Self-management, time management, and personality type

The relationships between self-management, time- management, and personality types and the results dimensions were examined in this study. The sample consisted of 347 undergraduate and graduate students ranging in age from 18 to 53. Most of the subjects (N=296) came from an undergraduate course in Psychoeducational Issues in Human Development, which was organized along self-directed lines. The remaining subjects (N=51) came from an undergraduate course entitled Exploring Majors and Careers. A separate part of the study was conducted on a sample of 77 undergraduate students to examine the test-retest reliability of the TMQ.

The subjects were given the Time Management Questionnaire (TMQ), Lifestyle Approaches Inventory (LSA), and Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). Additionally, the Marlowe Crowne instrument was administered to measure social desirability response tendencies. The TMQ, LSA, and MBTI were administered to intact classes by the experimenter and other members of a self-management research team. Students were given the option of refusing to participate in the study without any penalty. Nearly all elected to participate. The TMQ, LSA, MBTI, and Marlowe Crowne were subsequently scored by trained graduate students.

The results showed that the TMQ is a relatively reliable instrument for assessing time management perspectives. The Short Range Planning factor yielded the highest test-retest reliability (.85) and Long Range Planning the lowest (.52). All of the TMO factors were significantly related to all the LSA factors. The LSA total was most strongly related to the Time Attitudes factor of the TMQ, and the TMQ total was most strongly related to the Timeliness of Task Accomplishment factor of the LSA.

Both the TMQ and the LSA factors showed relatively strong and consistent correlations with the Judging- Perceiving dimension of the MBTI. Some of the LSA and TMQ factors were also significantly (but weakly) correlated with the Extraversion-Introversion and Sensing-Intuition dimensions of the MBTI. However, these latter correlations accounted for a very small percentage of the variance in the comparison variables. Stepwise multiple regression analyses revealed that the MBTI dimensions (especially the JP dimension) were more predictive of the TMQ-Total than of the LSA Total.

The MBTI dimensions that most distinguished the Myers- Briggs types obtaining the highest and lowest scores on the LSA were JP and SN. Apparently, individuals who prefer to be realistic and practical and who emphasize planning and organization are better self-managers than those who prefer imaginative possibilities and who emphasize spontaneity and flexibility.