Self-talk as a regulatory mechanism: How you do it matters

Sources

• Moran, T., & Eyal, T. (2022). Emotion regulation by psychological distance and level of abstraction: Two meta-analyses. doi:10.1177/10888683211069025

  Level A Meta-analysis

  Supports the claims that a distant perspective attenuated emotional experience (g = 0.52), less for high-level such as self-conscious emotions (g = 0.29) than for low-level emotions (g = 0.64), and that abstraction attenuated only low-level emotions. Mostly short-term experimental outcomes.

• Kross, E., Bruehlman-Senecal, E., Park, J., Burson, A., Dougherty, A., Shablack, H., Bremner, R., Moser, J., & Ayduk, O. (2014). Self-talk as a regulatory mechanism: How you do it matters. doi:10.1037/a0035173

  Level B Experiment

  Supports the claims that non-first-person self-talk enhanced self-distancing and, under social stress, went with better rated performance, less distress and less maladaptive post-event processing, not moderated by trait social anxiety. Social-stress tasks in the laboratory.

• Powers, J. P., & LaBar, K. S. (2019). Regulating emotion through distancing: A taxonomy, neurocognitive model, and supporting meta-analysis. doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2018.04.023

  Level D Review

  Supports the claim that the neurocognitive mechanisms of distancing are unclear and that inconsistent terminology and methods make the literature difficult to synthesise. Its neurocognitive model is a proposal and is not cited as a finding.