Time-structuring, as a concept integral to Transaction Analysis, is propounded by Eric Berne. In order to understand this concept, the concept of hungers needs to be discussed first. He terms the conventionally known 'needs' or 'drives' as 'hungers' which express the various needs of individuals in the context of various situations in daily life.
According to Eric Berne, the first hunger is that of 'stimulus hunger' , the need to seek out stimulating situations. Also termed 'Sensation hunger' this is what drives people to seek certain challenges or take some risks in life. Examples would be taking a bungee jump, a roller coaster ride etc. All social interaction is seen as the gratification of this stimulus hunger and is assumed to be as innate a need as food. In this stimulus, a need to receive strokes is expressed, which either can be good or bad.
The other hungers are 'recognition hunger', which is the drive to seek personal recognition or distinct identity for oneself. Then the 'structure hunger' is the need to create order and be a part of social structures. This is the reason why people form in to groups, unions or societies and why these later develop in to big organizations. This is the need or drive to structure time effectively in order to maximize the number of strokes received.
It is in this context the concept of time structuring is elaborated. Time structuring, according to Eric Berne, refers to the long felt problem of social interactions and how people try to structure their time around these in order to create strokes. He believed that human beings need to structure their time and relationships with the others in his society in some meaningful way. There is an inbuilt drive to create meaningful order to the structure out of the apparent chaos in relationships.
This is done with the objective of avoiding boredom and find happiness out of the strokes created from these relationships in daily life. The ways in which a person structures his time depends largely upon how he feels about himself and about the others with whom the strokes are expected to be created. The stimulus or structure hunger is the main factor that drives us towards time structuring.
Eric Berne states that there are 6 ways of structuring time, each of which has its own advantages and disadvantages. He also states that all of us, at any given time, are involved in one or more of the time structures that we seek to create.
