The ability to imagine future events and prepare for them increases the awareness of obstacles and the chances of success
Thinking about the past or the future takes up about half of our time, as studies show. Can it be channeled to deal with challenging life events? Dr. Elena Stefan from the Social Cognition and Motivation Research Laboratory in the Department of Psychology at Bar-Ilan University and her colleagues are studying thinking about the past or the future, and its effects on decisions, preferences and identity. In their research, they try to identify and strengthen mechanisms that can help people improve decision-making, direct their lives to meaningful and valuable personal goals, and face challenges.
What is the question? How does the way of thinking affect dealing with a challenging event?
In previous studies, Dr. Stefan and her colleagues showed that thinking about the distant future (events that will take place in a few months or years) leads to seeing the future self in a positive light (for example, in terms of qualities and achievements). They also found that it reinforces the belief that the future depends to a large extent on personal will and goals. Dr. Stefan says that "it is possible that a person feels greater uncertainty about the distant future, so his desire to strengthen himself and protect himself increases. Thus, our findings show that thinking about the distant future may produce a positive perception of the future self and lead to positive predictions about future events (people believe that the distant future depends more on their desires compared to the near future. That is, they 'hope for the best' and thus the feeling of threat from future uncertainty decreases). However, such self-idealization can also harm the mobilization of the resources required (such as the level of energy - vigilance, attention and activity) to achieve the goals."
In their latest series of studies, Dr. Stepan and her team, Maya Karmi and Maya Schniatsky, examined how a sense of distance from challenging events (such as an exam period) affects coping with them. In one of the experiments, the researchers divided students into two groups and asked them to imagine that the challenging event was near or far (at the level of subjective feeling). After that, we had them fill out questionnaires that examine psychological indicators in the field of cognition, emotion, and motivation, and check their desire to start preparing for the event and their awareness of the obstacles along the way (such as a busy period, a less healthy diet, and a disorganized living environment).
It was found that thinking about the challenging event as a distant event gives rise to the illusion that it will be possible to deal with it relatively easily, thus reducing the urgency to prepare for it (procrastination) and may make it difficult to deal with it at the moment of truth. On the other hand, thinking about the event as an upcoming event strengthens the desire to start preparing for it and increases the awareness of obstacles - which may increase the chances of success in dealing with it. Dr. Stefan explains that thinking about an event as close is practical and therefore contributes to a more realistic perception of the self and awareness of obstacles; Whereas thinking about an event as far away is schematic and abstract. "As mentioned, as we have found in the past," she says, "people idealize their future self and assume that they will control reality, which hurts their long-term planning and dealing with life challenges such as studies, maintaining health, savings and fulfilling important tasks. It seems that thinking techniques that strengthen reference to obstacles along the way can help people (as well as teams, families and organizations) to deal better with life's challenges, and we are interested in helping them implement it."
People idealize the future self and assume that they will control reality, which hurts their long-term planning and dealing with life challenges such as studies, maintaining health, savings and fulfilling important tasks.
In studies of the past, Dr. Stefan and her colleagues from the University of Southampton, England, examined how thinking about the past affects a person's identity. For example, they asked subjects to recall a nostalgic event (compared to a routine past event) and then had them answer questionnaires that test perceptions about the self. It was found that nostalgic thinking about the past strengthens self-worth, the sense of belonging and meaning in life and the positive identity ("I am a good person").
Today, with the help of a research grant from the National Science Foundation, Dr. Stefan and her colleagues are examining how thinking about the past and the future and contributing to a positive identity can help deal with threats to the self (such as negative criticism and failure in a job interview). "A positive identity helps us to see difficulty as a challenge and not as a threat and to mobilize psychological resources for coping," explains Dr. Stefan. "Our next studies will continue to examine the view of the self in the past and in the future and its effects on functioning and decision-making."
Life itself:
Dr. Elena Stefan earned her doctorate at Tel Aviv University, completed her postdoctoral period at the University of Southampton in England, and was a visiting researcher at the University of Basel, Switzerland. Currently lives with her family in Kiryat Ono. She likes to be in nature, listen to music (especially ethnic) and write (not only articles). She is curious about human nature and humanity.
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