Module 3 | How We Think is How We Feel
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Module video:
A closer look at thoughts
Scroll down for a transcript of this video.
Welcome Back
Welcome back to Managing Emotion!
Last session we talked about the relationship between attention and emotion, and specifically how changing the way we attend to things can change the way we feel. We discussed that when we feel distressed, focusing extensively on our bodily symptoms of distress and the negative things around us can often be unhelpful, as it can make our distress worse. For times like these, it can often be more helpful to remind ourselves to refocus our attention to the task at hand or towards the positive things around us.
In this module, we will be having a closer look at thoughts, and how the way in which we appraise a situation can influence our experience of emotion.
A CLOSER LOOK AT THOUGHTS
If we look back to the model of emotion described in Module 1, the experience of emotion can be thought of as a situation or stimulus, which is attended to and appraised, which leads to a response - both in terms of bodily responses and / or other actions we may make as a result. Thoughts, or appraisals, are very much a part of our experience of emotion.
As a simple example, let’s say you are walking along an alleyway late at night and out jumps an 1890’s criminal with a gun. Your body will no doubt jump into fight or flight mode via a number of bodily responses. However, you may also have a variety of thoughts which come to mind, such as “he’s going to take all my money!” or “I’m about to get shot!” or “I don’t want to die!” We refer to these as appraisals, as they provide an interpretation of the given situation. In turn, the way we appraise a given situation often affects how we feel.
ONE SITUATION, ALTERNATE EMOTIONS
Interestingly, one given situation can actually evoke multiple different emotions, and it’s likely that you may have come across this in day to day life. Let’s take annoyed and excited as an example. A single situation could potentially evoke either of these two alternate emotions if you ask enough people.
Say, the thunderous sound of a Harley motorcycle riding by…
Or how a certain TV series ended…
Or putting pineapple on pizza…
Importantly, it’s typically the differences in appraisal styles which determine which of these two alternate emotions we feel. Using these examples, we can think of alternate types of appraisals which will likely lead to either feeling excited or annoyed.
Putting this together, we can see how one situation can give rise to alternate appraisals, and in turn, alternate emotional responses:
You may have noticed that we’ve called one side “helpful” and the other “unhelpful”. The reason why we do this is because for many important situations we find ourselves in, there are often “helpful” ways of thinking and responding which will help support us in achieving our goals. At the same time, there’s often also “unhelpful” ways of thinking and responding which simply won’t help us and may even make things worse. This simple concept can be very useful to keep in mind for when you find yourself in an important situation and need to manage your emotions.