“It’s just a kind of desire… a desire-image.” /Budapest/ “As if I were in a little warm forest cabin, and outside it’s cold, it’s snowing, but I’m safe inside.” /Balloon/
2. Temporal dimension: self- and life-summary function, narrative construction
“And then I saw into my past life, my thoughts, and basically reflected on my entire life.” /Budapest/ “This is something I can talk about.” /Little Mole/
II. Space for self-insight
1. Self-reflective manifestations, openings during/as a result of the process
“I’m typically the kind of person who… well, I don’t know, I can’t really express my emotions easily, and then when I had to name some adjectives, then I was like… whew.” /Zebra/
2. Self-knowledge motivation, desire for, and realization of self-insight from the process
“I just realized how much I fluctuate […] I see myself much more clearly.” /Berry/
III. Modes of self-definition and self-presentation
1. Symbolization and the role of symbolic interpretation of AI-added elements in self-definition and presentation
“I think it’s much easier to see emotions in the images—at least for me—than to generate images from my emotions or my personality.” /Zebra/
2. Whole-picture-focused self-definition and self-presentation
“To guide the whole thing toward a beautiful… beautiful direction.” /Little Mole/ “When someone else sees it, I want to show myself in a positive light, but at the same time, those bad parts are also there, and I don’t want to deny them.” /Balloon/
Special thanks to Edina Tomán for her valuable contributions as supervisor. She enabled research triangulation by consistently providing feedback from an external and objective perspective throughout all stages of the study. Through continuous dialogue, a consensus was reached to ensure sound and objective research decisions. With her insights and opinions, she greatly supported the realization of the study and carefully reviewed the initial versions of the manuscript.
AI-Assisted Work Statement: Participants used Midjourney V6 to create self-representative images as part of the data collection process. To create this manuscript, we, the authors, used OpenAI’s ChatGPT models (versions 4o, o3, and 4.5) to assist with the formulation and refinement of the text in English. After using these tools, we carefully reviewed and edited the content as needed and took full responsibility for the final version of the publication.
The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest.
Ethical approval
Ethical approval for the study was granted by the Research Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Education and Psychology at Eotvos Lorand University, reference number: 2024/483. The research complies with the Declaration of Helsinki (2024).
Consent to participate
Participants were recruited via social media platforms, specifically Facebook and Instagram. Participation in the study was anonymous and voluntary. Informed consent to participate in the study was obtained from all participants.
Consent to publication
All images were generated by study participants using Midjourney V6 prompts in accordance with the study protocol. The copyright of the images is fully retained by the participants. The images do not infringe upon any third-party rights (e.g., trademarks, brands, or recognizable characters) and adhere to the Midjourney community guidelines. Publication of the images has been authorized through explicit participant consent for scholarly purposes.
Availability of data and materials
All images and prompts of the participants are available from the corresponding author on request.
Funding
This research was funded by the Hungarian Ministry of Culture and Innovation under the New National Excellence Programme, code number [ÚNKP-23-2], with the support of the Hungarian National Research Development and Innovation Fund. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Open Exploration maintains a neutral stance on jurisdictional claims in published institutional affiliations and maps. All opinions expressed in this article are the personal views of the author(s) and do not represent the stance of the editorial team or the publisher.
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