Poster Presentation International Positive Psychology Association 8th IPPA World Congress 2023

What influence does Pragmatic Prospection have on subjective well-being? Construct validity of Pragmatic Prospection in a large German-speaking sample. (#906)

Martin Wammerl 1 , Philip Streit 1
  1. Institute of Positive Psychology and Mental Coaching, IPPM, Graz, Styria, Austria

Background

Pragmatic prospection (PP) is an adaptive, future-focused construct that consists of envisioning and pursuing desired future outcomes (Baumeister et al., 2016). Our goal was to adapt and develop a German version of the Pragmatic Prospection Scale (PPS), the first self-report measure of adaptive future thinking. Previous research points out that greater engagement in PP should predict better achievement and well-being outcomes (Duckworth et al., 2013, Duckworth et al., 2011, Marquardt et al., 2017; Sailer et al., 2015).

 

Aims

Our goal was to find evidence for the construct validity of the PPS in German speaking countries and to confirm the factorial structure found in previous English speaking samples and to examine the connection between PP ans established well-being measures. 

 

Method

To measure PP we developed a German version of the Pragmatic Prospection Scale (PPS, unpublished). The scale includes four factors, which measure the elements of PP, namely: Imaging outcomes, setting sensible goals, making plans and flexible execution. A representative German speaking sample of 1200 adults, took an online survey which included besides the PPS measures of PERMA (Wammerl et al., 2019), flourishing (Keyes, 2008), Satisfaction With Life ( Jancke & Glöckner, 2012), Depression and Anxiety (Nilges & Essau, 2015). In order to determine the validity of the PPS factors, confirmatory factorial analysis was calculated.

 

Results

Internal consistency of the total scale and subscales of the PPS were good to excellent. Confirmatory factor analysis supported the postulated four factors. Correlational analyses revealed that Pragmatic Prospection is related to specific well-being components and shows substantial correlations with depression and anxiety.

 

Conclusion

Taken together our results are the first to examine the connection between PP and Well-Being in a large German speaking sample. The German version of the PPS demonstrate good to excellent psychometric properties and can be seen as valid measure of pragmatic future-thinking. Our results suggest that PP could be an important predictor of subjective well-being.

 

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  8. Sailer, P., Wieber, F., Propster, K., Stoewer, S., Nischk, D., Volk, F., & Odenwald, M. (2015). A brief intervention toimprove exercising in patients with schizophrenia: A controlled pilot study with mental contrasting and implementation intentions (MCII). BMC Psychiatry, 15(1), 1-12.
  9. Wammerl, M., Jaunig, J., Mairunteregger, T., & Streit, Philip. (2019). The German Version of the PERMA-Profiler:Evidence for Construct and Convergent Validity of the PERMA Theory of Well-Being in German Speaking Countries. Journal of Well-Being Assessment. 3.
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