Abstract
Optimism is known to buffer against negative mood. Thus, understanding the factors that contribute to individual variation in optimism may inform interventions for mood disorders. Preliminary evidence suggests that the generation of mental imagery-based representations of positive relative to negative future scenarios is related to optimism. This study investigated the hypothesis that an elevated tendency to generate positive relative to negative mental imagery during spontaneous future thinking would be associated with reduced negative mood via its relationship to higher optimism. Participants (N = 44) with varied levels of naturally occurring negative mood reported current levels of optimism and the real-time occurrence and characteristics of spontaneous thoughts during a sustained attention computer task. Consistent with hypotheses, higher optimism statistically mediated the relationship between a higher proportional frequency of positive relative to negative mental imagery during spontaneous future thinking and lower negative mood. Further, the relationship between emotional mental imagery and optimism was found for future, but not past, thinking, nor for verbal future or past thinking. Thus, a greater tendency to generate positive rather than negative imagery-based mental representations when spontaneously thinking about the future may influence how optimistic one feels, which in turn may influence one’s experience of negative mood.
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Julie L. Ji was supported by Cambridge Australia Scholarships in collaboration with the Cambridge Commonwealth, European and International Trust, and the Forrest Research Foundation. Fionnuala C. Murphy was supported by the UK Medical Research Council intramural programme SUAG/003/RG91365 and SUAG/049/G101400. Ben Grafton was supported by the Australian Research Council Grant DE200101570. Colin MacLeod was supported by Australian Research Council Grant DP170104533 and FL170100167. Emily A. Holmes was supported by the Medical Research Council (United Kingdom) intramural programme MC-A060-5PR50. Holmes reports Grants from The Lupina Foundation, The OAK Foundation (OCAY-18-442), The Swedish Research Council (2017-00957).
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JLJ: Conceptualization; Data curation; Formal analysis; Investigation; Methodology; Visualization; Writing—original draft; Writing—review and editing; FM: Conceptualization; Methodology; Supervision; Writing—review and editing; BG: Conceptualization; Methodology; Writing—review and editing; CM: Conceptualization; Methodology; Supervision; Writing—review and editing; EAH: Conceptualization; Funding acquisition; Methodology; Supervision; Writing—review and editing.
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Ji, J.L., Murphy, F.C., Grafton, B. et al. Emotional mental imagery generation during spontaneous future thinking: relationship with optimism and negative mood. Psychological Research 86, 617–626 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-021-01501-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-021-01501-w