Making Time: Agency and the Construction of Temporal Experience

Abstract

In this note, I conceptualize four models of causal processes that govern various dimensions of temporal experience. The first is classic determinism, while the other three are variations on the theme of self‐determination. Efforts at self‐determination are defined as forms of agency that I call time work. These agentic practices involve attempts to control, manipulate, or customize one's own temporality or that of others. I draw empirical instances of determinism from 705 first‐person descriptions of circumstances during which time was perceived to pass slowly. Examples of self‐determination come from in‐depth interviews with 408 subjects.