Changes of future imagery in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic

Sammanfattning: Future imagery can be described as how we imagine ourselves in the future, or which specific future scenarios we see ourselves in. It has been shown that suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder can impair these future images, both in content (eg. less positive images), and in image specificity (the images are described in more general terms and refer to less specific events). The aim of this study was to explore how future imagery is impacted both in content and characteristics (eg. positivity, regularity of rehearsal, vividness etc.) by experiencing the COVID-19 pandemic, here used as a naturally occurring analogue of a stressful event. 74 non-clinical participants described their future images and rated their characteristics once during 2020/2021 regarding before the pandemic (retrospectively), and once regarding during the pandemic. Both descriptions were given on the same day (both descriptions were given during 2020/2021). Participants were also asked to describe in their own words how these images had changed due to the pandemic. Quantitative analyzes were made for the characteristics of the images, whilst the content of the descriptions was analyzed using thematic analysis (qualitative analysis). Results show that the most common content of future-self identities were “parenthood”, “marriage”, “job-specific”, “job-general” and “self-improvement”. Indications of hope for a better future were found in the content of their images related to those identities, as a majority of the participants stated a more positive and COVID-19 adapted future image during the COVID-19 pandemic than before (as rated by the researcher). However, ca. 30% of participants' images were rated as reduced in quality and/or salience. Regarding image characteristics, “positivity” was significantly higher before than during the pandemic, whilst “vividness” was higher during than before the pandemic.The results of the study align with or relate to previous findings and indications within the research field of intrusive memories, trauma and future imagery. The fact that a considerable number of participants indicated that their future images had been negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, could add to previous studies’ reports on the need for support and clinical help for those negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Suggestions for future research would be to use coding frameworks that are well-established and adapted to country context, as well as exploring the future images of an older adult sample.