Development of the Temporal Sense Scale (TSS) for General Populations

What is it about?

There have been measures of subjective passage of time, but few were structured parsimoniously for general populations._x000D_ _x000D_ This study was to develop the Temporal Sense Scale (TSS) for general use in any population and test its validity with measures of positive and negative life evaluations in selected samples._x000D_ _x000D_ One sample was from medical staff in a public hospital (n=1,012), and a second sample consisted of heterogeneous non-medical employees (n=1,051), both in urban China. A questionnaire was used to collect demographics data and temporal sense in both randomly selected samples. Reliability and validity tests were performed on the TSS. Analyses were further conducted to examine to what extent temporal sense was associated with positive psychological outcomes (well-being and life satisfaction), as well as psychopathologies (depression and suicidal ideation)._x000D_ _x000D_ The Temporal Sense Scale showed high validity and strong internal reliability among both samples (Cronbach’s alphas ˃0.93). Fast temporal sense was positively associated with well-being and life satisfaction, and negatively associated with depression and suicidal ideation in both groups. The significant associations remained even with age, gender, and other relevant factors controlled for. _x000D_ _x000D_ The TSS is hereby a valid measure of individuals’ time sense, and the feeling of fast passage of time as measured by TSS can be an indicator of happiness. The TSS could be used to estimate certain people’s well-being and life satisfaction.

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