A Qualitative Examination of the Best Possible Self Intervention: Exploring the Mechanisms Underlying Its Effectiveness
Method Stream: Qualitative Research
ECs: Only 14 EC (standard, no new/own data collection. Applicable in case of a clinical internship)
Description:
A widely researched beneficial psychology activity is imagining one’s ideal future self. The Best Possible Self (BPS) is a positive future thinking technique developed by King (2001). Typically, participants are asked to project themselves into the future and image that everything has worked out in the best possible way. Possible selves are one’s ideas about how they will become in the future and this can clarify one’s goals, aspirations and motives and act as an incentive for future behaviors (Markus & Nurius, 1986; Sheldon & Lyubomirsky, 2006). The BPS exercise is primarily a future-oriented intervention; however, it can also be adapted to focus on past or present experiences. Notably, research suggests that the effectiveness of the intervention is not related to the temporal focus but working mechanisms might differ (Carrillo et al., 2021).
A methodological approach that has potential to unveil the possible mechanisms that underlie the efficacy of a writing intervention is a qualitative analysis of its content. This project will utilize a mixed-methods approach to examine whether written responses to a BPS visualization exercise, delivered via an app, predict the effectiveness of the intervention. Or you may examine whether these responses differ across conditions (future, past, present, control), can be predicted by baseline variables, or address other relevant research questions that may emerge.