BALANCED TIME PERSPECTIVE OF A PERSONALITY AS A FACTOR OF SOCIAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL ADAPTATION OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

At the present stage of development of the higher education system, the issue of time aspects of a personality formation becomes actual. It is caused by changing conditions of personal and occupational development of a person through the potential fulfillment at the higher education institution. The possibility of using own experience from the past to create perfect future comes true in present. The ability for adaptation within changing conditions of the environment, self-awareness and emotional comfort and, as a consequence, the ability to achieve goals and plans that is especially important for the future specialist’s personal fulfillment, depends on the ability to synchronize various time loci.

The paper considers the interrelation between the time perspective of a personality and the social and psychological adaptation of the university students. The goal of the research is to identify the influence of various types of time perspective on the adaptation potential of the university students and the relation between the types of time perspective of the university students and their emotional state and ability to interact adequately with the social environment. The students of Socio-Psychological Institute and Institute of Fundamental Sciences of Kemerovo State University were selected as the respondents. Using the cluster analysis, two groups were identified: the students with the indicators more consistent with the accepted criteria of a balanced time perspective (the first group), and the students with polar values of these indicators (the second group). The first group of students demonstrates the high indicators of social and psychological adaptation contributing to setting and achieving goals in the future. The second group of students demonstrates the significantly lower adaptation characteristics manifested in the negative perception of other people and in presence of emotional discomfort.