of his subjects' TAT stories, as did
Balken and Masserman (1940). Grummon (1950) developed a method
of measuring the relative dominance of certain time dimensions
referred to in psychotherapy by counting the frequency of past,
present, and future references as used by the patient. This
great variety of techniques raises questions as to the generality
of the findings produced. In fact, Wohlford (1964) found that
his TAT measure of time orientation and his free association
method did not significantly correlate with each other. As
Wallace and Rabin (1960) state, however, "in View of the rela—

tively sizeable number of significant findings reported, it does

seem appropriate to conclude that both the direct and indirect
approaches to the problem of time perspective have been quite
fruitful."

Perhaps the findings in this area of study have been so
fruitful, in spite of primitive methods of measurements, because
there is so much to learn and time is so intimately involved with
our lives. Fraisse (1963, p. 177) illustrates the importance
and breadth of time in our lives in the following statement:

Man must somehow free himself from the state of

change which carries him through life, by keeping

the past available through memory and conquering the

future in advance through anticipation. This con-

trol over time is essentially an individual achieve-

ment conditioned by everything which determines per—

sonality: age, environment, temperament, experience.
We shall see that time has been shown to be involved with a
large variety of the facets of individual personality.

With each age of man there appears to be associated a domi-
nant time orientation. Pressey and Kuhlen (1957) suggest that
the young person sees his future as lying ahead, the middle-aged
person feels the future to be upon him, and the aged person tends
to glance backwards in quest of his future. Israeli (1932) reminds
_us that at one stage in man's development no difference was known
between the past, present, and future; social necessity, however,
led man to label various time situations and actions. Every
neonate, initially, also exists in a timeless state, the ego
being entirely undifferentiated. The immediate situation rules
and future expectations do not exist. In early childhood the
present is the dominant orientation (Lewin, 1935). The research

of Harrison (1934), Bromberg (1938) and Ames (1946) has shown

this to be true. As the child approaches adolescence, the future

becomes more important (Kastenbaum, 1959). Even in early adult—
hood the future is the dominant time orientation in "normal"
adults (Epley and Ricks, 1963). As the individual grows older,
however, the theme of "When I grow up" gradually becomes "When

I was young" (Lewin, 1952). Fraisse (1963, p. 181) states that
"old people shut themselves up more and more in a present which
they live only by reference to the past." The findings of Fink
(1953) and Kastenbaum (1966) add support to the above statements.
Fink's findings, however, attribute at least a part of this turn-
ing to the past in aged persons to environmental factors such as
institutionalization.

If we think in terms of shorter time intervals than those
involved in a life span, we find that time perspective can vary
with time-of—day (Thor, 1962) and day—of—the-week (Farber, 1953).
Thor found that past and future events appear less distant at mid—
day than they do early in the morning or late in the evening.
Farber found that future time perspective determines feelings
about the days of the week——e.g., Saturday is the preferred day
because of the festivities that occur on that day and because
one can look forward to a free day (Sunday) to follow.

There have been a number of studies relating time orienta-
tion and time perspective to achievement (Teahan, 1956; Knapp &
Garbutt, 1958; Green & Knapp, 1959; Davids & Sidman, 1963; Kahn,
1965). Epley and Ricks (1963) have stated that the capacity to
span time and the tolerance for delay of gratification are basic
elements in responsible and achieving behavior. Most of the
studies have found that the high need—achiever is much more

future—oriented and has a more extensive future time perspective

than his low need-achieving peer. Davids and Sidman (1963) found
that their underachievers were much more present—oriented than
their gifted boys who appeared to be much more future-oriented.

Another area of study that has attracted a large amount of
research is that of delinquency and emotional disturbance in
children and adolescents. Davids, gi.__i. (1958) found that in
their eleven-year-old boys a present orientation was associated
with better interpersonal relations among the emotionally—disturbed
groups, while a future orientation was associated with personality
traits of pessimism and resentment. In a later study, Davids,

2;. ai. (1962) found that in male and female juvenile delinquents
of adolescent age, present orientation was indicative of problems,
as their normal group was more future-oriented; this was also
true of the subjects in Barndt and Johnson's (1955) study. These
findings appear to extend across at least one other culture, as
Siegman (1961) also found that 17 to 19 year-old inmates of a
prison in Israel had a shorter future time perspective than his
normal group. Laffey (1963) found that a group of prisoners with
low impulse control was more present—oriented and had a less
extensive future time perspective than a group with high impulse
control.

Some probing has been done into the relationship between
social class and time orientation and time perspective. LeShan
(1952) found that middle—class children aged eight to ten years
were more future-oriented than their lower—class peers who seemed
to be predominantly present—oriented. The middle-class children
also told stories which involved a longer time span or longer

time perspective. Fraisse (1963, p. 170) supports LeShan's

L‘s—g

findings when he states, ". . . we believe that it is true that
our temporal perspectives bear a relationship to each of the
groups to which we belong and in which both our experiences and
their frames of reference have their origin."

Other studies have dealt with affective and cognitive vari-
ables and their relationship to time. Levine,.§§.;11. (1959)
found that their 11 to 19 year—old subjects with higher I.Q.'s
were able to extend themselves further into the future than
those with lower I.Q.'s (I.Q.'s ranged from 83-134). Teahan (1956),
in a study of academic achievement in elementary school children,
found intelligence and time perspective to be independent of each
other. This remains an unresolved issue. Wohlford (1964) and
Kastenbaum (1965) have related time perspective and time orienta—
tion, respectively, to the affective states of the individual.
Wohlford's results indicated that negative affect shortens future
time perspective and positive affect increases it. Kastenbaum
found that pleasant affect seems more related to a past orienta-
tion while future orientation appears to be unrelated to pleasant
versus unpleasant affective set. Israeli (1932), in a study con—
cerned with the feelings of undergraduate students about the
various time dimensions, found that while 13% of the students
worried about their past, 94.5% were hopeful about the future.
Not only affective and cognitive variables affect temporal out-
look, but, as Fisher and Fisher (1953) have shown, unconscious
perceptions of parental figures have their effect. They found
that the degree to which the individual conceives of the same sex
parent, or both parents as highly dominant, the more likely he is

to conceive of time in an overevaluative sense.

As this section illustrates, the study of time in a molar
sense has reached into most areas of psychological research.
This is not unusual when we stand back and vievrthe relevance of
time to our daily lives. One major area of investigation, where
time concepts have received increasing attention, remains to be
covered in the next section--psychopathology.

Time Orientation, Time Perspective
_and 21—8 chapitmfisx

Adjustment

Before dealing directly with what is abnormal or pathological
and how it relates to time orientation and time perspective, it
seems reasonable to consider what may be called adjusted or
"normal" in terms of these two time variables. The previous sec-
tion gave some indication of what we can expect to be normal tem-
poral orientation at each age level, and the reader can refer back
to that section for these ideas. Frank (1948, pp. 359—360) gives
us some indication of what adjustment may mean in terms of time:

When man has accepted his biological and social

history and projected a new future consonant there—

with, then the individual can build his personal

time perspectives and face the future with hope

and confidence, because he can live, untroubled by

his past, in the present, where life alone is pos-

sible. . . .freedom for the individual means that

the present is neither dominated by the past nor

sacrificed to the future, because he, the living

man, is himself that past and that future, which

he continuously reorganizes and reconstitutes in

the living present.

Lewin (1952) conceives of adjustment as involving a time
perspective that lies somewhere between the extremes of a very

narrow perspective, that only takes into account day—to-day goals,

and a very remote future time perspective. The value placed on

10

the various time dimensions by "normal" individuals was assessed
by Israeli (1932) in a group of undergraduate college students.
He found that the present was valued as 1.2 times more important
than the future and 12.7 times more important than the past.
Thus, the order of importance is present, future, and past.
Eissler, as quoted by Balken (1943), views the healthy individual
as one who experiences the present as a bridge to the future with
its potential accomplishments. Fraisse (1963, p. 198) would
agree with the above:

Our analyses have shown that the normal attitude

of man is oriented toward the future and, even

when pushed to the extreme it does not easily be—

come pathological. . . . . Orientation to the

present is also a special case: it requires that

we always take the facts of a situation into

account and it is therefore essentially attention

to reality.

It appears, then, that the normal attitude of man about
time is to look to the future, while living in the present reality
and using the past to build upon. The human being "so long as he
possesses self—awareness and is not incapacitated by neurotic

rigidities, is always . . . moving into the immediate future"

(May, 1958, p. 69).

Psychopathology

Interest in time and its relationship to psychopathology is
an old psychiatric field, but, until recently, it had not been
explored systematically (Wallace & Rabin, 1960). Many writers,
as will be seen in the following, have commented on the specific
relationships between various psychopathological disorders and
time. The recent upsurge of interest in this area can be in part

attributed to the existentialists. May (1958, p. 68),

11

example, states "The existential therapist also observed that the
most profound psychological experiences are peculiarly those which
shake the individual's relation to them." We shall deal largely

with the major categories of neurosis and psychosis.

Neurosis

Most writers have spoken of the neurotic as being tied to
the past (Arieti, 1947; Fenichel, 1945). Meerloo (1948, p. 605)
is in agreement when he states:

Symbolically time has become the creative, fertiliz-

ing power, God and Father. . . . The past is hap-

piness, the womb; the future is dangerous, the

anxiety of the unknown. In case of severe instinctual

conflicts we try to stick to past experiences.
In a later article (1950), Meerloo recognizes certain neuroses as
relating to future time. In "Anticipation Neuroses" the patient
expects that unpleasant experiences will occur in the future just
as his past experiences have demonstrated. In this sense, then,
the patient is still tied to the past. Arieti (1947, p. 477)
states that most of his psychoneurotic patients estimate that
they think of the past 90% of the time, of the present 10% of
the time, and of the future 0% of the time. Arieti (p. 477) ac—
counts for this by commenting that "it is too painful for the
patient to think of the uncertain future, in view of the present
condition, and he prefers to withdraw into the past which also
may have been unhappy, but whose difficulties he somehow managed
to overcome." There exists a consensus, then, in most cases,
that the neurotic patient "finds himself shackled by chains of

events in the past and is unable to meet realities in the present

and despairs of the future" (Sands in Foreword to Israeli, 1936),

12

and that "all neurotics rebel against present time or now"
(Dubois, 1954, p. 49).

Some Writers have not been satisfied to speak in generali—
ties, but have gone on to speak of specific time disorders as-
sociated with specific categories of neurosis. Lorenz (1955)
and Dooley (1941) both state in effect that the hysteric is
frightened by the rushing together of past and present and that
the past is re—experienced as part of the present. Dooley (1941)
also observes that the obsessive uses consciously directed time
intervals to separate the painful past from the present; the
future, Lewis (1932) states, is barred for the obsessive.

In summary, the neurotic lives in the past or is tied to
the past. Since the future is an uncertain area of life, he

rarely looks in that direction because it is too painful.

Empirical Findings

Most empirical findings support the above theoretically-
based comments. Lorenz (1955) found that the hysteric appears
to be more comfortable speaking in the past progressive tense
rather than in the simple past or past perfect, which she inter-
preted as supporting her contention that the past is re-experi—
enced in the present for most hysterics. Dilling and Rabin (1964)
found that their neurotic depressives showed significantly less
future orientation than their normal subjects. Tauber (1961)
appears to be a lone dissenter from the above theoretical and
empirical evidence. He was able to find no difference in the
emphasis placed on the various time dimensions by neurotics,

normals or psychotics.

13

Psychosis

Minkowski (1958, p. 132) has stated that the basic disorder
in schizophrenia is a "distorted attitude toward the future."
Arieti (1947) noted that in schizophrenia there is a considerable
restriction of the psychotemporal field; the patient withdraws to
a narcissistic level of functioning and he is present - oriented,
even as children are at this level of development.

Mania and depression appear to have their own time-distort—
ing qualities. Lewis (1932) stated that in the depressive the
deterministic forces of the past are felt and the future is closed
to new action. Eson and Kafka (1952) quote Strauss as stating
that the depressive is tied to the past while the manic is strik—
ingly oriented to the future. Lorenz (1955) observed that the
manic is frequently retrospective, but this past material is not
integrated into the present mental set. Fraisse (1963, p. 185)
comments:

The euphoria of a manic is also bound up with this

shrinking of his temporal horizon: neither the

weight of the past nor the uncertainty of the future

can influence his mood, which depends entirely on

the present.

Lewis (1932) and Arieti (1947) have commented on two symp—
toms generally associated with psychosis-—depersonalization and
delusions,respectively. Lewis notes that depersonalization is
an inability to evoke the past readily or clearly and to dis—
tinguish the present from the past and the future. Arieti ob-
serves that the paranoid patient is able to concern himself with
past and future through his delusions; however, when the patient

deteriorates further, even his delusions become present-oriented,

e.g., "I am king."

14

Empirical Findings

Israeli (1936, p. 118), after extensive research, noted that
psychotics can be classified according to their future outlook as
"positive or constructive, negative or catastrophic, uncertain,
limited, confused or delusional." More specifically, melancholics
are more downhearted about the future; paranoids are limited in
outlook. Wallace (1956) found that schizophrenics are limited in
the extension of their future time span and that they have dif-
ficulty in ordering the contents of time logically. Balken (1943)
observed that schizophrenic experience is merely relived experi—
ence, and the schizophrenic's utilization of past experience
never attains the qualities necessary for the apprehension and
integration of new relations. Dilling and Rabin (1967) found
that both depressives and schizophrenics were significantly less
able to extend themselves into the future than were normals; de—
pressives were even worse off than schizophrenics in this area of
functioning. The depressives, however, were able to organize
their experience more coherently than the schizophrenics. They
also found that their normal group was considerably more future—

oriented than both the depressives and the schizophrenics.

Summary

It has been demonstrated that there is a relationship be—
tween time and psychopathology. In general, neurotics are domin—
ated by the past and fear the uncertainties of the future; schizo-
phrenics tend to be dominated by a narcissistic present orienta—
tion and are unable to extend themselves coherently or

directionally very far into the future; depressives are tied to

15

the past and find the future barred; and manics live constantly
in the present and future with no concern evidenced for the

past.

Time and Psychotherapy

Very little has been written concerning time orientation,
time perspective and psychotherapy. Goldstein, Heller and
Sechrest (1966) point to some possible applications to psycho-
therapy of past research in these areas; and Tauber (1961) at-
tempted to discern the order in which the past, the present, and
the future should be considered in psychotherapy when dealing
with neurotic and psychotic patients. Fenichel (1945, p. 571)
touched on this area of concern when he noted that:

Analysis should show the past to be effective in the

present. Freud once said that when the patient talks

only of his present reality, the analyst must speak

of his childhood; and the analyst must bring in pre-

sent reality when the patient relates only his child—

hood reminiscences.

There appears to be an implicit recognition in the above
statement that the patient must be released from a narrow time
perspective and a rigid domination by the past. The existential
therapists view time as very important to psychotherapy. May,
gp. gi. (1958, p. 70) writes that every therapist knows that the
patient can talk about the past ad interminum, but their past
does not become alive until they commit themselves to changing
something in the immediate future. It appears that we could con-
clude from these writers' comments alone, that time orientation

and time perspective are important variables in and may change

in the course of psychotherapy.

Empirical Findings

A few studies are available which have dealt with variables
related to time orientation and time perspective in psychotherapy
in a limited number of cases. Grummon (1950, p. 102) states
"Clinical observation suggests that successful psychotherapy re-
sults in the client being less concerned with the past and more
concerned with present decisions and future plans." In a study
of four patients involved in psychotherapy, he used a method of
scoring the time reference of their statements at an early
point and at a late point in psychotherapy. He found a decrease
in past time references and an increase in present and future
time references by the end of successful psychotherapy. Jaffe
(1961), in a study of the differences between interview eight
and interview eighteen of one patient, noted that a steady pro-
gression was apparent from the use of the past tense to the use
of the present tense. Seeman (1949) noted a similar trend when
he observed that his patients expressed attitudes more and more in
the present tense. Ricks, Umbarger and Mack (1964) found that
ten treated delinquent boys increased both their prospective and
retrospective time spans, while an untreated group did not change.
In a study of the effects of brief vocational counseling on time
orientation and time perspective, Matulef (1964) found that his
subjects' future time perspective was enhanced by such counsel-
ing, and that they were more future-oriented than they had been

two weeks previously before counseling.

Marx

The small amount of theoretical and empirical evidence pre-
sented suggests a strong argument that time perspective and time
orientation are important in psychotherapy and do change in the
course of successful psychotherapy. It is also quite possible,
though no evidence has been presented to this effect, that there
is a further constriction of time perspective and a greater domina-
tion by past or present time orientation in cases of unsuccessful
psychotherapy. The above statement is made on the basis of the
evidence presented by Bergin (1966) that some people actually be—
come "sicker" after psychotherapy or as a result of psychotherapy.

The purpose of the present research, as stated earlier,
was to determine what changes, if any, occur in the course of
psychotherapy. The empirical evidence presented above was based
on a limited number of cases and interviews; this study was in—

tended to be more comprehensive.

HYPOTHESES

Previous sections of this presentation have indicated that
there is a relationship between psychopathology and time orienta-
tion. The neurotic individual, or person with "problems in liv-
ing," is said to be tied to the past and dominated by a past
orientation; his present is intruded upon by his past; and the
future only presents more uncertainties to an already troubled
existence. The "normal" orientation is said to be toward the
future in most adjusted individuals (e.g., May, 1958). Rogers
(1961), in his process equation of psychotherapy, has stated that
in successful cases of psychotherapy the patient moves from being
tied to the past to experiencing in the present. The following
changes are hypothesized:

(I-A) There is a significant diminution in past
orientation in successful as compared to
unsuccessful psychotherapy;

(I—B) There is a significant increase in present
orientation in successful as compared with
unsuccessful psychotherapy;

(I—C) There is a significant increase in future
orientation in successful as compared with
unsuccessful psychotherapy.

The adjusted person has been differentiated from the more

maladjusted person in many cases (Dilling & Rabin, 1967; Kasten—
baum, 1966) by his comparatively greater future time orientation.

If greater degrees of adjustment are concommitant with successful

psychotherapy, it is also possible that there is a similar

18

 

19

relationship with increase in future time orientation. Hypothesis
I—C above states that generally there is an increase in future
time orientation in successful psychotherapy and taking this one
step further it is hypothesized that:
(II) There is a significant positive relationship be-
tween the degree of success of psychotherapy and
the amount of increase in future time orientation.
Frank (1948) and Fraisse (1963) both state that the "healthy"
or "normal" individual is not limited to a narrow focus on time,
but is able to observe continuity between his past, his present
and his future. It is the person with problems who escapes into
a constricted and limited time perspective. In cases of success-
ful psychotherapy, it is hypothesized that:
(III) Extension of future time perspective will cor-
relate positively with the degree of success
of psychotherapy.
Exploratory Questions
1. Several writers (Fraisse, 1963; Frank, 1948) have noted
the possibility that an individual may develop a variety of time
orientations, each applicable to a different aspect of living, or
he may develop a single well-integrated time orientation applic—
able to all areas of life. Since this possibility exists, it is
necessary to note the content of the psychotherapy interviews with
regard to time references; if differences do exist then some indi-
cation of these is available. The content areas observed were
adapted from Lennard and Bernstein (1960): (a) Family Relation?
ships; (b) Therapist-Client Relationships; (c) Other Social Rela-
tionships; (d) Self (See Appendix A for a description of these

categories).

20

2. It is quite possible that the patients who change their
time orientation have therapists who encourage consideration of
various content matters in other time dimensions. For example:

Patient: "For fifteen years I've found life un-
bearable."

Therapist: "Let's consider what the next fifteen
years might be like for you."

It was decided that if any evidence of this existed it might prove
valuable as a further topic of research. In order to detect any
such possibilities, everytime the therapist changed the time di-
mension under consideration in the interview, as above, this
change was noted.

3. Recent research in psychotherapy (Karl, 1967; Lennard
and Bernstein, 1960) has suggested that some variables, such as
dependency, follow a specific pattern across psychotherapeutic
interviews. Most research on time orientation has been done on
particular samples at only one or two points in the course of
psychotherapy. It was, therefore, of value simple to observe if
any such trends were associated with the changes in present,
past, and future references across psychotherapy interviews.

Any trends that presented themselves were then available for

study.

PROCEDURE

Subjects

The sample selected for this study was composed of nineteen
undergraduate students (10 female; 9 male) who applied for and
received treatment at the Counseling Center of Michigan State
University. All of the subjects were in their late teens or early
twenties. Their problems ranged from family troubles to feelings
of loneliness and depression; none of these students was psychotic.

The sample was selected from a larger pool of 54 subjects
on whom taped interviews were available. These 19 subjects were
selected because all of them saw male therapists, all of them had
at least nine interviews and there was Semantic Differential data
available on all of them. The number of interviews ranged from a
total of nine to a total of 34 with a median of 16 (See Appendix B

for listing of subjects and interviews).

Tape Sampling

The middle thirty minute segment of every second interview
was scored. This segment of the tape was chosen because it has
been found that the essence of the therapeutic process is contained
within this portion of the interview. Lennard and Bernstein (1960)
and Karl (1967) have found that the first and last ten minutes of
most interviews are used for the purpose of role-induction and

planning.

21

22
Scoring Methods

The methods used in scoring the taped interviews are pre-

sented in the following sections.

limp Orientatipp

Sanford (1942) stated that an investigation of the person's
verbal behavior should throw considerable light on the manner in
which he tackles the business of living; he then went on to demon—
strate how in two cases much could be predicted, from the subject's
verbal behavior, about his personality; verb tense was one of the
indicators he used. White, Fichtenbaum and Dollard (1966) found
that verbal indicators of change in psychotherapy did show improve—
ment in the patient. Balken and Masserman (1940) and Laffey (1963)
used the verb tenses in their subjects' TAT stories as indicators
of the dominant time orientation. Laffey found that due to the
social class and status of his subjects (male prisoners), they
tended to use the present tense predominantly, even when referr—
ing to the past and the future. He observed that this Would pro-
bably not be a problem in middle class or college subjects who
have been taught "proper" grammar. Projective tests present
another problem, as Gottschalk and Harbridge (1955) observed that,
among other differences, their subjects used more verbs denoting
time in an interview situation as opposed to a projective test
situation. Grummon (1950), Eldred, g3. ai. (1954), Jaffe (1961)
and Weintraub and Aronson (1962) have used verb tenses as an in—
dicator of time reference in therapy-like and therapy situations
with success. Grummon (1950) suggested a method of assessing time

reference that avoids the pitfall that Laffey noted. In this

 

23

method the verb form is scored in the time dimension intended by
the speaker (past, present or future). In most cases the verb
tense and the time reference intended are the same. Grummon's
criterion was used in this study.

A complete scoring manual can be found in Appendix A.

Briefly, time reference was scored in the following manner:

(A) Past references—~A frequency count of all past
tense verbs or verbs with past tense intended
by the client;

(B) Present reference--A frequency count of all
present tense verbs or verbs with present
reference intended by the client;

(C) Future reference—-A frequency count of all
future tense verbs or verbs with future tense
intended by the client.

(D) The percentage of past, present, and future re—
ferences was then calculated for each interview
according to the following formula:

No. of Past or Present or

Time Reference % = Future References X 100
Total No. of Time References

This same formula was applied to determine the proportions
of past, present, and future references for the first half of
psychotherapy as compared with the proportions for the last half
of psychotherapy; the former proportion was then subtracted from

the latter to determine the percentage change in time orientation.

Future limp nggpective

Future time perspective has been defined as the span of time
into the future covered by a person's thoughts and fantasies.
Future time perspective was operationalized and a future time
perspective change score was determined in the following manner

for use in this study:

 

 

24

(a) Each time the client made a comment that could be
readily located within a certain span of years into
the future, this was noted on a scoring sheet with time
already divided into several categories of years (See
scoring sheet in Appendix A).

(b) The therapeutic sessions were divided into two parts.
One part included all of the interviews scored up to
the middle interview-—e.g., in a case composed of
thirty interviews, this half would include interviews
2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 and 14. The other part of the
therapeutic sessions was composed of all the scored
interviews from the middle interview to the last inter—
view-~e.g., in the above example this would include
interviews 16, 18, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28, and 30.

(c) An initial future time perspective was then determined
using the first half of the interviews as defined above.
For example, if the client talked about an event to
occur five to ten years from the present in interview
six, and if this was the longest future span he mention-
ed during the first half of psychotherapy, this was his
initial future time perspective. (Several spans of
years were used to locate the clients comments within
as close proximity of the exact time as possible; this
was done because not all clients mentioned definite
years when they spoke of future events, but they did
define them to be within a span of years that could be
identified in many cases.) A second future time per-
spective score was then determined in the same manner
for the last half of psychotherapy.

(d) A future time perspective change score was then deter-
mined by subtracting the initial future time span from
the later time span. For example:

Later time span = 10 - 20 years
Initial time span = 5 - 10 years
Change Score = 5 - 10 years

Since a span of years was used to locate the client's
time perspective, it was decided that for purposes of
handling the data it would be more convenient to have
one score. This was accomplished by finding the
median of the time span. In the above example this
would be 7.5 years (fifteen divided by two), which
was then considered the future time perspective score
for this client.

Outcpmg Measures

Two measures of therapeutic outcome were used in this study.

One of the measures was a purely subjective rating of relative

25

success as viewed by each of the psychotherapists on his case at
termination. This rating was available on only 14 of the 19 sub-
jects used in this study. The ratings and the number of subjects

available in each category are given below:

Rating No. of Smpjgppg
Successful 4
Partly Successful 7
Partly Unsuccessful 3
Unsuccessful 0

Since there were no subjects rated in the fourth category (Unsuc-
cessful) this was not used in the present research.

The other measure of outcome was based on the semantic dif-
ferential as used by William J. Mueller of the Michigan State
University Counseling Center. Osgood, pi. _i. (1957, p. 220) has
stated that changes that take place in psychotherapy should be
reflected in changes in the various meanings attached to concepts
on the Semantic Differential. Miller (1954) has also recommended
the Semantic Differential as a measure of change in psychotherapy.

Each of the 19 subjects used in this study had been tested
previous to entering psychotherapy and then after every fourth in-
terview (i.e., after the 4th, 8th, 12th, etc. interviews). The
scores on the administration previous to psychotherapy were com-
pared with the scores on the last administration after psycho-
therapy was completed, or the subject was terminated. The direc-
tion of the change was noted for purposes described below.

The same Semantic Differential scales were then administered
to a normative sample composed of 110 college students enrolled in

two classes of abnormal psychology. This group was approximately

26

equally divided between male (54) and female (56) subjects and all
were in the same age range as the Counseling Center sample. The
seven concepts used and the scales on which they were rated (See
Appendix B) were chosen from a possible total of twenty—one con—
cepts on which data were available. These seven were chosen be-
cause they reflect particularly well the areas in which problems
are most likely to be noted, particularly in college students.
These norms (See Appendix B) for females and the norms for
males were then used to determine the change toward and away from

the norms made by the subjects after psychotherapy as opposed to

before. This was done in the following manner:

Subject X
Mother

(Before

Psychotherapy) Warm: ; ; ; ; ; X ; :Cold

(After

Psychotherapy) Warm: ; X ; ; ; ; ; :Cold
Norm = 3

In this example the subject moved from a score of six before psy—
chotherapy to a score of two after therapy. He, therefore, moved
three steps toward the norm and one step beyond the norm, so we
would subtract one from three and note that this subject moved a
total of two toward the norm. This same procedure was repeated

for each subject on each of the scales and the total changes toward
or away from the norms were then summed across all scales and con-
cepts to arrive at a total score reflecting changes in each sub-
ject in terms of the norms for an "adjusted" college population.

This adjustment score is at times referred to as a measure of

 

27

success in psychotherapy for purposes of this research.

In order to determine if there was any relationship between
the two measures of success described above, a triserial correla-
tion method was applied to the data. This involved only 14 of
the subjects since counselor ratings were available on only this
number of subjects. The results are presented in Table 1. As
can be seen there is no significant relationship between the two
measures of success.

Table 1.--Comparison of Semantic Differential (S.D.) and Counselor
Ratings of Psychotherapeutic Success (N = 14)

 

 

 

Success Partially Partially
Measures Successful Successful Unsuccessful
Counselor-Rating 4 7 3
(Frequency)
S.D. Change 6.62 7.55 10.83
(Means)

 

r(tri.) = -.06
Reliability

An advanced undergraduate student and the author scored 11
of the interviews from typewritten transcriptions for time refer-
ence of the verbs. Since, due to the nature of the interviews,
it was possible for the investigator and the reliability scorer
to disagree on which verbs should be scored, it was necessary to
note the percentage agreement on total verbs; the percentage agree-
ment was 91% (based on 3,199 verbs). Only the verbs on which the
two raters agreed were used to determine percentage agreement for

the time reference of each of the verbs scored; the two raters

 

28

agreed on the time reference of 84% of these. It was decided that
this amount of agreement was sufficient to indicate that the scor—

ing system is reliable.
Exploratory Questions

1. Content. As mentioned in the hypotheses section of this
presentation, it may be fruitful to note the content of the psy—
chotherapy interview at each point that time reference is scored.

In each instance that time reference was scored, it was deter-

mined under which of the following content categories it belonged:
(a) Family Relationships; (b) Other Social Relationships; (c) Thera-
pist-Client Relationship; (d) Self. It was necessary to make a
judgement in many instances as to what the dominant content of

the therapeutic session was at any given moment. The same advanced
undergraduate student mentioned earlier scored for content category.
The percentage agreement between the reliability scorer and the
investigator was 85% (again, only the verbs on which the two

scorers agreed were used in this comparison).

2. Ihgpgpipp Statemgppg. Each time that the therapist
changed the time orientation of the interview, this change was
noted. In this way it was later possible to determine the effects
this may have had on changes in the clients time orientation.

3. Graphic Analysis. Past, present, and future time re-
ferences (in percentages) were calculated across all of the sub-
jects for each interview. These were then plotted on a graph to

determine whether or not any notable trends appeared.

 

RESULTS

The hypotheses and description of the research instruments
and methods have been presented in the previous pages. In the

following pages the results are presented.
Timg Orientation: Results

As a preliminary step in the investigation of the time orien—
tation results, it was decided to examine the changes in past,
present, and future time orientation without regard to success or
lack of success. The data in Table 2 indicate the median propor-
tions of time references that were found.

Table 2.--Median Proportions (in percentages) of Past, Present, and

Future Time References: First Half of Psychotherapy Com-
pared with Last Half of Psychotherapy (N = 19)

 

 

 

 

Time Psychotherapy .
Reference FEELS; 8:1: file 2:21:12:
Past 29.95 14.22 18.68
Present 61.68 76.55 16.59
Future 4.38 6.86 3.48

 

The direction of change in past, present, and future time
references is in accord with that predicted.
The proportions of the respective time references for the

first half of psychotherapy were compared with the proportions

29

30

during the last half of psychotherapy using a Wilcoxon Signed—Rank
test. Since there were two measures of success in psychotherapy,
which are used later on a further operation applied to this data,
it was necessary to determine if the differences were statistically
significant when all 19 of the subjects were considered (S.D. suc—
cess measure) and when only 14 of the subjects were considered
(Counselor Success rating). There are, then, two comparisons made
on each of the respective time reference changes. The results

are presented in Tables 3 and 4.

Table 3.--Significance of Differences Between Proportions of Past,

Present, and Future References During the First and
Second Half of a Psychotherapeutic Series

 

 

Semantic Differential Measure: 19 8'3

 

 

Time Wilcoxon
Reference T Z (one-tailed) p
Past 34 ~2.46 .007
Present 48 +1.88 .03
Future 22 +2.92 .002

 

Table 4.-—Significance of Differences Between Proportions of Past,
Present, and Future References During the First and
Second Half of a Psychotherapeutic Series

 

Counselor-Rated Success Measure: 14 8'5

 

 

Time Wilcoxon
Reference T Z (one—tailed) p
Past 18 -2.12 .02
Present 26 +1.65 .05
Future 16 +2.25 .01

 

 

31

As both Tables 3 and 4 indicate, all of the changes in past, pre-
sent, and future time orientation were significant at the .05

level or less and in the predicted direction.

Hypotheses I—A, I—B, and I-C
It was predicted that:
(I-A) There is a significant diminution in past orien-
tation in successful as compared with unsuccess-
ful psychotherapy;
(I-B) There is a significant increase in present orien-
tation in successful as compared with unsuccess-
ful psychotherapy;

(I-C) There is a significant increase in future orien-

tation in successful as compared with unsuccess-
ful psychotherapy.

Since two uncorrelated measures of success were used in this
study, the data were handled independently for each measure. The
data in Tables 5 and 6 give an indication of the differences be—
tween the successful and unsuccessful groups with regard to time
reference changes.

Table 5.—-Median Change (Positive and Negative) in Proportions of

Past, Present, and Future Time References of Successful
Vs. Unsuccessful Cases

 

 

Semantic Differential Measure: 19 8'8

 

 

Time Successful Unsuccessful
Orientation (14 8'5) (5 8'5)
Past -17.69 —6.88
Present +15.66 +4.09
Future + 2.83 +3.48

 

Note - A minus sign indicates a decrease from p1 to p2 and
a plus sign indicates an increase from p1 to p2.

32

Table 6.——Median Change (Positive and Negative) inProportions of
Past, Present, and Future References of Successful Vs.
Unsuccessful Cases

 

 

Counselor—Rated Measure: 14 8'5

 

 

Time Successful Unsuccessful
Orientation (11 8'3) (3 8'5)
Past —16.09 — 5.21
Present +14.79 +14.05
Future + 3.01 + 4.31

 

Note — The information in the footnote to Table 5 applies

here also.

The data in Table 5 appear to indicate more change in the
predicted directions within the successful group for past and pre-
sent time orientation but little difference in future orientation.
The successful group also appears to change more in the predicted
direction in Table 6 under past time orientation; but there seems
to be little or no difference for present and future time orienta—
tion between the two groups.

A Mann—Whitney U-test was applied in each of the above cases
to determine if the predicted changes occurred significantly more
often in successful as opposed to unsuccessful cases. The results
of this test were not statistically significant for the counselor-
rated measure or for the Semantic Differential Method. Hypotheses
I-A, I-B, and I-C were not confirmed. Change in time orientation
bears no significant relationship to success in psychotherapy as
measured by the two outcome ratings used in this study. The re-

sults are presented in Table 7.

 

 

33

Table 7.--Changes in Past, Present, and Future Time Orientation in
Relation to Counselor Rating (CR) of Success and Seman-
tic Differential Adjustment Score (SD)

 

 

Time ~ SD CR
Orientation U Score (N = 19) Score (N = 14)
Past 30 10
Present 30 16
Future 35 12

 

Hypothesis II

There is a significant positive relationship between the

degree of success of psychotherapy and the amount of in—

crease in future time orientation.

The Semantic Differential Adjustment score was related to
increase in future time orientation with the Spearman Rank Dif-
ference Correlation Method. The correlation obtained was -.33
which does not reach significance at the .05 level, and is in the
opposite direction from that predicted.

The association between the counselor-rated success measure
(three categories—-successful, partially successful, and partially
unsuccessful) and increase in future time orientation was found
to be .40 when a triserial r was applied. This correlation ap-
proaches significance at the .05 level and is in the predicted

direction.
Timg Perspective

Hypothesis III

Extension of future time perspective correlates posi—
tively with the degree of success of psychotherapy.

The Semantic Differential Adjustment score was related to
increase in future time perspective with the Spearman Rank

L—_‘L

 

34

Difference Correlation Method. The correlation obtained was -.10
which is not statistically significant.

The association between the counselor-rated success measure
and increase in future time perspective was found to be -.06 then
a triserial r was applied. This correlation is not statistically

significant.

Additional Results

 

Content Categories and
Time Orientation

In order to determine if the directional hypotheses concern-
ing change in time orientation (I-A, I-B, and I—C) held across the
content categories (Family Relationships, Social Relationships,
Therapist-Client Relationship, and Self), the changes in past,
present, and future time orientation from the first half to the
last half of psychotherapy were determined under each of these
categories. A one-tailed t-test of difference between proportions
with the correlation factor subtracted from the denominator was
then applied to determine if the differences were statistically
significant. As the data in Table 8 indicate, all of the differ—
ences were in the predicted direction, except those under the self
category and past time orientation under the therapist-client
category. The changes in Past-Social, Present-Therapist-Client,
Future-Social, and Future-Therapist—Client were statistically

significant.

Therapist-Induced Change
of Time Reference

The percentage of the times that the therapist changed the

time reference to past, to present, and to future was computed

35

Table 8.--Mean Proportion (in Percentages) of Time References by
Content Category for the First Half of Psychotherapy
Compared with the Last Half of Psychotherapy

 

 

 

 

 

 

Time Mean/Subject Mean
Reference Content lst Half 2nd Half Difference t
Past Family 14.04 11.38 2.66 1.30
Past Social 15.87 6.82 9.05 3.74***
Past Self .57 .63 - .06 - .18
Past Therapist—
Client 1.28 1.87 - .59 —1.03-)
Present Family 15.75 16.41 - .66 - .15
Present Social 30.71 35.77 -5.06 -1.02
Present Self 7.15 6.88 .27 .15
Present Therapist-
Client 7.57 12.07 - .50 -1.79*
Future Family 1.91 2.21 - .30 ~ .38
Future Social 2.19 3.56 -1.37 -2.74**
Future Self .72 .70 .02 .12
Future Therapist— 42 1 27 _ 85 _5 31***
Client ’ ' ' °

 

* - .05 with 18 df.
** - .01 with 18 df.
*** - .005 with 18 df.

for each subject. This percentage was then related respectively
to decrease in past time orientation, increase in present time
orientation, and increase in future time orientation. The Spear—
man Rank Correlation between percentage of the time the therapist
changed the time reference to past and decrease in past time
orientation was (-.28); between percentage of the time the thera-
pist changed the time reference to present and increase in present
orientation was (—.11); and between percentage of the time the

therapist changed the time reference to future and increase in

36

future time orientation was (.28). None of these correlations
reaches statistical significance. It appears that if there is a
relationship between therapist-inducement to change time reference
and actual change in time orientation by the client, this rela-

tionship is minor.

Graphic Analysis

The average percentage of past, present, and future time
references was determined across subjects for each interview and
plotted on a graph (See Appendix C). The resultant curves were
in the expected directions: a relatively steady decrease in per-
centage of past references across interviews; an increase in per-
centage of present references across interviews; and an increase
in future references across interviews.

Since these trends were so prevalent across individuals, it
was decided to plot the percentages of past, present, and future
references across interviews for each of the subjects (See Appen—
dix C). Ten of the 19 subjects demonstrated the same pattern of
outcome very clearly--past references decreased across interviews,
present references increased across interviews, and future refer-
ences increased across interviews. Observation indicated that of
the ten individuals who demonstrated this pattern, eight of them
were contained in the group of 14 subjects on whom therapist rat-
ings of success had been rated as successful cases by the thera-
pists. Since, as is described in a later section, the therapist
ratings of success appeared to be a better measure of outcome than
the Semantic Differential change score, a one-tailed Fisher Exact
Test was applied to this data to determine if this pattern occurred

significantly more often in cases of successful psychotherapy.

37

The results are not statistically significant (p = .33), though
there is some indication of such a relationship. The data are
presented in Table 9.

Table 9.-—Comparison of Subjects with Patterned Outcome Time

References with Subjects Demonstrating Mixed Outcome
in Terms of Therapist Derived Success

 

 

 

 

Ratin Outcome
g Pattern Mixed
Successful 7 4
Unsuccessful 1 2

 

Time Orientation:
Further Comparisons

Since the Mann-Whitney U-test, as described in the results
section, did not demonstrate any significant differences between
time orientation changes in successful and unsuccessful subjects,
it was decided to pursue this further. It seemed feasible that if
any differences existed they might become more apparent if the
five subjects who changed their time orientations most were com-
pared with the five subjects who changed their time orientations
least. A Mann-Whitney U-test was used to compare these two groups
under both success measures. As the data in Table 10 indicate,
both decrease in past orientation and increase in future orienta-
tion were significantly greater for the group rated successful by
the therapists than for the group rated as unsuccessful. The
Semantic Differential Adjustment ratings demonstrated no signifi-
cant differences between the two groups, when they were compared

on the basis of success versus lack of success.

38

Table 10.--Changes in Past, Present, and Future Time Orientation
in Relation to Therapist Ratings (TR) of Success afid
Semantic Differential Adjustment Score (SD): A Compar-
ison of the Five Subjects Who Changed.Most with the
Five Subjects Who Changed Least in the Hypothesized

 

 

 

Directions
Time SD TR
Orientation U Score U Score
Past 12 4*
Present 13 8
Future 15 4*

 

*p 2 .05

DISCUSSION

The overall results of this study suggest that systematic
changes in time orientation occur in the course of psychotherapy.
These changes are such that there is a diminution in past orienta-
tion, an increase in present orientation, and an increase in future
orientation. There are indications that these changes are related
to the degree of success of the therapy, though the statistical
tests failed to confirm this relationship.

Increase in future time perspective and psychotherapeutic
outcome, as measured in this study, appear to be unrelated. There
were from the beginning, however, some serious questions as to the
validity of the methods of operationalizing these two concepts.
This result should, therefore, not be taken as a final answer to
the question of whether or not such a relationship exists.

These findings are discussed in detail in the following

pages.
Time Orientation

The method of measuring time orientation by noting the time
references of the verbs used by the subject appears to be quite
satisfactory. In this particular study, as in others, one of the
major problems was that of how to measure psychotherapeutic out-
come. It appears that of the two measures used (Therapist-Ratings

and Semantic Differentials), the therapist ratings were the more

39

4O

appropriate and valid. It is quite possible that the Semantic
Differential was measuring very specific attitude change, whereas
the therapists took many such aSpects of the client's overall
functioning into account in their success ratings. As noted
earlier, there was little or no correlation between the two
measures of success (-.O6). There was a negative relationship
between increase in future time orientation and change toward the
norms on the Semantic Differential, while the therapist ratings
demonstrated a positive and nearly statistically significant rela—
tionship. Neither of the outcome measures indicated any relation-
ship with success when the Mann-Whitney U-test was applied using
all of the subjects. When, however, the five cases that changed
their time orientations the most in the predicted direction were
compared with the five subjects that changed the least, a statis-
tically significant relationship was demonstrated between success
and decrease in past orientation (p = .05) and between success and
increase in future orientation using the therapist ratings of out-
come. It appears, then, that had cases been used which the coun-
selors rated successful or unsuccessful with a marked degree of
confidence, rather than the questionable three part ratings
(Successful, Partly Successful, Partly Unsuccessful), this rela-
tionship may have been demonstrated across all of the subjects.
Another factor that probably contributed to lack of statis-
tically significant results is the homogeneity of the population.
All of the subjects, of course, were college students with similar
problems and similar degrees of disturbance. It is quite possible
that all of these clients improved to some extent over the course

of psychotherapy, and, therefore, the therapists' judgements, which

41

were based on four possible degrees of success, were not appro-
priate to this population. A group of clients with a broader
range of psychopathology would provide a more suitable test of the
relationship between success and increase in future time orienta-
tion.

The graphic analysis completed on each individual's time
references (See Appendix C) across interviews is also quite sug-
gestive, even though the Fisher Exact Test which was applied did
not meet statistical significance at the .05 level. It appears
that it is quite possible that the pattern of time references or
the fluctuation in changes in time orientation during psycho-
therapy is an important factor. The data suggest that the pattern
across interviews that may be indicative of the process occurring
in psychotherapy is decrease in past references, increase in pre-
sent references, and increase in future references. This possi-
bility merits further investigation.

It appears that changes in time orientation do occur in psy-
chotherapy and that these changes may, in some way and to some
undetermined extent, be related to success. This change appears
to have minimal, if any, relationship to the therapist's emphasis
on any particular time orientation, which would, then, tend to
eliminate a reinforcement interpretation of this change. It ap-
pears, rather, that this change is quite likely a natural growth
phenomenon occurring in a situation where the temporal life of the
individual is indirectly at issue. Such an interpretation is
congruent with Rogers' (1961) process equation of psychotherapy
in which he asserts that initially the client clings to the past.

As psychotherapy proceeds, however, and where the correct

42

conditions exist, he loosens this bind to the past and begins to
experience in the present while daring to look to the future.
Rogers, in this same article, quotes research done by Braaten
(1958) which demonstrated that there is an eXpression of the im-
mediately present self in successful cases of psychotherapy in
late interviews which was not present in earlier interviews.

It is quite probable that the trends assumed by changes in
time orientation during psychotherapy vary with several factors.

1. (1958, p. 105) states that how well a

For example, May, 2;.
person remembers the past is dependent to some extent on the per-
son's level of education. It appeared that the college students
in this study had very good memories of the past simply from ob-
servation of their statements. How the unique life history of
each individual may be involved in the effects of psychotherapy

on time orientation is an unexplored issue. This research, how—
ever, has demonstrated that changes in time orientation appear to
occur in the predicted directions regardless of the content under
discussion. The changes in time orientation occurred as mentioned
above in all areas except those of self and therapist-client. The
validity of the content regarding self is questionable, however,
because of the very infrequent references made in this content
area due to the scoring criteria. The therapist-client content
area was not in the predicted direction for past time orientation.
This is undoubtedly due to the fact that a past only developed

for the client in regard to the therapist as their contacts in-
creased and was not present initially in psychotherapy. Though
the changes in time orientation were in the predicted directions

in most cases, only a few of them were large enough to be

43

statistically significant. The content categories in which the
changes were significant were past-social, present—therapist-client,
future-social and future-therapist-client. These particular areas
of functioning are closely related in that the relationship with
the therapist was undoubtedly a special kind of social relation-
ship for the client. Social relationships are commonly known to
be of particular concern for college students, since, in effect,
this is the first time most college-age men and women find them-
selves with g2 facto independence from their parents, and they
must make new acquaintances and form new relationships in the pro-
cess. It appears that changes in time orientation can occur in a
very general way in psychotherapy, but the most notable changes
will occur in those areas of functioning most relevant to the age
group of the sample and to the individual. The above changes in
content areas with respect to time orientation would probably have
distributed themselves more generally had the sample included a

broader range of ages, psychopathology, and problems in living.

Time Perspective

The hypothesized relationship between future time perspective
and the degree of success in psychotherapy was not confirmed. This
result is undoubtedly more a function of the method of measuring
increase in future time perspective than it is an indication that
the theoretical rationale from which the hypothesis was derived
was faulty. This method, as described in the procedures section,
was an admittedly questionable one from the beginning. Since,
however, this was the only possible way in which time perspective

could be measured using the data that were available, it was

44

decided that it was at least worth an attempt. This method was
wholly dependent on verbal statements from the client concerning
his own future. In most cases such statements were present, but
they were usually quite vague as to the span of years into the
future intended by the client. It should be noted, however, that
even with this imprecise method of measuring future time perspec-
tive, it was possible to detect increases in this variable in 12
to 19 subjects. The fact that the correlation between the success
measures and the increases were so minimal may be just as much
attributable to the problems with the success measures, as dis-
cussed earlier, as it is to the measure of future time perspective.
The majority of references made by the subjects which could
be located within a specific span of years into the future extended
over only a very few years, e.g., the median span, when all subjects
were considered, was gng year. This finding is in accord with

1. (1958, p. 107),

De Greeff's statement, as quoted by May, eg.
that at age twenty the time unit of thought is the year as compared
with the time unit of thought of the forty year old which is the
decade.
MESQQE 211.21 s_gu se_st_igfi ms;
Further Research

The present research has added only suggestive evidence, in
large part, to the theoretically derived hypotheses. Future re-
search should not use data which was not collected expressly for
the purpose of investigating time perspective and time orientation
in psychotherapy. The TAT, Story Completion, and questionnaire
methods of reasuring time orientation and time perspective, which

have proven themselves in past research, should be used to measure

 

 

 

 

45

changes between pre— and post-therapy on the above concepts. A
sample should be selected from a population presenting problems
different from and more severe than those of most college students
and with a greater range of abilities and problem areas. A suc-
cess measure based on objective judgements of other psychotherapists
should be used to select two groups which can be said to be more
"definitely" successful and unsuccessful, since at this stage in
the development of outcome measures, our instruments are too crude
to differentiate degrees of success. Research designed with the
above criteria met would provide a clearer test of the relation-
ship between psychotherapy and time orientation and time perspec-
tive.

Future research in this area might consider the dimensions
of the reality versus the unreality of various temporal dimensions
as they occur and are dealt with in psychotherapy, e.g., how does
the therapist deal with a client who sees his life as suddenly
becoming more exciting ten years from now when it is currently
very boring. It would also seem profitable to approach this sub-
ject in an idiographic manner, where a thorough study of the pro—
cesses of change in time orientation and time perspective in psy-
chotherapy could be attempted. Another of the numerous research
possibilities is how much does the therapeutic situation itself
contribute to the changes that do occur. For example, does the
theoretical orientation of the therapist produce any differences
in the time orientation changes that take place; and what is
different about the psychotherapeutic situation as compared to
any two-person relationship of reasonable duration that causes

changes in temporal concepts which normally do not occur in other

relationships.

 

 

46

Implications. Research on temporal matters in relation to
psychotherapy is a relatively unexplored area. We know that Freud,
for instance, developed much of his theory from actual treatment
of patients. In this same way, it would also be possible to learn
much about time orientation and time perspective which would be
quite relevant to personality and developmental theory.

It may be possible to use changes in temporal orientation
and perspective in psychotherapy as a measure of therapeutic out—
come, should research provide us with substantiated knowledge of
what to expect in successful cases of psychotherapy. There also

exists the possibility that if ways of changing time orientation

 

and time perspective are developed, they may be used directly in
the treatment of certain psychological disorders such as depres-
sion.

A great amount of research is needed in this area both for
the further development of personality theory and for the ap—
plication of what is learned to clinical problems. It is un-
doubtedly true that this relatively unexplored area merits much
more investigation. The present research is only one relatively

minor step in that direction.

SUMMARY

The object of the present research was to investigate the
functioning of time orientation and time perspective in psycho—
therapy. Very little research has been done on this problem, so
the major aim was to determine roughly how the temporal experience
of clients is changed or affected by psychotherapy.

Nineteen cases (10 female; 9 male) drawn from the tape
library of the Counseling Center at Michigan State University

were the sample selected for this study. None of the subjects

 

possessed any severe degree of psychopathology, and most were
struggling with problems related to young adulthood and other
emotional problems. Semantic Differential data taken before and
after psychotherapy was available on each of the subjects. Rat-
ings of success by the counselors were also available. A measure
of success was developed using the Semantic Differential data by
comparing the changes that took place in these subjects from pre—
to post—therapy as related to a group of "normal" college students.

Two temporal concepts were used in this study: (a) time
orientation--the direction in time of the individual's thoughts,
concerns, fantasies, etc.; and (b) future time perspective--the
span of time from the present to the most distant future covered
by the individual's thoughts, etc. Past research has demonstrated
that psychopathology usually has the effect of causing the indivi-
dual to cling toja dominant past orientation and to develop a

narrow, constricted future time perspective.

47

 

48

It was hypothesized that in psychotherapy the following
changes occur:
(I—A) There is a significant diminution in past
orientation in successful as compared to un-
successful psychotherapy;
(I-B) There is a significant increase in present
orientation in successful as compared to un-
successful psychotherapy;
(I—C) There is a significant increase in future
orientation in successful as compared to un—
successful psychotherapy.
It was found that the above directional hypotheses held to
a statistically significant extent across all subjects regardless
of success or lack of success when a Wilcoxon Signed—Rank test was
applied. A Mann-Whitney U-test, used to determine whether or not
there was a statistically significant change in time orientations
in successful cases as opposed to unsuccessful cases, did not
confirm the above hypotheses when the Semantic Differential measure
and the Counselor Ratings were used to determine outcome. When,
however, the five cases that changed their time orientations most
were compared with the five who changed their time orientations
least, using the counselor ratings, it was found that a statistically
significant difference did exist between successful and unsuccess-
ful cases for decrease in past orientation and increase in future
orientation. Graphic analysis of each individual's psychotherapy
interviews demonstrated that the pattern of decrease in past refer—
ences, increase in present references, and increase in future
references should be investigated further. A Fisher Exact Test

applied to the counselor ratings of success and the patterned out-

comes versus the mixed outcomes showed that the results had a

 

49

probability of .33 of occurring by chance. This is not statistically
significant but suggestive.

It has been suggested that time orientation can be a general
aspect of the individual's functioning covering all areas of life,
or each area of life may have its own time orientation for the
individual. The Lennard and Bernstein (1960) content categories
of family relationships, other social relationships, self, and
therapist—client relationships were used to investigate whether or
not the above hypothesized directional changes occurred regardless
of content area or if they were specific to certain content areas.
All of the changes in time orientation were as predicted across
all of the content categories except past-self, present—self,
future-self, and past-therapist—client. There was little change
at all in the self category and this was attributed to the scor-
ing system which is quite restrictive of any scoring in this
category. The increase in past references for the therapist-
client category was due to the fact that the client only developed
a past in relation to the therapist as psychotherapy proceeded.
Only the changes in past-social, present-social, future-social,
present-therapist-client, and future—therapist-client reached
statistical significance. These areas are undoubtedly of major
concern to college students.

It was also hypothesized that:

(11) There is a significant positive relationship be-

tween the degree of success of psychotherapy and

the amount of increase in future time orientation.
The results of this investigation failed to confirm this hypothesis.
The correlation between the Semantic Differential change score and

increase in future time orientation was -.33; and the correlation

 

50

between the counselor-rating of success and increase in future
time orientation was .40. The latter correlation is in the ex-
pected direction and approaches significance at the .05 level.
It was further hypothesized that:
(111) lExtension of future time perspective is posi-
tively correlated with the degree of success
of psychotherapy.
There was no relationship between increase in future time per-
spective and the two outcome measures mentioned above. This
lack of relationship was attributed to the crudity of the measure
of extension of future time rather than to lack of validity of the
theory.
Several exploratory questions were investigated. It was
found that the percentage of times the therapist changed the
time reference of the interview had no significant relationship to
changes in the clients time orientation. Graphic analysis further

demonstrated that across all clients the trends, as predicted by

hypotheses I-A, I-B, and I-C, were in the appropriate directions.

Suggestions

Both of the success measures were discussed and suggestions
were made as to how they might be improved. The counselor-rating
appeared to be the most valid. The measure of time perspective
was of dubious value from the beginning, but it was the only method
whereby time perspective could be approached with data that had
already been collected.

This research has by no means disconfirmed the hypotheses.
Future research should develop better measures of outcome in psy-

chotherapy and collect data to be used expressly for this research

 

51

area. TAT-type measures, story completions and questionnaires
have shown themselves to be reliable techniques of measuring time
perspective and time orientation in the past and should be used

in the future.

 

 

REFERENCES

Ames, L. B. The development of the sense of time in the young
child. Journal of Genetic Psychology, 1946, 68, 97-105.

Arieti, S. The processes of expectation and anticipation.
Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 1947, 106, 471~481.

Balken, E. R. A delineation of schizophrenic language and thought
in a test of imagination. Journal of Psychology, 1943, 16,
239-271.

Balken, E. R. & Masserman, J. H. The language of phantasy: Ill.
The language of the phantasies of patients with.conversion
hysteria, anxiety states, and obsessive-compulsive
neuroses. Journal of Psychology, 1940, 19, 75-86.

Barndt, R. J. & Johnson, D. M. Time orientation in delinquents.
Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 1955, 51, 343-
345. *

Bergin, A. E. Some implications of psychotherapy research for
therapeutic practice. In G.E. Stollak, B.G. Guerney Jr.,
and M. Rothberg (Eds.), Psychotherapy Research. Chicago:
Rand-McNally & Co., 1966, pp. 118-129.

Bromberg, W. The meaning of time for children. American Journal
of Orthopsychiatry, 1938, 8, 142, 147.

Davids, A., Kidder, C., & Feich, M. Time orientation in male and
female juvenile delinquents. Journal of Abnormal and Social
Psychology, 1962, 64, 239-240.

Davids, A. & Parenti, A.N. Time orientation and interpersonal
relations of emotionally disturbed and normal children.
Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 1958, 51, 299-305.

Davids, A. & Sidman, J. A pilot study--impulsivity, time orienta-
tion and delayed gratification in future scientists and in
underachieving high school students. Exceptional Children,
1963, 22, 170-174.

Dilling, C. & Rabin, A. 1. Temporal experience in depressive
states and schizophrenia. Journal of Consulting Psychology,
1967, 31, 604-608.

Dooley, L. The concept of time in defense of ego integrity.
Psychiatry, 1941, 4, 13-23.

Dubois, F. S. The influence of time and its relation to psychiatric
«illness. American Journal of Psychiatry, 1954, 111, 46,51.

 

 

Einstein, S. The influence of the self system, ethnicity, and drug
addiction upon future time perspective. Dissertation Ab—
stracts, 1964, 25 (4-6), 3674.

52

53

Eldred, S. H., Hamburg, D.A., Inwood, E.R., Salzman, L., Meyers-
burg, H.A. and Goodrich, G. A procedure for the systema-
tic analysis of psychotherapeutic interviews. Bgychiatr ,
1954 17 337-345.

3 —’

Epley, D. & Ricks, D. R. Foresight and hindsight in the TAT.
Journal of Projective Techniques, 1963, 11, 51-59.

Eson, M. E. & Kafka, J. S. Diagnostic implications of a study in
time perception. Journal of General Psychology. 1952, 46,
169-183.

Farber, M. L. Time perspective and feeling tone: A study in the
perception of the days. Journal of Psychology, 1953, 33,
253—257.

Fenichel, O. The psychoanalytig_theory of neurosis. New York:
W° W. Norton, 1945.

Fink, H. H. The relationship of time perspective to age, in—
stitutionalization and activity. Unpublished doctoral
dissertation, Michigan State University, 1953.

Fisher, S. & Fisher, R. L. Unconscious conception of parental
figures as a factor influencing perception of time.
Journal of Personality, 1940, 10, 75-86.

Fraisse, P. The psychology of time. New York: Harper & Row, 1963.

 

Frank, L. K. Soc1g£y as the patient. New Brunswick, N. J.:
Rutgers University Press, 1948.

Goldstein, A. P., Heller, K. & Sechrest, L. B. Psychotherapy and

the psychology of behavior change. New York: John Wiley &
Sons, 1966.

Gottschalk, L. A., & Hambridge, G. Jr. Verbal behavior analysis:
systematic approach to the problem of quantifying psy-
chologic change. Journal of Projective Techniqugp, 1955,
12, 387-409.

Green, H. & Knapp, R. Time judgement, aesthetic preference and need
for achievement. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology.
1959, 38, 140-42.

Grummon, D. L. The use of language as a method for the study of
personality and psychotherapy. Unpublished doctoral disser-
tation, University of Chicago, 1950.

Harrison, L. The nature and development of concepts of time among
young children. Elementary School Journal, 1934, 34, 507-
514.

Israeli, N. The social psychology of time. Journal of Abnppmal
and Social Psychology, 1932, 11, 209-213.

Israeli, N. Abnormal personality and timg. New York: Science
Press, 1936.

Jaffe, J. Dyadic analysis of two psychotherapeutic interviews.
In L.A. Gottschalk (Ed.), Comparative psycholinquistic an-
alysis of two psychotherapeutic interviews. New York: 1961.

 

 

Jaspen, N. Serial correlation. Psychpmetrika, 1946, 11 (1),
2

o

 

 

54

Kahn, P. Time orientation and reading achievement. Perceptual
and Motor Skills, 1965, 11, 157—158.

Karl, N. Personal communication based on incomplete doctoral
dissertation, Michigan State University, 1967.

Kastenbaum R. Time and death in adolescence. In H. Feifel
(Ed.), The meanin of death. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1959,
pp. 99-113.

Kastenbaum, R. The dimensions of future time perspective,an
experimental analysis. Journal of General Psychology,
1961, 93, 203—218.

Kastenbaum, R. The direction of time perspective: I. The influence
of affective set. Journal of General Psychology, 1965, 13,
189-201.

Kastenbaum, R. On the meaning of time in later life. Journal 91
Genetic Psychology, 1966, 109, 9-25.

Knapp, R. H. & Garbutt, J. T. Time imagery and the achievement
motive. Journal of Personality, 1958, 16, 426-434.

Laffey, J. J. Impulsivity and temporal experience in prisoners.
Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Michigan State Univer-
sity, 1963.

Lennard, H. L. & Bernstein, A. The anatomy of psychotherapy.

New York: Columbia University Press, 1960.

LeShan, L. Time orientation and social class. Journal of Appormal
and Social Psychology, 1952, 41, 539-592.

Lewin, K. A dynamic theory of personality. New York: McGraw-Hill,
19

 

Lewin, K. Field theory and social science. D. Cartwhight (Ed.),
New York: Harper, 1951.

Lewis, A. The experience of time in mental disorder. Procegg1pg§
of the Royal Society of Medicine, 1931, 13, 611-620.

rLevine, M., Spivack, G., Fuschillo, J., & Tavernier, A. Intelli-
gence and measures of inhibition and time sense. Journal
of Clinical Psychology, 1959, 13, 224-226.

Lorenz, M. Expressive behavior and language patterning. Psy-
chiatry, 1955, 13, 353-366.

Matulef, N.J. Effects of brief vocational counseling on temporal
orientation. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 1964, 11,
352-356.

May, R., Angel, E., & Ellenberger, H.F. Existence: A new dimension
in psychiatry and psychology. New York: Basic Books, 1958.

Meerloo, A. M. Father time. Psychiatric Quarterly, 1948, 11,
587-608.

Meerloo, A. M. Father time 11. Psychiatric Quérterly, 1950, 34,
65 6 1

Miller, J.G. Criteria and measurement of change during psychiatric
treatment. Bulletin of the Menn1pggr Clinic, 1954, 13,
130-137.

 

55

Minkowski, E. Findings in a case of schizophrenic depression. In
R. May, E. Angel, & H. Ellenberger (Eds. ), Existence: A new
dimension in psychiatry and psychology. New York: Basic
Books, 1958, pp. 127- 138.

Nichols, H. The psychology of time. American Journal of Psychology,
1891, 3, 451-529.

Osgood, C.E., Suci, G.J., & Tannenbaum, P.H. The measprement of
meaning. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1957.

Pressey, S.J. & Kuhlen, R.G. Psychological development through
the life span. New York. Harper & Bros., 1957.

 

Ricks, D., Umbarger, C., & Mack, R. A measure of increased temporal
perspective in successfully treated adolescent delinquent
'boys. Journal of Abnormal and Soc1g1 Psychology, 1964, 32,
685-689.

Rogers, C.R. The process equation of psychotherapy. Americgp
Journal of Psychotherapy, 1961, 13, 27-45.

Sanford, F.H. Speech and personality. Character and Personalit
1942, 10, 169-198.

Seeman, J. The process of nondirective therapy. Journal of Con-
sulting Psychology, 1949, 13, 157-168.

Siegman, A.W. Future time perspective and the perception of
duration. Perceptual and Motor Sk1lls, 1962, 13, 609-610.

Tauber, L. E. Time concern and "time complexes" among normals,
neurotics, and psychotics with possible applications to psy-
chotherapy. 21ssergation Abstracts, 1962,22 (7), 2470.

Teahan, J.E. Future time perspective and academic achievement.
Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Michigan State University,
1956.

Thor, D.H. Time perspective and time of day. Psychological
Record, 1962, 13, 417-422.

Wallace, M. Future time perspective in schizophrenia. Journa1 of
Abnormal and Social Psychology, 1956, 31, 240-245.

Wallace, M. & Rabin, A. Temporal experience. Psychological
Bullet1p, 1960, 31, 213-236.

Weintraub, W. & Arronson, H. The application of Verbal behavior
analysis to the study of psychological defense mechanisms:
methodology and preliminary report. Jpprnal of Nervous and
Mental Disease, 1962, 134, 169-181.

White, A.M., Fichtenbaum, L., & Dollard, J. Measuring change:
A verbal and nonverbal content analysis method. Psycho-
therapy: Theory. ResearchL and Practice, 1966,3,107-113.

Wohlford, P. F. Determinants of extension of personal time.
Dissertation Abstracts, 1965, 25 5(7 1, 4255.

 

APPENDICES

56

 

APPENDIX A

57

 

SCORING MANUAL
Time Reference

Each of the client's statements is scored according to the
intended time reference of the main verb or verbs in the state-
ment. In most cases the reference intended is the same as the
tense of the verb used; however, in cases where they are not in
agreement, the time reference intended is scored. Each verb in a
complete sentence is scored for a time reference--infinitives and
participles are not scored.

The following is a more complete description of the scoring
of time references with examples.

(I) Past Reference: All past tense verbs with past tense
intended and other verbs with past reference intended.

Example: "Even as a child I was momma's little girl."
(Verb and Reference intended are past)

Example: "As I look back to those days I remember
always being unhappy." (Past reference)

 

(II) Present Reference: All present tense verbs with pre-
sent reference intended and all other verbs with pre-
sent reference intended. In many cases the client
refers to events that have happened since he entered
therapy in the past tense. Since these situations have
relevance to the present situation and have happened
fairly recently, they are scored present. We cannot
limit ourselves to the specious present in scoring
present reference.

Example: "I am very happy about my grades this term."
(Verb and Reference intended are present.)

Example: "Last week before I came in I thought of some
things to tell you that I didn't want to tell
you." (Present Reference intended

 

(III) Future Reference: All verbs in the future tense and all
other verbs with future reference intended. A reference
to present feelings about some event to happen in the
future is scored present reference.

58

 

(1V)

(V)

(VI)

(VII)

(VIII)

(IX)

59

Example: "I shall go home next weekend." (Future Reference)

 

Example: "I feel sick when I ggnsiger oing home next
weekend." (Present Reference); but "I will
feel sick when I 0 home next weekend."
(Future Reference§_

Reference to an ongoing process is scored both past and
present since such statements obviously intend both time
references. Statements that include "I always" and "I
usually," etc., often intend both references.

Example: "I have felt that way for many years."
(Past and Present)

Example: "I have usually (or always) felt that he liked
me more than her." (Past and Present

If the client uses the conditional, the statement is
scored future, since, of course, future is in most
cases intended.

Example: "I shouldn't ger mad when he does that."
(Future

Statements where the conditional is used in the context
of another time reference are scored according to the
reference intended.

Example: "I should have hit him." (Past Reference)

If the client refers to historical events, books, etc.,
to illustrate a point, the verbs are scored according
to whether he is illustrating a past, a present, or a
future occurence.

Example: "I plan to be the type of guy that Babbitt was."
(Future)

There are cases in which the client repeats statements
made by the counselor, or instances in which he has
trouble understanding the counselor, etc.; in such
cases no time reference is scored.

Example: Co — "You're being seductive with me."

Cl - "I'm being seductive?"
Many times the client will mix present and past refer-
ences in one statement; both should be scored°

Example: "Today I feel better than I did ten years
ago." (Present and Past)

 

There are cases where the client repeats statements be—
cause the counselor did not understand or because he
wishes to emphasize a point; in these cases the time
reference is scored only once.

 

60

Example: "I could never understand; I simply couldn't
understand." (Score once)

(X) Idiosyncratic statements used frequently by the client
such as "I know," "I think," "I mean," etc., are not
scored. The above are only scored if it can be deter—
mined that they are not being used simple to preface
a statement.

Example: "I mean, well, I don't like it." (Don't score)
Example: "I mean well when I do it." (Score)

(XI) Any discussion by the client of his relationship with
the therapist is scored present or future. In most
instances any statements regarding their past relation-
ship involves a very short span of time. For purposes
of investigating the therapist-client relationship it
may be helpful to note references made to their past
relationship, but in dealing with the total time re-
ferences they are always scored as present.

Example: "I liked you two weeks ago; now I'm not so

sure." (Present)

Future Time Persgective

Future time perspective is scored by noting the number of
years into the future that the client projects himself each time
he refers to a reasonably definite future time. For example, if
the client says "After I graduate . . ." and it is known that he
is a college sophomore, this is scored as occurring between one to
five years from now. The various time spans used can be found on

the scoring sheet attached to this manual.
Content

At the same time the client's statements are scored for time
reference, they are also scored for content according to Lennard
and Bernstein's (1960) system. The content categories used are:
(a) Family Relationships; (b) Other Social Relationships; (c) Self;
(d) Therapist-Client Relationship. Below are definitions of these

categories.

 

61

(A) Family Relationships: Included in this.category are
propositions regarding the client's status and inter-
actions in his family of origin, and, if he is
married, with his present family. In- laws and other
relatives are also considered to be a part of this
category. » u

Example: "I remember being beaten by my father. "
(Past Reference- Family Content)
(B) Social Relationships: Included in this category are all
other social relations outside the family.
Example: "My boss doesn't like me."
(Present Reference-Social Content)

(C) Self: Included in this category are references to life
experiences that do not refer to other content than
the person himself.

Example: "I have always loved apples. "
(Past and Present Reference- Self Content)

(D) Therapist-Client: Included here are all statements which

refer to the relationship between the therapist and the
client.

Example: Th - "I like you."
Cl - "That frightens me."
(Present Reference-Therapist-Client Content)
There are some cases in which two content categories may be‘
involved in a client's statement. In such cases the dominant

category is scored. Which category is dominant involves some amount

of judgement by the scorer.

Example: "I feel depressed (Self); I think it's because
of my relationship with my father." (Family)

In this case family content would be judged dominant.

Therapist Change pf limp Reference

Each time the therapist changes the time reference of the
therapy session this is noted as well as the time reference to
which he changes the discussion. This does not occur frequently,

but it is necessary to know this.

Example: "I know you don't like me, but how did you
feel about your father." (Present and Past)

 

62
Example: "You've had a bad time of it but what are
your plans." (Past to Future)
In both of the above cases the therapist initiated a change
in time reference. In some cases this is obvious, but in others

not so obvious; therefore, care is needed in scoring°

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

mA<HOH mA<HOH
mukomnmuhmfi muhomumuhma
mukmfiumukofi muhmfinmuhofi
mukofinwukm wukofiuwukm
mukmuukfi mukmunkfi
w
ukfiuwoe o ukfinmoe o
.GoE o .:06 o
MMDHDm mEHH 0:29 mqmm .oom .Z<m Oan mAMm .OOm .z<m cums mqmm .UOm .Z<m Hm<m MZHH
MMDHDM HzmmMMm Hm<m

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hmmmm UZHmOOm

64

.OZ

mmzmH mo mwz<mo HmHm<mmmH

HZMHZOD

 

 

mZHH mo mHZmZMH<Hm HZMHH<m

 

.H.ZOO Hmmmm oszoom

 

APPENDIX B

65

 

SUBJECTS, INTERVIEWS, SUCCESS RATINGS

 

 

Subjects Interviews Counselor Rating Semantic Differential

 

 

 

Tom 12 PU 53.0
Band 22 PS - 4.4 4
Ben 10 PU 24.1
Pete 19 S -19.4
E 17 PS 5.5
A 9 PS 30.0
Hans 17 PS -19.6
Elaine 18 S 26.6
Jim 16 PS 6.2
Bill 14 13.0
Lorri 20 PS - 9.8
Peggy 13 13.2
Walt 17 47.8
Betsy 34 17.0
Light 14 PU -44.6
June 18 6.0
Leon 18 PS 45.0
Sue 15 S 16.7
Jane 22 S .6

S = Successful

PS = Partly Successful

PU = Partly Unsuccessful

66

 

 

SEMANTIC DIFFERENTIAL

Norms

Men Women

1. Woman
easy:___;_;_;_;_;__;_:difficult 4.1 4.2
safe:__;_;__;_;_;_;_:dangerous 3.4 3.1

optimistic:__;_;_;_;_;__;_:pessimistic 3.3 3.1
weak:_;_;_;_;_;_;_:strong 3.3 4.3
free:_;__;___;_;_;_;_:constrained 4.2 4.5
fair:__;__;___;_;__;__;_:unfair 3.7 3.2

active:_;_;_;_;_;_;___:passive 3.4 3.3
bad:__;__;_;__;___;__;___:good 5.5 5.5
destructive:_;_;_;_;_;_;__:productive 5.4 5.8

easy:_;__;_;_;_;_;_:difficult 3.9 3.9
safe:_;__;_;__;_;_;_:dangerous 2.6 2.4
optimistic:__;_;_;_;_;_;_:pessimistic 3.9 3.5
weak:_;__;__;_;_;_;_:strong 5.3 5.4
free:___;__;_;_;_;__;___:constrained 4.5 4.0
active:_;__;_;_;_;_;_:passive 3.1 3.4
bad:_;_;___;__;___;_;__:good 5.7 5.8
destructive:_;__;_;_;_;_;_:productive 5.6 5.6
fair:__;_;__;_;_;_;_:unfair 2.6 2.5

3. Man
easy:_;_;_;_;_;_;_:difficult 4.1 4.5
safe:_;_;_;___;_;__;__:dangerous 4.2 3.3
optimistic:_;__;___;___;___;___;_:pessimistic 3.8 3.3
weak:_;__;___;__;__;_;_:strong 5.5 5.6
free:_;__;_;_;_;_;__:constrained 3.5 2.9
fair:__;_;_;__;__;__;___:unfair 3.7 3.3
active:_;__;_;_;__;__;__:passive 2.4 2.4
bad:__;__;_;_;__;_;_:good 4.7 5.2
destructive:___;_;_;_;__;__;_:productive 4.9 5.4

67

 

large:
colorless:
easy:___'
safe:

optimistic:

free:
fair:

active:

destructive:

large:
colorless:
safe:

optimistic:

free:
fair:
active:
bad:

destructive:

colorless:
easy:___'

safe:
optimistic:
active:
bad:

:small
:colorful
:difficult
:dangerous
:pessimistic
:strong
:constrained
:unfair
:passive
:good

:productive

:small
:colorful
:dangerous
:pessimistic
:strong
:constrained
:unfair
:passive
:good
:productive

:colorful
:difficult
:dangerous
'___:pessimistic
‘___:passive

' :good

Oh-
HVHHOOOD—‘MN

OONWNU'INUJON

3.1
6.0
3.7
4.0

o o I c

O\ O\ l—' N N O\ N (JO 0\ t—I
I
r—I -l-\ CD (X) 0\ t—‘ O O U1 \l

large:
thin:
colorless:
easy:

safe:
modest:
optimistic:
weak:

free:

fair:
active:
bad:
destrictive:

changing:

—_3——

:small
:thick
:colorful
___§___3___a___;___;___;___:difficult
:dangerous
:vain
:pessimistic
:strong
:contrained
:unfair
:passive
:good
:productive
'stable

. . -
_9—’__’—’__‘

3.1
4.2
5.3
3.8
2.9
3.7
3.3
5.2
3.5
2.5
2.6
5.4
5.4
3.0

3.9
4.0
5.2
3.7
2.6
3.1
2.8

 

APPENDIX C

70

 

71

 

3mH>MMHZH mmm

H H H H H H m m 5 HH mH 0H NH 0H mH 0H oH mHUMhmDm mo .02

om mm om mm mm «N NN ON wH 0H dH NH OH w o d N mBMH>~HMHzH

- 7 H u H ‘ H _ H - _ n a J a n O

 

/\ -om
< .oq
Jom mo<Hzmommm
low
105

 

1%

OOH

mBMH>MMHzH Nm mH<DQH>HQzH mm0Mo<
mmozmmmmmm MXHH Hm<m mo<Hzm0mmm z<mz

 

72

H H H H H H m m N HH mH 0H NH OH OH 0H 0H 3mH>MMHZH anH
mHUMhmDm m0 .OZ
Gm Nm Om mm mm dN NN ON wH OH .qH NH OH w o d N, mBMH>MMHZH
— . . . r . . h . . _ u . F p . _ . O

 

Om MU<HZMOMMnH

ow

 

. OOH

m3mH>mMHZH Wm mH<DDH>HQzH mmomo<
mMOmemmmm MHZHH HzmmMMHnH mw<Hzmommm Z<m2

 

73

HHHHmmNHHmHoHnHmHoHoHoH

 

om Nmom mm omiuNNN ON wHo dHNH on o d N

h|.|.u,

H l1 J u H u H 5 H vi a 4 ‘4 11

’0“-/’0\\§/ -
/ .
/

mzmH>mMHZH >m mH<DQH>HQZH mmomo<
mmozmmmmmm mZHH mmDHDm m0<fizmommm z<m2

J

J

 

l l n I

OH
ON

om

.. oq
. cm

00
on
ow

OOH

3mH>meZH mmm
mHUMhmDm mo .Oz

93: >MMHZH

mmwflwzmommm

 

74

«H NH 0H m o d N

 

 

 
 

 

 

 

o .o
om Hmeq om zmm
>, --\.
\\ // \\
I.I.-I. ,\ 002 002
, NN ON ma 0H «2 NH 02 w o 4 N o

o _ . . .,\.H.\./_\.I..IL
om mzH<am om mz<a
ooH ooH

 

 

<
olo'nl I ourrlwgh
uuuuuu I usmmmum
I ummm
mBmH>umucH I me< HmuqouHuom
mmwmucmouom I me¢ HMOHuHm>
”VMM

H<DQH>HQZH mo<m mom 3mH>MMHZH
mmm mmozmmmmmm MZHH mo mmm<HZMOMMm mo mmm<mw

 

75

NN ON wH oIH dH

N_H

ono

 

 

w.H OH «H NH oH

D'—\ 'FIIIFI‘rllIr

  

w o

d

N

 

 

om

ooH

om

OOH

om

OOH

Qz<m

ZOMH

MHmm

mHquHNH on©.qN

_ "\0 J r/J '.I|||1 O

 

   

om
HMMHOIH

ooH

quHNHonoqN

IJI
om

\
x 2:.

\ ooH

SOB

 

 

 

 

 

 

OH qH

OOH O.H qH NH OH O

I\J
\ I/'\

0"]

NH OH w

 

Ill-Al

 

 

IIJllI

 

 

 

om

OOH

Om.

OOH

Om

H 03

,Om

OOH

MHZDH.

mz<m

.HIHHmH

 

 

 

 

"I7'1111111111111111.1113