"I Will Be Healthy": Ideal Self in Patients with Alzheimer's Disease

Within the concept of the self, a distinction can be made between ideal self (i.e., what would like to become) and feared self (i.e., what would not like to become in the future).

We investigated ideal self and feared self in patients with mild Alzheimer's disease (AD). We have also measured these self-related processes in relation to depression and anxiety.

We invited 31 patients with mild AD and 35 control participants to decide whether they would consider the statement (e.g., I will be healthy) as a representation that they would like to acquire (i.e., ideal self) or to avoid (i.e., feared self).

Analysis demonstrated that more participants assigned the "I will be healthy" statement to ideal self than to feared self, and this tendency was observed in both AD participants and controls. Less depression and anxiety were observed in participants who have assigned the "I will be healthy" statement to their ideal self compared to those who assigned this statement to their feared self, and this was observed in both AD participant and control groups.

Our study demonstrates that AD patients tend to endorse positive health traits and to integrate these traits into their ideal self. AD patients tend to endorse health-related images that are associated with hopes when projecting into their future self. This positive projection into the self may create a motivational force (e.g., aspirations and hopes) to embody the "healthy" self that AD patients desire to be.