Clock time vs. event time: Temporal culture or self-regulation?
Cross-cultural research documented two types of temporal culture governing the way individuals schedule tasks over time: clock-time, where individuals let an external clock dictate when tasks begin/end; and eventtime, where tasks are planned relative to other tasks and individuals transition between...
| Publicado en: | Journal of Experimental Social Psychology Vol. 47; no. 3; pp. 665 - 668 |
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| Autores principales: | , |
| Formato: | Artículo |
| Publicado: |
Academic Press Inc.
May 2011
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| Materias: | |
| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| Sumario: | Cross-cultural research documented two types of temporal culture governing the way individuals schedule tasks over time: clock-time, where individuals let an external clock dictate when tasks begin/end; and eventtime, where tasks are planned relative to other tasks and individuals transition between them when they internally sense that the former task is complete. In contrast with this prior literature that credits culture as the reason for variation in temporal norms - we show in two experiments that individuals choose clock vs. event-time as a self-regulation strategy to achieve a regulatory goal (efficiency vs. effectiveness). A third experiment shows that this strategy enhances confidence and performance on a task. Participants solved significantly more math problems when their task scheduling (clock vs. event-time) matched their regulatory state (promotion vs. prevention). Since clock-/event-time may both lead to superior performance, clock-time is not the single best way to organize productive activities in industrial societies–a result that counters a foundational principle of modern economics. © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. |
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