Development and validation of the openness to the future scale: a prospective protective factor

Botella, Cristina; Molinari, Guadalupe; Fernández‐Álvarez, Javier; Guillén, Verónica; García‐Palacios, Azucena; Baños, Rosa; Tomás, José M.

doi:10.1186/s12955-018-0889-8

Cited by 25 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 81 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Accordingly, a new construct called "openness to the future" has been proposed, which refers to the "positive expectations about what life may bring, a sense of competence and ability to cope with events, the anticipation, planning and perseverance to reach an outcome even in the face of adversity, and the acceptance of what cannot be resolved or predicted". Similar to Taylor's positive biases (1988), openness to the future has been shown to be a protective factor for well-being, and it has been associated with higher PA levels, psychological well-being, and selfesteem, as well as with reduced depressive symptoms, anxiety, and worry (Botella et al 2018). Here, we propose that also people's past-oriented disposition may represent an important protective factor for mental health.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 65%

Affect Recall Bias: Being Resilient by Distorting Reality

et al. 2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background According to a growing body of literature, people are quite inaccurate in recalling past affective experiences. Nevertheless, the mechanism underlying this recall bias (i.e., the tendency to overestimate and/or underestimate positive or negative past emotional experiences) remains unclear, and its association with mental health has not been studied yet. Methods We adopted a smartphone-based Ecological Momentary Assessment to monitor daily affect (n = 92) and investigate the association between affect recall bias, mental health and resilience. Results While the tendency to overestimate negative affective experiences was observed in participants reporting mild depressive symptoms, positive affect (PA) overestimation as compared to PA underestimation was associated with better mental health (i.e. higher psychological well-being and lower depressive and anxiety symptoms) through the enhancement of resilience. Furthermore, positively biased participants (i.e. PA over estimators) benefited from greater well-being, even when compared to accurate individuals. Conclusions While people appear to use retrospective PA overestimation as a strategy to enhance well-being and resilience, they are not likely to underestimate past negative experiences to feel better. Accordingly, owning an optimistic vision of the past may represent an adaptive "distortion" of reality that fosters people's mental health. The clinical implications of cultivating PA and learning strategies to regulate both negative and positive emotions are discussed.

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 65%

Affect Recall Bias: Being Resilient by Distorting Reality

et al. 2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Some examples include: "I calmly accept that good and bad things will happen to me in life"; "I am very excited about future opportunities and challenges"; "I feel hopeful about what the future may bring." This scale has shown good psychometric properties both in community and clinical samples (Botella et al, 2018). In our sample, the OFS showed good internal consistency (α = 0.80).…”

Section: Openness To Futurementioning

confidence: 50%

“…In other words, our results suggest that psychological well-being is a grounded dimension: Rather than momentary affect and daily events, psychological wellbeing seems to be more strongly associated with resilience and coping skills, such as holding an optimistic, even if distorted, vision of the future. Accordingly, delta PA but not delta NA was significantly associated with OFS, which in turn has been found to be associated with better mental health (Botella et al, 2018).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 84%

“…These cognitive biases are likely to increase the perception of owning successful copying skills (Brown, 1993), which in turn enhances motivation and enthusiasm while carrying out actions (Taylor and Gollwitzer, 1995). Similarly, a positive futureoriented disposition and openness to the future (i.e., having positive expectations and a general disposition of acceptance toward the future) have been shown to be protective factors for mental health and to be positively associated with well-being (Weinstein, 1980;Mikus et al, 2017;Botella et al, 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Biased Affective Forecasting: A Potential Mechanism That Enhances Resilience and Well-Being

et al. 2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

According to a growing body of studies, people's ability to forecast future emotional experiences is generally biased. Nonetheless, the existing literature has mainly explored affective forecasting in relation to specific events, whereas little is still known about the ability to make general estimations of future emotional states. Based on existing evidence suggesting future-oriented disposition as a key factor for mental health, the aims of the current study were (1) to investigate the relationship between negative (NA) and positive (PA) affective forecasting biases and perceived psychological wellbeing, and (2) to explore whether positively biased predictions are associated with resilience and foster one's skills to cope with stressful events. To do so, we asked 85 undergraduate students to forecast PA and NA over 2 weeks, as well as to report their daily affect through a web-based Ecological Momentary Assessment. According to the results, positively biased PA forecasting (i.e., overestimating positive emotional states) was associated with greater perceived psychological well-being and higher resilience. When high levels of stress were experienced, participants holding an optimistic, yet biased, estimation of future PA were more likely to successfully manage stressors, thus maintaining lower levels of NA and higher levels of positive emotions. We suggest that positively biased PA forecasting is an adaptive cognitive distortion that boosts people's resilience and mental health, thus opening new avenues for the promotion of psychological well-being.

show abstract

“…Openness to the Future Scale (OFS) [104] consists of 10 items with scores ranging from 1 to 5 on a Likert scale. It assesses expectations and positive affectivity towards the future, which includes five domains: (1) Illusion of control, (2) Acceptance, (3) Commitment to life and planning, (4) Positive orientation towards the future, and (5) Self-efficacy towards the future.…”

Section: Positive and Negative Emotionalitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Efficacy of a self-applied online program to promote resilience and coping skills in university students in four Spanish-speaking countries: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

et al. 2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background: There is evidence of a high prevalence of depression and anxiety in university students. Therefore, college time is a key period where prevention of mental disorders through interventions that promote resilience and mental health can be relevant. Currently, there are interventions available, but these are insufficient for those who need them. Online interventions are tools that can facilitate global accessibility and are easy for young people to use. CORE (Cultivating Our Resilience) is a self-administered online program, based on Ryff's psychological wellbeing model, to promote resilience and coping skills in university students at risk of developing symptoms of depression or anxiety. The objective is to evaluate the effectiveness of this intervention protocol in comparison with an active control condition targeting healthy lifestyle, and a waiting list control condition. The study will be conducted in four populations of Spanish-speaking university students (Spain, Argentina, Colombia, and Mexico). Methods: The study design is a randomized controlled trial (RCT). At least 324 university students will be randomly assigned to three conditions: 1) CORE, a 6-week training program to improve resilience; 2) HLP, a 6-week training to promote a healthy lifestyle; and 3) WL, waiting list control condition. The primary outcome measure will be the Connor-Davidson resilience scale. Additionally, measures of anxiety, depression, quality of life and sociodemographic variables (age, sex, incomes, marital status, among others) will be collected. Participants will be evaluated at pre-treatment, after each module, 6 weeks after allocation, and at 3-month follow-up. Intention-to-treat and per-protocol analyses will be performed.

show abstract

Development and validation of the openness to the future scale: a prospective protective factor

Cited by 25 publications

References 81 publications

Affect Recall Bias: Being Resilient by Distorting Reality

Affect Recall Bias: Being Resilient by Distorting Reality

Biased Affective Forecasting: A Potential Mechanism That Enhances Resilience and Well-Being

Efficacy of a self-applied online program to promote resilience and coping skills in university students in four Spanish-speaking countries: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About