VIDEO: Professor Philip Zimbardo discusses his newest book, The Time Paradox

An interesting (and long - 41 mins) presentation by Professor Philip Zimbardo, author of The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil, discussing the psychology underlying his newest book, The Time Paradox: The New Psychology of Time That Will Change Your Life. He categorizes people as being past, present, or future-oriented, and either positive or negative in that outlook. (Scroll below the video for the short notes.)

NOTE: The website mentioned (http://www.thetimeparadox.com/) seems to have malicious code embedded - so don't go there until it is fixed.

The reason I selected this video for our workplace wellness blog is it is a useful way to look at your peers and coworkers to understand what they value and what motivates them. Realistically, we are a combination of the three time-orientations (but not both positive and negative), though we may lean toward one outlook.

• Positive past-oriented people have high self-esteem, are happy, stable, a touch nostalgic, and are rooted/grounded in their traditions or families.
• Negative past-oriented people look back and are resentful, often dealing with trauma or guilt; they think about retaliation and revenge over letting go and moving on.
• Present-oriented positive people can improvise well: they like belonging, enjoy exciting activities, are sensual, have high energy, and can over-indulge in that which gives them joy and pleasure.
• Present-oriented negative people tend to think luck not work is resposible for where they are; they may have anger management issues (or they are quick to anger), indulge in risky activies, and can end up with substance abuse issues or gambling problems.
• Future-oriented postive people are big on achievement: they plan, they weigh the probabilities, they consider contingencies, they have hope, and high expectations for themselves.
• Future-oriented negative people are your wet blankets; they are anxious, expect bad things around every corner, and they're negatively competitive because they don't see the world as having enough for everyone. These people run the risk of ending up isolated whether self imposed or ostracised.

Looking forward to reading the book - though I am pretty sure I already know that I am mostly annoyingly optimistic positive future -oriented, trending toward workaholic (so I have been called), with a dash of past positive and goodly dose of present- positive (I am a foodie after all). ;-)

Posted by: gisela on 2010-05-16 21:59:10

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