Hendijani Rosa
Faculty of Management, University of Tehran Tehran Province, Tehran Jalal-e-Al-e-Ahmad Hwy & Chamran Hwy, Tehran, Iran.
Integr Psychol Behav Sci. 2025 Jan 18;59(1):20. doi: 10.1007/s12124-025-09890-y.
Time dilation is an important issue in the field of physics. Introduced by the special relativity theory, it means that the time duration spent by an entity to reach a certain destination depends on the movement and speed of the entity. Time dilation has been widely addressed in other disciplines, including philosophy, psychology, and motivation. However, it has produced practical and theoretical controversies in the literature. The new version of relativity theory resolves these issues by extending time dilation to conceptual and mental factors and taking a process-based approach to the development of universe. The purpose of this paper is to discuss time dilation in different scientific arenas and explicate it in motivation from the perspective of motivational congruence theory (MCT). The theory provides a new explanation for the underlying mechanisms of time dilation as a mental phenomenon in motivation. According to MCT, a congruence between the context and extrinsic and intrinsic motivations escalates overall motivation. This, in turn, results in high levels of effort and engagement towards the task and leads to mental time dilation. That is, the individual becomes so engaged with the task that their subjective estimation of time duration becomes shorter, compared to an objective measurement of the elapsed time. The study provides hypotheses for further empirical research. MCT's view to time dilation aligns with advances in the fields of physics and philosophy. It contributes to the literature by presenting a new explanation for mental time dilation and elaborating the motivational mechanisms that underlie this phenomenon.
时间膨胀是物理学领域的一个重要问题。它由狭义相对论提出，意味着一个实体到达某个目的地所花费的时间长短取决于该实体的运动和速度。时间膨胀在包括哲学、心理学和动机学在内的其他学科中也有广泛探讨。然而，它在文献中引发了实践和理论上的争议。相对论的新版本通过将时间膨胀扩展到概念和心理因素，并采用基于过程的方法来解释宇宙的发展，从而解决了这些问题。本文的目的是讨论不同科学领域中的时间膨胀，并从动机一致性理论（MCT）的角度对其在动机学中的情况进行阐释。该理论为时间膨胀作为动机学中的一种心理现象的潜在机制提供了新的解释。根据MCT，情境与外在和内在动机之间的一致性会提升整体动机。这反过来又会导致对任务付出高水平的努力和投入，并引发心理时间膨胀。也就是说，个体对任务如此投入，以至于与客观测量的经过时间相比，他们对持续时间的主观估计会变短。该研究为进一步的实证研究提供了假设。MCT对时间膨胀的观点与物理学和哲学领域的进展相一致。它通过对心理时间膨胀提出新的解释并阐述这一现象背后的动机机制，为文献做出了贡献。
