Cognitive Restructuring

 

BENEDICT YANG (U6)

Catalysed by the never ending construct of time, and the societal expectations we are meant to live up to, I constantly find myself comparing my life to those of which are more successful than I am. As a student and as a human being, growing up and dealing with oncoming adulthood and the responsibility that comes with it, seems more and more daunting each day. Our daily lives, encapsulated by the stresses of impending university, interpersonal relationships and general mental health, commonly spiral into a dwarfed perception of reality.  

Countless research has helped to back the claim that “thoughts help define the moods we experience”, that our “thoughts and beliefs influence how we behave and what we choose to do and not to do”. That being said, it helps to explain why when we have negative thoughts, it induces negative emotions. Consider the situation that two students, Smith and Clark, have an upcoming test. Smith thinks to himself, “I’m so nervous, I hate tests. I am probably going to fail this test. I’ll probably end up with the lowest score in the class again”, whereas Clark thinks to himself “I’m going to do well in this exam, I think that I’ve adequately prepared and will be able to answer a large majority of the questions. I am confident in myself.” When they got their results back, Clark did better than Smith did. Now, assuming that Smith and Clark have both revised the same amount and have the same habits, the only difference between the two, is the mindset and phrasing in their thought process when addressing the test. From this analysis, it can be assumed that the way we think affects how we feel, and in turn affects how we behave. In fact, study also shows that the way we behave reinforces our original thoughts and then in turn the feelings along with the thought. In regards to Clark and Smith, it could be argued that the reason why Smith got a lower score than Clark did was due to Smith’s negative thoughts and mindset thus resulting in a heightened level of self doubt, leading him to second guess his answers. 

The concept of “Mind Over Mood” deduced by Dr. Dennis Greenberger is the concept explaining the scenario above, in which a person alters their mind, so their thoughts, in order to change, in most cases to benefit their mood. However despite this, the concept has a limiting factor, that it only allows you to look at all the information available, and is not simply ‘positive thinking’. You could argue that when you look at all the information in a situation, it could be all bad, thus inducing a negative emotion. While changes in thinking are beneficial in most cases, mood inducement may also require changes in physical reactions, behaviour and home or work environments/ situations.

Along with the fact that ‘positive thinking’ is not the only thing capable of uplifting your mood, it is also important to note that attitudes, beliefs and thoughts developed in childhood often continue into adulthood. For example, an individual who does not like venturing outside of their comfort zone and is scared to try out new things might be viewed as someone with a fear of failure. However, this fear of failure may have been brought about due to a childhood experience where the individual has either not met the expectations of the authority figures surrounding them and has learned that failure is unacceptable, or when linked with other phobias, the individual may develop a fear of failure from a failure to prevent the phobia from interfering with their life.

In conclusion, when dealing with any task or dilemma, we should pay attention to how we phrase the things that we think in order to stop ourselves from having negative thoughts, and in turn negative feelings, and in turn doing a negative action. We should remember that not everything can be fixed with just ‘a change of heart’ or ‘positive thinking’, as some problems come about as a cause of childhood trauma, or a childhood experience and we should try other aspects such as changes in physical reactions or behaviour in order to better our mood.