Recovering from Negative Social Situations: Post-Event Processing and Cognitive Reappraisal
Roberts, Annabelle R.
2016
- Is dwelling on negative experiences harmful or beneficial? This study uses an experimental manipulation to assess the relationship between post-event processing (PEP) and cognitive reappraisal (CR). PEP is the experience of repeated brooding after negative social events, while CR is the act of reinterpreting events to alter one’s emotions. We hypothesized that participants exposed to PEP would ... read moreeither increase or decrease their use of CR. Participants (n = 125) were exposed to an evaluative speech task and a non-evaluative speech task in the laboratory. As our manipulation of PEP, participants were asked 2, 4, and 6 days later to either write about the evaluative (negative group; n = 41) or the non-evaluative (neutral group; n = 42) aspect of the laboratory experience, or not asked to write at all (control group; n = 42). Seven days after the initial task, participants were instructed to use CR by writing about the evaluative lab experience and a stressful life event from that day so as to feel less negative emotion. Participants displayed significantly more negative PEP in the negative group, demonstrating that the PEP writing manipulation on days 2, 4, and 6 was successful in inducing PEP. Results indicated PEP decreased participants’ use of CR for the stressful life event, but not the evaluative lab experience, revealing a harmful consequence of PEP.read less
- ID:
- 3x816z99d
- Component ID:
- tufts:sd.0000380
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- TARC Citation Guide EndNote