Duffy, Jessica 
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0004-8159-8776
(2025)
Anxiety and the Clarity of Future Self-Thoughts: Exploration of Mediators and Interventions.
Doctoral thesis, York St John University.
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Text (Doctoral thesis)
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Abstract
The research presented within the present thesis investigated the role of clarity, or mental immersion, in generalised anxiety and examined the effectiveness of a positive future imagery technique, the Best Possible Self (BPS) technique, for reducing symptoms. Previous research, within the field of prospection, shows that anxious individuals experience more mental immersion in negative future thoughts. For instance, when compared to a healthy control group, individuals with generalised anxiety disorder report negative events as clearer, more intense, and associated with greater pre-experiencing. Chapter 2 replicated the findings from existing research showing that generalised anxiety was associated with the tendency to envision negative future self-thoughts more clearly. Chapter 3 explored potential mechanisms through which clarity may influence symptomology, showing that self-esteem mediated the relationship between clarity and anxiety. Chapter 4 assessed the effectiveness of the BPS technique in reducing anxiety and demonstrated that the intervention significantly reduced symptomology after two or more sessions over four days, with self-esteem partially mediating these effects. Collectively, these findings suggest that the clarity of future self-imagery plays a significant role in anxiety and that enhancing positive self-imagery with the BPS task could provide a practical and scalable tool for anxiety reduction.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Status: | Published |
| Subjects: | B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology |
| School/Department: | School of Education, Language and Psychology |
| URI: | https://ray.yorksj.ac.uk/id/eprint/14358 |
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