The Psychology of Thinking about the Future

About

Gabriele Oettingen PhD is Professor of Psychology at New York University and the University of Hamburg Germany. Dr. Oettingen's research differentiates among various types of thinking about the future and examines their developmental and situational origins as well as their effects on the control of cognition emotion and behavior. She has pointed out the perils of positive thinking and discovered mental contrasting an imagery-based self-regulation technique that by drawing on nonconscious processes is effective for mastering ones everyday life and long-term development. Dr. Oettingen has published in journals of social personality developmental educational health clinical organizational and consumer psychology as well as in neuropsychological and medical journals. Her work led to the creation of effective and easy-to-apply behavior change interventions and she is the author or coauthor of several books in the area of behavior change. A. Timur Sevincer PhD is Assistant Professor in the Institute of Psychology at the University of Hamburg Germany. Dr. Sevincers primary research interest is motivation and self-regulation including for instance the spontaneous use of self-regulation strategies their effect on physiological energization the effect of alcohol on motivation and self-regulation and motivational underpinnings of migration toward cosmopolitan cities. Dr. Sevincer is the author or coauthor of more than 25 scholarly publications in such journals as Psychological Science the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology the Journal of Abnormal Psychology Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin and Motivation and Emotion. Peter M. Gollwitzer PhD is Professor of Psychology at New York University and the University of Konstanz Germany. Dr. Gollwitzer's research examines how goals and plans affect peoples cognition affect and behavior. He has developed various models of action control: the theory of symbolic self-completion (with Robert A. Wicklund) the Rubicon model of action phases (with Heinz Heckhausen) the auto-motive model of automatic goal striving (with John A. Bargh) the mindset model of action phases and the theory of implementation intentions. In these theories the underlying mechanisms of effective action control are delineated and respective moderators are distilled. Dr. Gollwitzer's recent research focuses on developing easy-to-conduct but powerful behavior change interventions. He has published many influential journal articles book chapters and books.