HOW YOUR FOCUS DURING POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE EVENTS IMPACTS YOUR RESILIENCE
From Our Resiliency Blog Series: The Science & Spirit Of Resiliency: Building A Stronger You (Full list of 8 blogs)
This first positive psychology (PP) blog in our series on resilience, delves into the significance of our attention during positive and negative life events, and their impact on resilience and therefore well-being.
In simple terms, resilience is defined as positive adaptation to adversity. In other words, how well you adapt during negative life events.
In the PP perspective, resilience involves:
- Coping (managing)
- Adapting and
- Thriving amid challenges to enhance well-being.
Stressful life events are known as external stressors, eg, poor work conditions, critical feedback etc. Life events are external occurrences and just like the ever-changing weather they are in a constant state of movement. Just as there can be storms and downpours that pose a challenge to the environment, life events can present similar difficulties that need to be managed effectively to optimize ones well-being.
Stressful life events can be classified into three types, that will be explored in this full series:
- Intense adversity
- Unclear expectations, and
- Uncertain outcomes.
The starting point of understanding how to be more resilient in life, is to explore what determines ‘how’ we respond to different life events…
WHY DO PEOPLE REACT TO LIFE EVENTS IN DIFFERENT WAYS?
Our responses to life events vary; some people are overwhelmed by hassles, while others thrive amid challenges.
Psychological resilience is defined as positive adaptation in significant adversity – where a resilient person is able to rebound swiftly from hardships and positively adapts to new demands.
Resilience is both a personality trait and an evolving process.
- As a trait, individuals differ in handling adversity. Over life, some develop better coping traits. (Coping traits will be discussed in this series)
- As a process, a person’s resilience can adapt/change based on circumstances. Positive reaction to adversity at one point doesn’t guarantees consistent response. Resilience may shift with changing circumstances.
While resilience is often linked to managing negative life events, it can also stem from effectively handling positive events. For instance, heightened ability to ‘savor moments’ predicts reduced work-family conflict, suggesting savoring aids coping with demands. Amid stress, positive emotions through savoring counteract negativity. Many more positive examples will be discussed in this context, coming up.
Personal Story Version – You are resilient when you are navigating life adeptly, you skillfully steer your life, adapting swiftly to changes. While some events may veer life off course, you promptly regain control and realign your life. In addition, you maximize sunny conditions by soaking up positivity, to bolster your strength for forthcoming challenges, as handling and growing your positivity fosters your coping prowess and success!
THE INFLUENCE OF LIFE EVENTS
Three factors strongly affect the influence of events on our well-being; their duration, intensity, and controllability.
1 – Duration: Time categorizes life events. Some can be brief (e.g., job loss), others more chronic and defy precise temporal specification (e.g., chronic illness).
2 – Intensity: Both positive and negative events vary in intensity. Negative events can span from traffic jams to unemployment, straining one’s coping resources. Major negative life events, like unemployment, or parental loss can yield enduring negative impacts on well-being.
3 – Controllability: Our perceived level of control in a situation effects how we respond on all levels. For example, engaging in positive events positively impacts our sense of control and resiliency. Behavioral activation, commonly used in depression treatment, emphasizes engaging in pleasure or mastery-related activities. This involves planning and participating in positive events to enhance a sense of control, which effectively alleviates depressive symptoms.
ATTENTION DURING POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE EVENTS
While control over life’s events is limited, we do have control over how much attention we devote to these events.
People differ in the extent to which they focus on positive and negative aspects during events, which influences their experience of these events.
Reflection – What holds your attention during different parts of a typical day?
If you equate weather with life – is it normally…cloudy skies, falling raindrops, obstructing dark clouds, piercing sunrays, a revitalizing breeze, a splendid rainbow….?
NEGATIVITY BIAS
PP Research demonstrates that humans differentially process positive and negative information. A prevailing negative information bias across domains has been found in PP studies. Negativity bias entails better recall of negative behaviors, quicker recognition of negative emotions among emotional faces, greater impact of unfavorable data on impressions, and more attention to negative self-feedback than positive.
Evolutionary basis for negativity bias: Survival-wise, ignoring positive information has milder consequences compared to overlooking negative (threatening) information. Ignoring a potential positive outcome might lead to regret, while ignoring danger could endanger health or life.
Variations in negativity bias: Some individuals exhibit a stronger negativity bias. People diagnosed with depression and anxiety display persistent bias toward negative events compared to positive or neutral ones.
Process Of Attentional Bias
Attentional biases towards negativity manifest as:
- Quicker detection of negative information and
- Difficulty disengaging from it.
Individuals with a bias toward negative events not only spot such events swiftly but struggle to move past them. This initiates a cycle where negative events trigger negative emotions, fostering heightened attention to negativity, termed mood-congruent attention bias. Notably, attentional biases for negativity usually operate unconsciously.
ADVICE TO INCREASE BIAS AWARENESS & TRAIN POSITIVE FOCUS
Excessive attention on negative events initiates a perpetual cycle of negative feelings and heightened negativity focus.
Individuals with this habit must disrupt this cycle. As it often operates unconsciously, one must become aware of it to comprehend how attention moulds their feelings.
- Reflecting on daily focuses and their emotional impact aids this understanding.
- By realizing the link between attention and emotions, one can counter destructive effects of excessive negativity by intentionally redirecting to positive events.
- Daily training in recognizing positive events is valuable.
OPTIMISM
Growing PP research shows bias decrease or elimination when positive constructs are made accessible in memory.
Optimism’s link to attention towards positive and negative information was explored in a study, results revealed that optimists pay greater attention to positive stimuli even when exposed to negatives, while pessimists show heightened focus on negatives. Moreover, PP research suggests optimism elevation could mitigate negativity bias.
This suggests the potential to mitigate excessive negativity and highlights the inclination of certain individuals towards a positive event focus.
This positive perspective can significantly impact well-being, particularly in challenging periods:
- This ability to accentuate positivity within stress can be vital for deriving meaning or personal growth.
- Actively attending to positive aspects enhances the likelihood of their integration into one’s comprehension of the situation, forming the core of positive event interpretation.
Conversely, the heightened emphasis on negative and threatening aspects, characteristic of pessimists, might prompt deliberate efforts to evade further cognitive processing. Correspondingly, research has identified greater reliance on cognitive avoidance as a conscious coping strategy among pessimists, contrasting with optimists.
Get insights into your resiliency level: How to Measure Resilience With These 8 Scales
Thanks for reading my blog!
Thank you for also being a part of our global self-improvement community as you explore this topic with us.
I deeply appreciate your support and look forward to sharing more valuable life transforming content to support your highest well-being.
Until next blog, stay resilient and keep learning!
To learn more – Keep building your resiliency with our next resiliency blog in this series
Written by Cynthia Aisha Meguid
Well-Being – Author, Educator, Consultant & Coach
