Time Integration Questionnaire - Construction and empirical validation of a new instrument for the assessment of subjective time experience

Abstract

The paper presents the Time Integration Questionnaire (TIQ) for the assessment of subjective time experience, constructed in a phenomenologically enriched form, as compared to those reduced to succession and three basic dimensions: the past, the present, and the future. In the formulation of items we utilized the questionnaire empirical procedure, commencing from 233 dictionary terms of the meaning of time. Based on the statistical analyses of 213 university students' responses to the initial version of the questionnaire, we constructed eight preliminary scales to assess tentative aspects of time organization of psychological functioning: Speed, Repetition, Continuity, Stability, Retroversion, Progression, Contiguity, and Anteversion. Because exploratory factor analysis of 73 items from the preliminary questionnaire on the sample of 473 medical students did not support eight preliminary scales and rather suggested a two-factor structure of the questionnaire, new final scales were proposed: Succession and Integration. The Succession scale comprises mainly the items from the preliminary Speed, Repetition, and Continuity scales, whereas the Integration scale encompasses items from the preliminary Progression, Contiguity, and Anteversion scales. Factor loadings of the items from the final Succession and Integration scales on the new sample of 97 adults were consistent with item assignment to two respective scales. Indices of internal, factorial, and concurrent validity of Succession and Integration Scales as obtained on the samples of 97 healthy adults and 85 subjects with psychiatric diagnosis further justified two final scale construction as a better solution in comparison with eight preliminary scales. The Temporal Integration Questionnaire, in its present form, may be utilized primarily in research, while the justification of its usage in psychodiagnostics would depend on a future results achieved in the various homogeneous clinical populations.