Inventory of Positive Psychology Interventions Return to Positive Exercises

Name of intervention: Reframe the situation

Source: Zone Positive* Tags: Challenging beliefs, reframing thoughts, negativity

Short description: Positive way to deal with adversity starts with challenging negative beliefs

Goal of this intervention:

The goal of this exercise is to give you a more effective and productive way to deal with minor adversities that
may come your way in daily life. By minor adversity, were talking about a friend not returning your phone
call, or a comment your boss made about your performance and how you reacted. How do you interpret
these events? Do you jump to conclusions? Do you escalate the event and blow it out of proportion? Whats
the internal dialogue that runs through your mind as to why this has happened to you? And given these
beliefs, what have been the consequences of your actions? How many relationships have been affected by
your beliefs and subsequent actions?

Your ability to control emotional response to external eventsto think flexibly and accurately about the
causes and implications of such eventsis the essence of resiliency. It requires emotional awareness and
self regulationboth of which can be practiced through this exercise. One of the keys is to surface the beliefs
as they happen. Stop, think accurately, then respond (or the old adage, count to 10 to allow emotions to cool
down).

How to conduct this intervention:

Step 1: Begin with a practice exercise. We provide the adversity, then you should fill in your beliefs and
possible consequences. Adversities are noted in the first column. Beliefs are noted in the second column--
what went through your mind after the event happened. Consequences are recorded in the third column- how
you felt and/or what you did as the result of the adversity.

What happened:
Somebody cuts you off on the highway
Your boss criticized you
Heres what you think:
Example: this persons a real jerk- why
arent the cops around
Consequences: Feelings and actions
taken
Ill show him- I speed up, honk my horn
(basically road rage). My blood pressure
soars.

Your significant other resents you for

spending time with your friends
Your friends got invited to a party and you
didnt

Step 2: Now, wed like you to come up with adversities that youve experienced in your daily life. Proceed to
fill in the thinking column and the doing column for each of these events. Record these over the course of
the next week until you come up with a range of examples.

What happened: Heres what you think: Consequences: Feelings and actions
taken
Step 3: This step is the reframing process. For each belief in step 2 that was negative or pessimistic, try now
to reframe your reactionto be more positive and optimistic. An example is provided.

Reframing
This reaction was negative
This reaction is reframed as
a positive
What happened Heres what you think:
Somebody cuts you off on the Example: this persons a real
highway jerk- why arent the cops
around when you need them
Somebody cuts you off on the They probably didnt see me.
highway Good thing Im a careful driver
Consequences: Feelings and
actions taken
You roll down your window and
shout at them. Your blood
pressure soars. (border line road
rage!)
You slow down, stay alert and
focus on getting safely to your
destination

Reframing What happened Heres what you think: Consequences: Feelings and
actions taken
This reaction was negative

This reaction is reframed as

a positive

Reframing What happened Heres what you think: Consequences: Feelings and
actions taken
This reaction was negative

This reaction is reframed as

a positive

Reframing What happened Heres what you think: Consequences: Feelings and
actions taken
This reaction was negative

This reaction is reframed as

a positive

Questions to ponder:

Were you able to come up with 5 examples this week?

What did you notice about your beliefs? Any patterns in behavior?
What were some of the consequences you experienced? What emotion did you experience? Did you
have any physical reactions?
Is there likely to be lingering effects from your actions?
How often did you make a mountain out of a molehill?
Did you find it easy to reframe your beliefs? Does this come easy to you or do you get stuck with
your perceptions?
Expected outcome

This exercise is a good way to help you disentangle emotions, clarify situations, and separate issuesfact
from fiction. It may also help you reduce or eliminate ruminating over the event and potentially responding
with inappropriate (and often regretful) actions.

Things to watch out for

Try to be objective when doing this exercise. In the what happened column, record your
description of what happened, not your evaluation of it. Avoid inferences and accusationsjust the
facts.
In the belief column, make sure you separate thoughts from feelings (feelings go under
consequences or actions). I just blew that exam is a beliefits accuracy can be evaluated. I feel
sad however, expresses a feeling. It doesnt make sense to question the accuracy of I feel sadif
youre sad, youre sad- right?
Consequences record your feelings and what you did. Did you feel sad, anxious, joyful, guilty etc.?
Often you will feel more than one thing. After recording these feelings, what did you do?

Is there any science to support this intervention

The Penn Resiliency Project (PRP) has done extensive research in the areas of optimism and resiliency
including 13 controlled studies among 2000 participants. Majority of these studies showed positive effects on
anxiety and behavior.

From the website: www.resiliencyforlife.com, additional studies are cited:

Resiliency is "... the inherent and nurtured capacity of individuals to deal with life's stresses in ways that
enable them to lead healthy and fulfilled lives"
(Howard & Johnson 1999).

Resiliency is "the process of, capacity for, or the outcome of successful adaptation despite challenging or
threatening circumstances."
(Masten, Best and Garmezy (1990)

We define resiliency as "taking a positive yet balanced asset approach to our abilities. Tap into and use our
latent yet oh so very powerful innate skills and relationships to deal with adversity. (Ballard 2007)

Additional comments:

How do you explain why certain things happen to you? Are you an optimist or a pessimist when it comes to
your rationalizations, that is, your explanatory style? Lets look at the differences and how they feed into your
beliefs when adverse events take place:

Explanatory Factor The Optimist thinks: The Pessimist thinks:

Permanence Temporary occurrence: this wont Permanent occurrence: this
happen again always happens to me
Pervasiveness Specific: My English teacher is so Universal: all teachers are rotten
unfair
Personalization Externally focused: Youre stupid Internally focused: Im stupid

Readings:

Reivich, K., Shatte, A. (2002). The Resilience Factor. New York: Broadway Books.

*Adapted from the ABC exercise, Karen Reivich Ph.D. - University of Pennsylvania
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