Conceptualization and measurement of temporal focus: The subjective experience of the past, present, and future

• Published in: Organizational behavior and human decision processes Vol. 110; no. 1; pp. 1 - 22
• Main Authors: Shipp, Abbie J., Edwards, Jeffrey R., Lambert, Lisa Schurer
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kidlington Elsevier Inc 01.09.2009; Elsevier; Elsevier Science Publishing Company, Inc
• Series: Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes
• Subjects: Attitudes; Biological and medical sciences; Cognition; Cognition & reasoning; Cognition. Intelligence; Conceptualization; Confirmatory factor analysis; Construct validation; Expectations; Factor analysis; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Human behaviour; Individual difference; Measurement; Organizational behavior; Past experiences; Perception; Perceptions; Predictive validity; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Scale analysis; Spatial perception. Time perception; Studies; Subjectivity; Temporal focus; Temporal orientation; Time; Time perspective; Time Temporal focus Temporal orientation Time perspective Individual difference Construct validation Confirmatory factor analysis; Temporal focus; Individual difference; Confirmatory factor analysis; Time; Time perspective; Construct validation; Temporal orientation; Human; Subjective experience; Psychometrics; Experimental study; Test validation; Construct validity; Interindividual comparison; Conceptualization
• ISSN: 0749-5978; 1095-9920
• DOI: 10.1016/j.obhdp.2009.05.001

Temporal focus is the attention individuals devote to thinking about the past, present, and future, and the concept is important because it affects how people incorporate perceptions about past experiences, current situations, and future expectations into their attitudes, cognitions, and behavior. However, temporal focus has not been clearly defined nor situated in a nomological network of constructs. In addition, existing measures of temporal focus suffer from various shortcomings. In this paper, we advance the concept of temporal focus by critically examining its conceptualization, developing a new measure of temporal focus (Temporal Focus Scale; TFS), and evaluating the validity (i.e., construct, convergent, discriminant, nomological, and predictive validity) of the TFS across four studies. We conclude that understanding how individuals focus their attention toward the past, present, and future clarifies their responses to explicit and implicit temporal information, which suggests that a variety of research streams would benefit from incorporating the concept of temporal focus.