Testing the Zimbardo time perspective inventory: japanese validation study

Abstract

The concept of time perspective has received wide acceptance in both academic and practitioner literatures since Zimbardo and Boyd published their seminal work in 1999. The number of time perspective studies has grown tremendously during the past 10 years. Although time perspective in non-Western contexts is crucial to describe human personality, much of the existing research has relied primarily on Western samples. The purpose of this study is twofold. First, reliability and validity of the Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory (ZTPI)–Japanese version are investigated. Data collected from 1,063 Japanese workers is factor-analyzed to confi rm the underlying structure of the ZTPI-J. The results found that the underlying structure for the Japanese samples was similar to the original factorial structure reported by Zimbardo and Boyd. Second, this study scrutinizes the effects of fi ve perspectives, i.e. Past-negative, Past-positive, Present-hedonistic, Present-fatalistic, and Future, on job satisfaction, organizational commitment, intension to quit, career orientation, leadership, and organizational citizenship behavior. All fi ve subscales were found to have signifi cant relationships to these criteria. This study suggested the applicability of this popular measure for time perspective to the Japanese business persons.