Spontaneous Self-Distancing and Adaptive Self-Reflection Across Adolescence

Spontaneous Self-Distancing and Adaptive Self-Reflection Across Adolescence.

Experiments performed primarily with adults show that self-distancing facilitates adaptive self-reflection. However, no research has investigated whether adolescents spontaneously engage in this process or whether doing so is linked to adaptive outcomes. In this study, 226 African American adolescents, aged 11-20, reflected on an anger-related interpersonal experience. As expected, spontaneous ...

From a distance: implications of spontaneous self-distancing for adaptive self-reflection.

Although recent experimental work indicates that self-distancing facilitates adaptive self-reflection, it remains unclear (a) whether spontaneous self-distancing leads to similar adaptive outcomes, (b) how spontaneous self-distancing relates to avoidance, and (c) how this strategy impacts interpersonal behavior. Three studies examined these issues demonstrating that the more participants sponta...

Emotion The Effect of Self-Distancing on Adaptive Versus Maladaptive Self-Reflection in Children

The effect of self-distancing on adaptive versus maladaptive self-reflection in children.

Although children and adolescents vary in their chronic tendencies to adaptively versus maladaptively reflect over negative feelings, the psychological mechanisms underlying these different types of self-reflection among youngsters are unknown. We addressed this issue in the present research by examining the role that self-distancing plays in distinguishing adaptive versus maladaptive self-refl...

Self-Distancing: Theory, Research, and Current Directions

When people experience negative events, they often try to understand their feelings to improve the way they feel. Although engaging in this meaning-making process leads people to feel better at times, it frequently breaks down leading people to ruminate and feel worse. This raises the question: What factors determine whether people’s attempts to “work-through” their negative feelings succeed or...