Zimbardo's Time Perspective Analysis

We all begin life as present hedonistic, wanting pleasure and avoiding pain. Growing up and going through experiences changes and focus our minds on different time frameworks. Dr. Zimbardo describes the six different time zones in his Time Perspective Theory. The time perspective biases of Zimbardo’s Theory are past negative, past positive, present fatalistic, present hedonistic, future positive and future negative. More than one of these time frameworks make up some aspects of our personality. Dr. Zimbardo shows how focused and persevere an individual is towards long term goals or if they choose a short term future. Certainly, he believes our minds are focused on several of these time zones and so, our actions and thoughts are relevant to the time perspective we live in. According to Zimbardo’s Time Orientation Framework my personality can be defined as high past negative, moderate present hedonistic and high
future oriented.
First, having past negative characteristics in my life has changed the way I react of thing about certain situations.
For example, while growing up I remember not being able to trust people. I always saw people do different than what they said and never kept their promises. This brought me a great deal of trust issues. After the feelings of betrayal and hopelessness my behavior began to change, I became more conservative, lonely, and doubtful of people. Any events that are traumatic enough can trigger the time perspective our mind focuses on, and of course our attitude. Past negative people will remember the most negative and traumatic events they lived in the past and tend to dwell on them for their entire life. Meaning, they will always remember feelings of trauma, failure and frustration. Fearing they will experience the same circumstance past negative people become conservative and focused. Being high past negative also has a positive side, Dr. Zimbardo states that past negative person has a sense of personal continuity or a stable sense of self
overtime.

Another time zone I focus on is Present Hedonistic. I scored 3.40, (which is moderate in Dr. Zimbardo’s Time Framework). Present hedonistic people tend to be self-indulgent, risk takers, and vulnerable at times. These people seek immediate pleasure and try to stay away from pain. Just like when we were kids, all we wanted was to have fun, avoid pain and

The strongest characteristic I possess according to Dr. Zimbardos Framework is being future oriented. I believe this is my strongest personality characteristic because I am a Christian. I believe life begins after death and that our actions play a big role in our life. I trust my decisions and belive that it will eventually be carried out. I prefer to wait on immediate gratification and achieve long term goals. For example, I’ll be willing to invest effort and resources in activities that have the potential for positive future outcomes I do not take physical risks but tend to be health conscious. For instance, I like exercising, eating healthy and meditating, these behaviors have little immediate gain but prevent long term negative effects. I have made drastic changes to my life from my believes all the way to my diet. I believe that hard work pays off and you got to work hard for what you wish for. Thinking more of the future has helped me set goals and most important it has helped me accomplish them.

Past negative, present hedonistic, and future oriented are the strongest aspects of my personality according to Zimbardo’s Time Orientation Framework. These factors are the ones that influence my everyday behavior.