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This study aims to determine the relevant 'ingredients' to make the best possible self (BPS) intervention most efficacious and test whether the BPS's efficacy can be enhanced by including mindfulness aspects.
The best possible self (BPS) intervention is a brief positive psychology intervention to increase a person's positive affect and optimism. The BPS has been used in different forms (writing vs. imagining/visualizing vs. writing + imagining/visualizing the best possible self). However, it remains unclear which 'ingredients' are necessary to let the BPS unfold its effects. This online study aims to determine the relevant 'ingredients' to make the best possible self (BPS) intervention most efficacious. Since mindfulness interventions have recently indicated promising effects on positive and negative affect, another goal of this study is to test whether the BPS's efficacy can be enhanced by including aspects of mindfulness.
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| Label | Type | Description | Intervention Names |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best Possible Self (writing only) | Experimental | Participants are asked to think and write about their best possible future self (15 min). |
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| Best Possible Self (writing+imagining) | Experimental | Participants are asked to think and write about their best possible future self (15 min) and, then to imagine their positive future (5 min). |
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| Best Possible Self (writing+mindfulness) | Experimental | Participants are asked to think and write about their best possible future self (15 min) and subsequently engage in a brief mindfulness sequence (5 min). |
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| Best Possible Self (writing+recall) | Experimental | Participants are asked to think and write about their best possible future self (15 min) and subsequently engage in a brief recall imagination task about the past two days (5 min). |
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| Writing about the past | Active Comparator | Participants are asked to think and write about activities of the past two days (15 min). |
| Name | Type | Description | Arm Group Labels | Other Names |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thinking, writing and imagination | Behavioral | All participants are asked to take some time to think and write about the respective intervention group's content. In some groups (after the writing exercise (approx. 15min)), participants are also asked to imagine that content or engage in a mindfulness activity or recall task for about 5 minutes. |
| Measure | Description | Time Frame |
|---|---|---|
| Change in emotions (PANAS) | Change scores are calculated for positive and negative sum scores (post- minus pre-scores; pre-scores will be used as a covariate). | Change from pre (baseline) to post scores (approx. 30 minutes later) |
| Measure | Description | Time Frame |
|---|---|---|
| Change in state optimism ratings | State Optimism measure (SOM), 7 items (each item 1(strongly disagree)-5(strongly agree)). Change scores are calculated for positive and negative sum scores (post- minus pre-scores; pre-scores will be used as a covariate). | Change from pre (baseline) to post scores (approx. 30 minutes later) |
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Inclusion Criteria:
Exclusion Criteria:
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| Name | Affiliation | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Winfried Rief, Prof. | Philipps University Marburg | Principal Investigator |
| Facility | Status | City | State | ZIP | Country | Contacts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Philipps-University Marburg | Marburg | 35032 | Germany |
| PubMed Identifier | Type | Citation | Retractions |
|---|---|---|---|
| 31026732 | Background | Millstein RA, Chung WJ, Hoeppner BB, Boehm JK, Legler SR, Mastromauro CA, Huffman JC. Development of the State Optimism Measure. Gen Hosp Psychiatry. 2019 May-Jun;58:83-93. doi: 10.1016/j.genhosppsych.2019.04.002. Epub 2019 Apr 4. |
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Individual patient data will be shared with researchers providing a relevant and methodologically sound proposal
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| Change in emotional responses to imagery of neutral, pleasant and aversive narrative scripts |
Nine narrative imagery scripts are used. Scenes included three neutral, standard social threat and positive/reward events. All scripts were developed according to the recommendations of Lang (1979). Participants are asked to rate the vividness of imagery (1= not vivid at all, 9= very vivid), the wish to avoid imagery (1 = no wish to avoid , 9 = strong wish to avoid imagery), their experienced anxiety (1= no anxiety, 9=very strong anxiety), displeasure (1 = pleasant, 9 = unpleasant), and emotional arousal (1 = relaxed, 9 = aroused) during imagery on a 9-point rating scale. Emotional responses are averaged per category. |
| Change from pre (baseline) to post scores (approx. 30 minutes later)] |