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Temporal Orientations and Political Life: The Psychology of Political Impatience

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2009

Stanley A. Renshon
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Extract

This brief paper has two purposes. The first is to suggest some reasons why the study of time is important and should be of interest to political analysts. The second is to present some data which link one aspect of temporal analysis, political impatience, with a range of political orientations and behaviors. Although the magnitude of the correlations reported is not large, the patterns of association suggest a syndrome to which more attention may be profitably turned.

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Notes and Comments
Information
British Journal of Political Science , Volume 7 , Issue 2 , April 1977 , pp. 262 - 272
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1977

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References

1 Lane, Robert, Political Ideology (New York: The Free Press, 1962), p. 94.Google Scholar

2 Were we able to know the moment when a demand was initiated as well as the point at which the need or want had been satisfied, we would have a fairly good measure of political delay for use in political research. Several problems intervene, however, to make such a measure unlikely. First, such a measure would require the identification of exactly who made what demand when. Second, it would entail some judgement of when the need had been satisfied. In the case of food distribution to the poor, for example, would we count the passage of a law, or the delivery of the food as the point at which a need had been satisfied? If we select the latter, what impact, if any does the former have on the ability to delay gratification? Conversely, the selection of the former assumes the efficacy of partial gratification.

Moreover, while some form of direct questioning about impatience in the political world is required, such an index would by no means solve all of the problems surrounding the concept for while the questions may be straightforward, their interpretation may not be. Thus, when Doob asked his African respondents whether they would prefer a small amount of money immediately or a large sum one year later, most chose the smaller amount. The easiest implication to draw would be that these respondents desired immediate gratification, yet, as Doob points out: ‘This is a reasonable interpretation since many maintained when questioned further that a bird in the hand was more attractive than one in the bush. But others wanted the small sum right now… not to expend it on carefree riotous living in the present but to invest it in some small business which would yield, they hoped, more than the larger amount that was hypothetically proffered later.’ See Doob, Leonard, Becoming More Civilized: A Psychological Exploration (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1960), p. 88Google Scholar; and Doob, Leonard, Patterning of Time (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1971), p. 16.Google Scholar

3 Individuals reared in such homes would be expected to prefer recruitment into more technical or professional adult roles, which would entail longer periods of schooling, and a deferment of other considerations such as marriage. One need not attribute the operation of saintliness in this deferment pattern. Although children from higher status families have been asked to delay certain kinds of rewards, they are no doubt compensated by a variety of more immediate and tangible ones. So to suggest that children from higher SES families must delay some gratifications is not to suggest that they are totally abstemious. It is perhaps for this reason that attempts to correlate social class with temporal orientations have provided mixed results. Among those studies that have found such a relationship are: Stein, Kenneth, Savin, Theodore, and Kulik, James, ‘Future Time Perspectives: Its Relationship to the Socialization Process and the Delinquent Role’, Journal of Consulting and Genetic Psychology, xxxii (1968), 257–64CrossRefGoogle Scholar; LeShan, L. L., ‘Time Orientations and Social Class’, Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, XLVII (1952), 589–92CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Lessing, Elsie, ‘Demographic Developmental and Personality Correlates of Length of Future Time Perspective’, Journal of Personality, xxxvi (1968), 18–201Google Scholar. Among those studies which have reported little, no, or reverse associations between the two variables are: Cottle, Thomas and Pleck, Joseph, ‘Linear Estimations of Temporal Extension: The Effect of Age, Sex, and Social Class’, Journal of Projective Techniques and Personality Assessment, xxxiii (1967), 81–93Google Scholar; and Cottle, Thomas, Howard, Peter and Pleck, Joseph, ‘Adolescent Perceptions of Time: The Effects of Age, Sex and Social Class’, Journal of Personality, xxxvii (1969), 630–50.Google Scholar

4 Mordecai, Nisan, ‘Perceptions of Time in Lower Class Blacks’, International Journal of Psychology, viii (1973), 109–16Google Scholar; and Henry, Jules, ‘White People's Time, Colored People's Time’, Transaction (04 1965), 31–4.Google Scholar

5 An inverse relationship between age and impatience has been reported. See Irwin, Francis, Armitt, Fannie, and Simon, Charles, ‘Studies on Object-Preference, I: The Effect of Temporal Proximity’, Journal of Experimental Psychology, xxxiii (1943), 64–72CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Mischel, Walter and Metzner, Ralph, ‘Preference for Delayed Reward as a Function of Age, Inteligence and Length of Delayed Interval’, Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, LXIV (1962), 425–31CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Monks, Franz, ‘Future Time Perspective in Adolescents’, Human Development, xi (1968), 425–31.Google Scholar

6 Some studies have failed to uncover any sex-linked differences for time orientations, while some that have, do not focus directly on the concept of gratification impatience and thus are of little help here. For an example of the former see Hawkins, Nancy and Mayer, Merele, ‘Time Perception of Short Intervals during Finished, Unfinished, and Empty Tasks’, Psychonomic Science, 111 (1965)Google Scholar. For an illustration of the latter see Leher, Ursala, ‘Attitude Towards the Future in Old Age’, Human Development, x (1967), 230–8CrossRefGoogle Scholar. In dealing with sex differences one can postulate differences on the basis of either innate biological or external social factors. With regard to political impatience there is no reason to suspect a genetic source. Utilization of social factors to generate hypotheses would presuppose substantial knowledge of the socialization factors associated with the acquisition of political impatience; knowledge which at this point is simply unavailable.

7 McClelland, David, The Achieving Society (Princeton, N.J.: Van Nostrand, 1961)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. This relationship is complicated because most religions attempt to orient us well beyond our immediate concerns. This may or may not be coupled with an enjoinder to renounce gratification. Thus although the ‘Protestant ethic’ stressed delay of gratification while the person was still of this world, the acquisition of valued objects during one's lifetime was one important ‘sign’ by which a person (and of course others) could judge whether a particular individual was among the select. Thus, the Protestant ethic has the paradoxical effect of delaying gratifications, but increasing the accumulation of ‘worldly goods’, hardly a demanding form of renunciation. Other religions have taught that delay of gratification was a life-long process, which could only end when the spirit left the artificial confines of the body.

8 High levels of previous rewards establish the likelihood of rewards eventually being obtained, while less systematic satisfactions may lead to fear that ‘sometime’ will eventually become ‘never’. Yet, the relationship between political gratification and political impatience is not linear. For those at the very lowest levels of gratification there might be little political impatience because impatience requires expectations of at least minimal rewards. With regard to future reward expectations and political impatience, the hypothesis would be the same, although the reasoning would differ slightly. Those who expect a high level of rewards for future political involvement should be low in political impatience, for the final results are not typically in doubt. Those who expect low levels of future satisfactions might be more politically impatient, exactly because the outcomes are doubtful.

9 The personal control scale is adapted from Renshon, Stanley, Psychological Needs and Political Behavior (New York: The Free Press, 1974)Google Scholar. The political obligation index consists of the following items: (1) Do you think that each person should take the time to vote even if he is busy with personal matters? (2) Do you feel that each and every citizen has the obligation to work to improve the government? (3) Does every citizen owe his country some public service? The definition and operationalization of political alienation is adapted from Schwartz, David, Political Alienation and Political Behavior (Chicago: Aldine, 1973).Google Scholar

The Srole scale was utilized to measure interpersonal alienation. Items and rationale may be found in Srole, Leo, ‘Social Integration and Certain Corollaries: An Exploratory Study’, American Sociological Review, xxi (1956), 709–16CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The items of the political ambiguity tolerance scale are as follows: (1) Sometimes indecisiveness in politics can be a good thing. (2) Political leaders don't take stands on all of the issues and do not deserve to be political leaders. (3) Political leaders would be a lot better off if they forgot about words like ‘probably’, ‘perhaps’, and ‘maybe’. (4) In spite of what some politicians say, a great many of our political and social problems have definite and clear solutions. (5) Political leaders who seem to be uncertain about things make me feel uncomfortable. (6) A good political leader should not undertake any project unless he is fairly certain of the outcome.

An extended discussion of the relationship between intolerance of political ambiguity and political attitudes and behaviors, along with some data, may be found in Renshon, Stanley, ‘Intolerance of Political Ambiguity Among Adolescents: An Exploratory Study’, Adolescence (in press)Google Scholar. The democratic procedures support index contained the following items: (1) democracy is not the best form of government, (2) perhaps persons should not be allowed to vote if they aren't intelligent enough, and (3) some necessary political changes may require cruelty in order to come about.

10 The eight political values analyzed in this section are drawn from Lasswell, Harold, Politics: Who Gets What, When, How (Glencoe, Ill.: The Free Press, 1946).Google Scholar

11 Knutson, Jeanne, The Human Basis of the Polity (Chicago: Aldine, 1972), p. 125.Google Scholar

12 Lane, , Political Ideology, p. 84.Google Scholar

13 The complete list consists of the following political behaviors: (1) voting, (2) trying to personally influence someone on an issue or candidate, (3) writing to public officials to express your views, (4) contributing money to a campaign or candidate, (5) attending political meetings, (6) working for a candidate, or (7) working for a community organization dealing with a social problem.

14 This observation does not assume that political patience is always valued, nor that political impatience is always disruptive. Such a stance might be supportable given the existence of a society characterized by a just distribution of rewards. To the extent that such a society falls short in practice, questions were raised about the personal desirability and social utility of some degree of political impatience. It is certainly conceivable that under some circumstances greater degrees of political impatience might result in socially beneficial outcomes, given institutions that respond more readily to pressure and do not engage in anticipatory policy making.