CHAPTER IV

T i m e Perspective a n d M o r a l e
Child Welfare Research Sta-
KURT LEWIN tjon^ state University of Iowa

S t u d i e s in unemployment show how a long-drawn-out-idle-

ness affects all parts of a person's life. Thrown out of a
job, the individual tries to keep hoping. When he finally
gives up, he frequently restricts his action much more than he
has to. Even though he has plenty of time, he begins to neglect
his home duties. He may cease to leave the immediate neighbor-
hood; even his thinking and his wishes become narrow:11 This
atmosphere spreads to the children, and they, too, become narrow-
minded even in their ambitions and dreams. I n other words, the
individual and the family as a whole present a complete picture
of low morale.
A n analysis of this behavior shows the importance of that psy-
chological factor which commonly is called "hope." Only when
the person gives up hope does he stop "actively reaching o u t " ;
he loses his energy, he ceases planning, and, finally, he even stops
wishing for a better future. Only then does he shrink to a primi-
tive and passive life.
Hope means that "sometime in the future, the real situation
will be changed so that it will equal my wishes." Hope means a
similarity between the individual's "level of expectation" and his
"irreality level of wishes." The picture presented by this "psycho-
logical future" seldom corresponds to what actually happens later.
The individual may see his future as too rosy or too bleak; fre-
quently the character of the psychological- future vacillates be-
tween hope and despair. But, regardless of whether the individual's
picture of the future is correct or incorrect at a given time, this
48
T I M E PERSPECTIVE AND MORALE 49

picture deeply affects the mood and the action of the individual
at that time.
The psychologicalfuture is part of what L. K. Frank has called
"time perspective."-9 The life space of an individual, far from
being limited to what he considers the present situation, includes
the future, the present, and also the past. Actions, emotions, and
certainly the morale of an individual at any instant depend upon
his total time perspective.
The conduct of the unemployed, then, is an example of how
time perspective may lower morale. How morale may, on the
contrary, be heightened by time perspective is illustrated by the
conduct of the Zionists in Germany shortly after Hitler came to
power. The great majority of Jews in Germany had believed for
decades that the pogroms of Czarist Russia "couldn't happen
here." When Hitler came to power, therefore, the social ground
on which they stood suddenly was swept from under their feet.
Naturally, many became desperate and committed suicide; with
nothing to stand on, they could see no future life worth living.
The time perspective of the numerically small Zionist group,
on the other hand, had been different. Although they too had not
considered pogroms in Germany a probability, they had been
aware of their possibility. For decades they had tried to study
their own sociological problems realistically, advocating and pro-
moting a program that looked far ahead. In other words, they
had a time perspective which included a psychological past of sur-
viving adverse conditions for thousands of years and a mean-
ingful and inspiring goal for the future. As the result of such a
time perspective, this group showed high morale—despite a pres-
ent which was judged by them to be no less foreboding than by
others. Instead of inactivity and encystment in the face of a
difficult situation—a result of such limited time perspective as
that characteristic of the unemployed—the Zionists with a long-
range and realistic time perspective showed initiative and organ-
ized planning. I t is worth noticing how much the high morale of
this small group contributed to sustaining the morale of a large
50 THEORY OF MORALE

section of the non-Zionist Jews of Germany. Here, as in many

other cases, a small group with high morale became a rallying
point for larger masses.
Time perspective seems, indeed, to be sufficiently important for
morale to warrant a more thorough analysis.

Development of T i m e Perspective
The infant lives essentially in the present. His goals are imme-
diate goals; when he is distracted, he "forgets" quickly. As an
individual grows older, more and more of his past and his future
affect his present mood and action. The goals of the school child
may already include promotion to the next grade at the end of
the year. Years later, as the father of a family, the same person
will often think in terms of decades when planning his life. Prac-
tically everyone of consequence in the history of humanity—in
religion, politics, or science—has been dominated by a time per-
spective which has reached out far into future generations, and
which frequently was based on an awareness of an equally long
past. But a large time perspective is not peculiar to great men. A
hundred and thirty billion dollars of life insurance in force in
the United States offer an impressive bit of evidence for the
degree to which a relatively distant psychological future, not con-
nected with the well-being of one's own person, affects the every-
day life of the average citizen.
Aside from the broadness of the time perspective, there is a
further aspect important for morale. The young child does not
distinguish clearly between fantasy and reality. To a great extent
wishes and fears affect his judgment. As an individual becomes
mature and gains "self-control," he more clearly separates his
wishes from his expectations: his life space differentiates into a
"level of reality" and various "levels of irreality," such as fantasy
and dream.
T I M E PERSPECTIVE AND MORALE 51

Tenacity and Time Perspective

"Tenacity in the face of adversity is the most unequivocal index
of high morale." 14 This is an idea widely accepted as the essence
of military morale. While there may be some question as to
whether the ability to persist in the face of difficulties is actually
the most fundamental aspect of morale, unquestionably it is one
aspect of either civilian or military morale, and as such is a good
starting point for discussWri.
I f morale means the ability to "take it," to face disagreeable
or dangerous situations, one must ask first, "What constitute
disagreeable or dangerous situations for an individual?" Ordi-
narily, we are accustomed to think of physical pain or bodily
danger; yet anyone who climbs mountains or explores jungles
for pleasure, any boy who drives an automobile fast, or who plays
football, shows that this answer is too simple.
(a) The disagreeable and time perspective. Under ordinary
circumstances, an individual will strongly resist an order to pick
up mercury from the floor with a wooden spoon, or to eat three
dozen unsalted soda crackers. As "subjects" in an experiment,
on the other hand, individuals were found ready to "take i t "
without either hesitation or resistance.8 In other words, whether
or not an activity is disgraceful or unpleasant depends to a high
degree on its psychological "meaning," 18 that is, on the larger
unit of events of which this action forms a part. In the role of
a patient, for example, the individual permits as "treatment" by
the doctor what would otherwise be vigorously resisted because
of bodily pain or social unpleasantness.
A good example of the degree to which the meaning of the
larger psychological units and the time perspective affect the felt
pain and the morale of the individual is provided by a study of
suffering in prison.6 It was found that the prison work which the
individual has to do day by day has no appreciable correlation
with the amount of his suffering. Individuals who suffered much
were quite as likely to hold advantageous jobs so far as power
52 THEORY OF MORALE

and leisure were concerned (such as editor of the prison maga-

zine or runner for the deputy warden) as to hold the most dis-
advantageous or unpaid of prison jobs. (The correlation between
the amount of suffering and the "objective" advantage of the
prison job was .01.) There was little negative correlation between
the subjective satisfaction which the prisoner felt in his prison job
and the amount of his suffering (r = —.19). A definite relation,
on the other hand, did exist between the amount of suffering and
certain factors connected with the future or past—a man's feeling,
for instance, that his sentence was unjust (r = .57), or his hope
of "getting a break" in regard to release ( r = —.39). This rela-
tion held true, moreover, in spite of the fact that the release might
be expected to take place only after a number of years. The actual
length of the sentence and the length of the time served do not
correlate strongly with the amount of suffering; however, a
marked relationship does exist between the suffering and a man's
feeling that he has served longer than he justly should have served
(r = .66).
Not present hardships in the usual sense of the term, then, but
rather certain aspects of the psychological future and the psycho-
logical past, together with feelings of being treated fairly or
unfairly, are most important in determining the amount of one's
suffering. A factor of considerable weight for the amount of
suffering in this case was uncertainty in regard to when parole
might be granted ( r — .51). This factor, too, was one not related
to the present immediate situation of the individual but was an
aspect of his time perspective.
In solitary confinement, too, it has been frequently reported,
one of the most painful experiences is the uncertainty as to how
much time has elapsed. Once again, it is not a present hardship
but certain characteristics of the time perspective which lend the
situation its anguish.
(b) Persistency and Time Perspective. Even more than suffer-
ing, persistency depends on the time perspective of the individual.
As long as there is hope that difficulties may be overcome for that
T I M E PERSPECTIVE AND MORALE 53

price in effort and pain which the individual is ready to pay, he

goes on trying. I f the objective is worthy, indeed, the effort is
not even felt to be a "sacrifice." Persistency, then, depends on
two factors: the value of the goal and the outlook for the future.
This holds both for child and adult, for soldier and civilian.
A few facts pertinent to morale, drawn from experiments with
children, *• lfe^might be mentioned here. How soon the individual
will give up in face of an obstacle depends, according to these
experiments, on three factors: (1) the strength of the psycho-
logical force toward the goal (the persistency will be greater if
the goal is more highly cherished or if the psychological distance
to the goal is smaller) ; (2) the felt probability of reaching the
goal (which, in turn, depends on past successes and failures and
on the intellectual capacity of the individual) ; and (3) the degree
of initiative of the individual.
The first point is identical with the felt value of the cause for
which the effort is made. The second refers to the psychological
future. The means whereby one can influence the psychological
future so that a man's outlook will be optimistic is a point much
discussed in regard to military morale. Everywhere the effect of
the past on the future is emphasized; whereas nothing is more
difficult than to keep up morale after a defeat, persistency is
greatly strengthened by past victories. Nor need this past neces-
sarily be one's own past. When the individual joins a "Fighting
69th," the tradition and history of this regiment become a part
of his life space. And only after he has demonstrated this fact
will he be recognized as a true member.
Experimental data show 4 that although past successes are most
effective if they have been won in the same field of activity,
nevertheless "substitute successes" and, to a lesser degree, mere
praise and encouragement still bolster persistency. A n individual
may likewise be taught to be more persistent and to react less
emotionally to obstacles if encouraging past experiences are built
up.12 Persistency, indeed, is closely related to the social position
of the individual, to his feeling of strength and security.
54 THEORY OF MORALE

Passive individuals are on the average less persistent than active

individuals; ^' there are, however, certain exceptions. Individuals
with low initiative sometimes show a kind of passive persever-
ance; they remain vis-a-vis the obstacle and keep up a gesturelike
activity toward the goal. And some active individuals, on the
other hand, quit very soon. Instead of waiting to be driven away
slowly by an increasing number of failures, these individuals
have sufficient initiative to make their decision as soon as realistic
considerations indicate that the goal cannot be reached. The ability
to make just such active decisions is recognized as one of the basic
requirements for military leaders. A weak individual's gesturelike
perseverance deprives him of the flexibility necessary for arriving
at new, more efficient solutions. The readiness to make "realistic
decisions" may sometimes, of course, be merely a front for a lack
of willingness to see things through. We shall come back to this
question later.

Group M o r a l e
Group morale depends on time perspective as much as does
individual morale. Clearly demonstrative of this fact are certain
controlled experiments with groups of individuals of college age
who were placed in a physically disagreeable situation.1^- The sub-
jects were set to work in a room which slowly filled with smoke
oozing in from under the door; and they knew that the doors
were locked. After a while, the smoke became rather disagreeable.
The reactions of the group varied from panic to laughter, depend-
ing mainly upon whether the smoke was construed as arising
from an actual fire or as a hoax of the psychologist. The differ-
ence between these interpretations lies mainly in a difference in
time perspective and in the felt degree of reality of the danger.
The recent history of morale in France, England, and the United
States is a vivid example of how much the degree to which the
reality of a danger is acknowledged determines group goals and
group action.*
* See the postscript to this chapter.
T I M E PERSPECTIVE AND MORALE 55

A comparative study made of previously organized and non-

organized groups in a situation of fear and of frustration V°
showed the organized groups to be both more highly motivated
and more persistent. They were less likely to disintegrate, al-
though as a result of this stronger motivation they felt more
highly frustrated in regard to group goals which could not be
reached. Contrary to usual expectation, however, fear spread
more quickly through the organized than the unorganized group,
because of the higher interdependence among the members of the
former. In a highly specific way these experiments verify our
everyday experience that the morale of an individual faced with
danger is highly dependent on the atmosphere of his group.

Initiative, Productivity, Goal Level, and Time Perspective

In Nazi Germany, morale is considered to be "a driving force
which propels every unit of the political and military organization
to exert maximum effort and capacity"; it "implies a positive
state of mind of the individual and the mass toward a uniform
goal.' Such a concept of morale mirrors the training necessary
for an offensive war and totalitarian uniformity. Experimental
psychology indicates, however, that one element in this concept is
correct for every type of morale. Tenacity in the face of obstacles,
the ability to "take it on the chin," is merely one aspect of a more
fundamental state of the person which may be characterized as a
combination of initiative and a determination to reach certain
goals, to realize certain values.
Given comparable settings, the morale of an individual or a
group might be measured by the quality and quantity of its
achievement, that is, by its productivity. Initiative and produc-
tivity, dependent as they are on the proper balance of a variety
of factors, are highly sensitive to changes in this balance. Here
physical well-being plays a significant role. Today, every country
is aware of the importance of sufficient food and vitamins for
civilian morale. A n over-satiated individual, on the other hand,
56 THEORY OF MORALE

is by no means likely to show the greatest initiative and produc-

tivity. Subtle psychological factors play a great role in morale,
and Hitler's plans of offensive warfare rightly consider the civil-
ian morale of the enemy country as one of its most vulnerable
and important points for attack.

P r o d u c t i v i t y and a T i m e Perspective of Insecurity

and Uncertainty
Experiments with children help us isolate some of the psycho-
logical factors determining initiative and productivity. For the
situations of childhood are easily controlled by the all-powerful
adult, and children probably show more quickly than adults
those basic reactions on which the psychology of large masses
depends.
I f the free play activity of a child is interfered with, his aver-
age level of productivity may regress, for instance, from the age
level of five and a half years to the much lower level of produc-
tivity of the three-and-a-half-year-old child.2 This regression is
closely related to the child's time perspective. Because the adult
has stopped the child in the midst of play of great interest and
productivity, now he feels himself to be on insecure ground; he
is aware of the possibility that the overwhelming power of the
adult may interfere again at any moment. This "background of
insecurity and frustration" not only has a paralyzing effect on
long-range planning; it also lowers initiative and the level of
productivity.
The effect of interference is particularly severe if the individual
is left in the dark as to the character of the new situation. The
negative, nonspecific command, "Don't!" lowers initiative and
productivity considerably more than a command to change to a
different but specific task.17 Indeed, one of the main techniques
for breaking morale through a "strategy of terror" consists in
exactly this tactic—keep the person hazy as to where he stands
and just what he may expect. I f in addition frequent vacillations
T I M E PERSPECTIVE AND MORALE 57

between severe disciplinary measures and promises of good treat-

ment, together with the spreading of contradictory news, make
the "cognitive structure" of the situation utterly unclear, then
the individual may cease to know even whether a particular plan
would lead toward or away from his goal. Under these conditions,
even those individuals who have definite goals and are ready to
take risks will be paralyzed by severe inner conflicts in regard to
what to do.
Pairs of strong friends, it is interesting to note, regress less in
a background of frustration than do pairs of children who are
not friends.^Their greater tolerance for frustration seems to be
due to a feeling of greater security among friends, as indicated,
for instance, by a greater readiness to attack the experimenter
as the source of frustration. Here is an example of how group
"belongingness" may increase a feeling of security, thereby rais-
ing the morale and the productivity of an individual.
The initiative of a child and his productivity have been found,
moreover, to be greater in the co-operative play of pairs of chil-
dren than in solitary play—both in situations of frustration and
in situations of nonfrustration. The increased productivity of an
individual as a member of a group as compared with his produc-
tivity as a lone individual is a factor of prime importance for civil-
ian morale. Bearing out this point, a study of factory workers18
indicates that, aside from security, personal attention given to the
individual plays a role in raising the level of productivity, prob-
ably because of the resultant increase in his feeling of "belong-
ingness."
This finding is but one of many which pertain to age differences,
individual differences, the effect of different situations, and the
difference between the activity of individuals and groups—all of
which indicate that productivity depends upon the number of
diversified abilities and needs that can be integrated into an or-
ganized, unified endeavor.! I t is the principle of "diversity within
unity" which dominates productivity, the principle that is so basic
to a democratic solution of the problem of minorities and to
58 THEORY OF MORALE

democratic living in all types of groups, from small face-to-face

groups to world organization.
In some cases, paradoxically, a certain amount of frustration
or difficulty actually increases productivity; such seems to be the
case i f the individual previously has not been fully involved and
if the difficulty serves as a fuse to touch off an all-out effort.
Closely related to this result is one of the most fundamental
problems of morale, namely: where will the individual or the
group set its goal ? What will be its level of aspiration ?

Level of A s p i r a t i o n and Time Perspective

The three-months-old infant is as happy when someone hands
him a toy as when he gets it by his own efforts. But the child of
two or three years frequently rejects the help of another person,
preferring to get by his own action an object that is difficult to
reach. He prefers, in other words, a difficult path and a difficult
goal to an easy path and an easy goal. This behavior of human
beings, seemingly paradoxical, is certainly contrary to a belief
which is widely accepted and which deeply influences thinking,
even about politics—the belief that human beings are led by the
"pleasure principle" along the easiest road to the easiest goal.
Actually, from childhood on, the goals which an individual sets
in his daily life and for his long-range plans are influenced by his
ideology, by the group to which he belongs, and by a tendency to
raise his level of aspiration to the upper limit of his ability.
On this problem experiments have yielded considerable knowl-
edge—how the level of aspiration develops during childhood/ how
success and failure in one field affect the level of aspiration in
other fields, how the individual reacts to "too difficult" or "too
easy" tasks, and how the standards of groups influence his own
goal level.
The setting up of goals is closely related to time perspective.^
The goal of the individual includes his expectations for the fu-
ture, his wishes and his daydreams. Where the individual places
T I M E PERSPECTIVE AND MORALE 59

his goals will be determined fundamentally by two factors, namely,

by the individual's relation to certain values and by his sense of
realism in regard to the probability of reaching the goal. The
frames of reference which determine the values of success and
failure vary considerably from individual to individual and from
group to group. By and large, there is a tendency in our society
to raise the level of aspiration toward the limit of the individual's
ability. The principle of realism, on the other hand, tends to safe-
guard the individual against failure and to keep ambition down
to earth. How high the individual can set his goal and still keep
in touch with the reality level is one of the most important factors
for his productivity and his morale.
A successful individual typically sets his next goal somewhat,
but not too much, above his last achievement.2"- In this way he
steadily raises his level of aspiration. Although in the long run he
is guided by his ideal goal, which may be rather high, nevertheless
his real goal for the next step is kept realistically close to his
present position. The unsuccessful individual, on the other hand,
tends to show one of two reactions: he sets his goal very low,
frequently below his past achievement—that is, he becomes intim-
idated and gives up reaching out toward higher goals—or he sets
his goal far above his ability. This latter conduct is rather com-
mon. Sometimes the result is a gesturelike keeping up of high
goals without serious striving; it may at other times mean that
the individual is following blindly his ideal goal, losing sight of
what in the present situation is possible. To develop and to main-
tain high goals and, at the same time, to keep the plan for the
next action realistically within the limits of what is possible, seems
to be one of the basic objectives for and a criterion of high
morale.
How high a person will set his goal is deeply affected by the
standards of the group to which he belongs, as well as by the
standards of groups below and above him. Experiments with
college students^ prove that, if the standards of a group are low,
an individual will slacken his efforts and set his goals far below
6o THEORY OF MORALE

those he could reach. He will, on the other hand, raise his goals
if the group standards are raised. I n other words, both the ideals
and the action of an individual depend upon the group to which
he belongs and upon the goals and expectations of that group.
That the problem of individual morale is to a large extent a social-

0) M i n i m u m / e v e I f o r r a t i n g as s k i l l e d
100

3
o

2 o J L J_ _L J L
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 II 12 13 14
Weeks
Fig. 1. The effect of the level of aspiration and degree of reality of a goal
on the achievement of factory workers. Each group contains 40 workers.
(From a study by A. J. Marrow.)

psychological problem of group goals and group standards is thus

clear, even in those fields where the person seems to follow indi-
vidual rather than group goals. Such a connection between in-
dividual and group morale is, of course, still closer in regard to
the pursuit of group goals.
T I M E PERSPECTIVE AND MORALE 6l

An experiment again clarifies the issue. Experiences with

sewing-machine workers in a newly erected plant in a rural area
of the South demonstrate the manner in which level of aspiration
influences learning and achievement in factory work.*? After a
week's training, the output of the novices ranged from 20 per
cent to 25 per cent of the quantity accepted as a standard for
skilled operators. (See Figure 1.) When, nevertheless, the novices
were informed that this standard was one which they ought to
reach in ten to twelve weeks, the disparity between the level of
their performance at the end of the first week and the stated goal
was too great—so great, indeed, that the subjects invariably ex-
pressed skepticism of ever reaching it. Since the plant was newly
organized, there were no skilled workers actually doing the job
at the standard speed; hence the goal seemed to be "too difficult,"
unattainable. Inasmuch as the wage these novices earned was al-
ready greater than that to which they were accustomed, there was
nothing either outside or inside the plant to give the higher
standards social reality for the group. As a result, the individuals
were pleased with their progress in spite of the dissatisfaction of
the supervisors; improvements were slow, learning plateaus com-
mon, and after fourteen weeks only 66 -per cent of the standard
had been reached.
For a second group of novices who started at the same level,
a definite goal was set each week, to be reached at the end of that
week, in addition to the information about the general standards.
At that time, too, a large number of the older workers in the
plant had achieved the standard. This combination of an imme-
diate goal for the near future and the acceptance of the final goal
as a real standard for the group led to a much more rapid im-
provement on the part of this group of novices. With but few
learning plateaus, the average of the group had more than reached
the goal standard at the end of the fourteenth week.
* I am indebted to Dr. Alfred J. Marrow for making these data available.
62 THEORY OF MORALE

M o r a l e i n the Pursuit of Group Goals and

T i m e Perspective
Unfortunately there are few studies available which permit
scientific conclusions about the relation between group morale and
time perspective. A comparison of groups with democratic and
autocratic structures,*5' P- however, suggests certain conclusions.
These groups, for example, showed very striking differences dur-
ing periods when the leader left. Whereas the work morale of the
democratic group was sustained at a high level, that of the auto-
cratic group fell rapidly. In a short time, the latter group ceased
entirely to produce. This difference may be traced to the relation
between the individual and the group goals and to certain aspects
of time perspective.
The organization of work, like any other aspect of the organiza-
tion of the autocratic group, is based on the leader. It is he who
determines the policy of the group; it is he who sets the specific
goals of action for the members within the group. That means
that the goals of the individual as well as his action as a group
member are "induced" by the leader. It is the leader's power-field
which keeps the individual going, which determines his work
morale, and which makes the group an organized unit. I n the
democratic group, on the contrary, every member has had a hand
in determining the policy of the group; every member has helped
to lay out the plans. As a result, each is more "we-centered" and
less "ego-centered" than the member of the autocratic group. Be-
cause the group goes ahead under its own steam, its work morale
does not flag as soon as the power-field of the leader is eliminated.
"Acceptance" of the group goals by the member of the auto-
cratic group means giving in to a superior power and subordinating
one's own will. In the democratic group, "acceptance" of the
group goal by the member means taking it over and making it
one's own goal. The readiness to do so, in the latter case, is partly
based on the time perspective of the individual; in the past, that
is, he himself has participated in setting up that goal and now he
T I M E PERSPECTIVE AND MORALE 63

feels his individual responsibility in carrying it through. Not less

essential is the difference in time perspective of the members of
both groups in regard to planning the future. For the distant fu-
ture, to be sure, the autocratic leader frequently reveals to his
subjects some high, ideal goal. But when it comes to immediate
action, it is one of the accepted means o£rautocratic leader^1 to re-
veal to his followers not more than the immediate next step of his
actual plans. In this way not only is he able to keep the future
of the members in his own hands; in addition he makes the mem-
bers dependent on him, and he can direct them from moment to
moment in whatever direction he wishes.
The member of a democratic group who himself has helped to
lay out the long-range plan has a rather different time perspective.
In a much clearer situation, he is able to take not only the next
step but also the following step quite independently. Because he
knows his position and action within the larger group plan, he can
modify his own action with the changing situation.
In contrast to both democratic and autocratic groups, the laissez
faire group, where the leader keeps hands off,^' shows only spo-
radic flare-ups of group planning or of long-range individual
projects. The work morale of such a group is very low compared
with either that of the democratic or the autocratic group—an
indication of the importance of definite goals for group morale.
Not those goals which can be reached easily but a psychological
future with obstacles and high goals is conducive to high morale.
Quakerlike groups in the work camps for conscientious objec-
tors, who as a rule pay for their own upkeep, are frequently per-
mitted to plan by themselves how to reach the work objectives set
for them. I f reports are correct, these groups, with their self-
planned organization, produce many times as much as groups
under ordinary methods of supervision. One factor behind this
achievement seems to be a long-range time perspective combined
with the definiteness of their goal: the conscientious objectors
attempt to train for the difficult task of reconstruction in Europe
after the war.
64 THEORY OF MORALE

Leadership, M o r a l e , and T i m e Perspective

( I n another chapter of this -book-,- the- results of an experiment
inl^training of leaders.are reported.* The importance of time per-
spective is apparent in this study both for the morale of the leaders
themselves and for the effect of the leaders in turn on the group
morale. The striking change in the morale of the leaders from
"low morale" before training to "high morale" after three weeks
of training is related to the fact that the goals of these individuals
changed from a day-to-day attempt to keep their insecure W.P.A.
jobs to a broader—and actually more difficult—less personal goal
of giving children the benefit of experiencing genuine democratic
group life. Such a change in goal level and time perspective was
brought about partly by the experience of membership in a demo-
cratic training group which had itself set definite goals and laid
out its plans, and partly by the experience of leaving a depressive,
narrow, and meaningless past for a future which, with all its
uncertainty, contained a goal worth striving toward.
A positive time perspective, a time perspective guided by worth-
while goals, is one of the basic elements of high morale. A t the
same time, the process is reciprocal; high morale itself creates
long-range time perspective and sets up worthwhile goals. A t the
end of the training process, the leaders mentioned above had set
for themselves goals far above those of which previously they
would have dared dream. We are dealing here with one of those
circular types of dependencies which are frequently found in so-
cial psychology. The highly intelligent person, for example, is
better able than the feeble-minded person to create situations which
will be easy to handle. As a result, the feeble-minded, with his low
ability, frequently finds himself in more difficult situations than
the normal. Similarly, the socially maladjusted person creates more
difficult social situations for himself than does the well-adjusted
person and, doing badly in the difficult situation, easily goes from

* See Chapter VIII, "Morale and the Training of Leaders," by Alex Bavelas.
T I M E PERSPECTIVE AND MORALE 65

bad to worse. Again, poor morale makes for a poor time perspec-
tive, which in turn results in still poorer morale; whereas high
.morale sets not only high goals but is likely to create situations of
progress conducive to still better morale.
This circular process can be observed also in regard to the
morale of the group as a whole. The interdependence among the
members of a group, in fact, makes the circularity of the processes
even more unmistakable. In one experiment, for instance, a group
of children, having been together for one hour in a democratic
group, spontaneously demanded the continuation of that groupji3
When informed of the lack of an adult leader, they organized
themselves. Their morale, in other words, was high enough to
broaden their time perspective; they set themselves a group goal
extending over weeks—and later included a half-year project.

Realism, Morale, and Time Perspective

One aspect of time perspective which is essential for morale is
realism. Here again we encounter the same paradox as that under-
lying productivity: one criterion of morale is the height of the
goal level which the individual is ready to accept seriously. For
high morale, the objective to be reached will represent a great
step forward from the present state of affairs. The "realistic"
politician who always keeps both feet on the ground and his hand
in the pork barrel is a symbol of low morale. On the other hand,
the "idealistic" individual who has high ideals without making
serious efforts to attain them can likewise make few claims to be-
ing a person of high morale. Morale demands both a goal suffi-
ciently above the present state of affairs, and an effort to reach the
distant goal through actions planned with sufficient] realism to
promise an actual step forward. One might say that this paradox
—to be realistic and at the same time be guided by high goals—
lies at the heart of the problem of morale, at least as far as time
perspective is concerned.
 66 THEORY OF MORALE

TOO IMMEDIATE AND TOO DISTANT GOALS

What an immediate or a far distant goal means for realism and
morale and how it is related to the time perspective of the indi-
vidual or of a group might best be illustrated by certain aspects
of development. The normal healthy child in the elementary school
lives in groups of children whose standards and values, whose
ideologies and goals, will be of utmost importance for his own
goals and his own conduct. I f he is fortunate enough to be born
in the United States, there will be a good chance that his school
group will have a sufficiently democratic atmosphere to give him
a clear, first-hand experience in what it means to be a leader as
well as a follower in a democratic group, what it means to "play
fair," to recognize differences of opinion and differences of ability
without intolerance or bossiness and equally, too, without softness
or lack of backbone. Only a few children will have experienced
anything approaching a perfect democracy; still, they will have
experienced frequently a group atmosphere which approaches
democracy sufficiently to give them a better taste of democratic
procedures than the vast majority of the citizens of European
countries are likely ever to have experienced.
Experiments indicate that children at eight years are more altru-
istic than adults, and that children at ten years are strongly guided
by an ideology of fairness'.21 In short, the conduct of the average
child at that age follows relatively closely the standards and values
of the groups to which he belongs; but these groups are the face-
to-face groups of his school, his family, his gang. The period of
time to which these standards and goals are related in a realistic
manner is a matter of weeks, months, or at most of a few years.
The scope of^time and space in which national politics takes place
in the social world of the adult is, for the young child, something
too large and too overpowering to be considered by him in any
but a highly abstract or naive manner.
Growing through adolescence to young manhood or woman-
hood means enlarging the scope and the time perspective of one's
 T I M E PERSPECTIVE AND MORALE 6j

psychological world. In a measure, it means also leaving the small

face-to-face groups, such as the family, or else assigning these
small groups a secondary place in a larger social world with which
the young person now seriously has to come into grips. It is the
eternal right of every young generation to consider critically the
standards and values of this larger world of the older generation.
The better and the more democratic the education during child-
hood has been, the more serious and the more honest will these
critical considerations be.
For the young person growing into problems of such magnitude
—in fact, for anybody facing for the first time problems of a new
order of magnitude—two reactions are typical. The individual
may, in the first place, shrink from making decisions of such im-
portance, trying rather to restrict himself to the smaller time per-
spective which he was just outgrowing. His low morale will then
lead him to place his main emphasis on the small day-by-day goals.
An example is the college girl who, because she is so disgusted
with the war "over there in Europe," will not even look at the
newspapers or listen to the radio.*
At the other extreme is the individual who refuses to think in
a time perspective of less than a thousand years. He thinks in
terms of "what ought to be"; his goals as such are frequently ex-
cellent, and he refuses to take any action which might run counter
to his principles. In so far as his goals are characterized by a high
discrepancy between "what is" and "what should be," between the
wish level for the future and the present reality level, his time
perspective is opposite to that of an individual who is satisfied with
the status quo. But the very weight which the distant goal has
for the individual who takes it seriously, the very fact that he is
dissatisfied with the present situation, make it difficult for him to
give sufficient consideration to the actual structure of the present
situation, or to conceive realistically what step in the present world
can be taken to achieve this end. For one growing into problems
which deal with a new scope of time perspective, it is difficult, at
* See postscript to this chapter.
68 THEORY OF MORALE

first, to distinguish between the cynic, who is ready to use any

means to his ends, and the person of high morale, who takes his
goal seriously enough to do what is necessary to change the present
state of affairs.

TWO FOUNDATIONS OF ACTION

The conviction that a certain action will lead toward the direc-
tion in which the individual wants to go and not in just the oppo-
site direction is based partly on what is called technical knowledge.
But for the individual this knowledge is very limited; his actions
are always based, in part, on some type of "belief." There are
many types of such beliefs on which the principle of realism within
morale can be based. We shall mention but two.
The exigencies of modern warfare have compelled the armies
to give a fair measure of independence to the individual private.
In some respects, the army of Nazi Germany can be said to have
more status-democracy between officers and men than had pre-
viously existed in the army of the Kaiser. On the whole, however,
and particularly in regard to civilian life and to civilian education,
Hitler has placed the relation between leader and led on a basis of
blind obedience to a degree unheard of in modern life outside of
certain monasteries. Ever since Hitler came to power, the nursery
school teacher, for example, has been instructed never to explain
an order to a child, even if he could understand the reason, because
the child should (learn to obey blindly. "There are many things
which can be forgiven, no matter how evil they may be. But dis-
loyalty to the Fuehrer can never be pardoned.",'5
The belief that one's action goes in the correct direction is, in
such an atmosphere, based primarily if not exclusively on the trust
in the leader. The area in which independent thinking is permitted
is small, more or less limited to the execution of the immediate
next step as objective. Blind obedience means abandoning, in all
essential areas, that measure of reasoning and independent judg-
ment which prevailed in Germany before Hitler's rise to power
T I M E PERSPECTIVE AND MORALE 69

and which, to a much greater extent, has been one of the tradi-
tional rights of the citizen in the United States.
It is not chance that the fight against reason and the replace-
ment of reason by sentiment has been one of the unfailing
symptoms of politically reactionary movements throughout the
centuries. To recognize reason socially means that a sound argu-
ment "counts," no matter who brings it forth; it means recogniz-
ing the basic equality of men. In an autocracy, only the leader
needs to be correctly informed; in a democracy, popular determi-
nation of policy can work only if the people who participate in
goal-setting are realistically aware of the actual situation. In other
words, the emphasis on truth, the readiness to let the people know
about difficult situations and failures, does not spring merely from
an abstract "love of truth" but is rather a political necessity. Here
lies one of the points on which democratic morale can, in the long
run, be superior to authoritarian morale. A far more stable ground
for morale than the belief in the ability of any leader individually
is truth itself.

Postscript
This chapter was written before December 7, 1941; now we are
at war. The effect on the morale of the country has been immediate
and striking—a circumstance which bears out some of the points
we have discussed.
The attack on Hawaii has shown that Japan represents a much
more serious danger than many had thought. But this feeling of
increased and close danger has heightened rather than depressed
morale, being as it is in line with the general finding that morale
changes not parallel with but rather inversely to the amount of
difficulty, so long as certain goals are maintained.
The experience of attack upon our own country has overnight
brought war down from the cloudy realms of possibility to the
level of reality. Although the college girl whom we mentioned
above may still be far from realizing fully what it means to be
at war, nonetheless war is no longer something "over there in
JO THEORY OF MORALE

Europe." It is here. Thus as a result of our being in the war, the

will to win has become a clear and unquestioned objective.
Before December 7, what was a realistic outlook for one indi-
vidual was doubted by a second and ridiculed as impossible by a
third. Now the situation has been clarified. Countless conflicts,
whether among factions in the population or within each individual
himself, have ceased now that the major aspects of the time per-
spectives are definitely set.
Being within this new and definite situation means that certain
basic goals and necessary actions are "given." I n such a situation
no special effort is required to keep morale high. The very combi-
nation of a definite objective, the belief in final success, and the
realistic facing of great difficulties is high morale. The individual
who makes extreme efforts and accepts great risks for worthwhile
goals does not feel that he is making sacrifice; instead, he merely
feels that he is acting naturally.
When a major decision has been made, it frequently happens
that the individual or the group will show high morale in the new
situation because of a sudden clear awareness of the objectives
of the enterprise as a whole. As the effort proceeds, however, a
variety of detailed problems and difficulties is bound to arise and
to occupy a more prominent position. There is danger that groups
which started out with enthusiasm may yet lose their "punch"
when the clearness of the situation at the time of decision has
been clouded by such a multitude of details, problems, and imme-
diate difficulties. Group morale during a prolonged effort depends
much on the degree to which the members keep clearly in view
the total task and the final objective.
In the months and years to come, then, civilian morale can be
expected to depend much upon the clarity and the value of our
war goals, and upon the degree to which such values come to be
deeply rooted within each individual.