Introduction

Desire thinking is defined as a voluntary cognitive activity aimed at imaginatively and verbally elaborating a future scenario of performing a desired behavior. Although not problematic per se, desire thinking can become dysfunctional if it is used to regulate negative mood states and due to its ability to induce craving. This study tests a mediation model where desire thinking is hypothesized to mediate the association between emotional reactivity and craving among specific online activities.

Methods

The study comprised an online survey that was completed by 925 participants who indicated that their first-choice online activity was one out of social-networks use, shopping, gaming, gambling, or pornography viewing. In this sample, a structural equation model was tested where negative emotional reactivity, desire thinking, and craving were latently modelled in this serial order.

Results

Results indicated that higher levels in negative emotional reactivity significantly predicted higher desire thinking tendencies, which in turn significantly predicted higher cravings for online activities. The direct path between negative reactivity and craving was not significant. Further, our results support the two-factorial structure of a German version of the Desire Thinking Questionnaire (Caselli & Spada, 2011).

Discussion

The findings show that desire thinking might be initiated as an attempt to regulate negative affective states. This highlights its possible role as a maladaptive coping mechanism in the context of specific online activities due to the resulting craving responses, which in turn could promote the emergence of unwanted behaviors.

中文翻译：

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逃之the：欲望思维是特定在线活动中的一种适应不良的应对机制

介绍

欲望思维被定义为一种自愿的认知活动，旨在以想象和口头的方式阐述执行预期行为的未来场景。尽管本质上不成问题，但如果将其用于调节负面情绪状态并由于其引起渴望的能力，则其可能会变得功能失调。这项研究测试了一种调解模型，在该模型中，假设性思维被认为可以调解情绪反应性和特定在线活动之间的渴望之间的关联。

方法

这项研究包括一项在线调查，共有925名参与者完成，他们指出，他们的首选在线活动是社交网络使用，购物，游戏，赌博或色情内容中的一种。在这个样本中，测试了一个结构方程模型，其中消极的情绪反应，欲望思维和渴望按此顺序潜在地建模。

结果

结果表明，较高的负面情绪反应水平显着预测了较高的欲望思维倾向，进而显着预测了对在线活动的渴望。负反应性和渴望之间的直接路径并不重要。此外，我们的结果支持德语版《欲望思维问卷》的两要素结构（Caselli和Spada，2011年）。

讨论

研究结果表明，欲望思维可能是作为调节负面情感状态的尝试而发起的。这突显了其在特定在线活动中作为不良适应机制的可能作用，这归因于由此产生的渴望反应，而这反过来又可能促进不良行为的出现。