Love is the triumph of the imagination: Daydreams about significant others are associated with increased happiness, love and connection

Consciousness and Cognition

Volumn 33, Issue , 2015, Pages 135-144

  Poerio, Giulia L ^a   Totterdell, Peter ^a   Emerson, Lisa Marie ^a   Miles, Eleanor ^b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD   (United Kingdom)

^b UNIVERSITY OF SUSSEX   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

Close relationships; Daydreaming; Emotion regulation; Experience sampling; Mind wandering

Indexed keywords

ADULT; ARTICLE; COGNITION; CONTROLLED STUDY; DAYDREAM; EMOTION; FEMALE; HAPPINESS; HUMAN; HUMAN EXPERIMENT; IMAGERY; IMAGINATION; INTIMACY; LOVE; MALE; NORMAL HUMAN; PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL BEING; SELF REPORT; SOCIAL INTERACTION; THINKING; WELLBEING; FANTASY; HUMAN RELATION; YOUNG ADULT;

EMOTIONS; FANTASY; FEMALE; HAPPINESS; HUMANS; IMAGINATION; INTERPERSONAL RELATIONS; LOVE; MALE; YOUNG ADULT;

EID: 84920875634     PISSN: 10538100     EISSN: 10902376     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2014.12.011     Document Type: Article

References (63)

1. Andrews-Hanna J.R., Kaiser R.H., Turner A.E.J., Reineberg A.E., Godinez D., Dimidjian S., et al. A penny for your thoughts: Dimensions of self-generated thought content and relationships with individual differences in emotional wellbeing. Frontiers in Psychology 2013, 4(November):900.
2. Baird B., Smallwood J., Schooler J.W. Back to the future: Autobiographical planning and the functionality of mind-wandering. Consciousness and Cognition 2011, 20:1604-1611.
3. Baumeister R.F., Leary M.R. The need to belong: Desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation. Psychological Bulletin 1995, 117:497-529.
4. Baumeister R., Vohs K., Aaker J.L., Garbinsky E.N. Some key differences between a happy life and a meaningful life. SSRN Electronic Journal 2012, 1-22.
5. Bolger N., Davis A., Rafaeli E. Diary methods: Capturing life as it is lived. Annual Review of Psychology 2003, 54:579-616.
6. Bradburn N.M., Rips L.J., Shevell S.K. Answering autobiographical questions: The impact of memory and inference on surveys. Science 1987, 236:157-161.
7. Callard F., Smallwood J., Golchert J., Margulies D.S. The era of the wandering mind? Twenty-first century research on self-generated mental activity. Frontiers in Psychology 2013, 4:891.
8. Carriere J.S.A., Cheyne J.A., Smilek D. Everyday attention lapses and memory failures: The affective consequences of mindlessness. Consciousness and Cognition 2008, 17:835-847.
9. Crocker J., Niiya Y., Mischkowski D. Why does writing about important values reduce defensiveness? Self-affirmation and the role of positive other-directed feelings. Psychological Science 2008, 19:740-747.
10. Csikszentmihalyi M., Hunter J. Happiness in everyday life: The uses of experience sampling. Journal of Happiness Studies 2003, 4:185-199.
11. Diener E., Seligman M.E.P. Very Happy People. Psychological Science 2002, 13:81-84.
12. Elliot A.J., Sheldon K.M., Church M.A. Avoidance personal goals and subjective well-being. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 1997, 23:915-927.
13. Endler N.S., Parker J.D.A. Multidimensional assessment of coping : A critical evaluation. Personality Processes and Individual Differences 1990, 58:844-854.
14. Fisher, C. D. (1987). Boredom: Construct, causes and consequences. Technical report ONR-9. Texas A&M University.
15. Franklin M.S., Mrazek M.D., Anderson C.L., Smallwood J., Kingstone A., Schooler J.W. The silver lining of a mind in the clouds: Interesting musings are associated with positive mood while mind-wandering. Frontiers in Psychology 2013, 4:583.
16. Giambra Leonard M., Traynor T.D. Depression and daydreaming: An analysis based on self-ratings. Journal of Clinical Psychology 1978, 34:14-25.
17. Greenwald D.F., Harder D.W. Fantasies, coping behavior, and psychopathology. Journal of Clinical Psychology 1997, 53:91-97.
18. Holt-Lunstad J., Smith T.B., Layton J.B. Social relationships and mortality risk: A meta-analytic review. PLOS Medicine 2010, 7:e1000316.
19. Hox J. Multilevel analysis: Techniques and applications 2010, Routledge.
20. Hutcherson C., Seppala E.M., Gross J.J. Loving-kindness meditation increases social connectedness. Emotion 2008, 8:720-724.
21. Johannessen K.B., Berntsen D. Current concerns in involuntary and voluntary autobiographical memories. Consciousness and Cognition 2010, 19:847-860.
22. Kahneman D., Krueger A.B., Schkade D.A., Schwarz N., Stone A.A. A survey method for characterizing daily life experience: The day reconstruction method. Science 2004, 306:1776-1780.
23. Killingsworth M.A., Gilbert D.T. A wandering mind is an unhappy mind. Science 2010, 330:932.
24. Klinger E. Consequences of commitment to and disengagement from incentives. Psychological Review 1975, 82:1-25.
25. Klinger, E. (2009). Daydreaming and fantasizing: Thought flow and motivation. In K. D. Markman, W. M. P. Klein, & J. A. Suhr (Eds.), Handbook of imagination and mental simulation (pp. 225-239). New York.
26. Klinger E. Goal commitments and the content of thoughts and dreams: Basic principles. Frontiers in Psychology 2013, 4:415.
27. Klinger E., Cox W.M. Dimensions of thought flow in everyday life. Imagination, Cognition and Personality 1987, 7:105-128.
28. Klinger E. Emotional influences of cognitive processing, with implications for theories of both. The psychology of action: Linking cognition and motivation to behavior 1996, 168-189. Guilford Press, New York. P.M. Gollwitzer, J.A. Bargh (Eds.).
29. Kosslyn S.M., Ganis G., Thompson W.L. Neural foundations of imagery. Nature Reviews. Neuroscience 2001, 2:635-642.
30. Kumashiro M., Sedikides C. Taking on board liability-focused information: Close positive relationships as a self-bolstering resource. Psychological Science 2005, 16:732-739.
31. Laurenceau J.-P., Barrett L.F., Rovine M.J. The interpersonal process model of intimacy in marriage: A daily-diary and multilevel modeling approach. Journal of Family Psychology 2005, 19:314-323.
32. Lewis D.E., O'Reilly M.J., Khuu S.K., Pearson J. Conditioning the mind's eye: Associative learning with voluntary mental imagery. Clinical Psychological Science 2013, 1:390-400.
33. MacCallum R.C., Zhang S., Preacher K.J., Rucker D.D. On the practice of dichotomization of quantitative variables. Psychological Methods 2002, 7:19-40.
34. Maner J.K., DeWall C.N., Baumeister R.F., Schaller M. Does social exclusion motivate interpersonal reconnection? Resolving the "porcupine problem". Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 2007, 92:42-55.
35. Mar R.A., Mason M.F., Litvack A. How daydreaming relates to life satisfaction, loneliness, and social support: The importance of gender and daydream content. Consciousness and Cognition 2012, 21:401-407.
36. Marchetti I., Koster E.H.W., De Raedt R. Mindwandering heightens the accessibility of negative relative to positive thought. Consciousness and Cognition 2012, 21:1517-1525.
37. Marchetti I., Van de Putte E., Koster E.H.W. Self-generated thoughts and depression: From daydreaming to depressive symptoms. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 2014, 8:131.
38. Mason M.F., Brown K., Mar R.A., Smallwood J. Driver of discontent or escape vehicle: The affective consequences of mindwandering. Frontiers in Psychology 2013, 4:477.
39. Mason M.F., Norton M.I., Van Horn J.D., Wegner D.M., Grafton S.T., Macrae C.N. Wandering minds: The default network and stimulus-independent thought. Science 2007, 315:393-395.
40. McGowan S. Mental representations in stressful situations: The calming and distressing effects of significant others. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 2002, 38:152-161.
41. Miles E., Crisp R.J. A meta-analytic test of the imagined contact hypothesis. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations 2014, 17:3-26.
42. Niven K., Holman D., Totterdell P. How to win friendship and trust by influencing people's feelings: An investigation of interpersonal affect regulation and the quality of relationships. Human Relations 2012, 65:777-805.
43. Panagioti M., Gooding P.A., Tarrier N. An empirical investigation of the effectiveness of the broad-minded affective coping procedure (BMAC) to boost mood among individuals with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Behaviour Research and Therapy 2012, 50:589-595.
44. Parkinson B., Totterdell P. Classifying affect-regulation strategies. Cognition & Emotion 1999, 13:277-303.
45. Pickett C.L., Gardner W.L., Knowles M. Getting a cue: The need to belong and enhanced sensitivity to social cues. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 2004, 30:1095-1107.
46. Poerio G.L., Totterdell P., Miles E. Mind-wandering and negative mood: Does one thing really lead to another?. Consciousness and Cognition 2013, 22:1412-1421.
47. Reis H.T., Sheldon K.M., Gable S.L., Roscoe J., Ryan R.M. Daily well-being: The role of autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 2000, 26:419-435.
48. Remington N.A., Fabrigar L.R., Visser P.S. Reexamining the circumplex model of affect. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 2000, 79:286-300.
49. Ruby F.J.M., Smallwood J., Engen H., Singer T. How self-generated thought shapes mood - The relation between mind-wandering and mood depends on the socio-temporal content of thoughts. PloS One 2013, 8.
50. Ryan R.M., Deci E.L. Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being. American Psychologist 2000, 55:68-78.
51. Schilbach L., Eickhoff S.B., Rotarska-Jagiela A., Fink G.R., Vogeley K. Minds at rest? Social cognition as the default mode of cognizing and its putative relationship to the "default system" of the brain. Consciousness and Cognition 2008, 17:457-467.
52. Selcuk E., Zayas V., Günaydin G., Hazan C., Kross E. Mental representations of attachment figures facilitate recovery following upsetting autobiographical memory recall. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 2012, 103:362-378.
53. Singer J.L. Daydreaming: An introduction to the experimental study of inner experience 1966, Random House Inc., New York.
54. Smallwood J., O'Connor R.C., Sudbery M.V., Obonsawin M. Mind-wandering and dysphoria. Cognition & Emotion 2007, 21:816-842.
55. Smallwood J., Schooler J.W. The restless mind. Psychological Bulletin 2006, 132:946-958.
56. Somer E. Maladaptive daydreaming: A qualitative inquiry. Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy 2002, 32:197-212.
57. Song X., Wang X. Mind wandering in Chinese daily lives - An experience sampling study. PloS One 2012, 7:e44423.
58. Stawarczyk D., Majerus S., Maj M., Van der Linden M., D'Argembeau A. Mind-wandering: Phenomenology and function as assessed with a novel experience sampling method. Acta Psychologica 2011, 136:370-381.
59. Stone A.A., Kessler R.C., Haythornthwaite J.A. Measuring daily events and experiences: Decisions for the researcher. Journal of Personality 1991, 59:575-607.
60. Tamir M., Diener E. Approach-avoidance goals and well-being: One size does not fit all. Handbook of approach and avoidance motivation 2008, 415-430. Erlbaum, Mahwah, NJ. A.J. Elliot (Ed.).
61. Watt S.E., Badger A.J. Effects of social belonging on homesickness: An application of the belongingness hypothesis. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 2009, 35:516-530.
62. Westermann R., Spies K. Relative effectiveness and validity of mood induction procedures: A meta-analysis. European Journal of Social Psychology 1996, 26:557-580.
63. Wheeler L., Reis H.T. Self-recording of everyday life events: Origins, types, and uses. Journal of Personality 1991, 59:339-354.