This isn't a novel or important post, but I was writing up a few paragraphs and thought I'd preserve them in a more lasting place.

Some friends recently had a discussion about whether and to what extent rational thoughts can affect and control one's emotions. One friend cited cognitive-behavioral therapy as an example where just thinking about something differently can have clinically significant effects on depression. Following are further thoughts on the subject.

Some emotions are pretty immutable by cognitive control -- e.g., hunger (although the Buddhists would tell you that even that can be removed through sufficient meditative practice). Other emotions are very much a function of the way we think about a situation. Even something like physical pain can be affected by whether we believe there's severe tissue damage.

In general, think about how many of our emotional reactions hinge upon beliefs about very simple things. If the sheet of paper reporting your bonus figures for the year contains one extra zero, you might feel ecstatic instead of upset. That's a small cluster of ink blotches creating a slightly different pattern of photons entering your eyes, traveling to higher-processing areas of the brain that interpret the zero symbol and register what it implies. Then the emotional repercussions commence. Or think about the different between "I love you" and "I hate you" in an email. Shifting around a few pixels dramatically alters levels of various chemicals in our brains in the ensuing minutes.

Beliefs matter, and thinking about your goals in a different way can significantly alter your emotions as well. This is even more true if the community that you surround yourself with shares these understandings. In that case, rational reflection on your goals has social implications, which are highly salient to the emotions of us primates.

I'm a fan of the idea of shaping your emotions to do what's most useful. When I was in high school, I responded differently to a situation than most people in my class (can't remember what it was), and then a friend asked, "Are you cold, Brian?" I said, "Not at all, but I try to channel the emotions I do feel toward constructive rather than destructive ends. It's like building irrigation channels, so that the rain will nourish your crops rather than being wasted or possibly flooding them."

I discussed a similar idea more in my essay on Macbeth, as well as in my college-admissions essay. In the latter, I noted this caveat:

This concept is not universally applicable, for there are many instances in which we should not try to change our emotional state. After a great loss, for example, it is healthier to ride the course of anger and sorrow than it is to suppress feelings of despair and distress. Furthermore, there are many times when annoying situations are avoidable, when difficult tasks are unnecessary, when troubling problems can be addressed.

Brian Tomasik wrote:This isn't a novel or important post, but I was writing up a few paragraphs and thought I'd preserve them in a more lasting place.

Some friends recently had a discussion about whether and to what extent rational thoughts can affect and control one's emotions. One friend cited cognitive-behavioral therapy as an example where just thinking about something differently can have clinically significant effects on depression. Following are further thoughts on the subject.

Some emotions are pretty immutable by cognitive control -- e.g., hunger (although the Buddhists would tell you that even that can be removed through sufficient meditative practice). Other emotions are very much a function of the way we think about a situation. Even something like physical pain can be affected by whether we believe there's severe tissue damage.

In general, think about how many of our emotional reactions hinge upon beliefs about very simple things. If the sheet of paper reporting your bonus figures for the year contains one extra zero, you might feel ecstatic instead of upset. That's a small cluster of ink blotches creating a slightly different pattern of photons entering your eyes, traveling to higher-processing areas of the brain that interpret the zero symbol and register what it implies. Then the emotional repercussions commence. Or think about the different between "I love you" and "I hate you" in an email. Shifting around a few pixels dramatically alters levels of various chemicals in our brains in the ensuing minutes.

Beliefs matter, and thinking about your goals in a different way can significantly alter your emotions as well. This is even more true if the community that you surround yourself with shares these understandings. In that case, rational reflection on your goals has social implications, which are highly salient to the emotions of us primates.

I'm a fan of the idea of shaping your emotions to do what's most useful. When I was in high school, I responded differently to a situation than most people in my class (can't remember what it was), and then a friend asked, "Are you cold, Brian?" I said, "Not at all, but I try to channel the emotions I do feel toward constructive rather than destructive ends. It's like building irrigation channels, so that the rain will nourish your crops rather than being wasted or possibly flooding them."

I discussed a similar idea more in my essay on Macbeth, as well as in my college-admissions essay. In the latter, I noted this caveat:

This concept is not universally applicable, for there are many instances in which we should not try to change our emotional state. After a great loss, for example, it is healthier to ride the course of anger and sorrow than it is to suppress feelings of despair and distress. Furthermore, there are many times when annoying situations are avoidable, when difficult tasks are unnecessary, when troubling problems can be addressed.

Our cognition can play a role in our feelings but I think it's pretty weak. Many psychologists refer to it as cBt (lower case c, capital b). Many of the studies that compare CBT to just BT find no enhanced outcome from the C, although a smaller # do find the C makes a difference. Sometimes our thinking affects our feelings but there are many more times when it doesn't. (e.g., "I know I shouldn't have this fear of flying but I just do." "I know I shouldn't consume this substance but I can't help it.") At other times, we may mistakenly think our cognition is impacting our thinking when the cause is really behavioral - for example, you are stressed out, you exercise, and then your thinking becomes more optimistic and you feel better. You might incorrectly attribute the mood change to new thinking. I happen to be much more sympathetic to Skinner's radical behaviorism (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radical_behaviorism) than most though.

My take home point: You want to think and feel differently, start behaving differently and re-structuring your environment.

Thanks, LJM1979! You make a good point about CBT vs. BT. There's also the commonly cited idea that people's beliefs follow behavior rather than the other way around. And many more examples.

You and I may not disagree as much as it seems. I buy many of your points, but I think it's hard to argue against the zero-in-your-bonus and "I love you" examples I gave. Different kinds of thoughts have different degrees of control over emotions compared against what behaviors would do.

I agree with the sentiment about restructuring your environment.

Brian Tomasik wrote:Thanks, LJM1979! You make a good point about CBT vs. BT. There's also the commonly cited idea that people's beliefs follow behavior rather than the other way around. And many more examples.

You and I may not disagree as much as it seems. I buy many of your points, but I think it's hard to argue against the zero-in-your-bonus and "I love you" examples I gave. Different kinds of thoughts have different degrees of control over emotions compared against what behaviors would do.

I agree with the sentiment about restructuring your environment.

Yeah, I read that blog post a while ago of yours and it definitely has influenced me.
Cognition likely can play a causal role in our emotional states and I think you have some good examples.

Buddhists (in the USA) often speak of "cultivating compassion" through (regular or metta) meditation and mindfulness. This is similar to your ideas about using reason or cognitive power to (gradually) shape emotions. I can speak from personal experience that the practice of meditation changed my view of others, but many (most) people do not stick with the "program" long enough to realize change.

I have a similar way to describe personal, cognitive change. People like to think that they use their will-power and intelligence to make decisions, but they are entirely unaware of the underlying biological process (that have been shaped by development, social influence...) that actually control their behavior. My thought is related to models of behavior that sociologists and other researchers use. I'll use an example of body weight (even though I have not studied this application)....

Here are some antecedents of maintaining a healthy body weight (although some might cause other problems):
1) enjoyment of long-distance running
2) willingness to forego TV time and idle time (or social time) to spend time walking, riding a bike, exercising, or doing other things to help maintain a healthy weight.
3) making the time to replace driving with either walking or bicycling.
4) willingness to acquire some relaxation skills so that one is able to use relaxation techniques to reduce the anxiety that is associated with mild hunger (this takes time to learn and practice the skills).
5) willingness to avoid acquiring (family, social, volunteer, work..) obligations that would make it more difficult to spend time walking, exercising, or acquiring other skills that would help one to maintain a healthy weight (e.g., if you have 5 kids, 2 jobs, take night classes, and run a Dungeons and Dragon's club on the weekend, you won't have much time for a healthy daily routine).
...

People who I know want to ignore all of the above and want to sit in a chair and channel their "will power" (that they do not develop). The result is typically failure or development of eating disorders that are related to the extreme emotions related past and present situations. To get back to the original point, sometimes changing your mind about one thing (e.g., "sticking to my diet") is best achieved as part of a long process of changing a series of little behaviors that are more easily controllable--those "antecedent behaviors" then contribute toward the original final outcome (e.g., health weight) as a byproduct of the causal antecedents of the outcome.