International Journal of Psychology International Journal of Psychology, 2019 Vol. 54, No. 6, 775–785, DOI: 10.1002/ijop.12530 A balanced time perspective: Is it an exercise in empiricism, and does it relate meaningfully to health and well-being outcomes? Michael. T. McKay 1 , Frank. C. Worrell 2 , Urška Zivkovic 3 , Elizabeth Temple 4 , Zena. R. Mello 5 , Bojan Musil 3 , Jon C. Cole 1 , James R. Andretta 6 , and John L. Perry 7 1 Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK 2 Graduate School of Education, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA 3 Department of Psychology, University of Maribor, Maribor, Slovenia 4 University of New England, Armidale, Australia 5 Department of Psychology, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA, USA 6 Bridgetown Psychological, Portland, Oregon 7 Department of Psychology, Mary Immaculate College, Limerick, Ireland T ime perspective research assesses the degree to which thoughts and feelings about the past, present and future infuence behaviour, and a balanced time perspective profle has been posited as being ideal. Although this area of research has seen a move towards person-centred analyses, using either cluster analyses or a deviation from balanced time perspective (DBTP) approach, there are a number of theoretical and methodological issues that must be addressed. Using data from diverse samples in four countries, the present study used both cluster analyses and the DBTP approach to assess how cluster membership and DBTP scores related to a range of health and well-being outcomes. As in previous studies, a balanced profle only emerged once in cluster analyses, and positive-oriented profles were associated with optimal outcomes. The study also found evidence of a relationship between DBTP scores and scores on well-being indicators. However, results gained after manipulating the DBTP equation in two different ways again indicated that higher than expected positive past and present or past and future scores were responsible for the positive outcomes. As such, these fndings raise concerns regarding the use of the DBTP construct within clinical settings. Keywords: Balanced time perspective; Well-being; Deviation from a balanced time perspective (DBTP); Time perspective profles. Time perspective (TP) is an individual difference vari- able said to derive from the “process whereby the contin- ual fows of personal and social experiences are decom- posed or allocated into temporal categories” (Zimbardo & Boyd, 1999, p. 1271). It is a multi-dimensional construct that describes the way in which thoughts and feelings about the past, present and future infuence behaviour. Researchers continue to debate the extent to which time perspective represents a process or a trait (e.g., see Sto- larski, Vowinckel, Jankowski, & Zajenkowski, 2016). The Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory (ZTPI; Zimbardo & Boyd, 1999) has been central to the develop- ment of time perspective research. Purposively designed Correspondence should be addressed to Michael. T. McKay, Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Liverpool, Eleanor Rathbone Building, Bedford Street South, Liverpool, L69 7AZ, UK. (E-mail: michael.mckay@liverpool.ac.uk). to assess the cognitive, affective and behavioural dimen- sions of time perspective, the ZTPI measures time per- spective in fve domains: past negative (PN), past positive (PP), present hedonistic (PH), present fatalistic (PF) and future (F; with an emphasis on planfulness). Although Zimbardo and Boyd (1999) argued that individuals can develop a bias towards any one of these domains, individ- uals relate to all domains simultaneously and to matters of degree (e.g., Shipp, Edwards, & Schurer-Lambert, 2009). Insofar as this is true, it follows that research examining the extent to which scores on the ZTPI are related to scores on criterion variables should simultaneously take account of scores on all scale dimensions. Indeed, Zimbardo and © 2018 International Union of Psychological Science