The Futures We Want: How Goal-Directed Imagination Relates to Mental Health

Gamble, Beau; Tippett, Lynette J.; Moreau, David; Addis, Donna Rose

doi:10.1177/2167702620986096

Cited by 20 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 70 publications

(117 reference statements)

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“…MacLeod & Salaminiou, 2001). In particular, our findings support and extend those of Gamble et al (2021), who found depressive symptoms to be negatively correlated with the level of anticipated joy expected to accompany goal success. Our study differed subtly to that of Gamble et al, with respect to the relatively minimal constraints we imposed on the generation of personal goals.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 87%

“…To date, only one study has provided evidence consistent with this. Gamble et al (2021) found that higher levels of depressive symptoms were associated with a reduction in expected joy deriving from goal success, as well as lower perceived attainability of goals and diminished phenomenological detail in goal-related episodic simulations. Thus, their findings suggest that depression is associated with impaired anticipated emotion with respect to goal attainment.…”

mentioning

confidence: 93%

“…Thus, their findings suggest that depression is associated with impaired anticipated emotion with respect to goal attainment. However, questions remain because Gamble et al (2021) investigated only anticipated, but not anticipatory, emotions pertaining to goal achievement. Thus, the current investigation examined how depressive symptoms are related to both forms of future-oriented emotions.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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The relationship between depressive symptoms and positive emotional anticipation of goal achievement

Anderson

McClure

Boland

et al. 2023

Journal of Experimental Psychopathology

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Depression is associated with difficulties in goal pursuit which could be related to deficits in emotional anticipation regarding goal success. Therefore, the reported study investigated emotional anticipation for personal goals and whether this differs as a function of depressive symptoms. After listing approach and avoidance goals, 263 participants made predictions about these goals (e.g. likelihood of achievement and controllability) and rated the vividness and perspective with which they envisaged goal achievement. They also provided ratings of either anticipated (predicted emotions that would accompany goal success) or anticipatory (in-the-moment emotions when imagining goal success) positive emotions. Higher levels of depressive symptomatology were associated with pessimistic predictions about goal achievement, coupled with reduced vividness and greater adoption of observer perspective when envisaging achievement. Furthermore, those experiencing higher levels of depressive symptoms evidenced biases in both anticipated and anticipatory positive emotions associated with goal success. They believed that goal achievement would bring them lower levels of positive emotion and also reported less in-the-moment happiness, satisfaction, and pleasure when thinking about achieving their goals. Irrespective of depressive symptom level, anticipated emotions were generally stronger than anticipatory emotions. These findings have implications both for research on future-oriented emotions (anticipated and anticipatory) and for the development of therapeutic techniques to aid depression.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 87%

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confidence: 93%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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The relationship between depressive symptoms and positive emotional anticipation of goal achievement

Anderson

McClure

Boland

et al. 2023

Journal of Experimental Psychopathology

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“…Specifically, our analysis highlights the effectiveness of positive future imaginings. Targeted attempts to foster such EFT may particularly benefit individuals who tend to have a less positive imagination of the future as is often the case in depression (Gamble et al, 2019(Gamble et al, , 2021; see also Ji et al, 2017;Renner et al, 2017).…”

Section: Intertemporal Choice and Impulsivity: Clinical Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Promoting farsighted decisions via episodic future thinking: A meta-analysis.

Rösch¹,

Stramaccia²

2022

Journal of Experimental Psychology: General

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This preprint has not yet been peer-reviewed.Episodic future thinking (EFT) denotes our capacity to imagine prospective events. It has been suggested to promote farsighted decisions that entail a trade-off between short-term versus longterm gains. Here, we meta-analyze the evidence for the impact of EFT on such intertemporal choices that have monetary or health-relevant consequences. Across 174 effect sizes from 48 articles, a three-level model yielded a medium-sized effect of g = 0.44, 95% CI [0.33, 0.55]. Notably, this analysis included a substantial number of unpublished experiments, and the effect remained significant following further adjustments for remaining publication bias. We exploited the observed heterogeneity to determine critical core components that moderate the impact of EFT. Specifically, the effect was stronger when the imagined events were positive, more vivid, and related to the delayed choice. We further obtained evidence for the contribution of the episodicity and future-orientedness of EFT. These results indicate that the impact of EFT cannot simply be accounted for by other modes of prospection (e.g., semantic future thinking). Of note, EFT had a greater impact in samples characterized by choice impulsivity (e.g., in obesity), suggesting that EFT can ameliorate maladaptive decision making. It may accordingly constitute a beneficial intervention for individuals who tend to make myopic decisions. Our analyses moreover indicated that the effect is unlikely to merely reflect demand characteristics. This meta-analysis thus highlights the potential of EFT in promoting long-term goals, a finding that extends from the laboratory to real-life decisions.

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“…Similarly, Grant and Wilson (2021) found that thinking about positive future events increased positive affect, whereas thinking about negative future events decreased positive affect and increased negative affect. Gamble et al (2021) observed that setting up goals and imagining details related to the goals were associated with higher well-being and lower depressive symptoms. In addition, higher perceived controllability of personal future events has been found to be associated with optimism (Weinstein, 1980).…”

Section: Future Thinking and Psychological Well-beingmentioning

confidence: 98%

Valance and Perceived Control in Personal and Collective Future Thinking

Mert

Wang²

2023

Preprint

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Prior studies have shown that people imagine their personal future to be more positive than their country’s future. The present research extends the nascent literature by examining the valence and perceived control of personal and collective future events in a new experimental paradigm, the cultural generalizability of the findings, and their relations to psychological well-being. US college students (Study 1) and US and Turkish community participants (Study 2) imagined what might happen to them and their country in three time points (i.e., next week, next year, and in 10-15 years). They then rated the emotional valence and perceived control of the events and completed a psychological well-being measure. Both US and Turkish participants imagined their personal future to be more positive than their country’s future, whereas they attributed higher perceived control to their countries for collective future events than to themselves for personal future events. The positivity of personal and collective future events predicted better psychological well-being, whereas perceived control did not. These original findings enrich our theoretical understanding of future thinking.

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The Futures We Want: How Goal-Directed Imagination Relates to Mental Health

Cited by 20 publications

References 70 publications

The relationship between depressive symptoms and positive emotional anticipation of goal achievement

The relationship between depressive symptoms and positive emotional anticipation of goal achievement

Promoting farsighted decisions via episodic future thinking: A meta-analysis.

Valance and Perceived Control in Personal and Collective Future Thinking

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