COMPONENTS OF THE HOUR PERSPECTIVE, IX VICTORY PARTICULARITIES AND MANIFESTATION IN EMOTIONAL AND MOTIVATIONAL SPHERES OF PARTICULARITY

Abstract

Relevance. An individual's psychological time is a significant psychological construct that unifies—through a shared sense of meaning—discrete life fragments stored in autobiographical memory. Time perspective, emerging from an individual's active engagement and creativity within their psychological time, serves as a fundamental regulator in shaping one's life path. Unfortunately, in the modern era, both young people and adults frequently encounter various distortions in the temporal structure of consciousness. These distortions manifest as an inability to fully utilize the present (fear of missed opportunities), the absence of a constructive vision of the future (anxious anticipation), and a severed connection with the past (where past achievements lose their capacity to serve as a resource). Overcoming everyday challenges often devolves into a pursuit of instant gratification, while the capacity to set long-term goals diminishes. Consequently, research into individual time perspective remains highly relevant. Such studies are essential for developing psychotherapeutic strategies to restore the integrity of psychological time and harmonize its components: the past, the present, and the future.

Objective: To examine age-related specifics regarding the components of time perspective, the nature of their interrelationships with the fear of missed opportunities, and their connection to indicators of short-term and long-term personal motivation.

Results and conclusions. Age-related characteristics regarding the manifestation of time perspective components were examined. A study involving 82 participants from various professions (aged 17 to 62) revealed age-related differences in the "negative past" indicator; young people (under 35) perceive their past more negatively than older adults do. A strong trend was also observed wherein older adults scored higher than young people on the "positive past" indicator. This result is interpreted as the combined manifestation of two phenomena: 1) the "fading affect bias" (FAB)—the fading of emotional valence, specifically the reduction of the negative background of autobiographical memories; and 2) the age-related positivity effect—a decrease with age in the processing and retention of negative information. The mechanisms underlying these two phenomena, as experimentally verified in scientific literature, were analyzed: 1) cognitive reappraisal, 2) retelling, 3) listener reaction, 4) acceptance of the memory rather than struggling against it, 5) avoidance of rumination, and 6) shifts in motivational priorities.

The manifestation of time perspective components within the individual's emotional sphere was also investigated. Interrelationships were identified between time perspective indicators and the fear of missed opportunities. A "negative past" and a "hedonistic" or "fatalistic" present were found to correlate directly with this type of fear. Furthermore, a positive past was found to be directly linked to the fear of missed social opportunities, whereas the image of the future correlates negatively with this type of fear.

The manifestation of time perspective components within the individual's motivational sphere was also examined. The capacity for long-term motivation is sustained by the image of the future, whereas conditions unfavorable to it arise when there is a pronounced fatalistic present orientation. A predominance of short-term motivational constructs is observed in conjunction with a pronounced hedonistic present, a positive past, and—most notably—a fatalistic present. A well-developed image of the future acts to restrain short-term activity motives.