Kam Julia W Y, Wong Aaron Y, Thiemann Raela F, Hasan Fiza, Andrews-Hanna Jessica R, Mills Caitlin
Department of Psychology, University of Calgary.
Department of Educational Psychology, University of Minnesota.
Psychol Bull. 2024 May;150(5):621-641. doi: 10.1037/bul0000428. Epub 2024 Apr 15.
There is a growing recognition that thoughts often arise independently of external demands. These thoughts can span from reminiscing your last vacation to contemplating career goals to fantasizing about meeting your favorite musician. Often referred to as mind wandering, such frequently occurring unprompted thoughts have widespread impact on our daily functions, with the dominant narrative converging on a negative relationship between unprompted thought and affective well-being. In this systematic review of 76 studies, we implemented a meta-analysis and qualitative review to elucidate if and when unprompted thought is indeed negatively associated with affective well-being in adults. Using a multilevel mixed-model approach on 386 effect sizes from 23,168 participants across 64 studies, our meta-analyses indicated an overall relationship between unprompted thought and worse affective well-being (r¯ = -.18, 95% CI [-.23, -.14]); however, the magnitude and direction of this relationship changed when considering specific aspects of the phenomenon (including thought content and intentionality) and methodological approaches (including questionnaires vs. experience sampling). The qualitative review further contextualizes this relationship by revealing the nuances of how and when unprompted thought is associated with affective well-being. Taken together, our meta-analysis and qualitative review indicate that the commonly reported relationship between unprompted thought and affective well-being is contingent upon the content and conceptualization of unprompted thought, as well as the methodological and analytic approaches implemented. Based on these findings, we propose emerging directions for future empirical and theoretical work that highlight the importance of accounting for when, how, and for whom unprompted thought is associated with affective well-being. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).
人们越来越认识到，思想常常独立于外部需求而产生。这些想法可以涵盖从回忆上次度假到思考职业目标，再到幻想见到你最喜欢的音乐家。这种经常出现的、未经提示的想法通常被称为思绪游荡，它对我们的日常功能有着广泛的影响，主流观点认为未经提示的想法与情感幸福感之间存在负面关系。在对76项研究的系统综述中，我们进行了荟萃分析和定性综述，以阐明未经提示的想法在成年人中是否以及何时确实与情感幸福感呈负相关。我们对来自64项研究的23168名参与者的386个效应量采用多层次混合模型方法进行荟萃分析，结果表明未经提示的想法与较差的情感幸福感之间总体存在关联（r¯ = -.18，95% CI [-.23, -.14]）；然而，当考虑该现象的具体方面（包括思想内容和意向性）以及方法学方法（包括问卷调查与经验抽样）时，这种关系的大小和方向会发生变化。定性综述通过揭示未经提示的想法与情感幸福感的关联方式和时间的细微差别，进一步将这种关系置于具体情境中。综合来看，我们的荟萃分析和定性综述表明，通常报道的未经提示的想法与情感幸福感之间的关系取决于未经提示的想法的内容和概念化，以及所采用的方法学和分析方法。基于这些发现，我们提出了未来实证和理论工作的新方向，强调了考虑未经提示的想法与情感幸福感相关的时间、方式和对象的重要性。（PsycInfo数据库记录（c）2024美国心理学会，保留所有权利）
