The importance of man's relationship to time has been widely recognized in psychology. However, ideas about how the subject should be defined and studied have varied greatly. To explore the phenomenological "experience of time", 20 white, middle class, mature, articulate adults (10 male, 10 female) participated in 1-hour semi-structured, clinical style, audiotaped interviews. The interviews were subsequently analyzed for thematic categories. An analysis of the results showed that three major categories of temporal experience were identified: change and continuity (becoming in time); limits and choices (doing in time); and tempo (pacing in time). (A discussion of the category system as a useful conceptual framework for organizing information about the experience of time in various diagnostic groups is included.) (BL)