Mental Contrasting of a Negative Future with a Positive Reality Regulates State Anxiety

Frontiers in Psychology

Gunnar Brodersen¹ 

关键词: self-regulation;    thinking about the future;    anxiety;    mental contrasting;    fantasies;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01596

学科分类：心理学（综合）

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

Mental contrasting of a desired future with impeding reality is a self-regulatory strategy fostering goal pursuit. However, there is little research on mental contrasting of a negative future with a positive reality. We conducted two experiments, each with four experimental conditions, investigating the effects of mental contrasting a negative future with a positive reality on state anxiety: participants who mentally contrasted a negative future regarding a bacterial epidemic (Study 1, N = 199) or an idiosyncratic negative event (Study 2, N = 206) showed less state anxiety than participants who imagined the negative future only or who reverse contrasted; participants who mentally elaborated on the positive reality also showed less state anxiety. Our findings suggest that mental contrasting of a negative future helps people reduce disproportional anxiety regarding a negative future.

【 授权许可】

CC BY