Beyond 9 to 5: Your Life in Time (Maps of the Mind),New

Product Description In Beyond 9 to 5, Sarah Norgate investigates the psychological, social, and cultural influences that affect the way we regard and are affected by time. Using everyday examples from around the world, her intriguing analysis unravels both the mental and biological mysteries of our relationships with time and provides a clear understanding of the links among behavior, brain, and genes. Norgate begins by musing on the origins of our obsession with punctuality; the conflicting practices of rushing and taking things slow; economydriven proverbs from highly industrialized nationsDon't put off until tomorrow what you can do todayand how they differ from beliefs and attitudes in more rural areas; why some countries like Japan promote a 24/7 lifestyle while others still have trouble allowing businesses to open on Sunday; and which city moves at a faster pace, New York or Dublin? Norgate's examination of global trends yields surprising results.Norgate then considers the biological effects of irregular hours, night shifts, cram sessions, roundtheclock consumption, and other potentially unhealthy characteristics of modern living. In addition, she looks at how our relationship with time evolves throughout our lives, from birth to old age, tracing the connection between longevity and memory and how such conditions as Parkinson's disease, addiction, sensory impairment, and autism change our perception of time.Norgate concludes by uniting these threads to better understand the universality of our temporal landscapes. An engaging mix of cultural reference and research, Beyond 9 to 5 is a compelling look at what makes us human. From Publishers Weekly How do 'clock time cultures' differ from 'event time cultures'? What are the psychological and physiological effects of a highly scheduled lifestyle? And given the growing phenomenon of the '24hour economy' with its 'anytime' attitude to work and consumption, how is our changing relationship to time altering our lightdark and activityrest cycles? Drawing on the latest statistics, Norgate, a lecturer in psychology in the faculty of health and social care at the University of Salford, England, addresses these questions and more as she surveys various cultural attitudes to time and explores the impact of such attitudes on world health and societymost disturbingly when surveying the long hours worked by children in certain parts of the developing world. In addition to exploring patterns of daily activity, Norgate examines the significance for our relationship to time of genes and lifestyle, longevity and attitudes to childbearing and life span, comparing how generation gaps across the world differ and analyzing world inequalities in average life expectancy. With a humorous touch, she also explores the notoriously irregular sleep and wake cycles of babies (cycles she traces back to the fetal environment). Rich in intelligently contrasted and contextualized data, Norgate's academic study skillfully captures how world communities differ in their relationship to time. (Dec.) Copyright Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From Booklist Weighing psychological, social, biological, and cultural influences, Norgate takes us on a global journey exploring the ways that individuals regard time and are affected by it. A university lecturer in psychology, Norgate leans heavily in this book toward a scholarly approach, although she attempts to use everyday examples to make her points. However, instead of telling her readers how they can manage their time more effectively to live richer, more productive lives, she fills the book with tables showing in which countries people work the longest hours and how various cultures deal with the time demands of children. Although readers may expect some assistance in dealing with jet leg, Norgate instead describes how long it takes their livers to return to normal after a lengthy t