Pre-Experiencing The Future In Anxiety And Depression
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Pre-experiencing in anxiety and depression: How people feel when they think about the future.
IRAS ID
222754
Contact name
Gurveen Ranger
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Royal Holloway University of London
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 1 months, 31 days
Research summary
The proposed research project will examine the here-and-now experience that arises when contemplating future events, and focus on whether that quality of experience differs as a function of depression and anxiety. Pre-experiencing is the future-directed equivalent of re-experiencing, and this subjective state is of central importance because it influences one’s beliefs about what might happen in the future, which in turn influences one’s decisions and actions. Although a number of studies have reported differences in the quantity of positive and negative future thoughts for people who are anxious and/or depressed, the quality of the thoughts or pre-experiencing of future directed thinking in a clinical group has not been looked at to date.
We will compare two groups, a clinical group high in anxiety and/or depression and a control group (low in anxiety and depression) on their ratings of ‘pre-experiencing’ future events generated in response to positive and negative cue words (a procedure called the Future-Directed Autobiographical Interview). A second aim of the study is to look within the clinical group only at whether anxiety and depression levels relate differently to pre-experiencing for positive and negative events.
REC name
East of England - Cambridge Central Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
17/EE/0168
Date of REC Opinion
28 Apr 2017
REC opinion
Unfavourable Opinion