Mikeladze L. I. Clinico-Psychological Aspects of the Problem of Time Experience in the Elderly
(Lomonosov Moscow State University)
Abstract ♦ The recent decades have been marked by an increase in scientists’ interest in the topic of age-related characteristics of time perception. Among the reasons for such an increase are the ageing of the society and the growing percentage of elderly depressed people.
In this article we propose a novel approach to the analysis of time perception in two scales — situational and biographical. We suggest that time perception is realized in the situational scale, which implies the processes of direct estimation and measuring of short time intervals. On the contrary, time experience is assumed to be realized in the biographical scale, which we understand as a cognitive-emotional subjective processing of the information about the speed of time in different situations and about the time perspective.
We have investigated the particular features of the experience of time in elderly depressed people. 24 healthy persons aged 50 to 81, and 24 elderly depressed persons aged 50 to 78 who were receiving treatment in Dept. 6 of the Scientific Centre of Psychic Health, RAMS, took part in the experiment. They are referred to as the control and the clinical groups respectively. The experiment was held during the period from 2010 to 2014 on the basis of the clinic (with depressed patients) and in domestic conditions (with healthy persons).
The investigation has shown that the pattern of time experience appeared to be accelerated both in healthy and depressed people. The highest speed of time for the healthy subjects was when they were busy, while for elderly depressed — when they were having fun. This could provide evidence of the unequal value of these situations for the representatives of the two groups and demonstrate the influence of social isolation and decrease in professional activity on the experience of time. We have revealed the typical characteristics of a “depressive” time perspective which consisted of a triad of the past negative, the present fatalistic and poorly expressed orientation on the future, with a lack of motivation for overcoming hardships.
The results of the experiment give perspective to a further detailed investigation of the features of time experience in elderly people and stress the necessity of a study of time perception which would be more closely connected to the rhythmical processes and their role in the etiology and pathogenesis of depression.
Keywords: elderly people, time perception, time experience, old age, depression, time perspective, Time Awareness Test, ZTPI, Zimbardo.
Mikeladze Lika Igorevna, Postgraduate Student, Department of Neuro- and Pathopsychology, Faculty of Psychology, Lomonosov Moscow State University. Postal address: Bldg. 9, 11 Mokhovaya St., Moscow, Russian Federation, 125009. Tel.: +7 (495) 629-57-19. Å-mail: . Research advisor: E. Yu. Balashova, Candidate of Psychology, Associate Professor.
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