24.1.13
2.1.13
Mentally reframing a situation can ease negative feelings
We can't always avoid events that upset us, but we may be able to change
how we feel about them. Psychologists have long been interested in
framing, the mental angle we take when we process our experiences, as a
method of moving past unwanted negative feelings. Two recent studies
yield real-world tips for feeling better quickly:
Distance Yourself from Immediate Frustration
If you are cut off in traffic, you are likely to respond by blowing your
horn. Chances are, you will spend the rest of your commute thinking
about the actions of the jerk in front of you. Mentally taking a step
back from the situation and your emotions, however—a process known as
self-distancing—can diffuse your anger and reduce your aggression,
researchers say.
Ohio State University psychology graduate student Dominik Mischkowski
and his colleagues set out to annoy a group of student volunteers by
leading them to believe they were waiting for a study to start. The
researchers avoided answering questions and were generally curt. After
confirming that the volunteers were indeed upset, Mischkowski asked them
to reimagine the experience: half the group by reliving it through
their own eyes and the other half by mentally moving away from the
situation and watching it at a distance, as if it had happened to
someone else. The self-distancing students had less anger and were less
likely to respond aggressively to others in a subsequent task, according
to results published in the September 2012 Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. This technique is useful, Mischkowski says, because prolonged anger can lead to stress, relationship difficulties and high blood pressure.
So the next time a car zips in front of you in traffic, don't focus on
your anger from the driver's seat. Instead imagine yourself in a traffic
helicopter, observing the entire scene. Take in the bigger picture,
keep your emotions at arm's length and let the anger dissipate. —Carrie Arnold
Avoid Abstract Thinking about Bad Memories
It's hard not to dwell on a bad experience, but the way you think about
it could mean the difference between healthy and unhealthy coping. A
study in the September 2012 Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry
focused on people who had recently experienced a highly distressing
event—such as a crime, the death of a loved one or a relationship
breakup. Subjects in one group wrote about their experiences in a
concrete, objective way, by concentrating on questions such as “How do I
feel right now? How did I feel at the time of the event and what did I
see, hear and think? How might I deal with a similar situation in the
future?” The other group wrote in a more abstract, evaluative way,
prompted by questions such as “Why did the event happen? Why do I feel
this way about it? Why didn't I handle it differently?” After the
writing exercise, the concrete-thinking group reported fewer intrusive
memories of the event than the abstract-thinking group.
Researchers think the concrete focus helps to facilitate emotional
processing and problem solving, whereas an abstract perspective hinders
these undertakings. “The processing can take place either ‘in your head’
or when writing about it,” says study author Thomas Ehring, now at the
University of Münster in Germany. Past studies indicate that putting
words on paper might be better than just thinking [see “The Power of the
Pen,” by Katja Gaschler; Scientific American Mind, August/September
2007]. Just be sure to focus on the facts and keep your ideas concrete.
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