Features of the temporal perspective in normal aging and geriatric depressio

Abstract

Geriatric depression is characterized by changes in many mental processes including time perception. The role of different psychological and environmental factors that determine ageing scenario is discussed in the article. Special attention is given to time perspective which is most important for structuring of psychological time and integrating individual and social experience. The possibility of using the construct of time perspective for investigation of differences between normal and pathological ageing is grounded in the article. The results of the study in which specific characteristics of time perspective in elderly patients with depression and mentally healthy elderly patients were found are presented. It is shown that more positive perception of the past and the present and orientation to the future are characteristic of normal aging. Mentally healthy people tended to estimate their past and present positively and to be oriented into the future. In elderly people with depression more pronounced fatalistic attitude towards the present and less pronounced orientation to the future are observed.