Research Catalog

Title

Prospection, well-being, and mental health / Andrew MacLeod.

Author

MacLeod, Andrew

Publication

Oxford ; New York, NY : Oxford University Press, 2017.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

296 pages : illustrations; 24 cm

Summary

This book is about how we think about the future. It is about how we think about our own personal futures and how such prospection is connected to our well-being and mental health. The ability to think about the future is essential for functioning, and is also central to individual well-being and mental health. This book reviews the growing evidence for the link between prospection and well-being. A variety of aspects of prospection are discussed, including prediction and anticipation for future events, judging how we will feel when events do happen to us, and how we feel in the here-and-now when contemplating what will happen in the future. Each of these aspects of prospection is connected to experiences of well-being and mental health in different ways. Questions of bias and accuracy in prediction are also addressed in the context of discussing optimism and pessimism. Qualities of goals for the future that are strongly implicated in aspects of well-being and mental health are reviewed, along with the role that difficulties in planning how to reach goals play in states of low well-being. The book also attempts to reconcile the seeming contradiction between being mindful in the present and thinking about the future. Ways of trying to change problematic prospection are also reviewed in light of their ability to improve well-being and reduce psychological distress.

Subject

• Mental Health
• Negativism
• Optimism
• Optimism > Physiological aspects
• Personality
• Well-being

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

Thinking about the future -- Expectancies -- Optimism and pessimism -- Predicting feelings -- Anticipatory feelings -- Memory -- Goals -- Plans -- Temporal orientation and mindfulness -- Intervention -- Prospection, well-being, and mental health.

ISBN

• 0198725043
• 9780198725046

OCLC

979566767

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library