This article discusses how people might want to regulate their emotion on a day-to-day basis. Different age groups were looked at ranging from 14 - 86 years old, in order to see what differences there might be between certain age brackets. The terms used in describing these types of regulations are "contra-hedonic" and "prohedonic". Contra-hedonic motivation can be defined as the wish to either maintain or enhance negative affect or dampen positive affect, while Prohedonic motivation can be described as the desire to enhance or maintain positive affect or dampen negative affect. There is discussion in the article about certain circumstances that might influence individuals to utilize a contra-hedonic mindset for positive outcomes, such as when anger helps you to stand your ground in a confrontational situation. It is also mentioned that when the negative affect is combined with a positive affect result, individuals may be more likely to maintain the negative affect (contra-hedonic) in order to experience the positive affect also.
In reference to the findings indicating that older individuals are more likely to use prohedonic regulation techniques while younger individuals such as adolescents, are likely to use contra-hedonic regulation techniques...
Would it be beneficial for younger individuals to use prohedonic techniques instead of contra-hedonic techniques?
By using this type of emotional regulation technique at an early age in life, do you think it would change the way individuals want to influence their emotions throughout their lifetime? How might it affect their subjective well-being over the course of their lifetime?
Amber Witten
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ReplyDeleteThe contrahedonic mindset, as well as helping to develop a sense of personal identity, may help adolescents feel as having a group identity. Adolescents are stereotyped as being sulky and rebellious, and perhaps a teenager that rarely acts this way will be rejected by the group. Could having negative affect actually be a positive thing when it increases social inclusion?
ReplyDeleteAlso brought up in the article was the fact that adolescents were more likely to experience high negative affect combined with high positive affect. Perhaps being contrahedonic is just an adolescent's way of seeking a 'dramatic' life experience. That is, maybe wild moods are preferred to feeling 'pleasant'.
I think that it would be more beneficial for young people to use prohedonic technique rather than contra-hedonic because it would be better for their emotional health. If they focus on the good things that happen to them they will be less stressed and tend to be in a more positive mood most of the time. I also think that prohedonic technique can be useful especially during adolescence for learning purposes. If a kid dwells on something negative or on an experience that did not make them feel good, chances are that they will not let the same thing happen to them time and time again. Could it be that adolescences just have a harder time controlling their negative emotions? When might it be helpful for an adult to use the prohedonic technique?
ReplyDeleteUsing prohedonic techniques in younger individuals might be beneficial for them in regards to personal mental health in the short term. However, because of how today's teens use contra-hedonic techinques to gain a sense of identity and a sense of how to deal with people when experiencing anger, the use of prohedonic techniques exclusively in the adolescent years might result in inappropriate responses in the adult years. For example, someone has been stealing from an 8th grader. The 8th grader seeks to feel positive affect and thus views the incident as people liking the objects that he has. As he grows up, he might not be able to handle being robbed well because he never learned how to deal with things being stolen in his younger years. Thus a "push-over" type of personality is a possibility of exclusively seeking prohedonic affect in the adolescent years. However, what are the benefits of prohedonic techniques in adolescents? would contra-hedonic techniques help in some situations for adults?
ReplyDeleteResponding to WTian:
ReplyDeleteI can see where your coming from and how the possibility of a push-over can result from an adolescent not exercising contra-hedonic and solely exercising prohedonic. A push-over can totally result from that. Sure contra-hedonic can come in handy as an adolescent. Like in your example contra-hedonic would be extremely beneficial so that they may defend their belongings and self. Maintaining negative feelings to push your thoughts through would be useful in that example. But I cant help but think from an evolved perspective, we are evolved to protect what is ours. How a person chooses to defend them self in a situation like that.
I think there needs to be some sort of balance between both contra-hedonic and prohedonic. But because this study did in fact show what it did, I think it can be beneficial for an adult to have contra-hedonic techniques because as an adult were leaving our adolescence behind and entering the real world in which we can no longer be naive. We need to assume negativity to prevent harm. And please don't get me wrong, I still think there needs to be balance, but to answer your question, I think that is one benefit. Now I ask on a side note, at what age does this change? When do we leave contra-hedonic techniques and start pursuing prohedonic techniques more? And if this answer can be answered, then I ask, at what age do the techniques begin to take place?
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ReplyDeletehttps://blog.mindvalley.com/emotional-regulation/