What is it about?
Future thinking is something humans do frequenty, and we know a lot about its brain and cognitive characteristics. Here, we explore new directions that could be taken using future thinking to understand the nature of anxiety. We explore the idea that perceptions of the future depend on types of anxiety disorders. We also look into new directions of psychological therapies using future thinking.
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Why is it important?
In this commentary, we acknowledged the importance of future thinking in understanding depression, but also highlighted the gaps in research linking future thought and anxiety. We make five points regarding; cognitive-clinical research, goals, metacognitions, spontaneous thoughts and transcultural perspectives. We believe the importance of this article is in highlighting how the future cognitions in anxiety manifest differently depending on the disorder (e.g., OCD) - and where researchers could make new inroads.
Perspectives
We were invited to write a commentary on an excellent review article on emotional disorders and future thinking. In doing so, we realised the real lack of in-depth cognitive research looking into types of anxiety disorders - that can often present very different symptoms - and future thinking. It was a rare opportunity for myself as a cognitive psychologist to work with a psychotherapist-researcher to explore where the gaps in research truly are.
Scott Cole
York Saint John University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: The dire need to examine relationships between prospection and subtypes of anxiety., Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, March 2025, American Psychological Association (APA),
DOI: 10.1037/mac0000222.
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