Perspectiva temporal y estilos de personalidad en estudiantes argentinos Temporal perspective and Personality styles in Argentinean students

Resumen

En la Psicología, el concepto de perspectiva temporal, introducido por Lewin (1935), se define como la dirección preferencial de los pensamientos de un sujeto hacia el presente, pasado o futuro, dimensión más o menos estable de la personalidad, que influye sobre la motivación, el pensamiento y diversos aspectos de su conducta. Zimbardo define el concepto como un proceso no consciente mediante el cual el flujo de las experiencias personales y sociales se encuadra en categorías temporales que ayudan a dar orden, coherencia y significado a esas experiencias y lo operacionaliza, introduciendo también el concepto de perspectiva temporal balanceada (BTP). En este trabajo se presentan los resultados de datos recogidos en una muestra de 329 estudiantes de nivel medio, terciario y universitario, a partir de los que se exploró la posible relación entre perfiles de perspectiva temporal y estilos de personalidad en estudiantes argentinos de nivel medio, terciario y universitario y se evaluó el rol de la perspectiva temporal balanceada en la relación entre ambos constructos. Se aplicó el ZTPI (Inventario de Perspectiva Temporal) (Zimbardo & Boyd, 1999), el Cuestionario de Perspectiva Temporal Futura Trascendente (PTFT) (Boyd & Zimbardo, 1997) y el Inventario de estilos de personalidad (MIPS) (Millon 1994). Los análisis de correlaciones y de variancia arrojan evidencia empírica acerca de las relaciones significativas entre perfiles de Perspectiva temporal y Estilos de personalidad y se verifica, en particular, que hay un perfil de perspectiva temporal más adaptativo que el resto. Se interpretan los resultados como bidireccionales.

The time notion has a central place both in the philosophical reflection and in Psychology, indicating a systematical position with regard to the man´s mode of existence in the world. In psychology, the  time perspective concept was introduced by Lewin (1935), and defined as the totality of the individual's views of his psychological future and psychological past existing at a given time, a more or less stable trait of the personality, which influences the motivation, thinking, and various aspects of their behaviour. Zimbardo is the author that more has been busy of the operationalization of this concept, which he defined as a non conscious process through which the flow of personal and social experiences is assigned to temporal categories that help give order, coherence and meaning to those experiences. The relative weight of the time frames introduce considerable differences in the decisions and behaviours and this preference for any of the dimensions can function as a static personality trait that can be non-adaptive. Hence, the authors introduce the concept of balanced time perspective (BTP) according to which the present, past and future are combined in a flexible manner, in response to the demands of the times and tasks in the life of the people, as well as to their dominant values. In this work we present the results of data collected in a sample of 329 students of secondary, tertiary and university levels, from which explored the possible relationship between profiles of temporal perspective and personality styles in argentinean students and evaluate the role of balanced temporal perspective in that relationship. The ZTPI (Inventory of Temporal Perspective, Zimbardo & Boyd, 1999), the Questionnaire of Transcendental Future time perspective (PTFT) (Boyd & Zimbardo, 1997) and the Inventory of personality styles (MIPS, Million 1994) are applied. For the data analysis was used the following statistical: analysis of correlations, analysis of variance (ANOVA one way), tests of significance of the proportional differences and K-Means Cluster Analysis. We used the SPSS.20. Using cluster analysis, three profiles of Time perspective and three personality styles are obtained. It is also estimated the deviation of balanced temporal perspective (DBTP) for each subject and three conglomerates were determinated. The correlations and variance analysis show empirical evidence about the meaningful relationships between profiles of temporal perspective and personality styles. It was verified, in particular, that there is a profile of temporal perspective more adaptive than the rest. In fact, 55% of the subjects who are identified with a profile of equilibrate-transcendent PT are within the group with open, active, strong and sociable personality stile, while 40% of subjects with conflicting PT are located in the style of conflicted personality. The inclusion of the future transcendental time scale, unified with the ZTPI allows us to see this perspective influences, in particular in the profiles of PT and its relationship with the personality styles. Some of these relationships and their difference with those found by the authors of both scales of PT are interpreted as a result of cultural differences. All the links found are confirmed on the basis of the determination of the balanced time perspective (BTP), which in our sample corresponds to the 28 per cent of the total number of subjects. There would be a two-way relationship, a mutual influence; on the one hand, certain personality traits would glances spreads to the temporal dimensions of the lived and living life and, on the other hand, the profile of temporal perspective that is being consolidated as personality trait refluxes on the rest of the traits, to contribute to the achievement of a identity with greater or lesser degree of adaptation and completeness.