Hostname: page-component-5d84bcc8dc-kkj62 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-09-08T04:17:23.794Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

An Exploration of Prospective Imagery: The Impact of Future Events Scale

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 January 2010

Catherine Deeprose  and
Emily A. Holmes
Catherine Deeprose*
Affiliation:
University of Oxford, UK
Emily A. Holmes
Affiliation:
University of Oxford, UK
*
Reprint requests to Catherine Deeprose, University of Oxford, Department of Psychiatry, Warneford Hospital, Oxford OX3 7JX, UK. E-mail: catherine.deeprose@psych.ox.ac.uk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Background: Mental imagery of the future has clear clinical importance, although little is known about intrusive, prospective imagery of personally-relevant events. Currently, no measure is available to assess this. Aims: The Impact of Future Events Scale (IFES) was created to assess the impact of intrusive, prospective, personally-relevant imagery. It was examined in relation to predictions about dysphoria. Method: To form the IFES, the IES-R (a measure of the impact of a past traumatic event on posttraumatic stress disorder symptomatology such as intrusive re-experiencing) was adapted item-by-item to assess intrusive “pre-experiencing” and imagery of specific, future events. Participants (N = 75) completed the IFES and assessments of depression, anxiety and general imagery use. Results: As predicted, the IFES significantly and positively correlated with depression scores. Analyses using subgroups of non-dysphoric and mild-dysphoric participants confirmed that the mild-dysphoric group reported significantly higher IFES scores, indicating higher levels of pre-experiencing of the future and related hyperarousal and avoidance. Conclusions: IFES provides a measure of the impact of “pre-experiencing” in the form of intrusive prospective, personally-relevant imagery, with sensitivity to group differences on the basis of depression scores. Further research is required to extend these finding into clinical depression and other psychopathological conditions.

Keywords

Mental imageryprospectiondepressionfuture thinkingintrusion

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy , Volume 38 , Issue 2 , March 2010 , pp. 201 - 209
Copyright
Copyright © British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Anderson, R. J. and Dewhurst, S. A. (2009). Remembering the past and imagining the future: differences in event specificity of spontaneously generated thought. Memory, 17, 367–373.Google Scholar
Beck, A. T., Brown, G. R. and Steer, R. A. (1997). Psychometric characteristics of the Scale for Suicide Ideation with psychiatric outpatients. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 35, 1039–1046.Google Scholar
Beck, A. T. and Steer, R. A. (1991). Beck Scale for Suicide Ideation Manual. San Antonio: Psychological Corporation.Google Scholar
Beck, A. T., Steer, R. A., Ball, R. and Ranieri, W. (1996). Comparison of Beck Depression Inventories -IA and -II in psychiatric outpatients. Journal of Personality and Assessment, 67, 588–597.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beck, A. T., Steer, R. A. and Brown, G. K. (1996). Manual for the Beck Depression Inventory-II. San Antonio, TX: Psychological Corporation.Google Scholar
Beck, A. T., Steer, R. A. and Garbin, M. G. (1988). Psychometric properties of the Beck Depression Inventory: twenty-five years of evaluation. Clinical Psychological Review, 8, 77–100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Birrer, E., Michael, T. and Munsch, S. (2007). Intrusive images in PTSD and in traumatised and non-traumatised depressed patients: a cross-sectional clinical study. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 45, 2053–2065.Google Scholar
Borkovec, T. D., Alcaine, O. and Behar, E. (2001). Avoidance theory of worry and generalized anxiety disorder. InHeimberg, R. G., Turk, C. L. and Mennin, D. S. (Eds.), Generalized Anxiety Disorder: advances in research and practice. New York: Guilford.Google Scholar
Brewin, C. R. and Holmes, E. A. (2003). Psychological theories of posttraumatic stress disorder. Clinical Psychology Review, 23, 339–376.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Clark, D. M., Ehlers, A., Hackmann, A., McManus, F., Fennell, M., Grey, N., Waddington, L. and Wild, J. (2006). Cognitive therapy versus exposure and applied relaxation in social phobia: a randomized controlled trial. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 74, 568–578.Google Scholar
Conway, M. A. and Pleydell-Pearce, C. W. (2000). The construction of autobiographical memories in the self-memory system. Psychological Review, 107, 261–288.Google Scholar
D'Argembeau, A., Raffard, S. and Van Der Linden, M. (2008). Remembering the past and imagining the future in schizophrenia. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 117, 247–251.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ehlers, A. and Clark, D. M. (2000). A cognitive model of posttraumatic stress disorder. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 38, 319–345.Google Scholar
Freeston, M. H., Dugas, M. J. and Ladouceur, R. (1996). Thoughts, images, worry, and anxiety. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 20, 265–273.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grant, D. M. and Beck, J. D. (2006). Attentional biases in social anxiety and dysphoria: does comorbidity make a difference? Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 20, 520–529.Google Scholar
Hepburn, S. R., Barnhofer, T. and Williams, J. M. G. (2008). The future is bright? Effects of mood on perception of the future. Journal of Happiness Studies, 10, 483–496.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hirsch, C. R., Clark, D. M., Mathews, A. and Williams, R. (2003). Self-images play a causal role in social phobia. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 41, 909–921.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Holmes, E. A., Crane, C., Fennell, M. J. V. and Williams, J. M. G. (2007). Imagery about suicide in depression: “flash-forwards”? Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 38, 423–434.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Holmes, E. A., Geddes, J. R., Colom, F. and Goodwin, G. M. (2008). Mental imagery as an emotional amplifier: application to bipolar disorder. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 46, 1251–1258.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Holmes, E. A., Lang, T. J. and Deeprose, C. (2009). Mental imagery and emotion in treatment across disorders: using the example of depression. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, 38, 21–28Google Scholar
Holmes, E. A., Lang, T. J., Moulds, M. L. and Steele, A. M. (2008). Prospective and positive mental imagery deficits in dysphoria. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 46, 976–981.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Holmes, E. A., Lang, T. J. and Shah, D. M. (2009). Developing interpretation bias modification as a “cognitive vaccine” for depressed mood: imagining positive events makes you feel better than thinking about them verbally. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 118, 76–88.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Holmes, E. A. and Mathews, A. (2005). Mental imagery and emotion: a special relationship? Emotion, 5, 489–497.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Holmes, E. A., Mathews, A., Mackintosh, B. and Dalgleish, T. (2008). The causal effect of mental imagery on emotion assessed using picture-word cues. Emotion, 8, 395–409.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Horowitz, M. J., Wilner, N. and Alvarez, W. (1979). Impact of event scale: a measure of subjective stress. Psychosomatic Medicine, 41, 209–218.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, S. L. (2005). Mania and dysregulation in goal pursuit: a review. Clinical Psychology Review, 25, 241–262.Google Scholar
Libby, L. K., Shaeffer, E. M., Eibach, R. P. and Slemmer, J. A. (2007). Picture yourself at the polls: visual perspective in mental imagery affects self-perception and behavior. Psychological Science, 18, 199–203.Google Scholar
MacLeod, A. K., Tata, P., Kentish, J. and Jacobsen, H. (1997). Retrospective and prospective cognitions in anxiety and depression. Cognitive and Emotion, 11, 467–479.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marks, D. F. (1973). Visual imagery differences in the recall of pictures. British Journal of Psychology, 64, 17–24.Google Scholar
National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (2005). Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD): the management of PTSD in adults and children in primary and secondary care (No. CG026). London: National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence.Google Scholar
Pearson, D. G. (2001). Imagery and the visuo-spatial sketchpad. In Andrade, J. (Ed.), Working Memory in Perspective (pp. 33–59). New York: Psychology Press.Google Scholar
Reisberg, D., Pearson, D. G. and Kosslyn, S. M. (2003). Intuitions and introspections about imagery: the role of imagery experience in shaping an investigator's theoretical views. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 17, 147–160.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schacter, D. L., Addis, D. R. and Buckner, R. L. (2007). Remembering the past to imagine the future: the prospective brain. Nature Reviews: Neuroscience, 8, 657–661.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Spielberger, C. D., Gorsuch, R. L., Lushene, R., Vagg, P. R. and Jacobs, G. A. (1983). Manual for State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press.Google Scholar
Sprinkle, S. D., Lurie, D., Insko, S., Atkinson, G., Jones, G. L., Logan, A. R. and Bissada, N.N. (2002). Criterion validity, severity cut scores, and test-retest reliability of the Beck Depression Inventory-II in a university counseling center sample. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 49, 381–385.Google Scholar
Starr, S. and Moulds, M. (2006). The role of negative interpretations of intrusive memories in depression. Journal of Affective Disorders, 93, 125–132.Google Scholar
Stöber, J. (2000). Prospective cognitions in anxiety and depression: replication and methodological extension. Cognition and Emotion, 14, 725–729.Google Scholar
Sundin, E. C. and Horowitz, M. J. (2002). Impact of Event Scale: psychometric properties. British Journal of Psychiatry, 180, 205–209.Google Scholar
Weiss, D. S. and Marmer, C. R. (1997). The Impact of Event Scale – Revised. In Wilson, J. P. and Keane, T. M. (Eds.), Assessing Psychological Trauma and PTSD: a handbook for practitioners (pp. 399–411). New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Wells, T. T. and Beevers, C. G. (in press). Biased attention and dysphoria: manipulating selective attention selectively reduces subsequent depressive symptoms. Cognition and Emotion.Google Scholar
Williams, J. M. G., Ellis, N. C., Tyers, C., Healy, H., Rose, G. and MacLeod, A. K. (1996). The specificity of autobiographical memory and imageability of the future. Memory and Cognition, 24, 116–125.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.