Cognitive reappraisal is a strategy for everyday living in which a person deliberately aims to modify their emotional response to experience by changing their thoughts. It involves evaluating an emotionally charged situation from a different perspective than what comes automatically to mind. Cognitive reappraisal is used to counter habitual—and often negative—interpretations of events that can lead to getting stuck in emotional turmoil or interfere with goal pursuits. Cognitive reappraisal reflects a core fact of psychological life—individuals can play a significant role in shaping their own emotional experience.
How to Do Cognitive Reappraisal
Cognitive reappraisal—generating a positive, even absurdly incongruous, reinterpretation of a negative event— often underlies benign humor . And in fact, researchers find that the use of benign humor—pointing out the bright side of adversities—is good at both down-regulating negative emotion and amplifying positive emotion. People may differ in their fluency in generating different appraisals of a situation, but it is a skill that can be deliberately cultivated, at first likely requiring considerable cognitive effort but, with practice, becoming more automatic.
Cognitive reappraisal is free, available at any time, and useful in many daily life situations that provoke an intense emotional reaction. However, researchers find that people use the strategy far less frequently than needed.
Life doesn’t always go the way we want. Experts identify several questions you can ask yourself to stimulate a positive reappraisa l for negative situations.
• Are you engaging in some form of cognitive distortion, such as catastrophizing ?
• What is the evidence supporting your automatic appraisal of the situation?
• Are any positive outcomes possible from the situation?
Benefits of Cognitive Reappraisal
First and foremost, cognitive reappraisal actively modifies emotional responses to upsetting experiences to provide relief. As a strategy useful for emotional regulation , cognitive reappraisal has a double-barreled effect: It both lowers negative emotions such as sadness and anxiety and increases positive emotions associated with well-being. And because it alters activity patterns in emotion-processing circuits in the brain, over time it dampens excessive activation of brain centers such as the amygdala, which sends out emotional alarm signals in response to incoming information.
Strong emotions limit thinking processes essential for analyzing problems and generating possible solutions. Cognitive reappraisal restores access to rational thinking. For example, in a set of studies of students with intense math anxiety, those who were exposed to a reappraisal strategy during a math test performed more accurately and had less anxiety than fellow worriers who used their natural strategies to get through the same math problems. Brain imaging studies showed that among the students exposed to cognitive reappraisal, there was increased activity in brain regions linked to arithmetic performance.
Cognitive reappraisal reduces negative emotions not by avoiding them or suppressing them but by deliberately bringing to mind and refocusing attention on aspects of a situation that stimulate positive emotions. In addition, by lowering emotional arousal, cognitive reappraisal restores access to rational thinking, which opens the door to problem solving difficulties and forward movement toward one’s goals , both sources of satisfaction.
Cognitive reappraisal generally involves shifting attention to interpretations of experiences that generate positive emotions and open a path to problem-solving. Feeling better and doing better are pillars of well-being. Cognitive reappraisal is a process that can be applied across many types of situations. Becoming adept at cognitive reappraisal equips people to handle stress , see difficulties more as challenges than stumbling blocks, and maintain a balanced outlook. Studies show that people who engage in cognitive reappraisal experience greater satisfaction and higher levels of psychological well-being.
Resilience is the ability to withstand and even thrive in the face of life’s difficulties. Cognitive reappraisal gives people a skill for shaping responses to experience. It’s a mental resource available to draw on to release the stranglehold of intense negative emotions generated by unpleasant situations. It adds a perspective that not only relieves emotional negativity but enables people to think in ways that lead to adaptive solutions to life’s challenges.
The strategy involves reinterpreting (also called reframing or restructuring) an emotionally unpleasant situation in a way that shifts its meaning and reduces its emotional impact. Cognitive reappraisal is one of the core strategies of psychological resilience taught in cognitive behavioral therapy , and it has proven benefits for individuals, including enhanced problem-solving, reduced emotional volatility, and better interpersonal functioning.
Frequently Asked Questions
What exactly is cognitive reappraisal?
Cognitive reappraisal is a strategy for everyday living in which a person deliberately aims to modify their emotional response to experience by changing their thoughts. It involves evaluating an emotionally charged situation from a different perspective than what comes automatically to mind. Cognitive reappraisal is used to counter habitual—and often negative—interpretations of events that can lea
Is cognitive reappraisal a serious condition?
Cognitive Reappraisal exists on a spectrum. While mild forms are a normal part of life, persistent or severe cognitive reappraisal can significantly impact daily functioning and quality of life. It's important to seek professional support if cognitive reappraisal is interfering with work, relationships, or wellbeing.
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