Time perception and its relation with personality elements according to the Cloniger Theory-Assessment in academic students

Abstract

Time is one of the concepts discussed in various sciences such as physics, philosophy, psychiatry and neuroscience, for which many definitions have been provided, each of which has had some application in its place. For example, Aristotle's interpretation of time as counting the change of things has led to the common view of counting minutes and days and nights, while according to Newton's definition as the absolute time (and place)has led to the growth of classical physics, but this view is also incomplete. Einstein claims that time is by no means absolute and independent of events and other constituent materials of the world, and interacts with them. This view is both physical and philosophical, and with regards to this issue of interactions, perception of time can also be the subject of studies related to human perception, mental states or mentality. As Henry Bergson put forward the theory of duration, he believes that our experience of time is continuous, and can become fast or slow. This concept of continuity and expansion of time and in general "perception of time" is related to how the brain works, mental states, and human intuition and is the subject neuroscience, which has found psychiatric applications too ,and is being investigated in various fields. Purpose: No experimental study has investigated the relationship between time perception and temperamental-characteristic elements of personality. The present study measures this relationship by experimental tools. Methods: A total of 101 medical students of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences participated in this study voluntarily, with documented informed consent. Participants' time perception was recorded using verbal and productive assessment and the score of personality elements was calculated from the Cloninger’s temparament and character questionnaire filled out by the candidates. The relationship between time perception and personality elements was analyzed by ANOVA and other tests. Results: Accuracy of time perception has a highly significant relationship with the sub-elements of compassion (P = 0.001) in the element of cooperativeness and the sub-element of attachment (P = 0.003) in the element of reward dependency.