Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
Atria Books (2008), Edition: 1, Hardcover, 368 pages
Description
Reveals how your individual time perspective shapes your life and is shaped by the world around you, interacting to create national cultures, economics, and personal destinies.
User reviews
LibraryThing member debs4jc
The authors explain the various ways people view time and show how these differing time perspectives can cause conflict and confusion in the world-but understanding them can lead to better relations with others and more effective educational programs. People who are 'present-oriented', for example,
Show More
will not respond well to efforts to educate them that are from the perspective of a 'future oriented' educator. I learned several valuable insights from this book, and I can certainly see how people from different cultural backgrounds have different time orientations. Some parts were academic and dry but not excessively so and it read fairly easily. The concepts were fascinating enough to keep me reading and I kept thinking about them even when I wasn't reading the book and discussed them with others. So it was definitely a thought provoking book and one to share with others! Show Less
LibraryThing member Jewsbury
Do not be misled by the marketing title of this work. The book is not about a paradox or about our direct perception of time. Rather it is about a way of discussing different mental viewpoints. The authors apply temporal labels to this characterization. For instance, at any time we might prize more
Hence a high 'past-positive' will boost your happiness, a high 'present-hedonism' will boost your vitality, and a high 'future' will boost your accomplishments. Now, the book lets you calculate your perspectives' strengths and weaknesses. If you are not happy with your mix, the book shows you how (using visualization and affirmation) you can change yourself.
This book presents as a very gentle read of a sketchy topic. It will take a future-focussed reader on a psychological meander touching on financial management, sociology, education reform, and political distortions and indiscretions. Subsequently next time you hear a TV lawyer asking a leading question; you will realize that the lawyer is not trying to trick the witness but actually to alter the witness' memory. Further, you will discover which politicians are more likely to have extramarital affairs, what to do in retirement, and just how much salary an extra IQ point is worth.
Ultimately the book leaves a reader with an alternative language for self-appreciation of one's actions and for describing others. It cannot be the full story but it is a considered outlook on the way we manage our priorities. The biggest shortcoming with these ideas is the lack of a coherent tie up with the established psychological work on personality traits.
Show More
strongly future-goals, immediate pleasures or the stability of past arrangements. These attitudes reflect how we reconstruct memories of the past, interpret the present, and imagine the future. Hence the authors talk about six mindsets based upon positive and negative attitudes towards the past, present and future. Apparently we are born with a 'present' outlook, and only later develop other attitudes. Naturally each time perspective has its strengths and weakness. It should come as no surprise that a good balance of the positives is the ideal. Hence a high 'past-positive' will boost your happiness, a high 'present-hedonism' will boost your vitality, and a high 'future' will boost your accomplishments. Now, the book lets you calculate your perspectives' strengths and weaknesses. If you are not happy with your mix, the book shows you how (using visualization and affirmation) you can change yourself.
This book presents as a very gentle read of a sketchy topic. It will take a future-focussed reader on a psychological meander touching on financial management, sociology, education reform, and political distortions and indiscretions. Subsequently next time you hear a TV lawyer asking a leading question; you will realize that the lawyer is not trying to trick the witness but actually to alter the witness' memory. Further, you will discover which politicians are more likely to have extramarital affairs, what to do in retirement, and just how much salary an extra IQ point is worth.
Ultimately the book leaves a reader with an alternative language for self-appreciation of one's actions and for describing others. It cannot be the full story but it is a considered outlook on the way we manage our priorities. The biggest shortcoming with these ideas is the lack of a coherent tie up with the established psychological work on personality traits.
Show Less
LibraryThing member iamanerd
After thinking for some time that personal perspectives on time are one of the most overlooked aspects of the social animal it was refreshing to read Zimbardos book. A recommended reading (also recommend watching his presentation on Ted.com).
LibraryThing member Popup-ch
The authors show how the mental representation of time can have a large impact on individual behaviour and well-being.
I think they focus a little bit too hard, though, when they attribute problems as disparate as the third world poverty, intramarital sex problems, and suicide bombings to the mental
I think they focus a little bit too hard, though, when they attribute problems as disparate as the third world poverty, intramarital sex problems, and suicide bombings to the mental
Show More
representation of time for the actors involved. Show Less
LibraryThing member Niecierpek
Each one of us has a different relationship to the present, past and future. We may be classified as predominantly: present, past or future oriented. Then this orientation may be fatalistic or positive. Most of us are mixtures thereof, but we do tend to have a dominant tendency. For the record,
The new Zimbardo-Boyd book is a crossover of a popular science book and a self help manual. It discusses what a healthy balance is, offers inventories to check what orientation the reader predominantly has and offers strategies to achieve the optimum.
Even though this book was far from the promise of changing my life, there were some things there that I enjoyed there: Time inventories were fun. False memories were revisited- there is a lot of research pointing to the fact that memories can be both implanted (with apparently little effort) and recovered. The caveat is that both true and false memories can be recovered. An analysis of a suicide bomber was quite interesting as well, even though it was obvious enough, just clad in different lingo.
Show More
futures are the healthiest, presents most inclined to be late or to take drugs, and pasts (fatalistic) to be stuck in life and depressed. The new Zimbardo-Boyd book is a crossover of a popular science book and a self help manual. It discusses what a healthy balance is, offers inventories to check what orientation the reader predominantly has and offers strategies to achieve the optimum.
Even though this book was far from the promise of changing my life, there were some things there that I enjoyed there: Time inventories were fun. False memories were revisited- there is a lot of research pointing to the fact that memories can be both implanted (with apparently little effort) and recovered. The caveat is that both true and false memories can be recovered. An analysis of a suicide bomber was quite interesting as well, even though it was obvious enough, just clad in different lingo.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Cheryl_in_CC_NV
I don't expect to get much out of this, but it certainly seems to be offering a new way to look at psychology. And I want to read it before it's so old that it's obsolete.
Language
Original publication date
2008-08
Physical description
368 p.; 9.22 inches
ISBN
1416541985 / 9781416541981
Similar in this library
The Willpower Instinct: How Self-Control Works, Why It Matters, and What You Can Do To Get More of It by Kelly McGonigal
The Now Habit: A Strategic Program for Overcoming Procrastination and Enjoying Guilt-Free Play by Neil Fiore