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Publication Date: June 25, 2020
DOI:10.14738/assrj.76.8437.
Atoum, A., Al-Momani, A. L.., & Al-Bashtawi, K. (2020). Time Orientation and its Relationship with Goal Orientation. Advances in Social
Sciences Research Journal, 7(6) 450-459.
Time Orientation and its Relationship with Goal Orientation
Adnan Atoum
Counseling and Ed. Psychology Department,
Faculty of Education, Yarmouk University, Irbid, Jordan.
Abdel Lateef Al-Momani
Department of Education, Irbid Faculty,
Al-Balqa University, Irbid, Jordan.
Khaled Al-Bashtawi
Counseling and Ed. Psychology Department,
Faculty of Education, Yarmouk University, Irbid, Jordan.
ABSTRACT
The objectives of the study are to investigate time orientation and goal
orientation levels in light of some variables, and to identify the
relationship between the two variables. The sample of the study consists
of 698 male and female students studding at Yarmouk University.
Zimbardo and Boyd (1999) Time Orientation Scale and Abu Ghazal et al.,
(2013) Goal Orientation Scale are used after assessing the validity and
reliability for both scales. The results of the study showed that the past
positive domain in time orientation ranked first, followed by future past
negative, present hedonism, present fatalistic, respectively. The results
also showed that the domain of mastery-approach in goal orientations
ranked first, followed by performance-avoidance, and finally
performance-approach. The results of the study indicated a statistically
significant positive correlations between future time orientation and
mastery- approach goal orientation, and between past negative time
orientation and performance- avoidance goal orientation. There are
statistically significant positive correlations between time orientation
domains and goals orientations domains except a negative correlation
between present fatalistic time orientation and mastery-approach goal
orientation.
Key Words: Time Orientations, Goal Orientations, University Students,
Yarmouk University.
INTRODUCTION
The idea of time has attracted the interest of most philosophers and scientists. Aristotle considered
time as a census and calculation of the movement, while Augustine had seen it through the
realization of the human self, and relied on the mental functions of human in the interpretation of
time in three sections: past, present and future (Aylmer, 2013; Atoum and Al-Shoboul, 2018). The
individual is aware of all three time domains, which makes us inclined to a time domain exclusively
due to the nature of successive life experience. The concept of time orientation affects the
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components of personality and provides us with a series of living events through the laws of
recovery and make us aware of the relationship between (before) and (after), as well as the
capabilities of imagination and expectation related to the future (Abdel Halim, 2012).
Time orientation is defined as the domination of the three time domains (past, present and future)
on human behavior, and the position of the individual during the life span within these times and
the way of moving towards and expressing behaviors and attitudes to life situations (Al-Fatlawi,
2000). The domains of time orientation in humans grow gradually through successive
developmental stages, and the environment in which humans live effects on the formation and
construction of these domains, and in determining the type of time domain prevailing in human
behavior, according to the prevailing variables in his environment (Younes, 2007).
There are also five time domains that can determine an individual's personality and behavior
(Zimbardo & Boyd, 1999):
1. Past negative: Represented by individual attention direction towards the negative
experiences that has occurred in the past indicating that past experiences still have a great
power to arouse the inconvenience and anxiety of individuals, which leads to their feeling of
bitterness and sorrow.
2. Past positive: Represented by the individual nostalgia for good past experiences, and the
attachment to it greatly. These experiences often revolve around having a happy
relationship, so it is a support for the individual rather than a disruption to his or her life.
3. Present hedonism: Represented by the rush individual direction to get pleasure, enjoyable
experiences, and refuse to postpone experiences that bring a sense of comfort to another
time.
4. Present fatalistic: Represented by the feeling of individual constrained in the present time,
and that he does not have the ability to control and influence it, so it is desperate, pessimistic
towards the future and life, which leads to a sense of depression and anxiety.
5. Focus on the future: The individual has benefited from the experience of the past, where
the individual is ambitious and oriented towards achieving goals and resist temptations in
order to accomplish duties, and any obstruction of the individual to achieve the goals that
make him feel disturbed, and increasing the challenge and determination.
Goals have a significant and a prominent role in the development of motivation. When students
develop academic goals for themselves, they are engaged in behavior that achieves those goals. At
this stage, they try to eliminate the inconsistency and contradiction between what they are and what
they want to reach, then the person chooses the available alternatives of behavior to achieve the
goal, and choose alternative strategies instead of those strategies that are not effective in achieving
his goals (Ames, 1992).
Goal orientation is one of the factors that influence determining the path of success or failure in the
future, and the success experiences or failure has implications in both the motivation intensity of
achievement in individuals and its direction, where individuals feel motivated by achievement, if
they are motivated to succeed, and also feel of achievement anxiety, if they are motivated to avoid
failure (Raslan, 2012).
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Atoum, A., Al-Momani, A. L.., & Al-Bashtawi, K. (2020). Time Orientation and its Relationship with Goal Orientation. Advances in Social Sciences Research
Journal, 7(6) 450-459.
Al-Zghoul (2006) defined goals orientation as a mental representations of beliefs, perceptions,
interpretations, sentiments, preferences, desires, and concerns, which act to stimulate achievement
behavior, provoke it, select its type, and determine its formula and the level of intensity and
continuation until the achievement of the goal. While Wentzel (1998) defines goals orientations as
mental representations of what individuals want to achieve, and that their function is to direct
behavior towards these outcomes.
Ames (1992) referred to two types of goals orientations:
1. Mastery Goals: It describes individuals who are struggling to acquire new skills and who
are trying to gain a better understanding of what they are learning, prefer challenging tasks,
and tend to be independent in learning and integrated into educational tasks.
2. Performance Goals: It describes individuals who are more interested in comparing their
performance with others', would like to prove and show their abilities, and are more
involved in thinking about ability than thinking about the task. Their strategies are focused
on preserving facts and taking care of what they believe is important and using it to achieve
higher levels of their peers.
Dweck (1986) proposed two types of goals orientations:
1. Learning Goals: It reflects the focus on developing competence by improving the level of
ability and mastering new skills.
2. Performance Goals: It reflects an attempt to avoid negative judgments about efficiency, and
seeking to get positive judgments about them, and to demonstrate capacity and not to lose
confidence in them.
The present study assumes that there is a relationship between time orientations and goal
orientations. It is logical to assume that goal orientations are mainly based on behaviors that seek
to achieve certain objectives and linked to the task of learning. Goal orientations affect the
individual's vision of what can be achieved in terms of present and future. A past positive has an
important role to play in guiding an individual's behavior in a positive way. Successful experiences
characterized by academic, social, athletic achievement, etc., which reflect positively on the
individual's self-confidence, a sense of self-efficacy, and arouse motivation for hard work (Atoum
and Al-Momani, 2018). Thus, achievement and excellence become characteristic of the individual,
which makes him adopt masterly goal orientations, and performance goal orientations. As for the
individual who seeks to focus on the future, it is certainly resorting to the development of his
abilities and capabilities, and exploits all of that in order to achieve the desired tasks characterized
by excellence, and mastery, and thus his goal orientations are mastered.
The researchers found no direct study that addressed the relation between time and goal
orientations. However, several studies addressed these variables as a phenomenon or studied the
relation between one of the two variants with other related variables.
Kocyigit and Kalkan (2016) found a positive and statistically significant correlation between future
time orientations and the level of desire to establish social and romantic relationships among
university students. Similarly, Eager, Grant and Maritz (2017) revealed that there is a positive
correlation between time orientations level and using of their adaptation strategies. Also, Marki
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and Schlegelmilch (2017) found a positive and statistically significant effect of time orientations at
the level of participation in social media websites.
Atoum and Abu Hilal study (2017) found a positive effect of a training program based on the goal
orientations on the level of attribution among Jordanian school students. Also, Lazarides, Buchholz
& Rubach (2018) examined the levels of goal orientations and self-efficacy and found a positive
relationship between the level of enthusiasm among teachers and the mastery goal orientations,
self-efficacy, and motivation.
The Problem and Questions of the Study
Thinking about the future and attempting to achieve mastery goals in divergent and competitive
environments is a major challenge for most students in the world. Past experiences and present
challenges must have a major role in goal setting and goal achievement. The researcher believes
that the development of societies reflected negatively on the abilities of individuals to adapt to these
changes through the failure of students to adopt future time orientations and mastery goals linked
to effective learning behaviors, as well as their abilities to adopt positive goals orientations.
The problem of study specifically summarized in answering the following questions:
1. What is the time orientations among Yarmouk University students?
2. What are the goals orientations among Yarmouk University students?
3. What is the relationship between goals and time orientations for Yarmouk University
students?
Significance of the Study
The current study holds two aspects of significance: theoretical and practical. From the theoretical
aspect, the current study is the first - within the knowledge of the researchers - that attempted to
identify the relationship between time and goal orientations for university students. The researcher
believes that the current study will provide a literature and data that help explore the relationship
between goal orientation and time orientation. While the practical significance of the current study
is expected to provide a scientific vision of the reality of the current time and goal orientations for
students and educators in dealing with students' problems, and to promote the mastery and goal
orientations of students, as well as help students to benefit from their previous successful
experience, in overcoming future obstacles.
Study Terms
Time Orientation
the domination of the three time domains (past, present and future) on human behavior, and the
position of the individual during the life span within these times and the way of moving towards
and expressing behaviors and attitudes to life situations (Al-Fatlawi, 2000). Operationally, it will
be measured by the three scores obtained by Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory (Zimbardo &
Boyd, 1999).
Goal Orientations
It is a system of mental representations that include beliefs, perceptions, interpretations,
preferences, and desires of the individual, which promote and stimulate achievement behavior,
choose its type, determine its intensity and continuity until the goal is achieved (Abu-Ghazal et al.,
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Atoum, A., Al-Momani, A. L.., & Al-Bashtawi, K. (2020). Time Orientation and its Relationship with Goal Orientation. Advances in Social Sciences Research
Journal, 7(6) 450-459.
2013). Operationally, it is measured through the Goal Orientation Scale developed by Abu-Ghazal
et al. (2013).
METHOD
Population and sample of the Study
The population of the study consisted of 27000 undergraduate students at Yarmouk University- Jordan. The sample consists of 698 students representing (2.6%) of the study population of
bachelor students (Males = 249, Females = 449) selected randomly.
Instruments of the Study
Time Orientation Scale
The researchers used time perspective Zimbardo & Boyd (1999) Scale, after it is developed to
Jordanian culture using English to Arabic translation procedures. The scale consists of (56) items,
it was distributed on 5 domains: past negative, measured by (10) items; past positive, measured by
(9) items; present hedonism, measured by (15) items; future, measured by (13) items; and present
fatalistic, measured by (9) items. Measures of validity and reliability were taken in the original
scale (Zimbardo & Boyd, 1999).
Validity and Reliability of Current Study:
1. Validity: After following proper translation procedures, the scale was presented to a using
a small sample consisting of (41) male and female students. The correlation coefficients
calculated ranged between (0.21-0.80), indicating a valid scale.
2. Reliability: To check the reliability of the scale, Test-Re Test method is considered on the
validity sample, and correlations ranged between (0.46 - 0.85) indicating a good reliability
indicators.
Second: Goals Orientations Scale
The Goal Orientation Scale was composed of (21) items, divided into three sub-domains: mastery /
approach, consisting of (7) items; and performance / approach, consisting of (9) items, and
performance / avoidance, consisting of (5) paragraphs. The scale has many validity and reliability
indicators (Abu-Ghazal et al. (2013).
Validity and Reliability of Current Study
1. Validity: Face validity of the scale was obtained through a panel of psychologists who
indicated the validity of the scale. To test for construct validity, (41) male and female
students of Yarmouk University took the Scale. The correlation coefficients ranged between
(0.27-0.73), indicating a good validity indicators.
2. Reliability: To check the reliability of the scale, Test-Re Test method using the validity
sample is used. The correlation coefficient was (α=0.80) for mastery / approach domain,
(α=0.72) for a performance/approach domain, and (α=0.70) for performance/avoidance
domain. These values are good indicators of the reliability of the scale.
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RESULTS
First
In order to answer the first study question, the means scores and standard deviations of the time
orientations among Yarmouk University students; frequencies and percentages within their classes
are calculated, and time orientations are arranged in descending order according to their means
scores, as shown in Table (1).
Table (1): Means, standard deviations, frequencies and percentage of the time orientations
Rank Time
Orientations Frequency % M SD
Past positive
1
Low 27 3.87
Moderate 244 34.96 3.75 0.68
High 427 61.17
Future
2
Low 12 1.72
Moderate 300 42.98 3.66 0.56
High 386 55.30
Present hedonism
3
Low 25 3.58
Moderate 443 63.47 3.46 0.58
High 230 32.95
Past negative
4
Low 70 10.03
Moderate 458 65.62 3.25 0.67
High 170 24.36
Present fatalistic
5
Low 301 43.12
Moderate 357 51.15 2.59 0.69
High 40 5.73
Table (1) shows that the time orientations among Yarmouk University students came in the
following order: the positive past is ranked the first; where there are high time orientations among
(61.17%) students; and the future ranked the second, where there are high time orientations among
(55.30%) student; then present hedonism ranked the third, where there are moderate time
orientations among (63.47%) student; and then past negative ranked fourth, where there are
moderate time orientations among (56.62%) student; then, present fatalistic ranked fifth, where
there are moderate time orientations among (51.15%) student.
Second
To answer the second study question, the mean scores, standard deviations, frequencies and
percentages of goal orientations among Yarmouk University students are calculated as shown in
Table (2).
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Atoum, A., Al-Momani, A. L.., & Al-Bashtawi, K. (2020). Time Orientation and its Relationship with Goal Orientation. Advances in Social Sciences Research
Journal, 7(6) 450-459.
Table (2): The means score, standard deviations, frequencies and percentages of the goal
orientations among Yarmouk University students
Rank Goals Orientations Frequency % M SD
Mastery/approach
1
Low 51 7.31
Moderate 346 49.57 3.58 0.76
High 301 43.12
Performance/avoidance
2
Low 69 9.89
Moderate 439 62.89 3.23 0.71
High 190 27.22
Performance/approach
3
Low 136 19.48
Moderate 423 60.60 3.08 0.78
High 139 19.91
Table (2) shows that the goal orientations among Yarmouk University students came in the
following order: Mastery-approach ranked the first; where there was a moderate mastery approach
among (49.57%) student; then performance-avoidance ranked the second, where there are
moderate performance-avoidance among (62.89%) student; and performance-approach ranked
third, where there are moderate performance approach orientations among (60.08%) student.
Third
To answer the third study question, Pearson's correlation coefficients for the correlations of time
and goal orientations are calculated among Yarmouk University students, as shown in Table (3).
Table (3): Values of Pearson's correlation coefficients for the correlations of time and goal
orientations among Yarmouk University students.
Time
Orientations Sig. (p) Mastery- approach
Performance- approach
Performance- avoidance
Past negative
Ρ -0.02 0.21 0.32
Sig. 0.55 0.00 0.00
Past positive
Ρ 0.21 0.14 0.09
Sig. 0.00 0.00 0.02
Present hedonism
Ρ 0.04 0.10 0.13
Sig. 0.30 0.01 0.00
Future
Ρ 0.39 0.16 0.11
Sig. 0.00 0.00 0.00
Present fatalistic
Ρ -0.24 0.13 0.26
Sig. 0.00 0.00 0.00
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Table (3) shows that the Pearson correlation coefficients between time and goal orientations among
Yarmouk University students as follows:
Positive correlations are observed between:
• Future time orientation with mastery-approach, performance avoidance and performance
approach.
• Past negative time orientation with performance-approach and performance avoidance.
• Past positive time orientation with mastery approach, performance-approach and
performance avoidance.
• Present hedonism time orientation with performance-approach and performance
avoidance.
• Present fatalistic time orientation with performance-approach and performance avoidance.
A negative correlation is observed between present fatalistic time orientation and mastery- approach goal orientation only. Other correlations are not significant.
DISCUSSION
The results showed that the prevalent time orientations among Yarmouk University students are
positive past, future, present hedonism, past negative, and present fatalistic, respectively. This
result may be explained by the fact that Yarmouk University students show high levels of beautiful
past nostalgia that is better for them compared to the current present many Jordanian are
experiencing now. For youth, who suffer many difficulties and hardships, living in the past is an
escape from hardships. Additionally, it can be said that Yarmouk University students are very close
to their parents, live in extended families were the family members from various generations share
their positive life experiences that were in the past better compared to what they are living now.
Since the majority of Jordanians were living in well fair conditions, they have more positive
perspectives towards their lives, and the fact that past positive was the most prevalent reflect such
perceptions. This result is different from the results reported by Al-Fatlawi (2000) indicating that
students were more bone towards the present, while the current study showed that Yarmouk
University students favored past positive. Additionally, this study is different from the results found
in Bosato (2001) study which found that students showed higher levels in future orientations.
The results also showed that the goal orientations among Yarmouk University students are
mastery-approach, performance-avoidance, and performance-approach, respectively. This result
may suggest that Yarmouk University students are fully aware of adopting goal orientations able to
help them in achieving their life and academic goals whether they are short or long terms. In this
respect, Elliot and Church (1997) emphasized that the individuals perceptions are related to
academic tasks presented in learning environment and one of the most significant contributors in
motivating individuals to complete these tasks. As Yarmouk University students have the adequate
self-awareness of behaviors needed in the learning environment, thus, they can adopt active
learning behaviors showing their potentials and desires to master learning tasks. This result is
consistent with what Abu Ghazal (2013) found in his study, indicating the mastery goal orientations
were the most prevalent among Yarmouk University students. Also, this result is also consistent
with Al-Roumi, A. (2017) study which indicated that goal orientations were the most prevalent
among the students.
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Atoum, A., Al-Momani, A. L.., & Al-Bashtawi, K. (2020). Time Orientation and its Relationship with Goal Orientation. Advances in Social Sciences Research
Journal, 7(6) 450-459.
It is found that a future time orientation is positively correlated with mastery-approach goal
orientation. This result reflect the fact that students having high level of future time orientations are
more capable of recognizing behavior patterns that should help them achieve their goals. Therefore,
it may be suggested that they are more self-aware of such behavior assisting them in reaching their
endeavors. Furthermore, having future time orientations reflects a significant fact which is the
students reporting high levels of mastery goal orientations based on learning as an objective are
more optimistic, thus, having more motivation in engaging learning activities.
The results also found a statistically positive significant correlation between past positive time
orientation and performance-avoidance goal orientation. This could be due to the assumption that
past positive is one of the negative time orientation which is more evident by the negative behaviors
they show in the different context and attitude reflecting a negative look towards the different
environmental variables.
Furthermore, there is a statistically positive and significant correlation between present fatalistic
and mastery-approach goal orientation. This result may be due to that the sample of this study is
university students who enjoy what they are doing whatever it is; making them more prone to
selecting goal orientations consistent with their view about life, and that is to master the learning
content they are presented, approaching it with high level of motivation since they recognize the
importance of such learning behavior for their future life.
Recommendations of the study
The study recommends that the developing of activities and programs able to transforming
students’ attentions into present and future time orientations. It is also important to encourage
faculty members at universities to use course syllabi motivating students to adopt positive goal
orientations. Finally, as a future research examining the relationship between time orientations and
other personal and cognitive variables is needed.
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