What Are the Ingredients for the Best Form of the Best Possible Self (BPS) Intervention?

NCT ID: NCT04753801

Last Updated: 2024-08-07

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: COMPLETED
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 181 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2021-02-01
• Study Completion Date: 2021-03-31

Brief Summary

This study aims to determine the relevant 'ingredients' to make the best possible self (BPS) intervention most efficacious and test whether the BPS's efficacy can be enhanced by including mindfulness aspects.

Detailed Description

The best possible self (BPS) intervention is a brief positive psychology intervention to increase a person's positive affect and optimism. The BPS has been used in different forms (writing vs. imagining/visualizing vs. writing + imagining/visualizing the best possible self). However, it remains unclear which 'ingredients' are necessary to let the BPS unfold its effects. This online study aims to determine the relevant 'ingredients' to make the best possible self (BPS) intervention most efficacious. Since mindfulness interventions have recently indicated promising effects on positive and negative affect, another goal of this study is to test whether the BPS's efficacy can be enhanced by including aspects of mindfulness.

Conditions

Healthy Participants

Study Design

• Allocation Method: RANDOMIZED
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Primary Study Purpose: BASIC_SCIENCE
• Blinding Strategy: NONE

Study Groups

Best Possible Self (writing only)

Participants are asked to think and write about their best possible future self (15 min).

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Thinking, writing and imagination

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

All participants are asked to take some time to think and write about the respective intervention group's content. In some groups (after the writing exercise (approx. 15min)), participants are also asked to imagine that content or engage in a mindfulness activity or recall task for about 5 minutes.

Best Possible Self (writing+imagining)

Participants are asked to think and write about their best possible future self (15 min) and, then to imagine their positive future (5 min).

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Thinking, writing and imagination

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

All participants are asked to take some time to think and write about the respective intervention group's content. In some groups (after the writing exercise (approx. 15min)), participants are also asked to imagine that content or engage in a mindfulness activity or recall task for about 5 minutes.

Best Possible Self (writing+mindfulness)

Participants are asked to think and write about their best possible future self (15 min) and subsequently engage in a brief mindfulness sequence (5 min).

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Thinking, writing and imagination

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

All participants are asked to take some time to think and write about the respective intervention group's content. In some groups (after the writing exercise (approx. 15min)), participants are also asked to imagine that content or engage in a mindfulness activity or recall task for about 5 minutes.

Best Possible Self (writing+recall)

Participants are asked to think and write about their best possible future self (15 min) and subsequently engage in a brief recall imagination task about the past two days (5 min).

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Thinking, writing and imagination

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

All participants are asked to take some time to think and write about the respective intervention group's content. In some groups (after the writing exercise (approx. 15min)), participants are also asked to imagine that content or engage in a mindfulness activity or recall task for about 5 minutes.

Writing about the past

Participants are asked to think and write about activities of the past two days (15 min).

Group Type: ACTIVE_COMPARATOR

Thinking, writing and imagination

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

All participants are asked to take some time to think and write about the respective intervention group's content. In some groups (after the writing exercise (approx. 15min)), participants are also asked to imagine that content or engage in a mindfulness activity or recall task for about 5 minutes.

Interventions

Thinking, writing and imagination

All participants are asked to take some time to think and write about the respective intervention group's content. In some groups (after the writing exercise (approx. 15min)), participants are also asked to imagine that content or engage in a mindfulness activity or recall task for about 5 minutes.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• fluent in the German language
• access to a computer/tablet/smartphone with audio output/headphones

Exclusion Criteria

• not willing to take part in an online-intervention (duration: 60 minutes)
• no access to a computer/tablet/smartphone with audio output/headphones

• Minimum Eligible Age: 18 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Sponsors

Philipps University Marburg

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Responsibility Role: SPONSOR

Principal Investigators

Winfried Rief, Prof.

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Philipps University Marburg

Locations

Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Philipps-University Marburg

Marburg, , Germany

Countries

Germany

References

Millstein RA, Chung WJ, Hoeppner BB, Boehm JK, Legler SR, Mastromauro CA, Huffman JC. Development of the State Optimism Measure. Gen Hosp Psychiatry. 2019 May-Jun;58:83-93. doi: 10.1016/j.genhosppsych.2019.04.002. Epub 2019 Apr 4.

Reference Type: BACKGROUND

PMID: 31026732 (View on PubMed)

Other Identifiers

BestBPS

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id