Silently referring to yourself by your own name, and using pronouns other than I, has been shown to help regulate emotion. Two obvious doubts remained. Perhaps it works only on mild upsets, and perhaps it fails for the people who most need it. Two experiments tested both, across negative experiences varying in intensity and in people scoring high on .
It held across intensity and across vulnerability. , as opposed to immersed self-talk, reduced when people reflected on negative experiences of varying emotional intensity. The findings held whether participants focused on past or future autobiographical events, held for people scoring high on individual difference measures of emotional vulnerability, and generalized across various types of negative event.
Research indicates that a subtle shift in language promotes emotion regulation: silently referring to oneself using one’s own name and non-first-person-singular pronouns, which is called distanced self-talk. The shift is small enough to be free and odd enough to invite scepticism.
Two doubts had not been addressed. It remained unclear whether the efficacy depends on the intensity of the negative experience being reflected on, and whether the benefits extend to emotionally vulnerable individuals. A technique that works only on mild irritations, or only for people who are already coping, would not be much use.
Two high-powered experiments took on both questions. Distanced as opposed to immersed self-talk reduced emotional reactivity when people reflected on negative experiences that varied in their emotional intensity, so the effect was not confined to the shallow end.
The findings also held when participants focused on future as well as past autobiographical events, and when they scored high on individual difference measures of emotional vulnerability. They generalized across various types of negative event too. The authors conclude that language gives people a way to regulate emotion across the spectrum of intensity. They also highlight the need for research into the clinical implications, which marks what has not yet been shown.
wat. Swapping I for your own name lowered emotional reactivity even for intense memories and for the people most prone to being upset.
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The intervention is a change of pronoun, which costs nothing and needs no therapist. Holding up under high intensity and in emotionally vulnerable people is what makes it worth taking seriously rather than filing as a trick.
How do we know?
Orvell and colleagues ran two high-powered experiments comparing distanced against immersed self-talk while participants reflected on negative autobiographical events, past and future, varying in emotional intensity.
What is still unknown
Laboratory experiments on reflecting about events, measuring emotional reactivity rather than any clinical outcome. The authors themselves call for research into the clinical implications, which is a way of saying they have not been shown.
Learn something?
Where to next
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