| 1. |
- Holmes, Emily A., et al.
(author)
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Looking at or Through Rose-Tinted Glasses? : Imagery Perspective and Positive Mood
- 2008
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In: Emotion. - : AMER PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOC. - 1528-3542 .- 1931-1516. ; 8:6, s. 875-879
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We can imagine looking at ourselves (observer perspective) or through our own eyes (field perspective). Cognitive and clinical theories suggest that compared to field perspective, observer perspective imagery reduces emotional intensity, for example. of trauma memories. Tests of causality are lacking and less is known about perspective and positive emotion. Using contrasting experimental manipulations, participants imagined 100 positive descriptions from either (1) a field perspective or (2) an observer perspective, or (3) thought about their verbal meaning. Affect was more positive after field than observer imagery and verbal conditions. with mood deterioration within the latter two. Findings are the first to demonstrate causality of imagery perspective on emotion. Further, the results demonstrate that imagining positive events from one's own perspective is critical to improving positive affect. Treatment implications include promoting field imagery to facilitate a more rose-tinted view of positive events.
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| 2. |
- Pictet, Arnaud, et al.
(author)
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Fishing for happiness : The effects of generating positive imagery on mood and behaviour
- 2011
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In: Behaviour Research and Therapy. - : PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD. - 0005-7967 .- 1873-622X. ; 49:12, s. 885-891
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Experimental evidence using picture-word cues has shown that generating mental imagery has a causal impact on emotion, at least for images prompted by negative or benign stimuli. It remains unclear whether this finding extends to overtly positive stimuli and whether generating positive imagery can increase positive affect in people with dysphoria. Dysphoric participants were assigned to one of three conditions, and given instructions to generate mental images in response to picture word cues which were either positive, negative or mixed (control) in valence. Results showed that the positive picture-word condition increased positive affect more than the control and negative conditions. Participants in the positive condition also demonstrated enhanced performance on a behavioural task compared to the two other conditions. Compared to participants in the negative condition, participants in the positive condition provided more positive responses on a homophone task administered after 24 h to assess the durability of effects. These findings suggest that a positive picture-word task used to evoke mental imagery leads to improvements in positive mood, with transfer to later performance. Understanding the mechanisms underlying mood change in dysphoria may hold implications for both theory and treatment development. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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