Alexander Unger

This book presents results of an international conference which addressed the interaction of aesthetical and technological dimensions within the formation of contemporary society. The contributions discuss the production of time and space, self and nature, individual and society in the image of technology. They focus on the productive tensions and convergences between aesthetic and technological concepts when implemented in everyday life. The volume contains - among others - texts about technologies of visualisation, the aesthetics of warfare and the design of technological lifeworlds.

A major aim of the present study was to examine the relationship between time perspective, i.e., habitual ways of relating to the past, present, and future, and sleep quality. A second aim was to test a model by which the expected negative relationship between deviation from a balanced time perspective, a measure taking temporal biases across all three time frames into account, and life satisfaction was mediated by poor sleep quality. To these ends, a sample of young adults completed a version of the Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory, Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index, and the Satisfaction with Life Scale. A measure of chronotype was in addition included for control purposes. Bivariate analyses revealed that the S-ZTPI subscales Past Negative, Future Negative and Present Fatalistic were associated with poorer sleep quality, with significant associations in the opposite direction for Past Positive and Future Positive. However, DBTP was the strongest predictor of sleep quality, suggesting that time perspective biases have an additive effect on sleep quality. Regression analyses with PSQI as the dependent variable and all six ZTPI subscales as the predictors indicated that time perspective accounted for about 20% of the variance in sleep quality, with Past Negative, Past Positive, and Future Negative as the unique predictors. The results additionally confirmed a strong relationship between DBTP and life satisfaction. Finally, data were consistent with the hypothesis that the association of DBTP and life satisfaction is mediated, in part, by sleep quality. Taken together, the results confirmed a substantial link between time perspective sleep-related problems, factors that may have a negative impact on life satisfaction.