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Updated: Jun 2, 2025
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Using the Threat Probability Task to Assess Anxiety and Fear During Uncertain and Certain Threat
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Anxiety and Future-Self Clarity: Can Future Thinking Influence Self-Esteem?
Jessica Duffy1, Grace Salt1, Scott N Cole1
1School of Education, Language and Psychology, York St John University, York, UK.
Psychological Reports
|January 17, 2025
Summary
Clarity of feared possible selves can increase anxiety by lowering self-esteem. The Best Possible Self-Technique shows promise for reducing anxiety by improving future self-concept clarity.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Clinical Psychology
- Cognitive Psychology
Background:
- Possible selves represent future identity aspirations and fears.
- High anxiety correlates with clearer feared possible selves.
- The mechanism linking clarity to anxiety maintenance and potential interventions remains underexplored.
Purpose of the Study:
- Investigate self-esteem as a mediator in the relationship between clarity of feared possible selves and anxiety.
- Explore the efficacy of the Best Possible Self-Technique in reducing anxiety.
Main Methods:
- Cross-sectional study examining mediation by self-esteem.
- Preliminary repeated measures design to assess the Best Possible Self-Technique.
Main Results:
- Self-esteem significantly mediated the link between clarity of feared possible selves and anxiety.
- The Best Possible Self-Technique demonstrated potential benefits in anxiety reduction.
Conclusions:
- Self-esteem may be a key mechanism through which clear feared possible selves exacerbate anxiety.
- Targeting clarity of future self-thoughts offers a novel intervention strategy for anxiety reduction.
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