Depressive Symptoms Are Associated with the Phenomenal Characteristics of Imagined Positive and Negative Future Events

Abstract

Summary Depressive symptoms are often found to be associated with the number of imagined positive and negative future episodes. Whereas most previous studies investigated the number of imagined events within a limited time period, our study focused on the phenomenal nature of future episodes and their relationships to depressive symptoms, as measured by the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). Nonclinical participants (n = 183) rated the phenomenal qualities (vividness, contextual/sensory details, felt, importance, accessibility, and certainty) of future episodes generated in response to negative and positive cue words. We found that lower ratings on the phenomenal characteristics of the positive events were associated with higher BDI scores, while an opposite pattern was observed for the negative events. However, there was no relationship between the proportion of imagined episodes that were specific and the BDI scores. Altogether, these results suggest that depressive symptom severity is associated with a wide range of phenomenal characteristics of imagined future episodes.Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.