Well-being and positive future thinking for the self versus others

Positive future thinking (having things to look forward to) is an important element of well-being. Two studies tested whether the link between well-being and positive future thinking is restricted to self-related future thinking or extends to more general, script-like mental representations of the future. Well-being in a community sample (Study 1) was related to ability to think of positive future outcomes for self but not for others; parasuicidal individuals compared to non-suicidal controls (Study 2), showed a reduced ability to think of self-related future thoughts but showed no effect on other-related future thinking. It appears that the lack of personal, positive future thinking shown by those individuals with clinical and nonclinical deficits in well-being is not due to having a restricted semantic database of potential positive future experiences; it may, rather, reflect an inability to see how such experiences would happen to them.