Imagine How Good That Feels: The Impact of Anticipated Positive Emotions on Motivation for Reward Activities
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Publication Date
2022-01-01Journal Title
Cognitive Therapy and Research
ISSN
0147-5916
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Pages
1-17
Type
Article
This Version
VoR
Metadata
Show full item recordCitation
Heise, M., Werthmann, J., Murphy, F., Tuschen-Caffier, B., & Renner, F. (2022). Imagine How Good That Feels: The Impact of Anticipated Positive Emotions on Motivation for Reward Activities. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-022-10306-z
Abstract
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:sec>
<jats:title>Background</jats:title>
<jats:p>Disease burden and unsatisfactory treatment outcomes call for innovation in treatments of depression. Prospective mental imagery, i.e. future-directed voluntary imagery-based thought, about potentially-rewarding activities may offer a mechanistically-informed intervention that targets deficits in reward processing, a core clinical feature of depression. We propose that the previously described impact of prospective mental imagery on motivation for everyday activities is facilitated by <jats:italic>affective forecasting</jats:italic>, i.e. predictions about an individual’s emotional response to the imagined activities.</jats:p>
</jats:sec><jats:sec>
<jats:title>Methods</jats:title>
<jats:p>Participants (<jats:italic>N</jats:italic> = 120) self-nominated six activities to engage in over the following week and were randomized to either: (1) an <jats:italic>affective forecasting imagery</jats:italic> condition (<jats:italic>n</jats:italic> = 40); (2) a <jats:italic>neutral process imagery</jats:italic> condition (<jats:italic>n</jats:italic> = 40); or (3) a <jats:italic>no-imagery</jats:italic> control condition (<jats:italic>n</jats:italic> = 40).</jats:p>
</jats:sec><jats:sec>
<jats:title>Results</jats:title>
<jats:p>As predicted, increases in motivation ratings from pre to post experimental manipulation were significantly higher following affective forecasting imagery compared to both neutral process imagery (<jats:italic>d</jats:italic> = 0.62) and no-imagery (<jats:italic>d</jats:italic> = 0.91). Contrary to predictions, the number of activities participants engaged in did not differ between conditions.</jats:p>
</jats:sec><jats:sec>
<jats:title>Conclusions</jats:title>
<jats:p>Results provide initial evidence for a potentially important role of affective forecasting in prospective mental imagery. We discuss how these findings can inform future research aiming to harness prospective mental imagery’s potential for clinical applications.</jats:p>
</jats:sec>
Identifiers
External DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-022-10306-z
This record's URL: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/338308
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