Gers Benedikt, Weber Klara Estela, Altgassen Mareike
Department of Development Psychology, Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany.
Front Psychol. 2025 Jul 1;16:1531435. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1531435. eCollection 2025.
Performance anxiety is characterized by specific fears of social situations involving potentially being judged or scrutinized by others. Research on coping strategies has focused on breathing techniques, biofeedback training and the use of beta-blockers; less is known about the impact of positive episodic future thinking (i.e., the imagination of successful events in one's personal future). Given previous evidence of beneficial effects of episodic future thinking on emotional well-being, we hypothesized that positive episodic future thinking may lead to a decrease of performance anxiety in performing artists. Fifty-four performing artists (27 higher and 27 lower performance anxious) filled in a Performance Anxiety Questionnaire and imagined three different performance related events (two envisioned situations focussed on the moments shortly before having to perform, interjected by the imagination of currently successfully performing on stage). Overall, the 'higher performance anxious' group showed higher perceived nervousness in all three envisioned events than the 'lower performance anxious' group [(1,52) = 13.04, < 0.001, = 0.20]. Both groups showed a significant decrease in perceived nervousness during ( < 0.001) and after ( < 0.001) engaging in positive episodic future thinking, suggesting the intervention has similar anxiety-reducing effects on severely and less severely affected performing artists. Implications regarding positive episodic future thinking as a possible treatment for anxiety are discussed.
表演焦虑的特点是对社交场合存在特定恐惧，担心可能会被他人评判或审视。应对策略的研究主要集中在呼吸技巧、生物反馈训练以及β-受体阻滞剂的使用上；而对于积极的情景式未来思维（即想象个人未来的成功事件）的影响了解较少。鉴于之前有证据表明情景式未来思维对情绪健康有益，我们推测积极的情景式未来思维可能会降低表演艺术家的表演焦虑。54名表演艺术家（27名表演焦虑程度较高者和27名表演焦虑程度较低者）填写了表演焦虑问卷，并想象了三件与表演相关的不同事件（两件设想的情景聚焦于即将表演前的时刻，期间穿插想象自己正在舞台上成功表演）。总体而言，“表演焦虑程度较高”组在所有三件设想事件中的紧张感均高于“表演焦虑程度较低”组[(1,52) = 13.04, < 0.001, = 0.20]。两组在进行积极的情景式未来思维期间（ < 0.001）和之后（ < 0.001），紧张感均显著降低，这表明该干预措施对受影响严重程度不同的表演艺术家具有相似的减轻焦虑效果。文中还讨论了将积极的情景式未来思维作为焦虑症一种可能治疗方法的意义。
