Envisioning the future can improve healthful behaviors : examining the role of emotionally connecting to future selves
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- Engaging in healthy lifestyles, including getting regular exercise and eating plenty of fruits and vegetables, is a key contributor to long-term quality of life. Despite widespread knowledge of these associations, Americans fall short. Studies show that people are emotionally disconnected from their future selves, and this may partially account for why people seem to lack the motivation to take steps today to prepare for their long-term futures. A growing body of literature suggests that people who feel more emotionally connected to their future selves are more motivated to financially prepare for the future. But less is known about whether emotional connections to future selves are associated with engaging in behaviors that contribute to good long-term physical health. Moreover, emotional connections with future selves are often confounded with vivid images of the future and it is unknown whether previous findings are due to emotional connections or to vivid images. In this dissertation, I examined relationships between emotional connections with future selves and health-related behaviors, and distinguished vivid images from emotional connections. In Study 1, participants who reported feeling more emotionally connected to their future selves reported engaging in more exercise in their daily lives, but not consuming fruits and vegetables. Associations between vividness and healthful behaviors were weaker and less consistent. In Studies 2 and 3, I tested the effectiveness of two approaches to strengthen connections with future selves and examined whether they improve physical activity. In Study 2, viewing vivid age-progressed images failed to enhance connectedness with future selves and led to maintenance in exercise relative to a same-age image comparison group, which reported a decrease in exercise. In Study 3, I developed and tested a novel guided imagery induction to strengthen emotional connections with distant future selves. The imagery induction led to large improvements in emotional connections with future selves and in vivid images of the future, and increases in immediate physical activity effort and reports of considering the long-term future. Moreover, I replicated Study 1 results. Findings suggest that envisioning the future in ways that strengthen connections with future selves may affect immediate physical activity and motivation to prepare for long-term physical health. However, more work needs to be done to improve behavior in daily life. Findings also point to the importance of distinguishing emotional connections from vivid images. Interventions that enhance emotional connections with future selves may have the potential to motivate people to better prepare for long lives.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic resource; remote; computer; online resource |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Place | California |
| Place | [Stanford, California] |
| Publisher | [Stanford University] |
| Copyright date | 2019; ©2019 |
| Publication date | 2019; 2019 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Raposo, Sarah Marie |
|---|---|
| Degree supervisor | Carstensen, Laura L |
| Thesis advisor | Carstensen, Laura L |
| Thesis advisor | Gross, James J, (Professor of psychology) |
| Thesis advisor | Zaki, Jamil, 1980- |
| Degree committee member | Gross, James J, (Professor of psychology) |
| Degree committee member | Zaki, Jamil, 1980- |
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Psychology. |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|---|
| Genre | Text |
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Sarah Raposo. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Psychology. |
| Thesis | Thesis Ph.D. Stanford University 2019. |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2019 by Sarah Marie Raposo
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
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