Study title

In order to plan, prepare for, and shape events in line with one’s goals, one needs to be able to anticipate future events and/or states. This study investigated the cognitive representations and emotional anticipation pertaining to goal achievement and whether these differ as a function of severity of depressive symptoms. After listing approach and avoidance goals, participants made predictions about these goals (e.g. likelihood of achievement, controllability) and rated their cognitive representations of goal success (vividness, perspective). 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. The findings have implications for both future work regarding both anticipated and anticipatory emotions as well as therapeutic techniques to aid depression and dysphoria.Depression is a debilitating condition that causes immense psychological distress to those who experience it. Depression also has profoundly negative effects on many other aspects of everyday living, including physical health, educational attainment, and employment status. Understanding the causes of depression and developing interventions to treat it will, therefore, have significant benefits both for individuals and for society. Previous research has shown that depression is associated with a negative thinking style, whereby individuals hold negative views about themselves, the world, and the future. Recent research has indicated that holding negative views about the future is one of the main factors in causing and maintaining depressive episodes. The research we propose builds on our previous findings that views about the future can be made less negative by an intervention we have termed "Positive Simulation Training". In our previous research, participants were presented with a range of potential life events, 15 positive (e.g., people will admire you)...